Necropolitics in the Jungle: COVID-19 and the Marginalisation of Brazil's Forest Peoples

COVID-19 has been particularly damaging to already vulnerable social groups, such as forest peoples. In Brazil, indigenous, Afro-Brazilian quilombolas and other racialised communities have suffered disproportionately under Bolsonaro's hands-off policy during the pandemic. We argue that, far from happenstance, this policy fits into a form of necropolitics towards forest peoples. Drawing from Achille Mbembe's seminal work, this article analyses how underlying (and sometimes overt) racism, cultural depredation, and government-supported deforestation constitute an assault now catalysed by the pandemic. Understanding forest peoples' disproportionate deaths in perspective is critical for addressing their growing vulnerability and the broader politics currently at play.     

Community,identity, orientation: sexuality,gender and rights in ASEAN

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) escalated its community building project significantly over the last decade, culminating in the launch of a reformed and substantially integrated ASEAN Community at the end of 2015. This article considers what might follow from this newly reformed and rhetorically people-focused version of ASEAN for matters of sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE). In claiming to be people-oriented and people-centred, and by developing a regional rights regime, ASEAN opens itself to standards by which it can be measured and held to account. We critically review ASEAN 2025: Forging Ahead Together, and consider civil society's response, focusing on the critique offered by the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus, the peak civil society organisation for ASEAN SOGIE matters. We focus on three themes: identity, visibility politics, and rights. We argue that while ASEAN falls short of its own rhetorical standards, these same standards support a politics which keeps rights in contestation, enabling civil society to push for accountability to international standards, and a more democratic politics.     

Perceived Dimensions of Parenting and Non-suicidal Self-injury in Young Adults

Family experiences are influential in the development of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The current study aimed to identify specific dimensions underlying early parent–child relationships in association with NSSI. It was hypothesized that all relationship dimensions would be related with NSSI, with some dimensions being stronger predictors when accounting for shared variance. Gender differences were also assessed. Participants were grouped according to the endorsement of NSSI in the past 6 months, resulting in a Non-NSSI group (n = 1133) and a NSSI group (n = 105). Significant differences were found for the relationship dimensions between the two groups. When shared variance was accounted for, fear and alienation were the only dimensions predicting NSSI. Similar results were found for females (n = 887), while no analyses using males (n = 351) were significant. These results emphasize the need to acknowledge the role of parent–child relationships in prevention programs and intervention models for NSSI.     

The Coexistence of Different Welfare Regimes in the Same Country: A Comparative Analysis of the Brazilian Municipalities Heterogeneity

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that heterogeneous countries such as Brazil have vast differences in welfare arrangements at the sub-national level. A number of social policies (social insurance, education, health and social assistance) were analysed in 5,565 Brazilian municipalities along five dimensions: expenditure, coverage, share of private spending, family structure and poverty. The grade of membership method was used to cluster municipalities and identify the main differences in their welfare regimes. Factor analysis was also used to explore which dimensions are most relevant in characterizing these sub-national regimes. The results show highly heterogeneous institutional forms of social protection across municipalities, which are classified as social assistance, quasi-social assistance, corporative, quasi-corporative, family insurance and intermediary welfare regimes.     

A Qualitative Examination of the Self-Medicating Hypothesis Among Female Juvenile Offenders

Substance misuse among criminally delinquent youth has typically been described as a concurrent part of their participation in risky and delinquent behavior. Using Khantzian’s self-medication hypothesis, this article presents an alternative view by presenting qualitative data which suggests that substance misuse for female juvenile offenders may serve as self-medication for mental health problems stemming from early trauma, often at the hands of their families. Based on the narratives of 30 female juvenile offenders, this article examines the lived experiences of girls with childhood trauma and substance misuse, followed by arrest and incarceration. The paper concludes with recommendations for juvenile justice and child welfare practitioners.     

Sometimes Less Is More: Censorship,News Falsification,and Disapproval in 1989 East Germany

Does more media censorship imply more regime stability? We argue that censorship may cause mass disapproval for censoring regimes. In particular, we expect that censorship backfires when citizens can falsify media content through alternative sources of information. We empirically test our theoretical argument in an autocratic regime—the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Results demonstrate how exposed state censorship on the country's emigration crisis fueled outrage in the weeks before the 1989 revolution. Combining original weekly approval surveys on GDR state television and daily content data of West German news programs with a quasi-experimental research design, we show that recipients disapproved of censorship if they were able to detect misinformation through conflicting reports on Western television. Our findings have important implications for the study of censoring systems in contemporary autocracies, external democracy promotion, and campaigns aimed at undermining trust in traditional journalism.     

Human height estimation from highly distorted surveillance image

Video surveillance camera (VSC) is an important source of information during investigations especially if used as a tool for the extraction of verified and reliable forensic measurements. In this study, some aspects of human height extraction from VSC video frames are analyzed with the aim of identifying and mitigating error sources that can strongly affect the measurement. More specifically, those introduced by lens distortion are present in wide-field-of-view lens such as VSCs. A weak model, which is not able to properly describe and correct the lens distortion, could introduce systematic errors. This study focuses on the aspect of camera calibration to verify human height extraction by Amped FIVE software, which is adopted by the Forensic science laboratories of Carabinieri Force (RaCIS), Italy. A stable and reliable approach of camera calibration is needed since investigators have to deal with different cameras while inspecting the crime scene. The performance of the software in correcting distorted images is compared with a technique of single view self-calibration. Both approaches were applied to several frames acquired by a fish-eye camera and then measuring the height of five different people. Moreover, two actual cases, both characterized by common low-resolution and distorted images, were also analyzed. The height of four known persons was measured and used as reference value for validation. Results show no significant difference between the two calibration approaches working with fish-eye camera in test field, while evidence of differences was found in the measurement on the actual cases.