Resignifications and subversive transformations: Judith Butler’s queer theory and women who kill

This article provides an empirical study of a number of cases dealing with women who kill their abusive partners and the construction of the battered woman syndrome in order to identity the possibilities for transformation within the legal system. Drawing upon the work of Judith Butler, the article will argue that the unstable nature of social terms and the nature of social power provides the potential for resignifying and subversively transforming the gender identities constructed and perpetuated by the law. In addition to outlining the defences for murder and engaging in a close examination of the cases, the article will also provide a critical analysis of Judith Butler’s approach to subject formation. Dr Anna Carline LLB (Hons), LLM, PhD. Law Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University.     

命案侦查中警察的心理调适

2004年年初开展的全国公安机关“侦破命案专项行动”使各地公安机关都将“命案必破”作为公安工作的首要任务,面对比以前更加高标准、严要求,公安机关面临更多的压力和更高的工作强度。在命案侦破中,警察将面对巨大的压力;警察在命案侦破中要调节自己的心理状况,以适应工作的要求。     

浅谈中国电视传媒业未来发展趋势

改革开放的20年间,中国传媒业的改革取得了显著的成就,但还面临不少危机,如集团化改革难以推进,专业化频道与公司化运做举步维艰,过分依赖广告造成广告压力巨大,市场化要求下求生存,旧有人事制度限制人才发展等。为了适应经济全球化和我国经济社会发展的需求,必须采取有效措施,加大力度,对我国电视传媒业实施进一步的改革:逐步实现跨媒体、跨行业、跨地域的多元化经营;改变单一的广告盈利模式,推进电视频道专业化进程;适应市场需求,逐步实施电视产业企业化经营等。     

TESTS OF NONLINEAR DYNAMICS IN U.S. HOMICIDE TIME SERIES,AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS*

Attempts to explain temporal patterns in U.S. homicide data usually assume that a linear process accounts for the variation. A nonlinear process is an obvious alternative, however, and reasonable arguments suggest that nonlinearity may in part underlie homicide series dynamics. This paper applies tests for nonlinearity to national time series of homicide rates and counts. The results provide relatively little evidence of nonlinear structure; instead, a linear (random walk) process appears to generate most of the change in the series. Although this supports the unstated assumptions of current theories, it also raises questions about why homicides should follow a linear time path in the first place.     

A CROSS‐NATIONAL TEST OF BONGER'S THEORY OF CRIMINALITY AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS*

Using international data for 100 countries, we test two hypotheses derived from Bonger's Marxian theory of crime. The analyses support the hypothesis that the degree of capitalism significantly predicts homicide rates, but they fail to confirm that the de‐moralization of the population (loss of moral feelings for others) mediates the relationship between capitalism and homicide. Although capitalism is not the best predictor among those considered, overall, the results underline the importance of Bonger's ideas because both capitalism and corruption (our indicator of de‐moralization) show reasonably strong relationships with homicide rates and compete with other variables commonly used as predictors of international homicide rates. The results confirm the usefulness of attempting to subject Marxian ideas to positivist, quantitative tests, with an eye to integrating Marxian theories with other mainstream theories, such as institutional anomie theory.     

云南河口瑶族社会发展态势分析

新中国成立以来 ,云南河口瑶族地区在政治、经济、文化等方面有了明显变化。在政治方面 ,传统政治权威的淡化 ,国家政治权威逐渐被接受 ,反映了河口瑶族向民主政治进程迈进了一大步 ;在经济方面 ,河口瑶人打破固定土地的自然经济桎 ,接受了商品经济方式 ,保证了他们富强的经济前景 ;在文化方面 ,他们依然重视传统文化 ,但也开始逐渐接受优秀的外来文明 ,这为他们将来的文化繁荣提供了前提     

NO COMMUNITY IS AN ISLAND: THE EFFECTS OF RESOURCE DEPRIVATION ON URBAN VIOLENCE IN SPATIALLY AND SOCIALLY PROXIMATE COMMUNITIES*

The link between resource deprivation and urban violence has long been explored in criminological research. Studies, however, have largely ignored the potential for resource deprivation in particular communities to affect rates of violence in others. The relative inattention is notable because of the strong theoretical grounds to anticipate influences that extend both to geographically contiguous areas and to those that, though not contiguous, share similar social characteristics. We argue that such influences—what we term spatial and social proximity effects, respectively—constitute a central feature of community dynamics. To support this argument, we develop and test theoretically derived hypotheses about spatial and social proximity effects of resource deprivation on aggregated and disaggregated homicide counts. Our analyses indicate that local area resource deprivation contributes to violence in socially proximate communities, an effect that, in the case of instrumental homicides, is stronger when such communities are spatially proximate. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theories focused on community‐level social processes and violence, and for policies aimed at reducing crime in disadvantaged areas.     

Developmental trends of delinquent attitudes and behaviors: replications and synthesis across domains, time, and samples

Inconsistent findings of attitude-behavior relations are commonly attributed to uncontrolled domain, time, or situational factors. Without integrative work, studies accounting for these factors may further complicate research by introducing potentially numerous third variables and render a coherent understanding of the attitude-behavior relationship even more difficult to achieve. In this paper, a developmental perspective is taken and the attitude-behavior relationship in delinquency is examined using three modes of investigation: multivariate patterns of attitude-behavior associations, their mutual predictability, and their developmental trajectories. Three grade cohorts of public school boys (n=1517 of the first, seventh, and tenth grades, initially) were followed over a period of 4 years, with an average age span of 7–16 years. Correspondence analyses suggested that adolescent boys with a tolerant attitude toward theft or violence were more deviant than those who had actual behavior of theft or violence. Stronger attitude effect on subsequent behavior, relative to behavior effect on subsequent attitudes, was found among boys aged 10–12 years. While mean scores of tolerant attitudes to serious theft and violence increased linearly with their behavior counterparts between 6 and 17 years of age, ages 11 and 14 were two turning points at which most delinquent attitudes and behaviors escalated at a higher speed. In general, delinquent attitudes and behaviors were related to each other in various patterns, and age was a defining factor that provided much of the explanation for the inconsistencies in research findings.     

西方两大法系行政法的差异及其成因与发展趋势

行政法观念最初是在西方文化背景下产生的 ,反映了西方社会发展的特点。由于行政法产生的历史与思想基础不同 ,西方国家行政法发展又分为以法德为代表的大陆法系与以英美为代表的英美法系行政法发展模式。两大法系各国行政法在发展过程中具有不同的历史背景 ,决定了他们在具体原则和内容上的差异 ,但其发展趋势又有共同性     

当代西方社会学理论的十大发展趋势

本文总结当代西方社会学理论的十大发展趋势:(1)经典依然处于核心地位;(2)宏观与微观的理论整合;(3)社会理论与历史的融合;(4)全球化成为重要理论议题;(5)社会理论中心的转移;(6)后现代思潮的冲击;(7)社会建构主义的勃兴;(8)女性主义的挑战;(9)社会理论的空间转向;(10)将身体带入社会学理论。文章的最后部分讨论了西方社会学理论发展脉络对于中国社会学的理论创新的意义。