The Dutch parliamentary election of May 1986

After a rather uneventful election campaign, the results of the May 1986 Dutch parliamentary election were a surprise to virtually all involved. Since the introduction of regular opinion polling in the 1960s, no election has taken place when the polls were ‘wrong’. However, in 1986 last minute shifts that were stronger than had ever occurred in the Netherlands produced results that differed significantly from the predictions based upon the polls published immediately prior to the election.     

The bush administration's security strategy: Implications for transatlantic relations

There are signs of growing transatlantic estrangement over multiple international issues. An important catalyst for this estrangement is the National Security Strategy (NSS) that the Bush administration promulgated in September 2002, a document that is a detailed imperial blueprint. Despite its pretensions, however, it is not a global strategy, but instead appears to apply primarily to the 'Islamic Arc'--the territory from North Africa to the border of India. The administration's security strategy has important implications for the transatlantic relationship, since the United States is encouraging NATO to become a junior partner for missions throughout the Islamic Arc. Given the growing divergence in US and European interests and policy perspectives, the role that the Bush administration envisages for NATO is probably not sustainable. The 'West' was an artificial geostrategic concept that needed an extraordinarily threatening common adversary (the Soviet Union) to give it substance. The US and its allies will continue to drift apart strategically, and the Bush administration's security strategy may actually hasten that process. It is uncertain, however, whether the European Union will achieve the cohesion necessary to counterbalance US power. The main task facing statesmen on both sides of the Atlantic is to learn how to disagree about specific policies without becoming disagreeable.     

Protecting Rural Church-Going Immigrant Women from Family Violence

Rural Latino immigrant women at risk of family violence may perceive churches as their only source of help. However, immigrant church leaders may be poorly equipped to address family violence in their congregations. This article describes a project designed to stimulate and support appropriate responses to family violence by rural immigrant churches, including those identified with conservative theological views on women. The primary goal was to provide rural Latino church leaders with culturally sensitive materials and resources they were willing to use with their congregations. We collaborated with local service providers who assisted in recruiting the church leaders for the pastors’ workshops where the resource materials were presented. Survey data indicated most of the pastors were receptive to the content and planned to incorporate it into their church work. Suggestions are made for future research on this culturally sensitive approach to addressing family violence in the immigrant community.     

A research–note on the slave registers of Suriname, 1830–1865

In 1826, the Dutch government decreed that slave owners in the Dutch colony of Suriname had to register all enslaved persons in their possession and all changes in ownership. Registration was done in a central register until the abolition of slavery in Suriname in 1863. The registers give a continuous overview of the enslaved population in Suriname stretching for more than three decades. The level of information on the enslaved population of Suriname make the slave registers into an exceptional source for the study of slavery. As part of the project Make the Surinamese slave registers public a database of these registers was created. The database is the first step to create a Historical Database of Suriname (HDS) covering a substantial part of the population of Suriname between 1830 and 1950.     

Correction to: Transnational law as a framework for law clinics

Jindal Global Law Review - A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41020-021-00137-6     

The interpretation of shoeprint comparison class correspondences

The underlying principles involved in the interpretation of shoeprint comparisons have become a topical subject due to criticisms in the 2009 National Academy of Science (NAS) report on forensic sciences [1]. Difficulties in the application and understanding of these principles were also highlighted in a recent court ruling [2–5]. We report here a survey that may inform some aspects of this interpretation and discuss the implications of findings from this survey in the light of that court ruling and more importantly the NAS report.Five hundred shoeprints taken from student volunteers in Auckland, New Zealand were compared against each other for the presence of any pattern correspondences. Comparisons were undertaken of the full outsole and of smaller portions of the more common patterns.Of the 500 shoe impressions collected 488 (97.6%) were ultimately represented only once in the survey. The greatest number of corresponding patterns was for the most common brand of shoe (Converse Chuck Taylor All Star) and occurred in 3 of 500 observations. No instances of an imitation brand matching the authentic brand were found. Smaller sections of the common patterns showed a greater number of corresponding prints. However, the greatest number of matching partial patterns was again for the most common brand of shoe (Converse Chuck Taylor All Star) and occurred in 29 of 500 observations.We conclude that pattern match alone is of considerable evidential value even when the print is partial.     

Community policing within campus law enforcement agencies

Campus law enforcement agencies (CLEs) are critical components of the criminal justice system; thus, how they organize is of special interest. CLEs are thought ideal for community policing, a strategy requiring organizational change, yet little research exists on CLE organizations or their use of community policing. This study examines community policing within CLEs and how it impacts organizational structures. The data were gathered in a national BJS survey of CLEs. Results indicated that community policing was only significantly related to formalization. Contrary to community policing mandates, community policing was related to more written policies. Implications and future research are discussed.