Fatalismus. Über eine vernachlässigte Stütze sozialer Ordnung

Most sociological explanations tacitly assume that contemporary social orders are based on the propensities of active, purpose-driven entities. These explanations underestimate the stabilizing effects of fatalistic patterns which make members accept even those social arrangements that they do not appreciate, and prevent discontent from being translated into a critique of society. This kind of fatalism cannot only be found among the utterly powerless. There also is a fatalism of the privileged (which sometimes takes the form of “positive thinking”), as well as a kind of fatalism particular to social elites. This elite fatalism also demonstrates how fatalism, since it eases the burden of thinking about alternatives, has action-enabling effects (which are part of this stabilizing mechanism). In order to analyze these order-sustaining mechanisms, this paper first reconstructs a self-critique of sociological normativism going from Durkheim to Bourdieu and to Boltanski to then take up classical pragmatist ideas that help us to understand fatalism as a particular type of socially mediated reflexivity.     

Recasting the Power Politics of Debt: structural power,hegemonic stabilisers and change

The 2007–08 financial crisis exposed and exacerbated the debt pathologies of the West. This paper examines whether the new global debt relations that have been generated by this crisis have transformed global power politics, changing the way in which the global South and the global North interrelate and interact. To do so the paper analyses the G20 advanced and emerging economies, examining a number of key indicators related to debt, indebtedness and financial leverage. This research leads to two main findings. First, the crisis has indeed given rise to new global debt relations. As a result, any reforms in the post-crisis global political economy will take place in an environment that favours the rising powers. Second, the USA maintains its capacity to control the parameters of this new global debt politics and economics, but cannot directly impose the terms of a solution to the existing ‘global/hegemonic imbalances’ on the rising powers.     

Funding Supported Accommodation: Financial and Administrative Implications of Reforming Housing Benefit

Government proposals to reform the funding of support services in Britain require local authorities to take stock of support schemes in their areas before a new single support budget will replace existing arrangements in April 2003. In the course of the transition, local authorities will also need to scrutinize supported accommodation charges in order to remove charges for services that are unlawfully paid for by Housing Benefit. This paper highlights likely problems in the identification of support schemes and in the estimation of the costs of services. The proposed tightening of the calculation of Housing Benefit will reduce entitlements to the majority of claimants in supported accommodation, many of whom are amongst the poorest people in the country. Efforts must be made to ensure that claimants facing a reduction in their payments are not faced by steady, or even rising, housing costs. In particular, tenants in schemes, which receive no funding under the new single budget, must be protected. The paper discusses the proposals' contribution to bringing housing and community care policies closer together.     

Negligent homicide caused by exhaust gas escaping from a manipulated chimney

A chimney built and operated according to the instructions is supposed to ensure that the combustion gases coming from the fireplace can escape safely. If the operational reliability is impaired, this presents a risk of acute poisoning. The report deals with a negligently caused carbon monoxide poisoning of a married couple as a consequence of improper installation of a cover of the chimney opening. Various causes of fatal poisoning due to defective exhaust systems are discussed in connection with the presented case report.     

Assessing measurement invariance of PCL-R assessments from file reviews of North American and German offenders

Cross-cultural research on psychopathy necessitates assessment methods that are generalizable across linguistic and cultural differences. Multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare the factorial structure of Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) assessments obtained from file reviews of North-American (N = 2622) and German (N = 443) male offenders. The analyses indicated that the 18 item, 4-factor model of the PCL-R obtained with the standard PCL-R protocol (interview and file review) also holds for file review data. On a factor-by-factor level, the data are commensurate with strong factorial invariance of factor loadings and item thresholds for the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors, and with likely metric invariance for the Affective factor. The Antisocial factor showed structural differences between the two samples. The results imply that cultural or environmental factors more strongly influence the judgment and/or expression of antisociality. Based on the results, cross-cultural comparisons between North-American and German offenders in terms of PCL-R psychopathy should be limited to the Interpersonal and Lifestyle factors. Further research using data obtained through the standard protocol (i.e., interview plus file information) is encouraged.     

Mietvertragliche Erhaltungs- und Endrenovierungspflichten nach der 4. "Klausel-Entscheidung"

In einer 4. "Klausel-Entscheidung" wurde jüngst vom 2. Senat – neben der Zul?ssigkeit eines standardvertraglichen generellen Tierhaltungsverbotes in einer Wohnung – auch über die Zul?ssigkeit von in einem Mietvertragsformular enthaltenen Erhaltungs- und Endrenovierungspflichten des Mieters abgesprochen. Im folgenden Beitrag werden die von der Entscheidung diesbezüglich eingenommenen Rechtsstandpunkte n?her analysiert und gewürdigt. Zudem wird ganz allgemein auf den einschl?gigen status quo in der h?chstgerichtlichen Judikatur Bezug genommen und die Sinnhaftigkeit einer legistischen Intervention diskutiert.     

Does terror increase aid?

This article investigates empirically whether, and in what ways, donors in the Development Assistance Committee respond to transnational terrorist incidents and the onset of the War on Terror by changing aid effort and aid allocation. First, an analysis of 22 donor countries shows that aid effort increased during the War on Terror period, but did not respond to the actual number of terror events. Second, using aid allocation equations, we find that countries where terror originates are not more likely to receive aid as a consequence, but if they are selected, they receive larger amounts of aid. Our results imply that politicians may still have to learn from economic research. To the extent that development aid can effectively combat terror across the world, as recent research suggests it does, politicians would be well-advised to target aid to those countries where terrorist groups exist in abundance.     

Empathy in sexually sadistic offenders: an experimental comparison with non-sadistic sexual offenders

Previous studies suggest that severe sexual sadism and psychopathy are phenotypically different, although both are characterized by deficits in emotional processing. We assessed empathic capacity in a sample of 12 sexual sadists in comparison with 23 non-sadistic offenders using the Multifaceted Empathy Test (MET). All participants were forensic patients under mandatory treatment orders who had committed sexual offenses. The MET is a computerized rating task that differentiates and measures cognitive and emotional components of empathy, or perspective-taking versus compassionate components. To identify the effects of possible empathy deficits caused by psychopathic traits, we controlled both samples for psychopathy as a covariate, measured by the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). According to our results, sexual sadists did not differ from non-sadistic sexual offenders with regard to emotional empathy for either positive or negative stimuli. The results suggest that severe sexual sadism is a distinct, pathological sexual arousal response, not a deficit in emotional processing.     

Rechtzeitige Rüge bei fehlerhafter Gerichtsbesetzung

Bei Beurteilung, ob dem Beschwerdeführer der die Nichtigkeit nach § 281 Abs 1 Z 1 StPO begründende Tatumstand schon vor (oder sp?testens bis zum Ende) der Hauptverhandlung bekannt geworden ist, ist auf objektive Kriterien, n?mlich die Zug?nglichkeit des Tatsachensubstrats abzustellen. Nichtigkeit iSd § 281 Abs 1 Z 1 StPO liegt nur bei willkürlichem, mithin sachlich ungerechtfertigtem Austausch der Laienrichter vor.