Affairs of the Heart: Hate Crime and the Politics of Crime Control

Various scholars have noted the priority given to law in the politics of hate violence; violence is the problem and law, more specifically the criminal law, the solution at the ‘heart’ of society. This article seeks to explore some of the gaps and silences in the existing literature and politics that mobilize these ideas and associations. It is the gap sand silences associated with demands for and expectations of criminal justice that will be the particular concern of this article. The demand for law is examined by way of David Garland's recent work on the culture of crime control. His work offers an analysis of the contemporary place of crime control in Anglo-American liberal democracies. A distinctive feature of his analysis is to be found in the way it maps an important paradox of contemporary crime control; its political centrality and an increasing recognition of its limitations. Garland's ‘criminology of the self’ and the ‘criminology of the other’ raise some important challenges for those who advocate resort to crime control. My particular concern is to consider the significance of Garland's work for a contemporary sexual politics that puts violence and criminal justice at the heart of that politics. Feminist, gay and lesbian scholarship first on criminal justice and second, on violence and law will be used to develop a critical dialogue with Garland's analysis and to reflect upon the challenges raised by his insights into contemporary crime control. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

What's Gender Got to Do with It? Incivility in the Federal Courts

The current study examines experiences of interpersonal mistreatment in federal litigation among a random sample of 4,608 practicing attorneys. Using both quantitative and qualitative survey data, we documented the nature and interplay of general incivility, gender-related incivility, and unwanted sexual attention. Nearly 75% of female attorneys had experienced some form of this misconduct in the previous five years, compared to half of male attorneys. An in-depth examination of instigators revealed that not only fellow attorneys but also federal judges, court personnel, marshals, and court security officers instigated the inappropriate behavior. We further found that most attorneys responded to this mistreatment with avoidance and denial; few used or trusted existing reporting mechanisms. The current study surpassed simple prevalence estimates to document effects of interpersonal mistreatment on the professional well-being of targeted attorneys. We discuss implications of these results, drawing on theories of social dominance, sex-role spillover, cognitive stress, organizations, and intervention.     

The impact of adolescent females' assessments of parenthood and employment on plans for the future

Indicators suggest that today's female adolescents will spend a substantial part of their adult lives in the labor force. It is less clear, however, what significance these young women will give to the empolyee role and how they will integrate it with other roles they plan to fill as adults. The present study explores adolescent females' assessments of the rewards and costs of employment and parenthood, and the impact of these assessments on their plans for organizing their adult lives. Five hundred and forty-nine 11th- and 12th-grade females completed questionnaires addressing their future work and fertility plans, characteristics of their family life at present, and their assessments of how rewarding and costly the roles of employee and parent would be to them. Results suggest that daughters of homemakers and daughters of employed women differ in their assessment of each role, and take different factors into consideration when making these assessments. Both groups, however, appear to give priority to the costs of employment when considering how they want to organize their lives as adults. The implications of these assessments for young women's role expectations and future satisfaction are discussed.This research was supported in part by a Faculty Research Grant from Fordham University, New York, New York. The author would like to thank Dr. Toby Tetenbaum for her assistance in the development of the project and data collection, and Dr. Judy Shea and Dr. Michael Johnson for their comments on an earlier draft of the paper.Dr. Leslie received her Ph.D. in Human Development from The Pennsylvania State University. Her current interests are in the area of social networks and family functioning.     

Book Reviews

The Vital Probe . By I.S. Cooper, M.D. (W.W. Norton & Co., New York) (1981) 346 pp.
Medical Ethics and the Low_: Impactions for Public Policy. Edited by Marc D. Hiller, Dr. P.H. (Ballinger Publishing Co., Cambridge, Mass.) (1981)471 pp.
Forensic Radiology . By K.T. Evans and B. Knight (Blackwell Publishers, London, distributed by C.V. Mosby, St. Louis) (1981) 212 pp.