Whales and minnows: Some sexual theorists and their followers and how they contribute to making feminism invisible

Past feminism was made to vanish, so that only now are we beginning to realise the full extent of our history. The same process is already beginning to happen to present feminism—we too are being made invisible. One instance of this process is examined in the work of some ‘radical’ male academics. They use the work of various sexual theorists (Lacan, Gagnon and Simon, Foucault) to construct a particular and de-politicized version of ‘sexual politics’; and in doing so they recognize only an equally partial version of ‘feminism’. It seems that ‘our friends’, ‘radical’ men, are at least as dangerous as the rest, for they increasingly claim the right to ‘name’ feminism and sexual politics for us.     

The power model of juvenile justice

The author first identifies those characteristics which distinguish the juvenile justice system from its more widelypublicized counterpart, the criminal justice system. He next demonstrates how many textbooks in this area fail to portray adequately the uniqueness of juvenile justice. He concludes by developing and explaining the “Power Model,” which more accurately describes the juvenile justice system.     

A newspaper surveillance study of homicide-suicide in the United States

The objective of this study was to identify the number and subtypes of homicide-suicides in the United States by age group and state over a 3-year period from 1997 through 1999. A total of 673 homicide-suicides, including 674 perpetrators and 779 victims, were identified from Internet searches of 191 national newspapers, and they were classified according to a modified Hanzlick-Koponen typology. One quarter of the homicide-suicides were perpetrated by persons 55 years or older, and 77% were spousal/consortial, higher than the 57% observed in the younger age group; 11% of the older homicide-suicides were familial, compared with 16% in the younger age group. Whereas only 3% of older homicide-suicides were infanticide/pedicide, 16% of the younger homicide-suicides involved parents killing their children. Forty-five states, including the District of Columbia, reported a homicide-suicide during the 3-year period, and they occurred most frequently in Florida (163), California (98), Texas (36), and New York (35). Newspaper surveillance is useful to identify where homicide-suicides are occurring most frequently, but they are underestimates of the true prevalence. However, the number of incidents detected is large enough that the cases detected may be a fairly representative sample.     

France,Civil-Military Relations,and Nuclear Weapons

Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1995. xviii, 414 pp./$27.50 cloth.     

The Neurobiology of Fairness and Social Justice: An Introduction

The study of social justice has always been an interdisciplinary undertaking, but in recent years neurobiologists have joined scholars and scientists from other areas to tackle complex questions concerning fairness, empathy, equality, hierarchy, and ideological conflict and polarization. By synthesizing insights from multiple, mutually informative levels of analysis, it is possible to shed new light on basic biological processes that reflect, inspire, and inhibit the pursuit of a more just society. With this special issue we highlight groundbreaking research on the neurobiology of fairness and social justice, bringing together six articles that address core themes of social justice, including individual variability in definitions of fairness, the genetic basis of economic egalitarianism, neural bases of empathy in environmental and intergroup domains, and the neural and genetic correlates of ideological polarization. Taken in conjunction, these diverse contributions bring multiple theoretical perspectives and research methods to bear on the shared goal of understanding and promoting social justice.