Dutch Women are Liberated, Migrant Women are a Problem: The Evolution of Policy Frames on Gender and Migration in the Netherlands, 1995–2005

Over the past decade, there has been a major shift in Dutch gender equality policy to an almost exclusive focus on migrant women. Simultaneously, the focus of ‘minority policies’ has shifted more and more towards gender relations. The appearance of migrant women at the top of the political agenda is remarkable. In this article we examine how this construction of migrant women as a political problem has come about, and consider its implications. As we argue, the dominant policy frames of emancipation and individual responsibility are reinforcing a dichotomy between the autochthonous ‘us’ and the allochthonous ‘them’. As the problem is increasingly defined as a cultural one, it is implicitly stated that there is no problem with the dominant culture and society. Barriers for participation are exclusively located in the migrant (Muslim) culture. In this view, Muslim migrants should first change their culture before they can fully integrate in Dutch society.     

方言距离与城市流动人口犯罪的同群效应——基于广州、深圳、东莞三市的实证分析

在快速城市化过程中,由人口流动带来的区域文化碰撞在推动经济增长的同时,也深刻影响着社会融合。基于中国裁判文书网、《汉语方言大词典》、2017年全国流动人口动态监测调查的数据,本文以广州、深圳、东莞三大人口超千万的人口净流入城市为例进行实证分析,以方言距离为文化差异的代理变量,研究其如何影响城市流动人口的同乡团伙犯罪行为。研究表明,方言距离与流动人口同乡团伙犯罪显著正相关,同群效应是文化差异增加流动人口同乡团伙犯罪率的主要途径之一。本文从方言距离视角解读城市化过程中文化隔阂对城市社会和谐稳定的影响,丰富了文化影响移民犯罪及治理的理论探索,对推进以人为本的新型城镇化具有一定借鉴意义。     

Isolation and Insecurity: Resettlement Issues Among Muslim Refugee Women in Perth,Western Australia

Refugee Muslim women face a number of formidable obstacles in the resettlement process within Australia. As Muslims, they are a religious minority that has come under considerable racial attack in recent years in the wake of international terrorism. As refugees, they are struggling to put past traumas behind them and find ‘security’ in a strange land with different customs. As women, they are trying to find a voice for themselves amidst ethnic traditions that limit their range of expression and an Australian society that aspires to, but has not yet achieved, equality for women. Our qualitative study, upon which this paper is based, explored resettlement issues of Muslim refugee women during their first five years of arrival in Perth, Australia. It is based on focus groups and semi‐structured interviews with 80 Muslim refugee women: 35 Iraqi, 34 Sudanese and 11 Afghan. Our study re‐affirms that well‐documented issues of resettlement continue to be poor English language competency, securing employment and accommodation and gender‐specific problems. In addition, however, our study highlights a new and emerging issue, which is that of personal, psychological and cultural insecurity, heightened by the current political climate and exacerbated by their religious background. This leads to problematic ‘intersections’ with an Australian society that is far more complex and more difficult to cope with than is portrayed in popular discourse and political rhetoric of the easy‐going ‘lucky country’.     

法文化视域下“婚内强奸”行为的罪与罚

我国的刑法理论和司法实践对"婚内强奸"行为持一定程度的默许态度,文章探究这一现象背后蕴藏的法文化肇因,评析婚内强奸行为反对论者的观点,鉴于我国该制度法文化肇因,认为我国刑事立法应该将婚内强奸行为应列为亲告罪并按强奸罪定罪量刑。     

News media and the Muslim identity after the Christchurch mosque massacres

ABSTRACT

This article discusses news about Muslims via one researcher’s social media news feeds after the Christchurch tragedy. Using intercultural and Islamic communication theories, the contents of several news stories are analysed for their contribution to the Muslim person’s identity. Findings reveal four main categories: Muslim women and hijab; religion and terrorism; media, government, democracy and the politics of oppression; and representation of the Muslim voice. Substantial news content also depicts peace, love and forgiveness in its presentation of the human angle in New Zealand media. There is a significant shift from the negative othering rhetoric of international media to an inclusive national approach in the tone of the New Zealand press. However, Muslim narratives reveal that structural discrimination and systemic oppression do exist and pose safety and identity challenges. While news continues to divide and unite people depending on the press agenda, their depictions of Islam and Muslims have potentially major influences and serious consequences on the Muslim person’s identity within the local and global Muslim communities.     

Situational Crime Prevention and its Discontents: Rational Choice Theory versus the 'Culture of Now'

The rational choice theory of crime and its cognate field of study, situational crime prevention, have exerted a considerable influence in criminal justice policy and criminology. This article argues that, while undeniably useful as a means of reducing property or acquisitive crime, rational choice‐inspired situational crime prevention initiatives are limited when it comes to offering protection against a growing number of so‐called ‘expressive crimes’. Developing this critique, the article will criticize the sociologically hollow narrative associated with rational choice theories of crime by drawing on recent research in social theory and consumer studies. It argues that the growing tendency among many young individuals to engage in certain forms of criminal decision‐making ‘strategies’ may simply be the by‐product of a series of subjectivities and emotions that reflect the material values and cultural logic associated with late modern consumerism.     

The Myth of the ‘Chivalry Factor’ in Female Crime

In the area of crime and detection, women have been said to profit from their ‘femaleness’ by way of the ‘chivalry factor’, operating to render authorities reluctant to arrest, prosecute and convict women, despite their guilt Such a theory appeals to traditional attitudes toward women. A systematic study of dispositions of male and female offenders supports the view that women may not so easily be said to escape the criminal process. ‘Evidence’ that women are treated more leniently than men is often based in anecdote. For some offences women are in fact more likely to be punished. Because women are expected to be ‘pure’, the female offender conflicts not only with the law but with social and cultural views of womanhood. Thus she may be more harshly treated than her male counterpart.     

Australian Muslim Responses to the Discourse on Terrorism in the Australian Popular Media

The media is often referred to as a social institution in that it is a major element of contemporary Western society. Through the media, social processes create narratives or stories within interpretative frameworks that are embedded in the cultural and political assumptions of the wider society. Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in September 2001, the media has played a crucial role in the developing discourse on contemporary terrorism. In the Australian context, this discourse has emerged as one which implicates Australian Muslims, constructing them as a homogenous monolith with an underlying implication that Islam, and by association Australian Muslims, is secular resistant and at odds with the values of the liberal democratic state. Several textual analyses attest to the bias against Muslims in the popular Australian media discourse. However, there have been no studies into how Australian Muslims are interpreting and responding to this discourse. Based on research into the attitudes and perceptions of the media among Australian Muslims, this paper argues that the interpretation of the media discourse as defiantly anti‐Muslim and the perception of the media as a powerful purveyor of public opinion has impacted on the construction of Australian Muslim identity. In responding to this discourse, Australian Muslims are creating new narratives of belonging which either reinforce or reject the underlying messages that situate them outside mainstream Australia.     

IDENTIFICATIONS: BETWEEN NATIONALISTIC ‘CELLS’ AND AN AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM UMMAH

This paper explores the dynamics which have characterised the Australian Muslim (a term which is examined more critically throughout this paper) struggle for identity and self-identification from the late nineteenth century to the present. It will consider the two primary mechanisms through which this struggle has been articulated. The first of these relates to the ways in which many Australian Muslims have used the nationalist, linguistic and cultural affiliations, which played a critical role in their process of migration and settlement, as a way of forging personal and communal ‘cells’ of identification. The second explores the attempts made by Australian Muslims to draw this body of cells into a coherent whole structured around a religious framework, to create the ideal to which all Muslims aspire – a unified Muslim community or ummah. One of the critical questions which the various discourses relating to Australian Muslim identity and culture raise, and which will be considered in this paper, is: on what levels does this struggle for identification operate, and to what extent has it been successful in reconciling a sense of an Australian Muslim past with the present and future?     

The cultural wantons of the new millennium

In Culture and Agency (1988/1996, CUP), I made the distinction between the ‘Cultural System’ (C.S.), that is all items logged into the universal cultural archive, and ‘Socio-Cultural’ (S-C) interaction, namely how we persuade others to accept our views. The two are distinct; but any adequate explanation in social science involving ‘culture’ must respect this distinction and needs must come in a SAC, namely always entailing ‘Structure’, ‘Agency’ and ‘Culture’. Although not accepting that culture (C.S) was or is ever fully coherent or shared by definition, I charter a precipitous decline in its free accessibility as part of the Commons everywhere, but most markedly when and where morphogenesis predominates today – adding new variety to the (C.S.) and fostering divergent (S-C) aims. Together, their ideational opportunism greatly augments Fake News as opponents lock in conflict, particularly when social integration is already low. Such Fake News is especially harmful to personal and collective Reflexivity and the ‘data smog’ of social media induces a ‘presentism’ that generates cultural wantons (Harry Frankfurt's term) amongst both those lying and in receipt of their lies.     

‘As a slave woman and as a mother’: women and the abolition of slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro*

Abstract

This article explores how enslaved and freedwomen in Rio de Janeiro and Havana, the capital cities of the Americas' last two slaveholding territories, played a crucial and specific part in helping speed and shape the gradual emancipation processes that unfolded simultaneously in each context during the 1870s and 1880s. In each city, women were at the front line of legal battles for freedom waged by the enslaved and their freed relatives. The article suggests several reasons why. First, in both Brazil and Cuba, the abolition process was shaped by ‘free womb’ laws which, along with other subsequent legislation, created specific new opportunities for women to make legal claims on the basis of motherhood. Second, such petitions chimed not only with official legal stipulations but also with broader Atlantic anti-slavery rhetoric that sought emotive responses to the plight of slaves and appealed particularly to specific notions about maternal love. Third, these (ex-)enslaved women's struggles were shaped by their own understandings of the significances of freedom and of motherhood, and by their daily lives in these two Atlantic port cities, where women had long been a significant presence in each city's population and economic and cultural life. Looking beyond their ‘individual’ claims for freedom reveals how such claims emerged from a collective context of proximity, cohabitation and exchange of information and help. Despite the major differences between the broader economic and political trajectories of each country and city, it is the similarities between women's actions and contributions to the emancipation process that are particularly striking.     

Do Lawyers Make a Difference?

While legal representation might be expected to make a difference to the outcome of criminal proceedings, much of the relevant evidence is either inconclusive or contrary to expectations. ‘This paper examines the relationship between legal representation and outcome in six Melbourne magistrates’ courts, arguing that, even after controlling for legally relevant variables, representation is strongly related to concessionary withdrawals, plea, verdict, and verdict in contested cases. Representation is also related to whether defendants receive adjournments, but is not related to imprisonment nor to fine or length of licence disqualification periods. Reasons for this pattern of relationships are discussed as are their implications.     

《穆斯林的葬礼》：回族心灵史与中国形象

《穆斯林的葬礼》展现了回族在伊斯兰文化、华夏文化和西方文化碰撞与融合过程中民族文化人格的演变。以梁亦清为代表的穆斯林传统文化人格,梁君璧、韩子奇为代表的文化混血人格,梁冰玉、韩新月为代表的现代文化人格等三种不同文化人格共同展现了回族的心灵史。《穆斯林的葬礼》以书写民族心灵史的方式构建了中国形象,展现了一个古老民族行走在从传统文明向现代文明转变道路上的艰辛及民族精神,是一部致力于挖掘回族文化心理的史诗性著作,为我们思考民族性与世界性的关系提供了新的角度。     

Family relations, adjustment and well-being in a longitudinal study of children in care

The article reports on a longitudinal study of children placed in a children's home during the first two years of the 1980s. The 26 children placed when younger than 4 years of age and staying more than 4 weeks were followed up 3 and 9 months after leaving the children's home and 5, 10, 15 and 20 years later. The children's family relations, including early attachments and later parental relationships and the perception of who is their family, have been one of the predominant themes in the recurrent studies. None of them had lived with both parents after leaving the children's home and 20 of them had been in foster care for periods or permanently. At the time of the last study the children were young adults, aged 20–25. They are categorized in three rather distinct categories, one for those with a ‘good’ and one for those with a ‘moderate’ social adjustment and well‐being and one for those with a ‘bad’ social adjustment and well‐being insofar as involvement with drugs, criminal behaviour and legal sanctions are concerned. Their contacts and relationships with birth parents and foster parents and the perception of who is their family are analysed by use of attachment theory and developmental psychopathology.     

Drink-Drivers and the Judicial Process: An Analysis that Relates to The Defendant's Perspective

By making ‘meaning’ the focus of study this paper offers a novel way of understanding the legal prosecution of drink-drivers: the analysis relates to the defendant's perspective. Data were derived from observations of hearings in a lower criminal court in Western Australia, and interviews with 66 individuals who appeared on drink-driving charges. The findings emphasise the significance for the accused driver of the pre-court procedures. It is demonstrated that whilst most drink-driver defendants plead guilty because they accept their guilt, their decision on the plea is constrained by their desire to minimize the various costs associated with judicial procedure. The question of whether or not the present system of processing drink-drivers protects the interests of the accused merits further investigation.     

Conspiracy to corrupt public morals and the ‘unlawful’ status of homosexuality in Britain after 1967

The common law offence of conspiracy to corrupt public morals has a long though controversial history in English law. It was a charge mainly employed against obscenity, procuring prostitution, keeping a disorderly house, public indecency and public mischief. These could be interpreted by the courts as facets of a single offence known as conspiracy to corrupt public morals. The charge was used intermittently in the twentieth century, mainly against the arrangement of prostitution and ‘disorderly houses’ used by homosexual men. It was applied again in 1960 in the Ladies Directory case and was subsequently used against gay men who advertised for friends and partners in the underground magazine International Times (IT). The prosecution of IT was based on the legal principle that certain forms of ‘outrageously immoral’ conduct were in themselves corrupting of public morals, whether such conduct was legal or not. This principle placed male homosexuality in the legal category of ‘unlawful’ or ‘wrongful’ acts. In that sense, even after the decriminalization of homosexuality between men in 1967, it still had an uncertain legal status. Conspiracy to corrupt public morals cast a shadow over early attempts to create a gay civil society that was partly based on magazines and personal advertising. For conservative critics of the 1967 Act, conspiracy charges had the useful effect of curtailing public expressions of homosexuality.     

Weighing it up: family maintenance discourses in NGO child protection decision‐making in Aotearoa/New Zealand

Examining the concepts underpinning the reasoning processes of social worker's decision‐making provides important insights into how social work practice is undertaken. This paper examines one of the major discourses used by social workers in decision reasoning in a non‐governmental organization child protection context in Aotearoa/New Zealand: family maintenance. This study found that family maintenance as a concept was strongly privileged by social workers. This resulted in attempts to preserve families and created a hierarchy of preferred decision outcomes. A preference for family maintenance was supported by legal, moral, psychological and Māori cultural concepts. This pattern of constructs underpinned the ‘weighing up of harms’ when considering removal, and generally reflected a child welfare orientation. In addition to this, it was found that ‘family’ was broadly defined, and could include people who had a relationship with the children, or Māori definitions of extended family, in addition to legal ones.     

"慎刑"与"宽严相济"——以中国传统法为视角的考察

"慎刑"是中国传统法具有和谐价值的重要组成部分,能达到缓和阶级矛盾,维持政权稳定的作用。"宽严相济"是当前我国具有社会主义法制特色的刑事政策,对于化解社会矛盾、最大限度地减少不和谐因素,维护和谐稳定的社会秩序等方面有重要作用。"宽严相济"与"慎刑"存在历史的相通性,宽严相济的传统文化基础是"以人为本"和"德法兼济",而传统社会实现社会稳定、长治久安的法律手段即是"慎刑"。"慎刑"在立法层面上体现为"刑罚世轻世重",在司法层面上体现为程序上的严谨及人伦观照。"慎刑"促进了中国古代社会的稳定及政权的长治久安,对当前"宽严相济"刑事政策的立法及司法实践也具有借鉴意义。     

Distinctive alcohol cultural practices amongst Niuean men living in Auckland,New Zealand

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe some of the distinctive cultural practices evident in Niuean men's drinking behaviours. The paper is also intended to illustrate that alcohol is an integral aspect of the Niuean culture and part of the system of cultural exchange. Alcohol has become an integral component of Niuean cultural rituals to the extent that celebrations and festivals are thought to be incomplete if alcohol is not present. Alcohol is used as a tool for expressing cultural values such as fakaalofa (gifting), generosity, respect, status and host obligations. Finally, alcohol is used as a symbol of ‘being Niuean’ and being a ‘real’ Niuean man. This paper will describe how practices specific to Niuean men such as drinking the ‘Niuean way’ and kalaga are symbols that help to reinforce men's cultural identity, enhancing their feeling of communal identity. It is important to emphasize that it is difficult to divorce the ‘cultural’ components of Niuean men's drinking styles from their drinking and behaviour more generally. Culture shapes people's values and behaviours. Although this paper points to some of the specific and distinctively ‘cultural’ aspects of Niuean drinking, we must recognize that all of the participants’ drinking behaviours and attitudes are likely to have been shaped by their cultural and social context. Furthermore, this paper provides only a brief snapshot of how culture and alcohol are intertwined for Niuean men. Educational programmes and host responsibility guidelines need to be culturally appropriate to suit the needs of the Niuean community. Further work is needed to elucidate this complex topic.     

Who owns the trauma? A Kleinian perspective on the dialogue between child protection social workers and the media

The present paper makes use of the developmental model of movement between mental positions that was formulated by psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, aimed at understanding the dialogue that takes place between the media and social workers in the field of child welfare, centring around incidents of murder within the family. The basic concept in the paper is that when working with children who are victims of abuse and with their parents, and when reporting on them as well, the feeling of personal control is severely undermined, being associated with the loss of the hallowed social value known as ‘unconditional love of a parent for his child’. The paper illustrates these theoretical ideas by describing two cases that took place in Israel and recommendations are made regarding ways of promoting the dialogue between the professions.