Reliability and validity of cross-national homicide data: a comparison of UN and WHO data

Data reliability and validity are methodological concerns in cross-national analyses of crime, but there is little agreement on which source of data provides the most reliable estimates. Moreover, few studies have examined the potential threat to validity posed by unclassified deaths. The current study aims to (1) assess the reliability of cross-national homicide data from the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO); and (2) investigate the impact of unclassified deaths on the validity of WHO data. Findings indicate that UN and WHO homicide rates (n=56) differ in magnitude, but produce similar outcomes. The UN data produce more robust results and statistical models with less error. The WHO data are more stable and reliable over time, and better suited for longitudinal analyses. Analyses drawing on WHO data should not disregard unclassified deaths because their inclusion provides a more accurate estimate of the true number of homicides.     

Mexican American Attitudes Towards Crime

Abstract

The study seeks to determine (1) whether the crime seriousness ranking hierarchy identified by Rossi et al. in 1974 persists and (2) whether intra-group agreement on the relative ordering of crimes exists within a Mexican American sample stratified by age and sex. A self-administered survey questionnaire surveyed a sample of 525 college students and 426 parents. Respondents were asked to rank 20 crime offenses according to perceived seriousness. The analyses indicate that the older cohort of respondents is more conservative than the college students and that female students have lower tolerance for crime than their male counterparts. Among Mexican Americans, significant generational and sex differences exist in how serious certain behaviors are perceived.     

Chinese—Indian relations and the process of building confidence: Implications for the Asia‐Pacific

China's traditional approach to security questions appears to be antithetical to the cooperative security approach that has been adopted by ASEAN and by embryonic multilateral organizations such as the ASEAN Regional Forum. Yet, in the course of normalizing relations with India, China has shown itself willing to explore the kind of confidence‐ and security‐building measures associated with this approach. Although it was a change in interests that prompted China to explore the worth of such measures, nevertheless cooperative security ideas have proved helpful in defusing tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. Possibly as a result of its experience with India, there are indications that China has become more receptive to the use of a cooperative security framework elsewhere in the Asia‐Pacific, most notably in dealing with the ASEAN Regional Forum. Its involvement in this process has increased the diplomatic and economic costs that would be incurred should it decide to use force to make good its irredentist claims in the South China Sea.     

Paisaje antes de la batalla. Notas sobre el contexto de la guerra contra las drogas en México

Mexico’s security crisis and Felipe Calderón’s (2006-2012) security strategy had its roots in drug trafficking, the prohibition of drugs, contraband and the border shared with the United States. Standard accounts of the violence experienced in the country, which reduce it to confrontations between drug cartels, are of little use. This article presents part of the context in which the security crisis developed, putting it in a historical perspective, and attempting to take a step towards a more nuanced interpretation. It holds that drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States is a complex, many-sided reality which admits dense symbolic elaboration. Apart from the very concrete shipping of drugs, drug trafficking is part of Mexico’s relation with the United States, a register that imbues the asymmetry between both countries with meaning, a space of political negotiation and a resource of American global diplomacy which is crystallized in a clandestine foreign policy system. Furthermore, through the demystification of the imagery that envelopes organized crime, corruption and contraband are examined, conceiving these two as phenomena that are integrated organically into borderland society.     

Border battle line

ABSTRACT

The demarcation of a North–South boundary in the Sudan opens up the possibility of the creation of a new international border in Africa, following the outcome of the Southern Sudanese and Abyei Area referenda in 2011. The line of the proposed boundary runs through the grazing areas of numerous pastoralist peoples, and it is these peoples who will be most directly affected if the new border becomes the frontline between two states. In fact, pastoralists were mobilised to fight on either side of the boundary during both of Sudan's civil wars. This article looks at select areas of the North–South borderlands, particularly areas of shared rights, to analyse the potential impact of the new boundary. It looks at how overlapping rights claims were managed in the past, and goes on to analyse various peace-making efforts between border pastoralist peoples from the Condominium period until today. The article looks at the way the border issue has been dealt with in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, including the Abyei arbitration process, as an indicator of whether this border region will become the focus of continued conflict, whatever the 2011 referendum result.     

The border as pain and remedy: commemorating the Polish–Ukrainian conflict of 1918–1919 in Lviv and Przemyśl

The fight for Lwów/Lviv in 1918 was the first military conflict in the difficult twentieth-century history of Polish–Ukrainian relations. In the inter-war period, an impressive military memorial, the Eaglets Cemetery, was constructed in Lwów to honor the young defenders of the city. A monument to the Eaglets was also erected in the neighboring Przemy?l. In inter-war Poland, the Ukrainians, who had lost their cause for state independence, created their own cult of national heroes, the Sich Riflemen. Their graves in Lwów and Przemy?l, as well as in many smaller towns, became sites of public commemoration and national mobilization. This article traces the emergence, the development and the post-World War II decay of both competing memorial cults, focusing on their revival and political uses after 1989. It examines the trans-border aspects of memory politics in Lviv and Przemy?l and analyses the role of war memorials in (re-)establishing the link between ethnic communities and their homelands.     

毗邻朝韩海域越界捕捞活动的特点及对策研究

近年来,我国渔船在毗邻朝韩海域进行越界捕捞活动成为了影响中朝、中韩海域安全稳定的焦点问题,也是困扰我边境管理工作的重难点问题。公安边防部门作为渔船民管理的主管部门,为有效地预防和制止越界捕捞活动,应针对边防管理工作中存在的问题,结合部队的实际情况,从根本上预防和制止越界捕捞行为,有力地维护毗邻朝韩海域的安全与稳定,促进毗邻朝韩海域海洋经济可持续发展。     

边境地区群体性事件中警察自我防范技术研究

我国边境地区群体性事件具有自身的特征,针对这些特征,由生物、电子和物理三类技术构成的防范技术体系,适用于警察在应对和处置边境群体性事件过程中对人、物和环境的自我防范,在技术体系的具体应用过程中要重视＂理念体系＂的作用,在技术培养训练过程中要明确影响警察自我防范技术水平层次提高的因素类型,着力提高应对和处置边境地区群体性事件中警察自我防范技术和水平。     

新疆边境民族地区公安边防群众工作探析

新疆边境民族地区群众工作具有敏感性、军事性、复杂性、长远性等特点。公安边防部队在开展该地区群众工作时,应以确保国家安全和边境和谐稳定为基本目标,以加快该地区经济社会发展为重点,不断增强边境地区少数民族群众的政治认同和中华民族文化认同。正确执行党和国家的民族宗教政策,严格区分民族宗教领域两类不同性质的矛盾,通过在边境少数民族群众中开展宣传活动、扶贫帮困活动等多种途径做好公安边防部队群众工作。