THE WORDS WE LOVE TO HATE

Law and Philosophy -     

Oil,war, and semiperipheral mobility: The case of Iraq

Semiperipheral states have been characterized as politically tumultuous and economically dynamic. Iraq, in particular, manifests these tendencies. I explore the crucial events, shifts, and discontinuities that add up to Iraq’s changing position within the world-system over the past half century. These elements cannot be studied independent of transformations in the historic “weak state/strong bourgeoisie configuration,” which are integral components of its change. Nor can they be examined apart from world conditions. The outcome of Iraq’s attempts at semiperipheral mobility is also determined by the global petroleum hunger and geopolitical situation. Especially in the last instance, whether the world context is favorable to a particular kind of move virtually determines the outcome.     

Immigrant sexual citizenship: intersectional templates among Mexican gay immigrants to the USA

Existing literature on sexual citizenship has emphasized the sexuality-related claims of de jure citizens of nation-states, generally ignoring immigrants. Conversely, the literature on immigration rarely attends to the salience of sexual issues in understanding the social incorporation of migrants. This article seeks to fill the gap by theorizing and analyzing immigrant sexual citizenship. While some scholars of sexual citizenship have focused on the rights and recognition granted formally by the nation-state and others have stressed more diffuse, cultural perceptions of community and local belonging, we argue that the lived experiences of immigrant sexual citizenship call for multiscalar scrutiny of templates and practices of citizenship that bridge national policies with local connections. Analysis of ethnographic data from a study of 76 Mexican gay and bisexual male immigrants to San Diego, California, reveals the specific citizenship templates that these men encounter as they negotiate their intersecting social statuses as gay/bisexual and as immigrants (legal or undocumented); these include an ‘asylum’ template, a ‘rights’ template, and a ‘local attachments’ template. However, the complications of their intersecting identities constrain their capacity to claim immigrant sexual citizenship. The study underscores the importance of both intersectional and multiscalar approaches in research on citizenship as social practice.     

Was the pedestrian hit in an erect position before being run over?

If a pedestrian was run over by a car, the question can arise whether there was a preceding collision while the pedestrian was in an erect position. From a total of 53 selected autopsy reports, the findings associated with accidents known to involve running over in isolation (n=32) were compared to findings associated with a combined mechanism of a primary impact in an erect position and subsequent running over (n=21). Findings exclusively present in the combined group were wedge-shaped bone fractures ("Messerer"-wedges, 38%), glass fragment injuries (24%), traumatic amputations (10%), traces of car paint on the lower extremities (50%) and abrasions of the shoe soles (17%). These findings can be considered specific for a primary impact in an erect position. Fractures of the cervical and lumbar spine were present in the combined group in 33 and 17%, respectively. In contrast, in the run over group, there was only one case of fracture of the cervical and one of the lumbar spine and both cases involved direct contact with a car wheel. Fractures of the cervical and lumbar spine are, therefore, very indicative for a primary impact. "Bumper injuries", sacroiliac dislocations and fractures of the thoracic spine were approximately 2.5 times more common in the combined group than in the run over group. In the vast majority of cases, a clear differentiation between the two groups is, therefore, possible on the basis of the autopsy findings. This is especially relevant if an inspection of the car cannot be performed after a hit-and-run accident, which occurred in 26% of the cases in this study. In addition, the blood alcohol levels were higher in the run over group (mean=2.14g/l) as compared to the combined group (mean=1.53g/l).     

From Doom Town to Sin City: Chick Tracts and Anti-gay Political Rhetoric

The most popular and recognized of all Christian religious tracts are Chick Publications. The comic-book format tracts have been distributed since the 1960s and are now translated into over 100 languages. Some Christian Right opinion leaders regard the tracts with ambivalence, and many outside the Christian conservative community who comment on Chick's career believe that the tracts are no longer available through Christian retail outlets. Not only are the tracts still available, they represent an important form of conservative Christian political pedagogy. The tracts anticipated and continue to reflect Christian Right politics, including the centrality of same-sex sexuality to those politics. On the other hand, the tracts have come to conflict with key dimensions of Christian Right political strategy. This article traces the genealogy of the tracts, examines the anti-gay political rhetoric of Chick Publications and traces Christian Right ambivalence toward the tracts to the movement's efforts to “center” Christian Right politics for mainstream audiences.     

Peer Relations,Violence and School Attendance: Analyses of Bullying in Senior High Schools in Ghana

Abstract

This article focuses on bullying among students and explores the ways it affects the attendance of senior high school students in Ghana. It explores whether having emotional problems, in addition to being bullied, incrementally affects the relationship between bullying and school attendance and the mitigating influence of peer friendships on these relationships. The results show gender differences in which absenteeism associated with bullying was mitigated by the support of friends for boys but not to the same degree for girls, especially those girls who had reported being psychologically bullied. Our findings suggest a school environment in which peer friendship and emotional wellbeing are intertwined in complex ways.     

The Evidence-Based Policing Matrix

The next phase of evidence-based policing requires both scholars and practitioners to move from lists of specific studies about “what works” to using that information strategically. This requires developing generalizations or principles on the nature of effective police strategies and translating the field of police evaluation research into digestible forms that can be used to alter police tactics, strategies, accountability systems, and training. In this article, we present a tool intended for such use: the Evidence-Based Policing Matrix. The Matrix is a consistently updated, research-to-practice translation tool that categorizes and visually bins all experimental and quasi-experimental research on police and crime reduction into intersections between three common dimensions of crime prevention—the nature of the target, the extent to which the strategy is proactive or reactive, and the specificity or generality of the strategy. Our mapping and visualization of 97 police evaluation studies conducted through December 31, 2009, indicate that proactive, place-based, and specific policing approaches appear much more promising in reducing crime than individual-based, reactive, and general ones. We conclude by discussing how the Matrix can be used to guide future research and facilitate the adoption of evidence-based policing.