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"How persistent are cultural traits? This paper uses data on anti-Semitism in Germany and finds continuity at the local level over more than half a millennium. When the Black Death hit Europe in 1348-50, killing between one third and one half of the population, its cause was unknown. Many contemporaries blamed the Jews. Cities all over Germany witnessed mass killings of their Jewish population. At the same time, numerous Jewish communities were spared. We use plague pogroms as an indicator for medieval anti-Semitism. Pogroms during the Black Death are a strong and robust predictor of violence against Jews in the 1920s, and of votes for the Nazi Party. In addition, cities that saw medieval anti-Semitic violence also had higher deportation rates for Jews after 1933, were more likely to see synagogues damaged or destroyed in the 'Night of Broken Glass' in 1938, and their inhabitants wrote more anti-Jewish letters to the editor of the Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site

Social media platforms allow individuals without great technical knowledge or financial capital to spread violent content and radical messages among a large audience, bypassing traditional media. As violence and radical actions cause significant economic damage and undermine democratic institutions, security agencies have responded by using the same platforms to target at-risk individuals with their prevention programs. The literature has shown that such online programs can be effective in reducing victimization and perpetration rates. However, despite the large number of programs implemented, there is a significant lack of rigorous impact evaluations. This thesis contributes to the literature by developing a conceptual framework for evaluating the impact and economic efficiency of online programs for crime prevention in general. Furthermore, it contributes by evaluating the impact of two online programs in the areas of violence prevention and deradicalization. To reassess the impact of such online programs in a different prevention context, the thesis also evaluates a measure for investor protection in the context of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

This article analyses chapters from Amasa Delano's Narrative of Voyages and Travels in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres () and Rosalind Amelia Young's Mutiny of the Bounty and Story of Pitcairn Island, 1790–1894 () in the context of US American perception of Pitcairn Island's cultural identity. It envisions both Delano's account of the island and the Californian Seventh-day Adventists' missionary work, as described by Young, as examples of epistemic violence. The latter derives from imperial misrepresentations of the islanders as well as an imposition of US American cultural identity upon them. The violence committed against Pitcairn's community is discussed in connection to Delano's self-proclaimed approach of non-intervention and his depiction of the islanders as Jean-Jacques Rousseau's 'children of nature', as well as to the direct involvement of the Adventists who converted the islanders. This article tests whether Delano's and the Adventists' approaches are mutually exclusive or whether they represent two different visions of the same imperialist project to constitute Pitcairn Islanders as the colonial 'Other'.

This article develops a theoretical explanation of the patterns of violence and distribution of conflict in contemporary world. It combines the international political thought of Carl Schmitt with an exploration of the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and tensions over the South China Sea in order to envisage a new spatialisation of the world ('nomos' in Schmittian parlance) based around Großräume – 'large spaces', that is, powerful agglomerations of states – and peripheral lands in-between. It is thereby stipulated that while direct violence between Großräume is limited (or nonexistent), inter- Großraum competition is channelled towards the periphery, and the three cases presented in this article demonstrate how the exact nature and means of conflict depend on a particular inter- Großraum alignment. This reconceptualisation of the international order is presented in the wider context of Schmitt's political thought, particularly his notions of the political, sovereignty and the exception in order to elucidate the latent processes behind the formation of state groupings and their willingness to engage in conflict beyond their borders.

Before Columbine, people tended to look at school violence in fragmented ways, which reflected a disciplinary analysis of social problems. Explanations about the causes of school violence tended toward psychological and developmental explanations about why school-age children become violent and social control theory about the lack of attachment and involvement by youth in conventional culture. Corresponding policies to deal with the problem focused on better detection, preemptive intervention, closer supervision, zero tolerance, and peer mediation. This narrow microanalytical framing of the issue failed to consider the multiple causal components of this complex problem, which includes the interrelated role of teachers, school administrators, educational practices and effective pedagogy, school district policy, cultural framing, gendered educational expectations, and the changing state of family and community relations in a postmodern "heartless" society. Taking an interdisciplinary approach suggests simultaneous considerations of the interrelated components constituting the problem from micro to macro and the multiple levels in which the problem is manifest.

"This book amplifies the different voices and experiences of those facing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the Global South. It explores the localised ways in which marginalised individuals design modes of coping with and addressing GBV, including cultural interpretations, and artistic and faith-based expressions. The book examines GBV triggers, prevalence, and societal impacts while referring to community, national and regional mobilisation to deal with the phenomenon in its various manifestations, including physical, psychological, political, domestic, and public violence. The book explores issues including women's negotiations with the patriarchal underpinnings of GBV; the role of the law and history in the perpetuation of GBV; the complementary role of culture and faith to legal protection against GBV, and access to justice for women and girls. In doing so, the book exposes understandings and expressions of GBV, as well as methodologies and indigenous initiatives to prevent it through local viable solutions. The book thus challenges the normalisation of GBV in the Global South. Providing concrete and culturally relevant suggestions for challenging ingrained models of gender understandings of violence in the Global South, this book will be of interest to academics in the fields of Development Studies, Gender Studies, Women's Studies, Violence and Abuse Studies, Human Rights, Criminal Law and Socio-Legal Studies"--

In the present study, sponsored by SolucionES and conducted by FUNDE, a member of the SolucionES Alliance with Arizona State University, we systematically evaluate gang truces; including reviewing prior research and presenting evidence on the impact of gang truces that have been implemented in El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica for the purpose of identifying lessons learned should other governments or donors wish to support gang truces in these or other countries.

Despite the trend toward statutory presumptions in favor of joint legal and physical custody, practitioners increasingly recognize that domestic violence has serious implications for the efficacy and safety of parenting and shared care. This article explores the implications of domestic violence for shared parenting and for the statutory legal and physical custody presumptions and exceptions which are triggered by or are applicable to domestic violence. This article proposes that a better framework for addressing intimate partner violence–related custody cases is one that guides practitioners toward fact‐based determinations of the implications of the violence for parenting and co‐parenting in individual cases.Key Points for the Family Court Community:Parents who are coercive controlling abusers frequently exhibit the types of problematic parenting behaviors which make shared parenting unrealistic.Instead of applying blanket joint custody presumptions, all family court practitioners, including judges, should: (1) be alert to signs that domestic violence may be an issue; (2) understand the nature and context of any abuse; (3) determine the implications, if any, of the abuse for parenting and co‐parenting; and (4) account for the violence and its implications in their handling of cases.Exceptions for domestic violence cases fail to prevent the inappropriate application of joint custody presumptions to many families for whom domestic violence is a significant issue because: (1) abuse is often not detected by the system, (2) victims have problems proving that the abuse occurred, and (3) many practitioners are disinclined to believe that the abuse occurred.

Following the (re-)introduction of multiparty systems in Africa in the early 1990s, third and fourth elections in Africa's new democracies and hybrid regimes are now being seen. Although there is a large and growing literature on democracy and elections in Africa, parties and party systems have hitherto not been the focus of research, which may be surprising given their central role in a liberal democracy. The early works from the 1960s and 1970s provide neither a sound conceptual nor empirical basis. Research on political parties and party systems in Africa is still in its infancy. Various contributions in this volume address the theoretical and conceptual challenges provided by the African parties and party systems with their particular features of weak organisation, informal relationships dominated by 'big men' and clientelism within a neopatrimonial setting. Others raise the crucial question of representation in relation to ethnicity, civil society and gender, or look into the empirical relationship between party systems and democracy. Further chapters ask questions about the appropriate electoral system for the multiethnic context in Africa and deal with the problem of electoral system reform. Finally, there are chapters which focus on the neglected area of electoral violence, and the moral role of money and vote buying is scrutinized through a case study. An important conclusion is that party research in Africa needs more conceptual clarity as well as empirical research particularly on party organisation, voting behaviour, and the role of ethnicity. ; CONTENTS -- Introduction: Research on Electoral Systems, Parties and Party Systems in Africa/Gero Erdmann, Matthias Basedau and Andreas Mehler -- Political Parties, Elections and Patronage: Random Thoughts on Neo-Patrimonialism and African Democratization/E. Gyimah-Boadi -- Party Research: Western European Bias and the 'African Labyrinth'/Gero Erdmann -- Political Parties in Africa: Different, Functional and Dynamic? Reflections on Gero Erdmann's 'Party Research: Western Europea Bias and "African Labyrinth"'/Peter Burnell -- Political Parties in Africa and the Representation of Social Groups/Vicky Randall -- Do Party Systems Matter for Democracy? A Comparative Study of 28 Sub-Saharan Countries/Matthias Basedau -- Paths of Electoral Reform in Africa/Christof Hartmann -- Electoral Systems, Party Systems and Ethnicity in Africa/Matthijs Bogaards -- Political Parties and Violence in Africa: Systematic Reflections against Empirical Background/Andreas Mehler -- Insights into Eclectoral Violence in Africa/Liisa Laakso -- Banknotes and Symbolic Capital: Ghana's Elections Under the Fourth Republic/Paul Nugent -- Conclusions: The Research Agenda Ahead/Gero Erdmann, Matthias Basedau and Andreas Mehler

AbstractDoes improved communication provided by modern cellphone technology affect the rise or fall of violence during insurgencies? A priori predictions are ambiguous; introducing cellphones can enhance insurgent communications but can also make it easier for the population to share information with counterinsurgents and creates opportunities for signals intelligence collection. We provide the first systematic micro-level test of the effect of cellphone communication on conflict using data on Iraq's cellphone network (2004–2009) and event data on violence. We show that increased mobile communications reduced insurgent violence in Iraq, both at the district level and for specific local coverage areas. The results provide support for models of insurgency that focus on noncombatants providing information as the key constraint on violent groups and highlight the fact that small changes in the transaction costs of cooperating with the government can have large macro effects on conflict.

Purpose
Despite the fact that the gender-based violence (GBV) term has different interpretations, leading to the assumption that all types of harmful acts against all gender identities and either sex will be addressed under the GBV umbrella, in reality, GBV remains to be synonymous with violence against women (VAW). Thus, this paper aims to assess the accountability and transparency of GBV policies and interventions in addressing the suffering of GBV victims other than women.


Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents two main arguments; firstly, the authors explore the understanding and the capacities of humanitarians and protection International Non-Governmental Organizations staff in GBV response and prevention, and the reliability of the data that is mobilized to build policies and frameworks for addressing GBV. Secondly, they argue that in addition to gender being a main factor in violence, age, disabilities and other factors of vulnerability can also cause being subjected to different types of violence.


Findings
The adaptation of such holistic approach when addressing the causes behind violence will result in protecting the most vulnerable from all ages, genders and people with disabilities by applying an inclusive, cross-cutting response to GBV survivors in general.


Originality/value
This paper paves the way to research studies that shed light on violence against men and boys at war zones and conflict areas especially in the Middle East where this type of violence is strongly stigmatized, and the survivors have limited access to needed services.