Political trials and the social construction of deviance

In the 1960s and early 1970s deviance research, especially in the labeling perspective, was concerned with the question of how individuals or groups become defined as deviant. Since then, the political analysis of deviance has come to ask the more fundamental question of how deviance becomes constructed through political processes. A political trial is one particularly transparent situation in which narrower political processes for imputing deviance elicit more fundamental interpretations of political modes of deviance construction. In order to explore the workings of the deviance construction process, the present study examines the two defense strategies employed on behalf of the defendants in the trial of the Chicago 15, a group of thirteen men and two women who destroyed selective service files on the south side of Chicago in May, 1969. The first strategy is the previously studied “motivation defense,” wherein the moral righteousness of the defendants' purpose is pleaded as cause for their exculpation. The second is the unique “cultural insanity defense,” which asserts that the defendants were so profoundly deluded in their moral indictment of the government that the jury should return a verdict of culturally insane rather than criminally guilty. The first section of the paper summarizes the circumstances of the trial. The second and third sections analyze each of the two defense strategies, focusing on their legal and political logic and on the prosecution counter-strategies they engendered. The final section indicates a number of theoretical implications for the further development of the political model of political trials and of deviance construction in society at large.     

Treatment of violent offenders

In treatment of criminal offenders, especially those with a history of violence, it is essential that the clinician pay close attention to the criminal act itself. This area is often overlooked or avoided by practitioners who focus entirely on history, antecedents, current functioning, and problems of daily life. Important as these areas are, this paper suggests that a first step should be a detailed history of the criminal act, in a process requiring the client to walk the therapist through the crime. This procedure provides invaluable information both for assessing treatability and for evaluating change. The history and walk-through can be used as an adjunct to the therapist's primary clinical model, whatever it may be. Material presented is drawn from the author's experience at Atascadero State Hospital, California, the state's primary institution for sex offenders and the criminally insane.Originally prepared for presentation at the 10th Annual Scientific Conference of the Society for Clinical Social Work, Los Angeles, California, October 19–21, 1979.     

The Atascadero State Hospital experience. Engaging patients in violence prevention.

When it comes to caring for the forensic psychiatric inpatient, there is no "how to" book. In the forensic hospital environment, the commingling of severe and persistent mental illness with criminality poses vexing clinical challenges and complex moral dilemmas not faced in either general psychiatric or correctional environments. While providing evaluation and treatment in our maximum security forensic environment, we continually strive to create and maintain a therapeutic milieu as we fulfill our social mandate to protect the public from the dangerous "criminally insane." Few studies guide us. We do know that within the forensic population there is a spectrum of psychopathology to manage, some of which responds to traditional psychotherapeutic techniques and some of which does not. For example, patients with psychopathic traits may not respond well to traditional treatment methods (Rice, 1997). As forensic psychiatric staff, we sometimes feel as if we are making it up as we go, adapting and blending psychiatric theory with knowledge from penology and criminal justice science to provide a safe environment conducive to growth for patients, the majority of whom may be considered "violence-prone" persons (Toch, 1969). Change is a characteristic of public-sector settings (Smoyak, 1991). Forensic hospitals must continually strive to monitor, refine, and improve their organizational systems as they respond and adapt to constant change. Despite the inherent challenges posed when collaborating with forensic patients, the VAC has achieved some notable successes. Staff and patients have been encouraged to work together to create and maintain a milieu where violence is neither assumed nor condoned. An active collaboration and partnership with our forensic patients has been one component of the hospital's successful violence reduction program. We trust that ASH's successful effort to collaborate with patients on the issue of violence reduction may be of use to other forensic hospitals faced with similar challenges.     

Therapeutic management of preschool cases of alleged but unsubstantiated sexual abuse

Alleged sexual abuse among preschoolers is often difficult to substantiate, and is rarely criminally prosecuted. Yet very young children are vulnerable when abuse is suspected but cannot be proven. These cases call for a special form of structured therapeutic management that seeks to inhibit the possibility of abuse while buying time for these very young children so that potential later abuse can be reported more accurately.     

What Underlies the White American Public's Negative Attitudes Toward Japan's Domestic Market?

Many have contended that the white American public's negative attitudes toward Japan's domestic market are caused by one or more of three categories: economic, ethnic, and cultural elements. To date, no study has examined the connections between these categories. A questionnaire survey was used to collect responses from 296 white college students. A multiple regression analysis found that only economic elements were responsible for the negative attitudes toward Japan's domestic market. Neither cultural nor ethnic elements were found responsible. However, the economic elements accounted for about 10% of the variance in negative attitudes, leaving the vast majority of the variance unexplained. These findings suggest that elements responsible for the white American public's negative attitudes toward Japan's domestic market are not as simple as previously assumed.     

Stockholm syndrome and child sexual abuse

This article, based on an analysis of unstructured interviews, identifies that the emotional bond between survivors of child sexual abuse and the people who perpetrated the abuse against them is similar to that of the powerful bi-directional relationship central to Stockholm Syndrome as described by Graham (1994). Aspects of Stockholm Syndrome could be identified in the responses of adult survivors of child sexual abuse, which appeared to impact on their ability to criminally report offenders. An emotional bond, which has enabled the sexual abuse of children, has served to protect the offender long after the abuse has ceased. The implications of Stockholm Syndrome could offer valuable insights to those working in the field of child sexual abuse.     

The exclusion of theology from public policy: the case of euthanasia

It is commonly assumed that ethical decisions made on theological grounds belong in the private sphere, but theological arguments have a distinct place in the public's ethical conversation.     

美丽加工厂

当人们在杂志、报纸、电视以及T型台上看到模特们有时亲切、有时冷酷、有时热烈、有时奔放的动人画面时;当人们听说模特们在工作中穿尽了著名品牌和著名设计师的新款服饰时;当人们听说模特们每项工作可以得到几千、几万甚至几十万的收入时,他们无法想到模特风光背后付出的艰辛。时尚动人地展现在风光的舞台,汗水默默地流在艰辛的背后。本文带您走进一所模特学校,探寻美丽背后的故事。     

Trump,proto-presidency,and the rise of sane supremacy

This articles opines that America’s far-Left is sowing the seeds of ‘sane supremacy’: first, by unapologetically tarring President Trump as ‘insane’ for political purposes; and, second, legislating for psychiatry to colonize the White House so as to remove Trump on account of his suspected ‘insanity’. This article deploys an anti-sanist lens and uses the notion of ‘prototypicality’ to show how the regressive far-Left portrays Trump as not meeting the ‘normative’, ‘proto-presidential’ standard. Instead of depicting Trump as mentally unfit, we need to focus on his politics and their effects.     

The Polls--Trends: Preventing Terrorism After The 9/11 Attacks

This article reports the American public's assessment of theU.S. government's post-9/11 efforts to prevent further terroristattacks. It presents poll data from September 11, 2001 to December31, 2005 and addresses issues such as the degree of confidenceAmericans have in their government's ability to protect themfrom further terrorist strikes; the public's evaluation of theeffectiveness of actions at home and abroad as a means to preventterrorism; and the perception of Americans regarding PresidentBush's and his administration's performance in the area of homelandsecurity.     

Public Perception of "Who is a Volunteer": An Examination of the Net-Cost Approach from a Cross-Cultural Perspective

Our aim is to enhance the knowledge regarding how the public assess and rate volunteerism. We begin by first developing the model for understanding the potential use of the net-cost concept in eliciting the public's subjective perceptions on the extent to which certain activities are perceived as volunteerism. Four hypotheses relevant to the use of the net-cost concept are developed. We developed a questionnaire consisting of 50 case scenarios and applied it in Canada, India, Italy, Netherlands, and Georgia and Philadelphia in the United States, each with a sample of 450 adults or more. With one exception, our net-cost hypotheses are supported, suggesting that the public perception of volunteering is strongly linked with the costs and benefits that accrue to the individual from the volunteering activity, and that this result holds true across different cultures. Finally, we suggest directions for future research that can shed further light on the relationship between net cost and public good.     

Homosexual role separation: Implications for analyzing and modeling the spread of HIV

The analysis of the spread of HIV in homosexual populations must be based on knowledge of all factors which promote or inhibit transmission. Recently, data were reported from the Amsterdam cohort study that imply that sexual role separation and the changes therein should be taken into account in analyzing and modeling the spread of HIV. In this paper, a role separation mixing model is described and linked to data from the Amsterdam cohort. The model allows one to study the impact of homosexual role separation on the spread of HIV. The homosexual men are classified into four sexual subgroups based on the preference for: 1) no anal intercourse; 2) anal insertive only; 3) anal receptive only; 4) both insertive and receptive. The analysis accounts for variability and change in homosexual role behavior and loss to follow up. The results support the conjecture that there are large differences between the risks of receptive and insertive anal intercourse, with the latter carrying only minimal risk. The analysis indicates that the spread of HIV is mostly restricted to subgroup 4, the largest and sexually most active subgroup. In this subgroup, the estimated probability of HIV transmission from an infected insertive partner (in subgroup 2 or 4) to a receptive susceptible (in subgroup 4) is between 1 and 5 percent (assuming a closed cohort).     

Public's Responses to an oil spill accident: A test of the attribution theory and situational crisis communication theory

Situational communication crisis communication theory (SCCT) and Weiner's attribution theory are used in this research to explain the public's responses to a corporation that caused an oil spill accident. Consistent with SCCT, people made higher internal attributions and lower external attributions about the oil spill accident when low distinctiveness information was provided, compared to when high distinctiveness information or no information was provided. Higher internal attributions and lower external attributions, in turn, resulted in greater punitive opinions and punitive behavior.     

John Hinckley, Jr. and the Insanity Defense: The Public's Verdict

Public furor over the Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity verdictin the trial of John Hinckley, Jr. already has stimulated legalchanges in the insanity defense. This study documents more systematicallythe dimensions of negative public opinion concerning the Hinckleyverdict. A survey of Delaware residents shortly after the trial'sconclusion indicated that the verdict was perceived as unfair,Hinckley was viewed as not insane, the psychiatrists' testimonyat the trial was not trusted, and the vast majority thoughtthat the insanity defense was a loophole. However, survey respondentswere unable to define the legal test for insanity and thoughtHinckley would be confined only a short period of time, contraryto the estimates of experts. These findings, in conjunctionwith other research showing the public is not well informedabout the insanity defense, underscore the importance of examiningdeterminants of opinion about the insanity defense before additionalreform is undertaken.     

Television News, Real-World Cues, and Changes in the Public Agenda

This paper examines the interrelationships between real-worldcues, television news coverage, and public concern for the issuesof energy, inflation, and unemployment. On the basis of longitudinaldata, the authors show that media agenda setting is indeed unidirectional—televisionnews influences public concern and not vice versa. Lead storiesare significantly more powerful than ordinary stories in shapingthe public's agenda. Prevailing conditions and events affectpublic opinion both directly and indirectly, by determiningthe degree of news coverage accorded issues.     

Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and the 1998 House Elections

The outcome of the 1998 congressional elections was an exceptionto the rule that the president's party loses seats in midtermHouse elections. This article reviews and draws together theoreticallythe distinctive characteristics of the political context in1998 and assesses the effects of the public's evaluations ofBill Clinton (as president and as a person) and Speaker of theHouse Newt Gingrich. The findings suggest that voters' viewsof Bill Clinton as president exerted a sizable effect on theelections. A substantial influence of public opinion towardNewt Gingrich is also revealed. The estimated effects of voters'opinions of Bill Clinton as a person were much smaller. Twoestimates of the combined effects indicate that if public opiniontoward Clinton and Gingrich had been evenly balanced, the Democraticparty would have lost seats in the 1998 House elections as thepresident's party traditionally has. In addition to providinginsight into the 1998 elections, the findings answer broaderquestions about congressional elections. They also bear on importantquestions regarding the extent to which the determinants ofpolitical judgments are subject to influence ("priming") bythe political environment.     

A mixed membership model-based measure for subgroup integration in social networks

Social networks analysis often involves quantifying subgroup structure in which tie density is greater among nodes in the same subgroup than between subgroups. One such measure, subgroup insularity or segregation, is the extent that subgroups are separate from each other. We introduce a new measure, γ, which is a parameter from the mixed membership stochastic blockmodel (MMSBM; Airoldi et al., 2008), and differs from many existing measures in that γ does not depend on node membership. We compare this measure to several well-known measures and use simulation studies and real data analysis to provide insight into how this measure can be used in practice.     

LEARNING ABOUT GRIEF FROM NORMAL FAMILIES: SIDS,STILLBIRTH, AND MISCARRIAGE*

Family therapists can learn a great deal that would be of utility to them in their clinical work from normal families grieving over the death of an infant. When a baby dies, families begin a long and difficult journey, a search for security and meaning in a world that for them has gone insane. The researcher discusses 10 probing, extremely difficult questions family members commonly pose in the aftermath of an infant death and offers guidelines that could be helpful to family therapists hoping to be of service to families in the process of healing and growing through this tragedy.     

Anti-Alienism in New Zealand during the Great War: The von Zedlitz Affair, 1915

This article examines the role played by the New Zealand popular press in fostering anti-German sentiment during the Great War. In particular, it focuses on the case of George von Zedlitz, a Wellington academic, who for 12 months after the war's declaration, evaded government legislation intended to dismiss all enemy aliens from their posts, and intern those regarded as a danger to home security. Weekly journals led the campaign against the professor and fed the public's growing interest in the case. The affair sparked considerable public and private debate to the extent that by August 1915 the New Zealand Government was pressured into introducing the Alien Enemy Teachers' Act, which led to von Zedlitz being dismissed from his position.