The Relationship Between Adolescent Physical Abuse and Criminal Offending: Support for an Enduring and Generalized Cycle of Violence

Prospective investigations have demonstrated support for the cycle of violence theory. However, few studies have examined whether or not abuse occurring during adolescence increases the prevalence and frequency of criminal involvement, or explored the long-term consequences of such victimization. In addition, there has been little investigation of whether or not the effects of abuse vary depending on characteristics of the victim, such as sex, race/ethnicity, age, family structure or income. Using data from the National Youth Survey, this study demonstrates that adolescent physical abuse has immediate and enduring effects on the prevalence and frequency of a variety of self-reported offenses, including violent and non-violent crimes, drug use and intimate partner violence. Furthermore, the study reveals that while victimization increases the prevalence of offending for victims of varying backgrounds, the frequency of offending is moderated by family income, area of residence, and family structure. Implications for prevention are discussed.     

Reasons for Returning to Abusive Relationships: Effects of Prior Victimization

Studies have demonstrated that women with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are at increased risk of revictimization, but research has not yet examined whether a history of CSA may affect patterns of remaining in or returning to abusive relationships in adulthood. This study examines the impact of a CSA history on decisions to return to abusive relationships in a sample of 104 adult domestic violence survivors. Participants were interviewed about the number of times that they had previously separated from and returned to their abusive partner, the factors that influenced their decision to return (both psychological/internal and environmental/external factors), and their perceived likelihood of returning in the future. As predicted, CSA survivors (n = 34) reported a significantly greater number of past separations than non-CSA survivors (n = 70). CSA survivors were also significantly more likely to report that their decisions to return were influenced by emotional attachment to the batterer. CSA survivors did not perceive themselves to be at greater risk of returning in the future, suggesting that they may be more likely to underestimate their vulnerability to returning to the battering relationship. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Test–Retest Reliability of the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2)

The Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) are widely used to measure intimate partner aggression. Various aspects of the CTS2 and its subscales have been examined, e.g. factor structure, internal consistency, and validity, but little or no evidence exists regarding the stability of the self-report of aggression on the CTS2 This study examines the stability of reports of aggression against a partner on the CTS2 among 82 men court-mandated to a batterer intervention program. At both testing times men reported on aggression occurring in the year prior to beginning treatment. Using variety scores, stability of report was strong for psychological aggression (r = 0.69), physical assault (r = 0.76), injury (r = 0.70), and negotiation (r = 0.60), but weaker for sexual coercion (r = 0.30). Implications for the use of the CTS2 in court-mandated populations are discussed.

Intimate Partner Violence Victims’ Accuracy in Assessing their Risk of Re-abuse

Using four categories of accuracy (true positive, false positive, true negative, false negative), this study explored (1) how accurately intimate partner violence (IPV) victims are able to assess their risk of re-abuse; and (2) potential predictors of accuracy. Women seeking help for IPV (N = 246) rated the likelihood that they would experience physical re-abuse in the coming year and then reported 18 months later whether those risks had been realized. Victim assessments were more likely to be right than wrong, and were subject to neither a pessimistic nor optimistic bias. In the multivariate analysis, significant/marginally significant predictors of the accuracy categories were the history of violence from this and former partners, level of substance use, PTSD symptoms, and the recency of the violence. Among the more robust findings were the connection between level of stalking and true positives, and between substance use and false negatives. This study suggests that victim assessments have significant potential to inform practice, and deserve further exploration.

Dual Arrest and Other Unintended Consequences of Mandatory Arrest in New York City: A Brief Report

In jurisdictions across the United States, the mandated arrest of individuals perpetrating domestic violence crimes termed “mandatory arrest” or “pro-arrest” policies has become a key policy solution to the issue of domestic violence. The purposes of the policies are to standardize the police response to, and increase the number of, arrests stemming from domestic violence incidents by removing or reducing police discretion to arrest. In 1994, the New York state legislature passed the Family Protection and Domestic Violence Intervention Act, which contained provisions enacting a mandatory arrest statute. Using information from 183 callers to a telephone helpline for victims of domestic violence, we describe four unintended consequences of the policy: “unwanted,” “dual,” “retaliatory,” and “no” arrest. Bi- and multivariate analyses are used to identify victim and perpetrator sociodemographic, situational, and legal factors associated with each arrest type. Results are discussed in the context of the effects of mandatory arrest policies and minimizing problems associated with it in the future.

适用不方便法院原则与国民待遇原则的冲突与协调——以跨国知识产权诉讼为视角

跨国知识产权诉讼是当今各国对知识产权进行国际保护的主要途径.如何在知识产权保护的国际诉讼中遵循国民待遇原则,是知识产权国际保护的关键.由于跨国知识产权诉讼的复杂性、新颖性以及相关立法的滞后,造成了法院在审理相关案件时为片面追求司法任务的简单化,往往会拒绝外国原告的诉讼.不方便法院原则就成为拒绝当事人诉讼的最好理由,其中美国的做法最具有代表性.这与TRIPS协议等保护知识产权国际条约所确立的国民待遇原则相冲突.为给予国际知识产权流动以更多的保护与协调,各国应完善跨国知识产权管辖权体系,确立严格的适用不方便法院原则的标准.     

The National-Bolshevik Party and Arctogaia: two neo-fascist groupuscules in the post-Soviet political space

Mathyl examines two representatives of the Russian groupuscular right-Arctogaia and the National-Bolskevik Party-and their emergence after the collapse of the Soviet system in 1991, in the context of the radicalization of Russian nationalism that took place during the inter-Russian power struggle of 1992-3. The ideological arsenal of these groups consists principally of a politico-historical reconciliation between western (neo-)fascism and authoritarian nationalist Russian and Soviet traditions, in which those traditions are intensified and synthesized into a new kind of 'national Bolshevism'. The success of neo-fascist groupuscules demonstrates how potentially explosive the fascist diagnosis of the status quo can behaving been preserved virtually intact since 1945-when it meets with a new situation of high political instability and is employed in intensive political propaganda, as was the case in post-perestroika Russia. Following the nationalists' military defeat in October 1993, the Russian groupuscular right attempted both to maintain the revolutionary impetus and, through a variety of cultural-political activities, to contribute to the gradual enlargement of the nationalist-imperialist project, thereby demonstrating its close connection to the New Right and its strategy of struggling for cultural hegemony. Since the end of the 1990s, there has been, within the groupuscular right, both an increasingly apparent ideological transfer from East to West, and evidence of the growing influence of national Bolshevism on western third-positionist groups.     

Silence and Catastrophe: New Reasons Why Politics Matters in the Early Years of the Twenty‐first Century

Megaprojects are systems of highly concentrated power whose footprints, or radius of effects, are without precedent in human history. Once upon a time, even under imperial conditions, most people on our planet lived and loved, worked and played within geographically limited communities. They never had to reckon with all of humanity as a factor in their daily lives. Whenever they acted recklessly within their environment, for instance, they had the option of moving on, safe in the knowledge that there was plenty of Earth and not many others. Whenever bad things happened, they happened within limits. Their effects were local. The politics of megaprojects radically alters this equation; it poses new questions about the governance of risk and the nature and limits of democratic politics. The politics of megaprojects—put simply—raises fundamental questions about the ‘life and death of democracy’.     

建立我国刑事速审权制度的思考

速审权作为一项重要的诉讼权利,体现了尊重和保障人权的要求,在我国存在适用的法律空间。然而,我国诉讼拖延问题严重,且当被追诉人遭受诉讼拖延时没有相应的救济措施,因此在我国确立被追诉人速审权尤为必要。我国可以在法律上明确赋予被追诉人速审权,并规定相关的制度来保障速审权的实现。迅速审判要求刑事诉讼程序的进行,必须摒弃一切不必要和不正当的耽搁,但同时也并不意味着为求速而草率从事,甚至违反刑事诉讼程序而从速。     

“被时代”引发的关于信息权的思考

近两年,网络上不断出现"被"词语,"被时代"来临,无论是被自杀,被代表,还是"被自愿"都表现出了话语权弱势一方的无奈,透过现象看本质,被时代的出现也折射出当今信息时代社会传播的失衡,政府、媒介和公民之间的传播链条出现症结,引起我们的深刻反思。政府与媒介,政府与公众,媒介与公众之间的关系需要改善和协调,从而促进信息民主的实现。