Peace as Immobility

This essay speculates on howimageries/imaginations of peace emerge beforeand beyond the words of peace talk andpractice. Exploring the example of OperationRestore Hope (1992–1993) in Somalia, itis argued that imageries/imaginations of peace,e-merging from and into everyday socialities and tribal puissance –echoing Maffesoli – to a significant degree tostructure the outcome of (international)peacemaking operations. The essay describeshow, during Restore Hope (a test casetowards President Bush's ``new world order')imageries/imaginations of peace as immobilitye-merged, before and beyondthe words of a medic's Law of Stabilization.This essay explores the imaginary ofinternational peacekeeping operations. As such,it tries to move beyond the words and the signsof international law. It wants to explore theimages, the imageries, the imaginations thatroam – merging and dissipating – beforelaws, before the Law of the Symbolic.     

Victims' Responses to traumatic life events: An unjust world or an uncaring world?

Although the psychological literature has generally equated deservingness and justice, victims' responses suggest the need to disentangle the two concepts. Victims usually feel their traumatic experience was undeserved but typically do not consider the outcome in terms of justice or fairness. Rather, their feelings about not deserving the victimization derive from a second type of moral judgment involving caring rather than justice. These two orientations are discussed in light of recent developments in work on moral reasoning. A framework for understanding the trauma of victimization is presented; the shattering of assumptions related to a caring world—in which people are protected from harm—is highlighted in this model. The crucialrole of social support and specific cognitive strategies used by victims in the aftermath of their victimization are discussed in terms of survivors' efforts to rebuild their assumptions about a caring world. Although concerns about justice are less common among survivors, an effort is made to discuss when these isues are most apt to arise.     

Centre-periphery dynamics, global transition and criminological transfers Introductory notes inspired by V.S. Naipaul

The essay at hand aims to introduce the main issues and topics involved in the questions that will be dealt with throughout in this thematic issue. Those questions include: How do criminal justice practitioners and academics, in conditions of political or cultural transition, construct critical and reflexive knowledge about experiences of crime and control and their meaning? To what extent can ``ThirdWorld'' (TW) experiences and meanings, as well as TW knowledge about them, be of any use in ``First World'' (FW) contexts? And vice versa? To what extent are the gaps between both contexts too wide and to what extent has this divide been reduced in and through current global developments and transitions? The essay begins by focussing on postcolonial literature for a while, on one novel in particular, a novel that explores the space in–between the(post–)colony and the imperial metropolis.The second part of the essay deals withtransfers of (critical) criminologies in more detail.     

Heterosexual intimate partner homicide: review of ten years of clinical experience

Most of the literature on intimate partner homicide addresses violence between the two partners, spousal abuse, and family violence. There is less focus on the relationship of mental illness, intellectual functioning, and drug and alcohol abuse to these homicides. We investigated this type of homicide in a collection of forensic cases seen by the first author over a period of 10 years. Twenty-eight patients who underwent forensic psychiatric evaluation for heterosexual intimate partner homicide from August 1993 to June 2003 were studied using a retrospective case review methodology. We found that firearms were used as the method of killing more often by females than by males. We also compared method of killing with substance abuse and intoxication at the time of the homicide. Educational status indicates that this group of accused perpetrators is functioning at higher intellectual levels compared with a previously studied sample of filicides. We also found significant presence of serious mental illness in our sample of accused perpetrators of heterosexual intimate partner homicide.