South Africa and Eastern Europe: The challenge of multi‐ethnic societies in transition to democracy

This article explores similarities between the South African transition and the advent of liberal‐democratic government in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Challenges these societies have in common are the accommodation of ethnic and racial diversity and whether democracy can protect minorities. The article surveys the process of constitution‐making among the states of Eastern Europe, examining their efforts to reconcile sectional ethnic/cultural rights and universal human rights. These provisions are compared with the mechanisms employed in South Africa's interim constitution with this purpose. In conclusion, it is argued that successful multiethnic democracies develop where some of a number of identifiable characteristics are present.     

Post-liberation Politics in Africa: examining the political legacy of struggle

This article examines the politics of African states in which insurgencies or liberation movements have taken control of the government. It analyses the impact on governance of reforms introduced by these post-liberation regimes, their relations with traditional authorities and civil society and relationships within and between competing guerrilla movements. It interrogates the nature of the state that emerges from this process. The ‘post-liberation’ state label is argued to be both meaningful and useful, as part of a larger project of exploring and explaining the post-colonial African state, highlighting debates about representation, citizenship and nation building. While post-liberation regimes have advantages in implementing state building projects, they are also subject to contestation when the new state institutions and regime incumbents become too exclusivist or predatory.     

The Potential of Internet Mobilization: An Experimental Study on the Effect of Internet and Face-to-Face Mobilization Efforts

In recent years, voluntary associations and political organizations have increasingly relied on Internet-based mobilization campaigns, replacing traditional forms of face-to-face recruitment and mobilization. Within the literature, one can observe an intensive debate about the possible consequences of this transition. Most importantly, the question is whether political mobilization through the Internet is just as effective as mobilization in a face-to-face setting. In this article, we report on a mobilization experiment using both traditional (face-to-face) and modern (Web site) incentives for mobilization. The experiment was conducted among undergraduate students in Belgium and Canada and included a test of medium-term mobilization effects. Results suggest that the Internet is successful in transferring knowledge and raising issue salience among respondents, but neither experimental manipulation led to significant behavioral changes. We do not find any indication that among this experimental sample Internet-based mobilization would be less effective than traditional face-to-face forms of mobilization.     

Recovery and detection of urea nitrate in traces

Urea nitrate (uronium nitrate, UN) is a powerful improvised explosive, frequently used by terrorists in the Israeli arena. It was also used in the first World Trade Center bombing in New York in February 1993. It is difficult to identify UN in postexplosion debris, because in the presence of water it readily decomposes to its original components, urea and nitric acid. A method for the recovery and detection of urea nitrate in traces is described. The residues are extracted with hot acetone, and the extract chromatographed on chromosorb G-HP. The eluent is analyzed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). By applying this technique, we were able to identify urea nitrate in actual exhibits. It was found that UN can be also formed during the analytical procedure, by certain combinations of urea, nitrate ions, and a source of protons and, hence, the presence of the characteristic adduct ion does not necessarily indicate an "authentic" urea nitrate. Several solutions are suggested to overcome this ambiguity.     

Why Emotions Matter: Expectancy Violation and Affective Response Mediate the Emotional Victim Effect

The mechanisms behind the ‘emotional victim effect’ (i.e., that the emotionality of a rape victim’s demeanor affects perceived credibility) are relatively unexplored. In this article, a previously neglected mechanism—observers’ affective response to the victim—is proposed as an alternative to the traditional expectancy-violation account. The emotional victim effect was replicated in an experiment with a sample of police trainees (N = 189), and cognitive load was found to increase the magnitude of the effect. Importantly, both compassionate affective response and expectancy violation actively mediated the emotional victim effect when the other mechanism was controlled for. These findings extend previous research on credibility judgments by introducing a ‘hot’ cognitive component in the judgment process. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Oil, Rape and State Crime in Nigeria

This case study seeks first to explore the culpability of the state of Nigeria in regards to recent allegations of rape and sexual torture by security forces and, secondly, to question why these rapes continue to occur despite Nigeria’s responsibility to address them. Though exact rates of violence are impossible to ascertain, reports by the media and various non-governmental organizations describe the widespread abuse of women, specifically at the hands of military officials. Evidence suggests that, by failing to respond appropriately to these acts of violence, the state of Nigeria is in direct violation of international law. Moreover, the decentralized nature of the Nigerian legal system creates an environment in which those Nigerian laws that do address rape and/or torture are rendered ineffective. This paper argues that what is happening in Nigeria does in fact constitute a state crime and, thus far, has not received appropriate attention from the International Criminal Court, to which Nigeria is a party, or the international community at large. As no action has yet been taken, we consider the factors that create an environment in which international and national punitive measures, as they are currently practiced, are ineffective.

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“The big sleep: Elucidating the sequence of events in the first hours of death to determine the postmortem interval”

Recent developments on postmortem interval estimation (PMI) take an advantage of the autolysis process, pointing out to the analysis of the expression of apoptosis and autophagy genes towards this purpose. Oxidative stress plays a role in this signaling as a regulatory mechanism and/or as a consequence of cell death. Additionally, melatonin has been implicated on apoptosis and autophagy signaling, making melatonin a suitable target for PMI determination. The aim of this study was to investigate the early PMI through the analysis of the expression of autophagy genes as well as oxidative stress and melatonin receptor. Our results demonstrated a rapidly increased on the expression of autophagy genes according to the expected sequence of events, then a marked decrease in this expression, matched with the switch to the apoptosis signaling. These results revealed potential candidates to analyze the PMI in the first hours of death, helping to estimate the time-since-death.     

Self‐harm Risk Among Adolescents and the Phenomenon of the “Blue Whale Challenge”: Case Series and Review of the Literature

The “Blue Whale Challenge” is a dangerous Internet phenomenon. As per media reports, it involves a series of life‐threatening tasks imposed by a “curator” to “players,” who must fulfill the whole list, and it ends with the suicide of the player. The authors report the data of five suspected cases of “Blue Whales” managed from January 2016 to December 2017 by the staff of a unit (the “Bambi Unit” of the Pediatric Hospital “Regina Margherita” of Turin, Italy) that is dedicated to the evaluation of suspected abused children. Then, they analyzed this data in the light of the literature regarding self‐harm. This comparison highlights the role of the Internet in the spreading of self‐harm behavior among vulnerable adolescents who are characterized by epidemiological, psychological, psychiatric, social, and cultural risk factors. In conclusion, the authors suggest a multidisciplinary and specialized approach in the evaluation of adolescents who committed self‐harm activities.     

Female Sexual Homicide Offenders: A Descriptive and Comparative Study

Research on female sexual homicide has been very scarce. In Europe, it has rarely been examined, and in Scotland, it has never previously been studied. This exploratory study aims to examine the characteristics of sexual homicides involving female offenders between 1990 and 2015 in Scotland. Using data from the Scottish Homicide Database between 1990 and 2015, female sexual homicides (n = 7) were compared to nonsexual homicides committed by females (n = 106) and to sexual homicides committed by men (n = 89) using Fisher's exact tests. The findings show that although female sexual homicide offenders are similar to both female nonsexual homicide offenders and male sexual homicide offenders in certain aspects, there are important differences that distinguish sexual homicides involving female offenders from both groups. Female sexual homicide offenders can arguably be seen as a distinct group of offenders, with specific characteristics and specific needs.