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.

Theory and racial profiling: Shortcomings and future directions in research

The volatile political environment that surrounds the issue of “racial profiling” has led local and state police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic and pedestrian stops. The controversy over this issue is overwhelmed by the unsupported assumption that all race-based decision making by police officers is motivated by individual police officers' racial prejudice. This article reviews recently published studies on racial profiling and critiques both their methods and conclusions. Using the conceptual framework for police research presented by Bernard and Engel, it reviews a number of theories that may explain racial disparities in the rates of police stops. The authors argue that to explain police behavior better, theoretical models must guide future data collection efforts.     

Breaking Barricades

正The current state of Sino-Japanese relations is strikingly worrisome.Particularly in the past year,conflicts have deepened between the two on issues concerning historical perception,territorial sovereignty and security.In a speech at a meeting of the 21st Century Committee for China-Japan Friendship,recently held in Nagasaki,Japan,Zhou Mingwei,a committee member,shared his thoughts on current Sino-Japanese relations.Excerpts as follows     

Estimating parties' left-right positions: Determinants of voters' perceptions' proximity to party ideology

The article aims to explore whether the accuracy of voters' perceptions of party ideology are affected by party position shifts and by the media's turn to non-left-right issues, such as political leadership, during election campaigns. Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) and a country-specific left-right index based on data by the Comparative Manifestos Project (CMP), multilevel analyses reveal that emphasizing leadership issues can lead voters to reflect left-right positions more accurately. A party's left-right position shift between elections does not lead to a significant difference in voters' perceptions, while a shift on the economic sub-dimension of left-right ideology can even lead voters to more position clarity. However, multiple parties' shifting their positions seems to overburden respondents' cognitive capacity.     

Perceptions of Poverty and Wealth in Western and Post-Communist Countries

This paper analyzes the felt legitimacy of poverty and wealth in the United States, West Germany, The Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Russia. Several theories on poverty and wealth perception are discussed; of these, dominant ideology theory has been the most influential. This theory can predict the existence not only of a legitimizing ideology in a society, but also of challenging beliefs that incumbents of specific social positions hold. It is argued that poverty and wealth perceptions are more complex, however, involving at least three latent dimensions. Using data from the International Social Justice Project it is demonstrated that, regarding poverty, individuals distinguish between merited, unmerited, and fatalistic types of poverty. Merited poverty is poverty brought about by the individual's own doing or not doing, unmerited poverty is due to forces external to the individual, whereas fatalistic explanations attribute poverty to ascribed properties of the individual. For wealth also there are three causally relevant factors: in addition to merited und unmerited ones, a social capital factor that sees social contacts as a source for determining economic success. Using a structural equation approach and its group comparison option for comparing countries, the different explanations of poverty and wealth are translated into specific measurement models. Testing simultaneously with linear regression models show how preferences for particular explanations are shaped by stratification-related experiences and by the social position of an observer.     

北京物联网建设和发展现状的调查与思考

物联网被很多国家当作应对国际金融危机、振兴经济的重点领域。我国也将物联网产业纳入到国家战略性新兴产业范围,并加大了物联网研发和建设的力度。本文通过调查研究当前北京物联网建设和发展的状况,分析研究制约北京物联网发展的因素,提出推进北京物联网建设和发展的相关对策建议。     

Perceived threat of crime,authoritarianism, and the rise of a populist president in the Philippines

President Duterte of the Philippines implemented an open “war” on drugs based upon claims of an over-proliferation of illegal drugs in the country. Despite summary killings of suspected users and dealers, Duterte enjoys popular support among Filipinos. This paper assesses reasons behind the support using citizens’ perceptions of the severity of the drugs/crime problem, their punitiveness, and authoritarian attitudes as explanations. A sample of 114 Filipinos across Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao responded to an electronic survey about socio-legal issues. Results show that drugs/crime are perceived as serious problems nationally yet only minor problems locally. This perceived national seriousness is significantly related to support for Duterte. Trust in the law and enforcement agents, an authoritarian attitude, and region are also strongly related to support for Duterte. This paper concludes with reflections on information manipulation as means to advance political ends and the importance of context in furthering theories of authoritarian submission.     

Towards identifying and ranking selected types of violence against women in North India

ABSTRACT

The paper is aimed at identifying and ranking different types of violence against women (VAW) in states of Delhi and Haryana in Northern India. Examples of gender-specific violence were selected through an extensive review of the literature. The types of VAW reviewed include the lower economic value of daughters at birth (females being considered a liability rather than an asset), rampant female feticides aided by proliferation of often illegal prenatal diagnoses, maternal morbidity, and mortality rates, physical and emotional abuse and neglect of female children, “honour” killing of women, exclusion and deprivation of women from medical treatment and nutrition, their subjection to assaults and rape (including marital rape), insufficient compliance to women’s legal rights of inheritance, arranging early marriages of girls, dowry deaths, female sexual harassment, and intimidation in community and workplace, female trafficking and prostitution, and so forth.

The conceptual frame of reference used for the study was provided by the culturally sanctioned legitimation of the patriarchal system of Indian family as well as by people’s perceptions and attitudes. Data were collected through the survey method in two phases. A preliminary survey was conducted during the first phase for developing the questionnaire items to be used for data collection in the phase two of the study. The findings of the study are presented and reveal participants’ rankings of selected types of VAW by degree of relative importance. Data, based on secondary sources as well as a non-random sample of respondents, were analysed to assess the various areas which demand immediate redress. We also interpret data based on selected criteria and suggest few optimistic future trends in regard to addressing and preventing VAW.     

间接语言与梅洛-庞蒂的艺术观

本文以法国著名哲学家,知觉现象学的创始人莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂晚年未完成的著作《世界的散文》中专论艺术的一节——＂间接语言＂——为研究对象,通过阅读文本提炼大师梅洛-庞蒂的艺术观。在梅洛-庞蒂的眼里,艺术是实在性的展开,是存在者存在状态的彰显,是对生活世界的知觉显现的瞬间捕捉。对于＂生活世界＂的认识,以及艺术如何＂表达＂生活世界的观点,他迈入了前人从未涉足的领域。     

Assessment of the Service Quality Provided by the Kuwaiti Cultural Office in Cairo: An Empirical Investigation

This study is an extension of the research on the service quality of public organizations. It is concerned with evaluating the quality of the service provided by the Kuwaiti Cultural Office in Egypt as perceived by both students and staff. The gap analysis model is adopted in this study to identify the key dimensions and related components of the quality of service delivered by the Office. Additionally, the study offers evidence of a quality gap between the perceptions of the public service providers and the end beneficiaries. The findings reveal that there are obvious differences between the staff's and students' perceptions of the quality of the service provided by the Office in terms of tangibles, reliability, and responsiveness. The students indicate that the service provided has many shortcomings, related mainly to the tangible aspects of the service reliability and responsiveness. However, they feel secure in dealing with the Office, and feel the administration and employees consider their interests a top priority to the Office.