Child Protection Intervention in Domestic Violence: An Illustrative Case Narrative

This is a case study, written from the point of view of child protection caseworkers, about their work with one family. They draw on practices originating in solution-focused and brief therapy, response-based theory, and relationship-based practice. The goal is to implement practices that (a) hold the perpetrator accountable rather than the victim, (b) attempt to avoid putting the mother in a position of having to choose between partner and children, (c) capitalize on child protection's unusual mandate in order to provide support for the mother, and (d) position the professional as a supportive ally of the mother and children instead of relying on the investigative stance. The case is an instance of how these goals and principles are operationalized. Examples of their choices include holding the perpetrator accountable instead of the mother, (a) focusing on what the mother is already doing to protect the children rather than what she is not doing, (b) placing the Ministry of Children and Family Development between the perpetrator and the victim, (c) avoiding forcing the mother to choose between her children and her partner, and (d) attending to the qualities of the relationship with the mother.     

中印贸易关系的国际政治经济学分析

国际政治经济学为我们理解国际贸易提供了一个清晰简易的视角,通过这一视角,我们能够更好地理解国际贸易理论,并在此指导下更好地分析国际社会上的贸易行为。中国和印度的贸易额迅速增长,是对方增长速度最快的贸易伙伴之一。两国的产业结构既存在互补的方面,也存在竞争的一面。本文试通过国际政治经济学视角下的国际贸易理论,从影响两国贸易关系的经济和政治两方面的因素对中印贸易关系进行分析。     

Decoding Negotiation Systems in the Middle East and North Africa: A Framework for Analysis

Regional conflicts are becoming increasingly complex due to the involvement of an ever more numerous and interconnected set of actors. Previous research has focused on regional conflict systems and has generated theoretical approaches such as the regional security complex paradigm. However, when complex, multifaceted, seemingly contradictory webs of relationships are spun in a region, new tools are needed to analyze and evaluate them. Drawing on previous regional conflict models, we propose a negotiation-oriented framework of regional conflict analysis that explores the type and intensity of relationships between state and nonstate actors in a conflict system. We offer a seven-step scale of relationships (ranging from ally to active armed opponent) that represents a novel contribution to the methodological efforts to analyze relationships in conflict systems. This framework brings to light the relational imbalance of the MENA region and has the potential to contextualize for negotiators and mediators the complex system of conflicts within, and possibly outside, the region.     

中央与地方政府间关系的司法调节

中央和地方政府间结构关系主要有两种模式 :相互控制和重叠统治。相互控制模式的设计使得各级政府在组成、立法和执行上相互依赖 ,通过立法、行政过程中的体制保障机制来协调政府间的关系。这种方式有诸多弊端。用司法方式调节中央和地方政府关系 ,通过裁决个别纠纷 ,可以间接协调政府间关系 ,其方式有不为人注意的重大好处。中央与地方关系难题的治本之策是吸收重叠统治模式的优点并建立真正意义上的司法权。     

The social dynamics of revictimization and intimate partner violence: an embodied,gendered, institutional and life course perspective

This article offers a qualitative, institutional analysis of the dynamics of revictimization as the accumulation of disadvantages over time and across different institutional contexts, and its multiple gender dimensions. It draws on 37 qualitative interviews with victims of intimate partner violence, detailing the institutional causal pathways to victimization and revictimization over the life course, through the in-depth analysis of one case. Drawing on the vulnerability approach, developed by Martha Albertson Fineman, the analysis demonstrates how victimization and revictimization have been facilitated, tolerated, and even produced by particular institutional contexts, illustrating how the risk of revictimization is not a characteristic of the individual, nor is it destiny. The article contributes to a constructive social science, elucidating how victimization is contingent on social and institutional contexts, and how at several critical points, better institutions and better institutional responses to particular events might have prevented or interrupted the dynamics of accumulating victimization. Focusing on embodied, gendered subjects and the role of institutions in producing as well as remedying inequalities has far-reaching implications for research and prevention of violence. In contrast to a risk-factor approach targeting particular groups and individuals, a vulnerability analysis calls for a responsive state and universal institutional solutions.     

A ‘double edged sword’: discretion and compulsion in policing domestic violence

Policing domestic violence is a complex area in which there are divergent views about the extent to which front line police action should be mandated by legislation and guidance. This study set in Victoria, Australia raised questions about the balance between discretion and compulsion in policing domestic violence through researching the implementation of the Code of Practice used to respond to domestic violence incidents. The project team interrogated aggregate data from the police database on family violence and also interviewed 125 police members (60 sergeants and 65 constables) to explore the attitudes to the Code of Practice and policing domestic violence. The findings reveal that discretion within a range of options is circumscribed. Variable understandings of the nature of domestic violence and the role of risk assessment and management suggest that constrained and guided discretion may be required to achieve optimum effectiveness in policing responses to domestic violence.     

Perceptions of Harm,Criminality, and Law Enforcement Response: Comparing Violence by Men Against Women and Violence by Women Against Men

The authors compare third-party evaluations of male violence against women and female violence against men with regard to perceived injury severity, criminal labeling, and recommending police contact. They determine if victim–offender gender directly influences third-party perceptions of injury, and test whether injury mediates victim–offender gender effects on assessments. Injury perception mediated but could not fully explain differences in labeling. Differences in police contact support remained significant after taking injury perceptions into account. Male and female respondents differed in injury evaluations in acts with male victims or female perpetrators, but not in injury rating of male perpetrator or female victim violence. Findings suggest gender stereotypes directly and indirectly influence third-party observers of violence, shaping assessments of injury and ability or willingness to criminalize violence.     

Developmental Changes in Adolescents’ Perceptions of Relationships with Their Parents

This 4-wave longitudinal study examines developmental changes in adolescents’ perceptions of parent–adolescent relationships by assessing parental support, conflict with parents, and parental power. A total of 951 early adolescents (50.4% boys) and 390 middle adolescents (43.3% boys) participated. Univariate and multivariate growth curve analyses showed that support declined from early to middle adolescence for boys and girls and increased from middle to late adolescence for girls, while stabilizing for boys. Conflict was found to temporarily increase during middle adolescence. Parental power (relative power and dominance of parents) decreased from early to late adolescence. Results indicated that: (1) parent–adolescent relationships become more egalitarian during adolescence, (2) parents perceived by adolescents as powerful are viewed as supportive, especially in early adolescence, and (3) perceived conflict with parents is related to but not an impetus for changes in parent–adolescent relationships towards more equality.

Intraindividual Variability in Adolescents’ Perceived Relationship Satisfaction: The Role of Daily Conflict

A daily diary method was used to examine the daily dynamics of adolescent conflict and perceived relationship satisfaction with mothers, fathers, and best friends among a sample of 72 Dutch adolescents (M = 15.59 years). Multilevel analyses revealed that perceived relationship satisfaction with mothers, fathers, and best friends was lower on days on which conflict occurred with mothers, fathers, and best friends than on days on which no conflict occurred. More specifically, perceived relationship satisfaction was highest in a particular relationship on days when no conflict occurred, second highest on days on which constructive conflict occurred, and lowest on days on which unconstructive conflict occurred. Whereas in adolescents’ relationships with their parents, conflict and perceived relationship satisfaction were not found to be related to each other one day later, conflict with their best friends—and especially unconstructive conflict—was found to be related to higher perceived relationship satisfaction one day later.