Violence at Work—The Emergence of a Social Problem

This article analyses trends in violence at work on the basis of victim surveys, work-environment surveys, and press material. It proceeds from the two most common explanations of why violence at work appears to have increased over recent decades. These emphasize shifts in working conditions that have increased employees' victimization risk, and a broadened view of what is regarded as work-related violence. The empirical analyses provide support for both these explanations, and the various dimensions examined—increased reporting propensities, expanded definitions, a reduced tolerance of violence, and altered working conditions—are linked to one another.     

A party system in flux: the Swedish parliamentary election of September 2018

In the Swedish parliamentary election of 7 September 2018, the biggest parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderates, both lost votes compared to their scores in the previous election, but not as many as they had feared. Commensurately, the radical-right challenger party, the Sweden Democrats (SD), which had seemed certain to profit from Sweden's dramatic experience of the European migration crisis, did well, but not as well as it had hoped. The result left the array of parliamentary forces fragmented and finely balanced. Only after months of negotiations could a government be formed. Eventually, the incumbent coalition received a renewed parliamentary mandate. At the same time, the party system was transformed.     

Economic voting in Sweden 1985–2010

Despite the fact that Sweden has the world’s second longest time-series of national election Studies, the standard model of micro-level economic voting has only been occasionally applied in Sweden. This study presents a long-term perspective on economic voting in Sweden and analyzes to what extent economic perceptions influence governmental support in general elections in Sweden at the eight latest parliamentary elections, 1985--2010. To this end, this article makes use of the rolling two-wave panels of the Swedish national election studies and estimates the probability of voting for the government depending on economic perceptions, previous vote, ideology and a set of SES controls. The results show that Swedish voting behaviour is no exception to that of most western democracies; subjective economic evaluations of the Swedish economy systematically influence government support. If voters feel the economy is improving they are more likely to vote for the incumbent government than when they feel the economy is getting worse.     

Microfinance and Poverty in Bolivia

Both in its institutional range and in its penetration of financial markets, the microfinance sector in Bolivia rivals any in the world, and has played a major part in extracting the macro-economy from meltdown since the mid-1980s. We seek specifically to assess its impact on poverty, and do this through small-sample surveys on four microfinance institutions, two urban and two rural, using a range of poverty concepts: income (generated both through the borrower's enterprise and through the labour market), asset holdings and diversity, and various measures of vulnerability. All the institutions studied had, on balance, positive impacts on income and asset levels, with income impacts correlating negatively with income on account of poor households choosing to invest in low-risk, low-return assets. Microfinance may, however, augment vulnerability: average debt-service ratios of microfinance clients are disturbingly high, and if the coping mechanisms used by borrowers fail, borrowers may be forced out of the microfinance system, possibly resulting in decapitalisation and impoverishment. Poorer households are more restricted in their choice of coping strategy, and many as a consequence 'choose' coping strategies more likely to jeopardise their long-term income prospects, in particular asset sales and cuts in children's schooling. The more successful low-income borrowers are those who have voluntary savings deposits and do not rush into fixed capital purchases too early: collapse back into poverty is associated with multiple crises and the failure of one or more 'safety nets', in particular of one or more 'safety nets', in particular support from a member's solidarity group. The following actions appear to be promising for the further reduction of poverty in Bolivia: stronger efforts to mobilise rural savings, removal of lower limits on loan size, and the introduction of appropriate insurance mechanisms. In comparison with other anti-poverty measures, microfinance appears to be successful and relative cheap at reducing the poverty of those close to the poverty line, but ineffective, by comparison with labour-market and infrastructural measures, in reducing extreme poverty.     

Swedish rape offenders — a latent class analysis

Sweden has witnessed an increase in the rates of sexual crimes including rape. Knowledge of who the offenders of these crimes are is therefore of importance for prevention. We aimed to study characteristics of individuals convicted of rape, aggravated rape, attempted rape or attempted aggravated rape (abbreviated rape+), against a woman ≥18 years of age, in Sweden. By using information from the Swedish Crime Register, offenders between 15 and 60 years old convicted of rape+ between 2000 and 2015 were included. Information on substance use disorders, previous criminality and psychiatric disorders were retrieved from Swedish population-based registers, and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify classes of rape+ offenders. A total of 3 039 offenders were included in the analysis. A majority of them were immigrants (n = 1 800; 59.2%) of which a majority (n = 1 451; 47.7%) were born outside of Sweden. The LCA identified two classes: Class A — low offending class (LOC), and Class B — high offending class (HOC). While offenders in the LOC had low rates of previous criminality, psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders, those included in the HOC had high rates of previous criminality, psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders. While HOC may be composed by more “traditional” criminals probably known by the police, the LOC may represent individuals not previously known by the police. These two separated classes, as well as our finding in regard to a majority of the offenders being immigrants, warrants further studies that take into account the contextual characteristics among these offenders.

Key points

• Rape, aggravated rape, attempted rape or attempted aggravated rape (rape+) are increasing in Sweden.
• The majority of those convicted of rape+ are immigrants.
• LCA identifies two classes of rape+ offenders: LOC and HOC.

     

社会性别视角下对农村妇女政治参与状况的考察——基于对山东省部分农村的实证调查

在中国传统农村社会存在一个由传统社会性别角色,传统社会性别文化和传统社会性别结构相互建构的隐性社会排斥系统,致使农村妇女遭到不同程度的政治排斥,从而在享受与维护自身权益及政治参与方面出现一定的问题,阻碍了自身的发展和基层民主政治的完善与发展。     

我国农村妇女自杀问题初探

农村妇女自杀问题已成为我国当前一个日益凸显的社会问题。家庭暴力、传统文化的落后思想、经济能力不足等是导致农村妇女自杀率高的主要原因。为解决农村妇女自杀问题,必须采取加大教育普及力、提高执法力和加强对农村妇女的心理援助等重要防治举措。     

农地调整的正当性思考

土地承包经营的初始公平因户内人口的变化而出现了集体内人均承包地占有不公的矛盾,因此直面现行农村承包地调整制度在现实运行中的缺陷并完善现行制度实有必要。主张对集体内人均承包地占有不公的现象进行调整,首要理由即是基于对农民利益的保护。从宪法的视野对调整集体内人均耕地占有不公现象的正当性进行思考,有助于农村承包地调整制度的进一步完善。     

老有所养:我国新型农村社会养老保险法律制度的构建

随着老龄化浪潮的汹涌而来、土地流转制度的改革、农村人口大量向城市流动、失地农民的养老保障等一系列问题因素的出现,传统的"社区养老"、"养儿防老"等模式在新的经济形式下已难以为继,如何实现我国农村老人的老有所养是一个严峻的社会问题,依法建立我国新型农村社会养老保险法律制度势在必行.     

农村留守儿童与犯罪——对山东省农村留守儿童犯罪的调查

农村留守儿童犯罪问题日益严重。表现出“隐匿性”、潜在性、失控性和巨大的危害性等特征。“留守”经历对儿童有终身的影响,极易造成其心理异常并形成反社会人格。并且与其日后的犯罪有高度的关联性。从调查结果看,留守儿童多为“问题儿童”,具有很高的犯罪率,比非留守儿童高出近11个百分点;留守儿童更容易成为被害人,并出现恶逆变;不同家庭结构的留守儿童其犯罪行为有较大的差异性。