Justice in Our World and in that of Others: Belief in a Just World and Reactions to Victims

Framed by the Belief in a Just World theory (BJW; Lerner, M. J. (1980). Belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York: Plenum Publishing Corporation), this article presents two studies that analyze people’s reactions to the suffering of victims belonging to an ingroup and an outgroup. In Study 1, participants viewed a videotaped film containing the victimization story. The victim was presented as a non-categorized, ingroup or outgroup (Gypsy) victim. Threat to BJW was measured using the modified Stroop task developed by Hafer (J Pers Soc Psychol 79:165–173, 2000). In the second study, a non-victimization story was introduced and a 2 (victim, non-victim) × 2 (ingroup, outgroup) between-subjects design was used. Both studies show that the ingroup victim is more threatening to the BJW than the outgroup victim. The expected secondary victimization of the ingroup victim was only obtained in the second study when a non-obtrusive derogation measure was used.

The Discursive Resistance to EU-Enticement: The Russian Elite and (the Lack of) Europeanisation

This article explores the discourse of the Russian elite on foreign policy in general and on the European Union in particular, and identifies the main reasons for Russia's resistance to Europeanisation. At a theoretical level, the article builds upon the study of discourse conceived in ‘structural’ terms, and argues that discursive incompatibility at a deeper discursive level prevents the socialisation of elite members to attitudes more sympathetic to Europe at a more superficial level. Methodologically, the research is based on content analysis of major Russian foreign policy documents, presidential speeches and, in particular, of a set of interviews with Russian foreign policy-makers and academics most frequently in touch with the European Union.     

The voter's paradox and the homegeneity of individual preference orders

Errata Sheet

The voter's paradox and the homegeneity of individual preference orders     

Old ‘counter-revolution’, new ‘terrorism’: historicizing the framing of violence in Xinjiang by the Chinese state

ABSTRACT

China has declared a war on terrorism in Xinjiang, identifying violence in the region as a top security threat. However, what nowadays is officially constructed as ‘terrorism’ was framed as ‘counter-revolution’ in the past. Informed by the concept of macrosecuritization and the agenda of critical terrorism studies, this article examines the changing nature of Chinese state framing of violence in Xinjiang. Through a comparative analysis of the discursive construction of the Baren (1990) and Maralbeshi (2013) violent incidents, I find that the terror lexicon has replaced old narratives of counter-revolution to legitimize a sustained crackdown under a novel geopolitical context. The construction of violence in Xinjiang as terrorism, I argue, is contingent, limited and unstable. It marginalizes factors other than an extremist or separatist agency in the incubation of the violence, in particular the frictions created by the crackdown with which the Chinese government is trying to placate the unrest.     

Unexpected sudden death from coronary sinus thrombosis. An unusual complication of central venous catheterization

Coronary sinus thrombosis is an unusual but potentially serious complication of the use of central venous devices. We report a fatal case of coronary sinus thrombosis in relation to a malpositioned central venous catheter. The death occurred very soon following the beginning of symptoms and the cause could not be suspected. Direct trauma of the catheter on the coronary sinus endothelium seems the most probable cause of the thrombosis.     

Vitreous humor carbohydrate-deficient transferrin concentrations in the postmortem diagnosis of alcoholism

Deaths from the effects of alcohol intoxication are encountered routinely in forensic practice. In an important number of cases difficulty may arise in interpreting the significance of results obtained in the autopsy. In clinical practice biochemical markers, particularly serum gamma-glutamyl-transpeptidase (GGT), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), carbohydrate-deficient transferrin (CDT), and erythrocyte mean corpuscular volume are used to diagnose heavy alcohol consumption. CDT is used as a reliable and specific marker. In postmortem diagnosis, because of the difficulty in interpreting blood alcohol levels and relatively non-specific pathological features, biochemical compounds have been studied for use as possible markers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of the postmortem determination of CDT in vitreous humor as a confirmation of antemortem alcoholism. CDT levels were studied in 66 male cadavers with a mean age of 55.9 years (S.D. 17.0, range 22-87 years) with a mean postmortem interval of 17.9 h (S.D. 11.4, range 4-72 h). Cases were assigned to two diagnostic groups according to the antemortem diagnosis of alcoholism. Statistically significant differences were found for CDT and ALT concentrations between the two diagnostic groups. The highest vitreous humor levels of CDT and ALT were obtained in the group of cases with a previous diagnosis of alcoholism. Our results suggest that vitreous humor CDT levels are useful in cases where the postmortem diagnosis of alcoholism is hindered by the non-specificity of data.     

Measuring the efficiency of local police force

This study proposed a methodology of analysis for estimating the efficiency with which the competences in matters of public and road safety are carried out. This proposal seeks to mitigate (i) the subjectivity in the selection of variables; (ii) the partiality inherent to the productivity indicators; and (iii) the generality of the analysis in previous studies. Applying the methodology proposed to the areas of public and road safety, individually and jointly, obtaining the main conclusions: the mean pure technical efficiency of the police force as a whole is 69.42, with eight towns (27.59%) showing efficient behaviour and, in the evaluation of the disparity between behaviour by activity and the overall result, the comparative shows a high degree of similarity between the ordering of the towns in the overall analysis and in public safety. This is not extendable to the road safety service, since they differ notably in the results obtained both with the area of public safety and with the overall action of the force.