Victims of Terrorism Policies: Should Victims of Terrorism be Treated Differently?

Producing large-scale victimization is one of the prime goals of terrorists worldwide. A regular characteristic not only of the unparalleled attacks of 9/11, with its more than 3,000 direct fatalities, is to provoke maximum public attention by producing as many casualties as possible. Victims fall prone to such events due to a terrorist preference for soft and symbolic targets. Not surprisingly, victims of terrorism receive particular attention when counter-terrorism policies are formulated. In practise, however, compensation and support for those directly or indirectly affected by terrorist acts is often rather poor. This article aims to analyse (i) the situation of victims of terrorism in a theoretical victimological framework, and (ii) legislation in favour of victims of terrorism from a comparative perspective. Significant differences can be found not only within Europe where victim policies are basically EU and CoE guided but likewise in comparison with the policies in the US and Israel, which have both implemented particular legislation for victims of terrorism decades ago. This article argues for the adoption of a principled approach to compensation based on social solidarity instead of tort law rules. Further attention is drawn to a particularly unprivileged group: those individuals who become victims of terrorist threats abroad and who, as a consequence of the territorial limitations applicable to compensation rules, have no access to victim compensation schemes in their home countries.     

Adolescents’ internalizing and aggressive behaviors and perceptions of parents’ psychological control: a panel study examining direction of effects

This panel study investigated the directionality of relations between adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ psychological control and adolescents’ self-reported internalizing and aggressive (physical and relational) behaviors. Data were collected from a random, community sample of 530 adolescents ages 12–19 years old at time 1, and again 2 years later. Hierarchical regression analyses found that adolescents’ perceptions of parents’ psychological control at baseline did not predict changes in adolescents’ internalizing and aggressive behaviors over 2 years but higher internalizing behavior and physical aggression at time 1 predicted increases in adolescents’ estimates of their mothers’ and fathers’ psychologically controlling behaviors. Higher relational aggression reported by adolescents at time 1 predicted increases in their perceptions of mothers as psychologically controlling. This study provides more evidence for child effects on adolescents’ ratings of their parents’ psychological control than for parent effects of perceived psychological control on adolescents’ behavior.

Aquatic fatalities--a systematic retrospective analysis

In a retrospective analysis of the autopsy material (n = 5,767) of the Institute of Legal Medicine of the Hanover Medical School covering the period of 1998-2007, all aquatic fatalities were evaluated, categorized and systematically compared under epidemiological and forensic criteria. The total of 156 cases of death by drowning (2.7 % of all autopsies) included 38 bathtub drownings and 28 deaths in the water for which no pathological anatomical cause of death could be reliably demonstrated. A control group (n = 221) was investigated for the presence of aqueous liquid in the sphenoid sinuses and compared with the findings of the drowning cases without signs of putrefaction. About 16 % of the control cases had fluid in the sphenoid sinuses compared with 57.6 % in the drowning group. Most of the drowning victims were men (60.9 %), whereas in the group of bathtub drownings the majority were women. More than half of the drowning cases (n = 89) could be classified as accidents. The individual groups showed a different incidence of findings associated with drowning.     

Landschaftszerschneidung und Wiedervernetzung Instrumente und Konzepte zum Schutz der Biodiversit?t vor zerschneidungsbedingten Beeintr?chtigungen durch Bundesverkehrswege

Die Zerschneidung und Verinselung der Landschaft durch Infrastrukturanlagen wie Stra?en und Bahnlinien ist neben der direkten Zerst?rung und mechanischen Sch?digung des Lebensraumes eine der Hauptursachen für den Arten- und Lebensraumschwund. Die Bundesregierung hat sich deshalb in ihrer Biodiversit?tsstrategie zum Ziel gesetzt, bis zum Jahr 2020 die ?kologische Durchl?ssigkeit von zerschnittenen R?umen und bestehender Infrastruktur zu erreichen. Sie erarbeitet dafür derzeit ein Bundesprogramm zur Wiedervernetzung. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die M?glichkeiten zur Berücksichtigung der Landschaftszerschneidung in der Bundesverkehrswegeplanung sowie die Konzipierung von Wiedervernetzungsma?nahmen aus rechtlicher und planerischer Sicht.     

Book Review

Asia Europe Journal -     

Comparative transformation. Experiences in East Europe and prospects in East Asia

This article1. retraces the origins of the revolutions in East Europe, set against the more retarding socio-political causalities in East Asia,2. benchmarks the sequence of economic transformation in East Europe against the limited and incomplete economic reforms in East Asia,3. sets postcommunist political developments in East Europe against scenarios for political change in East Asia, and4. compares the social crisis in East Europe with prospects for more stable social development in the Confucian cultures of East Asia.The article concludes with the need for negotiated democratic regime change in the remaining Communist dictatorships in East Asia.. While economic structures still require a sustained effort for systemic change towards genuine market economies, its social consequences are expected to be less dramatic than in Eastern Europe.