Customary and contemporary resources for women's empowerment in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, dramatic social and economic changes are transforming historical forms of patriarchy with various impacts on pathways to women's empowerment. We hypothesised contemporary resources would be more strongly associated with women's empowerment, as reflected in their influence in family decisions. In cross-sectional analysis, we found the contemporary resources of employment and membership in NGOs were most strongly and consistently associated with women's influence in family decisions. Education was only modestly associated, as were customary resources, including age and fertility. Programmatic efforts to enhance women's empowerment should consider the rapidly changing environment and the importance of women's economic participation.     

Authorizing state crime in Mexico: the importance of a destructive social milieu

This essay seeks to specify some of the social–psychological determinants that led to the mobilization of deadly state crime in the Latin American authoritarian state context. The Mexican case provides an interesting case in which to specify some of these determinants because hundreds of leftist political party militants, often engaged in legal activities, have been gunned down by state agents (the police, the military, local politicians associated with the dominant party-state) or indirectly by hired guns on behalf of state leaders Schatz. S. (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, 23:255–295, 2001). I argue, in the Mexican case, the leadership authorization of destructive behavior was the critical activating historical condition activating deadly state crime because it created a permissive social milieu that allows for the utilization of more extreme forms of violence including the use of political assassination as a mode of social control. This permissive social milieu was, of course, aided by a passive legal system that generated the almost complete lack of penalties for state-sanctioned brutality. While none of these determinants alone may be sufficient to produce a wave of political–electoral homicides, when they all combine, it makes such destructive behavior very likely to occur.     

Rape of the Congo: Understanding sexual violence in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Though the occurrence of rape in the conduct of war is by no means historically new, research into its causes and functions has only really begun in the past couple of decades. War rape is a difficult phenomenon about which to generalise, considering the variances in context and actors involved. This article, however, attempts to synthesise existing literature through the analysis of a case study that can enhance our understanding of rape as a weapon of war and the contextual conditions that facilitate its use. Applying this theoretical framework to the extreme war rape occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), this article offers insight into understanding the function of sexual violence in the ongoing conflict in the DRC. In particular, this article argues that the use of rape as a weapon in the Congo's bloody war must be understood in relation to both social constructs of masculinity and the politics of exploitation that have shaped much of the country's history.     

Restoring the professor and the students: a circle process and contemplative practices in a restorative justice seminar

Limited research is published on teaching restorative justice in the criminal justice or justice studies curriculum in higher education. This article contributes to the discourse on restorative justice pedagogy by discussing a restorative justice seminar that is taught in a circle process with contemplative practices. Students learn the process of circles, one of the major processes in restorative justice practice, by modeling the practice with participation and leadership. Contemplative practices enhance the learning of restorative justice with meditation and reflection.