Fatal attacks of zoo animals on humans--a case report

Media reports about fatal work accidents in zoos caused by zoo animals seem to appear in increasing numbers all around the world. In many cases the cause of such an accident can only be clarified by a detailed reconstruction of the event in combination with the autopsy results. This applies particularly in cases where no eyewitnesses were present. This report is about the case of a musk ox that killed its keeper, in which the fatal accident could be completely reconstructed.     

Contentious Activities,Disrespectful Protesters: Effect of Protest Context on Protest Support and Mobilization Across Ideology and Authoritarianism

Political Behavior - Protest is a tool more often wielded by the political left than right. Somewhat surprisingly, there has been little careful investigation of this asymmetry to date. I show that...     

The National Minimum Drinking-Age Law

The National Minimum Drinking-Age Act of 1984 was hailed bysome observers as a welcome and appropriate exercise of federalpower. However, the act also constituted an invasion of states'rights. The act stipulates a minimum legal age of 21 for thepurchase or public possession of any alcoholic beverage, andincorporates sanctions against states whose laws are not incompliance. This article evaluates the constitutional basesfor federal intergovernmental regulation in a policy area dominatedby states since the repeal of prohibition in 1933 by the Twenty-FirstAmendment. It also considers the effectiveness of policies designedto prevent alcohol-related highway deaths, and the relativemerits of federal incentives or penalties to induce desiredbehavior by the states. The article concludes that the states,for which the Reagan administration's early theme of decentralizationwas so promising, may continue to find both their federal fundsand individual autonomy seriously compromised in the foreseeablefuture.     

District Judges and Possession Proceedings

In this article, we draw on data obtained in interviews with District Judges about the factors which they say influence the exercise of their discretion in possession proceedings. Analysing the data set enabled us to create three ideal types of judicial decision—making which we have labelled 'liberal', 'patrician', and formalist'. We discuss the differences between each ideal type across five different variables: the District Judge role; approach; view of occupiers; the problem; behaviour of occupiers. Our data demonstrate a set of reasons to explain different approaches and outcomes between different District Judges (as well as the perhaps unlikely identification of a 'maverick' or 'idiosyncratic' style of judging). We conclude by suggesting on the basis of our data that, despite calls to structure or remove the discretion from District Judges, any such changes are unlikely to have much effect.     

Knowledge and learning in online networks in development: a social-capital perspective

The authors examine whether the concept of social capital can facilitate our understanding of online networks in development. Much of the knowledge generation and social learning in development takes place in networks, which increasingly operate online. Although these networks are assumed to be a positive force in development, there are many unknown factors, partly because they are in their infancy. The concept of social capital has traditionally been applied to examine the functioning of groups and societies. More recently, it has also been applied to development and to online networks outside development. Three non-development approaches to examining social capital in online networks and communities are reviewed in the article. Elements of these approaches, combined with development-related aspects, are used to produce a framework to facilitate the analysis of social capital in online networks in a development context.     

Race-Specific Gender Equality and Rape: A Further Test of Feminist Hypotheses

Feminists have long argued that structural inequality between men and women influences the prevalence of rape. The patriarchal maintenance hypothesis predicts that gender inequality increases rape, while gender equality ameliorates rape (Whaley and Messner 2002). Alternatively, the backlash hypothesis predicts that gender equality exacerbates the rape problem (Russell 1975; Williams and Holmes 1981). To date, no study has explored this relationship with respect to race. In the present study, we use a cross-sectional design with racially disaggregated census and crime data in order to assess the differences among White and Black women in terms of their status along educational, employment, income, and occupational dimensions, and their risk of victimization. The findings indicate that the relationship between equality and rape is masked in the model that includes all women, but becomes apparent in the race specific models. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A predictive model of male spousal violence

This study presents and tests a predictive model of severe marital violence by men based on social learning theory and previous research. Results of the path analytic procedure suggest that sex-role egalitarianism and approval of marital violence both have direct effects on the use of severe marital violence. At the same time, sex-role egalitarianism and the observation of marital violence as a child have indirect effects by several paths. Egalitarianism has an indirect negative effect on use of severe violence which depends upon approval of marital violence. Observation of marital violence has a negative effect on self-esteem which influences marital stress and level of alcoholism, both of which have an effect on approval of marital violence. Observation of violence as a child also has a direct effect on approval of violence and a negative effect on sex-role egalitarianism.