Everyday terrorism: Campus sexual violence and the neoliberal university

This article investigates the ways sexual violence experienced on college campuses in the United States is situated within the neoliberal university. Feminist theories are utilized to explore the relationship between sexual violence and neoliberal ideologies. The authors evaluate how neoliberal tenets imbedded in higher education have contributed to, and exacerbated, an environment where sexual victimization is common. An institutional level of analysis is utilized to examine the neoliberal influence on campus sexual violence and investigate the utility of the term everyday terrorism. The authors also address “crimes of omission”, institutional betrayal, and the significance of institutional bravery/courage. The authors provide recommendations for future research in the areas of everyday terrorism and campus violence.     

Begabung oder harte Arbeit?

During the course of studies, certain situations cause uncertainties that can seriously trouble its success. Within the framework of Collegial Coaching, scholarship students of the Hans B?ckler Foundation who are confronted with similar circumstances work together, in order to develop opportunities for action and to strengthen their self-perception. Older and former scholarship holders are trained to become diversity-aware coaches and will then manage a coaching group.     

Rural Women and Decision Making: Women's Role in Resource Management During Rural Restructuring1

Abstract The intense, uneven, and often contradictory processes of agricultural restructuring impact upon the family farm in ways that are gendered. Those impacts may create, reproduce, or exacerbate contradictions within the farm family. We interviewed farm women about the decision making structure of families on Australian cereal properties and about land use and resource management strategies. Key informants working in government, agriculture, and management were asked about effects of restructuring on farm women and their role in resource management on the family farm. Different patterns were found: most decision making structures remain sex segregated, with women making more decisions about “inside” and men about “outside” resource management issues; shared decision responsibility was greater than expected. Farm women have views about farming, soil conservation, and the environment that have an influence on strategic planning in the sector whether they maintain their traditional family position or increase their agency and visibility.     

Facilitated Sex and the Concept of Sexual Need: disabled students and their personal assistants

This paper explores the complex issue of facilitated sex, an issue that has received very little attention by the disability movement. It draws on a small, qualitative study of a personal assistance scheme in a British University, and on interviews and correspondence with disabled students and personal assistants. The paper discusses the way in which disabled students define their sexuality as a 'need', but highlights how this view is not shared by those providing assistance. Personal assistants are more inclined to define sexuality as a sexual 'want' and to conflate physical impairment with either asexuality or a limited potential for sexual activity. The discussion concludes by suggesting that, whilst the issue of facilitated sex is morally complex, the sexual needs of disabled people are more likely to be met if the issues of sexuality and facilitated sex can be discussed and negotiated, in a frank and open manner.     

Estimators in capture–recapture studies with two sources

This paper investigates the applications of capture–recapture methods to human populations. Capture–recapture methods are commonly used in estimating the size of wildlife populations but can also be used in epidemiology and social sciences, for estimating prevalence of a particular disease or the size of the homeless population in a certain area. Here we focus on estimating the prevalence of infectious diseases. Several estimators of population size are considered: the Lincoln–Petersen estimator and its modified version, the Chapman estimator, Chao’s lower bound estimator, the Zelterman’s estimator, McKendrick’s moment estimator and the maximum likelihood estimator. In order to evaluate these estimators, they are applied to real, three-source, capture-recapture data. By conditioning on each of the sources of three source data, we have been able to compare the estimators with the true value that they are estimating. The Chapman and Chao estimators were compared in terms of their relative bias. A variance formula derived through conditioning is suggested for Chao’s estimator, and normal 95% confidence intervals are calculated for this and the Chapman estimator. We then compare the coverage of the respective confidence intervals. Furthermore, a simulation study is included to compare Chao’s and Chapman’s estimator. Results indicate that Chao’s estimator is less biased than Chapman’s estimator unless both sources are independent. Chao’s estimator has also the smaller mean squared error. Finally, the implications and limitations of the above methods are discussed, with suggestions for further development. We are grateful to the Medical Research Council for supporting this work.     

Downsizing and alcohol use: A cross-lagged longitudinal examination of the spillover hypothesis

An area of concern for investigators and practitioners is the possible linkage between stressful workplace events and alcohol use and abuse; however, work in this area, specifically testing a “spillover hypothesis,” offers inconclusive evidence of a relationship between many work-based stressors and alcohol use. Using a three-wave panel sample (N=455) from a large US industrial firm that has undergone numerous downsizing events in the last decade, four alternative causal hypotheses using fully cross-lagged three-wave mediational latent factor models were compared via structural equation modelling. Separate models were analysed for layoff experience and job security perceptions; a motivational factor, escape reasons for drinking, was included in each model. We found large autoregressive effects for problem alcohol use in the stability models. One reason for weak support for spillover models may be that problem alcohol use is more stable over time than previously theorized. All alternative causal models fit the data well; however, the only model comparisons showing significant improvement over the stability models were those including reverse paths. Reverse causal models should be explicitly considered when examining the link between alcohol problems and the workplace. We suggest that, for some workers, problematic alcohol use may be antecedent to, rather than a consequence of, stressful workplace experiences.     

The Batterer's View of the Self and Others in Domestic Violence

Researchers estimate that 3-4 million women are abused by intimate partners each year, and the United States Surgeon General reports physical abuse as the leading cause of injury to women in the U.S. Although numerous studies have examined survivors'perceptions of domestic violence, few have examined battery from the perpetrator's perspective. We use a symbolic interactionist perspective to examine in-depth interviews with thirty-three male batterers and a demographically matched comparison group of twenty-five nonviolent male subjects. Our findings indicate that batterers minimize others'negative views of themselves, and they dissociate themselves from their partners'physical and emotional injuries. The comparison subjects, on the other hand, consider others'negative views of themselves, and they describe a deeper understanding of their intimate others'problems. We argue that an understanding of the batterer's perception of himself and others in domestic violence will help counselors develop techniques to stop male violence against women.     

Family Structure History and Adolescent Romance

This study examined the association between family structure history and adolescent romance. Using a national sample drawn from Add Health (N= 13,570), family structure at Wave I was associated with the likelihood that adolescents were involved in a romantic relationship at Wave II and, among those in a relationship, the number of relationships they had since Wave I. Cumulative family instability and its timing were also associated with these outcomes and largely drove the family structure effects. Gender and age interactions suggest that experiences of family instability were more consequential to the romantic lives of boys and younger teens.     

Children's Voices: The Views of Vulnerable Children on Their Service Providers and the Relevance of Services They Receive

This paper describes and analyses the views of vulnerable childrenof eleven years and under on the relevance of services theyreceived. The two research questions posed were, first, whatare effective practices for engaging with vulnerable children;and, second, how can the voices of vulnerable children be usedto influence the development of policy? The first question wasaddressed through a systematic review of existing literatureon effective strategies for interviewing vulnerable childrenand revealed that few studies that focus on interviewing youngchildren are designed to address effectiveness. As yet, notall young children are asked for their views by those makingdecisions about their lives, though their involvement increaseswith age. The second question was addressed through focus groupsand interviews which revealed that children hold many validviews related to their roles and relationships with serviceproviders and decisions being made concerning their lives. Itwas concluded that whilst children’s lived experienceof services they receive could contribute to the creation ofmore democratic communities in which children and their familiesparticipate, it remains to be seen whether the new Green Paper,Every Child Matters (DfES, 2003), increases their sense of autonomyor merely extends the degree to which they are controlled.