Myths and misconceptions surrounding sexual violence are thought to be implicated in the prevalence of rape and in the lack of justice for women who have been subjected to rape. Rape Myths comprehensively examines the theoretical background, prevalence, assessment, and functions of these beliefs. Outlining the meaning and feminist foundations of rape myths, this book also considers their conceptualisation as the measurable construct of Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA). Drawing on the authors' research, the book details the prevalence of RMA among different public and professional groups, as well as the societal consequences of these pervasive beliefs, particularly in terms of treatment within the criminal justice system. RMA is considered in the crucial context of its scaffolding within wider sexism in society and its perpetuation in the media. Looking ahead, Persson and Dhingra question how well rape myth prevention works. Can society reduce the prevalence of these beliefs? If so, how? Including a detailed overview of the psychometric properties of tools used to measure RMA, and a methodological manual for designing and executing research in this area, Rape Myths is a practical guide for those seeking to research rape myths and other attributions in rape cases.

The United States has uncritically exported its law and policy on gender violence without regard to effectiveness or cultural context, and without asking what we might learn from efforts to combat gender violence in the rest of the world. This book asks that question. Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence: Lessons From Efforts Worldwide documents the global scope of gender violence, from countries where the legal response is just emerging to countries with longstanding law and policy regimes. Informed by international human rights law, Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence examines policy successes and failures and grassroots efforts to elicit a robust and proactive response from China to Chile. From the work of local activists to stem the tide of sexual and intimate partner violence after the Haitian earthquake of 2005, to the efforts to eradicate dowry-related violence in India, to the public education campaigns to prevent domestic violence in Scotland, Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence offers a comprehensive vision of efforts around the world to eradicate gender based violence. Featuring the work of leading gender violence academics and activists around the world, Comparative Perspectives on Gender Violence provides a new lens through which to consider U.S. efforts to address gender violence.

This wide-ranging resource uses evidence-based documentation to examine claims and beliefs-and provide the facts-about sexual assault and harassment and other forms of sexual violence in the United States. Each title in the Contemporary Debates series examines the veracity of controversial claims or beliefs surrounding a major political/cultural issue in the United States. They do so to give readers a clear and unbiased understanding of current issues by informing them about falsehoods, half-truths, and misconceptions-and confirming the factual validity of other assertions-that have gained traction in America's political and cultural discourse. Ultimately, this series has been crafted to give readers the tools for a fuller understanding of issues, events, policies, and laws that occupy center stage in American life and politics. This volume in the series addresses the issue of sexual violence in the U.S. It includes chapters devoted to quantifying the extent of the problems of sexual assault and harassment; demographic groups most likely to experience sexual violence; physical, emotional, and societal impacts of sexual assault; how investigations of sex-related charges are conducted; laws and policies pertaining to both victims and offenders; and sexual violence prevention and response services outside of the criminal justice system. Features an easy-to-navigate question-and-answer format Uses quantifiable data from respected sources as the foundation for examining every issue Provides readers with leads to conduct further research in extensive Further Reading sections for each entry Examines claims and positions held by individuals and groups of all political backgrounds and ideologies

This thoroughly revised second edition is an examination of domestic violence from social, legal, and historical perspectives. Domestic Violence: A Reference Handbook provides straightforward and objective coverage that considers all aspects of the issue through a careful combination of facts, statistics, case studies, and victims' stories. This volume in ABC-CLIO's Contemporary World Issues series examines the causes and historical roots of domestic violence, providing the facts and analyses to foster a better understanding. The work analyzes the complex dynamics of domestic violence from three perspectives-legal, social, and psychological. This reference is an important source of information for those touched by domestic violence and for those seeking to understand it. A chronology that stretches from 753 BCE, when Romulus, the founder of Rome, formalized the first "law of marriage" to January 2006, when President George W. Bush signed the third reauthorization of the 1994 Violence against Women Act Illustrations include the power and control wheel (a model in the form of a wheel that explains the dynamics of domestic violence), the ecological theory of battering, and the characteristics of the victim as illustrated by the World Health Organization

A compelling investigation of the Jewish communitys reaction or nonreaction to domestic violence. In a congregation of devoted worshippers gathered for Shabbat services at the local synagogue, it may be difficult to accept how many wives go home with their husbands to ongoing physical and emotional abuse. In Sins of Omission, author Carol Goodman Kaufman offers a compelling investigation of the Jewish communitys reaction or nonreaction to domestic violence. Concerned with the sins of the community more than the sins of the abuser, Goodman Kaufman finds that the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis and community leaders are not doing enough and are not informed enough to help the abused women in their congregations get the support, protection, and guidance they need. Through her many insightful interviews with survivors of abuse, rabbis, and lay community leaders, the author takes a hard look at the Jewish community, its rules, regulations, and followers, and discovers the ways in which it helps and hinders victims of abuse.

In recent years, the United States has seen a vast increase in bloodshed stemming from violence within the education system. Understanding the underlying factors behind these atrocities may be the first step in preventing more brutality in the future. The Handbook of Research on School Violence in American K-12 Education provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of the phenomena of school violence through the lens of social science and humanities perspectives. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as preventative measures, cyberbullying, minority issues, risk factors, and dealing with the traumatic aftermath of such events, this book is ideally designed for researchers, students, psychologists, sociologists, teachers, law enforcement, school counselors, policymakers, and administrators seeking current research on the interconnectedness between families, schools, bullying, and subsequent violence.

The objective of this book is to quantify the social costs of gun violence in order to help policy makers determine how many and which violence programmes to support. Drawing upon the most detailed and extensive economic study of the cost of gun violence, Cook and Ludwig provide detailed information about how the burden of gun violence is distributed in the US. Drawing upon this data, the book draws out the important implications for public policy. The burden of gun violence in America is valued at about $100 billion annually, and this heavy cost is distributed much more evenly over the population than the victimization statistics would suggest. Cook and Ludwig's examination of these costs lead them to propose a multifaceted policy agenda that includes both law enforcement and gun control measures.

In the years after the First World War both Ulster and Upper Silesia saw violent conflicts over self-determination. The violence in Upper Silesia was more intense both in the numbers killed and in the forms it took. Acts of violation such as rape or mutilation were noticeably more common in Upper Silesia than in Ulster.
Examining the nature of communal boundaries, Timothy Wilson explains the profound contrasts in these experiences of plebeian violence. In Ulster the rival communities were divided by religion, but shared a common language. In Upper Silesia, the rival sides were united in religion-92 per cent of the local population being Catholic-but ostensibly divided on linguistic grounds between German and Polish speakers. In practice, language in Upper Silesia proved a far more porous boundary than did religion in Ulster. Language could not always be taken as a straightforward indication of national loyalties.
At a local level, boundaries mattered because without them there could not be any sense of security. In Ulster, where communal identities were already clearly staked out, militants tended to concentrate on the limited task of boundary maintenance. In Upper Silesia, where national identities were so unclear, they focused upon boundary creation. This was a task that required more "transgressive" violence. Hence atrocity was more widely practised in Upper Silesia because it could, and did, act as a polarizing force.

Because women are more likely to seek professional help, and because they are more likely to be the victims of abuse by people in positions of power, women who do seek professional assistance may end up being victims of sexual exploitation by the very people from whom they seek help. Unlike other problems which primarily affect women, such as rape and domestic violence, this issue has received little public attention and has had little success in building a social movement to combat it. Bohmer analyzes the social construction of this unique problem and the response it has received from individuals, groups, and various institutions, such as the law and the regulatory process. Bohmer explains why this problem has a different history from other problems facing primarily women, and why it has not had much success in stirring social movement for addressing the problem.

Using other issues of feminist concern, Bohmer connects the problem of professional sexual exploitation to issues of gender and power and shows the ways in which women seeking help are punished for doing so. In addition, the available self-help groups and organizations are examined in light of their benefits and relative lack of success in combating the problem. The legal and regulatory systems in place are also discussed in terms of the ways in which society responds to new social problems as they receive public attention.

This timely anthology brings into sharp relief the extent of violence against women. Its range is global and far reaching in terms of the number of victims. There are deeply entrenched values that need to be rooted out and laid bare. This text offers a philosophical analysis of the problem, with important insights from the various contributors. Topics range from sexual assault to media violence, prostitution and pornography, domestic violence, and sexual harassment. Each of the four parts include essays which tackle these issues and provide us with tools for bringing about change. The philosophical approaches to the topic give readers insight into the harms of interpersonal violence and its impact on the lives of its victims. Analyzing Violence Against Women calls us to examine public policies and work for systemic change. In the process, we are reminded that the concerns of the discipline of Philosophy encompasses issues with a wider scope. Students will especially benefit from seeing how the various authors grapple with this pressing issue and clarify why we need to bring about change.

The Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative (GCSWI), which is spearheaded by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), represents a major endeavor for the entire field of social work. GCSWI calls for bold innovation and collective action powered by proven and evolving scientific interventions to address critical social issues facing society. The purpose of GCSWI was modeled after the National Academy of Engineering, which aimed to identify some of the most persistent engineering problems of the day and then put the attentions, energies, and funding of the entire field to work on them for a decade. The GCSWI does the same for social issues, tackling problems such as homelessness, social isolation, mass incarceration, family violence, and economic inequality. Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society is an edited book that will present the foundations of the GCSWI, laying out the start of the initiative and providing summaries of each of the twelve challenges. The 12 main chapters that form the core of the book, one on each of the dozen Grand Challenges, are written by the primary research teams who are driving each GC project.

This volume presents an innovative new analytical framework for understanding the dynamics of violent conflict and its impact on people and communities living in contexts of violence. Bringing together the findings of MICROCON, an influential five year research programme funded by the European Commission, this book provides readers with the most current and comprehensive evidence available on violent conflict from a micro-level perspective. MICROCON was the largest programme on conflict analysis in Europe from 2007-2011, and its policy outreach has helped to influence EU development policy, and supported policy capacity in many conflict-affected countries. Whilst traditional studies into conflict have been through an international /regional lens with the state as the primary unit of analysis, the micro-level perspective offered by this volume places the individuals, households, groups and communities affected by conflict at the centre of analysis. Studying how people behave in groups and communities; and how they interact with the formal and informal institutions that manage local tensions, is crucial to understanding the conflict cycle. These micro-foundations therefore provide a more in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of violent conflict. By challenging the ways we think about conflict, this book bridges the gap in evidence, allowing for more specific and accurate policy interventions for conflict resolution and development processes to help reduce poverty in the lives of those affected by conflict. This volume is divided into four parts. Part I introduces the conceptual framework of MICROCON. Part II focuses on individual and group motivations in conflict processes. Part III highlights the micro-level consequences of violent conflict. The final section of this volume focuses on policy implications and future research agenda.

Interest in recent years in reconciliation and conflict transformation has witnessed a great deal of attention to building a future through forgiveness and preventative measures in order to impede egregious wrongdoing. This effort for a reconciled future is absent reflection on the nature of cruelty. Cruelty has always been apparent in massive acts of wrongdoing and yet is repeatedly concealed in our assessment of the acts themselves. This book is a theologically honest and deep-structure exploration of cruelty in its personal, communal and institutional encounters in human life. Drawing on Nietzsche's challenge of cruelty to the western tradition, the work offers a comprehensive study of how cruelty undermines care, trust, respect and justice - all those elements of human reciprocity that mark our lives as interdependent beings. The work concludes with a tightly written Epilogue on interpreting the theological meaning and accessibility of reconciliation today.

This comprehensive book is a critical introduction to the theoretical and practical issues involved in working with children and families. It sheds light on different perspectives, forms of practice, and dimensions of policy, with a focus on the practical issues of concern to professionals working with children in a range of settings.

Countries recovering from conflicts face economic and institutional devastation - of vital infrastructure such as schools, factories, communication networks, roads, railways, and water systems, as well as diminished human resources, a very weak legal structure and governmental institutions. In this context, policymakers are faced with the task of creating an integrated and comprehensive approach to post-conflict reconstruction with a view to sustainable economic development, political stability and peace consolidation. This volume critically examines the various approaches to encouraging and regulating foreign investment in post-conflict countries. From the perspectives of both the foreign investor and the host country, it suggests how policymakers in post-conflict countries can design a foreign investment strategy that brings real and meaningful economic development as part of the wider peace-building process. FDI in post-conflict countries is discussed from different methodological perspectives, including comparative law and comparative politics, based on case studies of Afghanistan, Rwanda, DRC, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Colombia, Angola and Mozambique. _______________________________ *Virtus C. Igbokwe was an in-house counsel at Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, Port Harcourt in the early 90s. He obtained his LL.B from the University of Benin, Nigeria; LL.M from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and a PhD in foreign investment arbitration from Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, Toronto, Canada. His research and writing interests are foreign investment arbitration, alternative dispute resolution and international business transactions. He is widely published in these areas. He is a member of Nigeria and Ontario Bars. *Nicholas Turner is Academic Programme Associate in the United Nations University's Institute for Sustainability and Peace in Tokyo. He holds an MA in international relations from the University of Kent in the UK, and previously worked for local government and charities there, as well as for Qinetiq Ltd on a Defence Training Review for the UK Armed Forces. He lectures at Aoyama Gakuin University and Hosei University in Tokyo, Japan. His research interests lie in human rights and ethics, focusing on just war theory, the responsibility to protect, and non-state actors in military conflict - including private military companies. His publications include World Religions and Norms of War (co-edited with Gregory M. Reichberg and Vesselin Popovski, United Nations University Press, 2009). *Obijiofor Aginam is Academic Programme Officer and Director of Studies in the United Nations University's Institute for Sustainability and Peace in Tokyo. Before joining the United Nations, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Law at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. In 1999-2001, he was Global Health Leadership Fellow and Legal Officer at the World Health Organization headquarters, Geneva. Dr. Aginam has held numerous research fellowships including the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) of New York Fellow on Global Security and Cooperation, and Fellow of the 21st Century Trust, U.K. He has been a visiting professor at universities in Costa Rica, Italy, South Africa, and Nigeria, and a recipient of the competitive research grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada. He holds law degrees from Nigeria, Master of Laws from Queen's University at Kingston, Canada, and a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He is the author of numerous academic publications including Global Health Governance: International Law and Public Health in a Divided World (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005).

This volume, an updated collection of essays presented by leading scholars at a Hofstra University conference on group defamation, provides a cross-disciplinary examination of hate speech. Beginning with the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in R.A.V. v. St. Paul, the volume analyzes the problem from historical, anthropological, comparative-legal, and American constitutional law perspectives. Among the topics examined are the role of hate speech in the persecutions of Jews and Asians during World War II, in the subordination of Blacks, Native Americans, and women, and the pros and cons of the legal controls on hate speech adopted in such countries as Australia, Canada, and Israel. The section on American constitutional law features several proposed statutes outlawing hate speech, along with model court opinions supporting and attacking their constitutionality. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and students in the areas of intergroup relations and constitutional law as well as policy makers.