Domestic and family violence

This chapter introduces domestic and family violence. It defines the terms and the types of violence they encompass, and summarizes patterns in perpetration and victimisation. The chapter reviews the historical development of domestic and family violence as recognizable social problems. It also explains how domestic violence and family violence are shaped by gender norms. Finally, it explains some key differences between these and other crimes.

Recognising emotional expressions of complaining customers : A cross-cultural study

Purpose This study aims to test service providers’ ability to recognise non-verbal emotions in complaining customers of same and different cultures. Design/methodology/approach In a laboratory study, using a between-subjects experimental design (n = 153), we tested the accuracy of service providers’ perceptions of the emotional expressions of anger, fear, shame and happiness of customers from varying cultural backgrounds. After viewing video vignettes of customers complaining (with the audio removed), participants (in the role of service providers) assessed the emotional state of the customers portrayed in the video. Findings Service providers in culturally mismatched dyads were prone to misreading anger, happiness and shame expressed by dissatisfied customers. Happiness was misread in the displayed emotions of both dyads. Anger was recognisable in the Anglo customers but not Confucian Asian, while Anglo service providers misread both shame and happiness in Confucian Asian customers. Research limitations/implications The study was conducted in the laboratory and was based solely on participant’s perceptions of actors’ non-verbal facial expressions in a single encounter. Practical implications Given the level of ethnic differences in developed nations, a culturally sensitive workplace is needed to foster effective functioning of service employee teams. Ability to understand cultural display rules and to recognise and interpret emotions is an important skill for people working in direct contact with customers. Originality/value This research addresses the lack of empirical evidence for the recognition of customer emotions by service providers and the impact of cross-cultural differences.

Human saliva as a tool to investigate intimate partner violence

Human saliva mirrors body’s health and well-being and many of the biomolecules present in blood or urine can also be found in salivary secretions. However, biomolecular concentrations in saliva are usually one tenth to one thousandth of the levels in blood (Pfaffe et al., 2011). Sensitive detection technology platforms are therefore required to detect biomolecules in saliva. Another road block to the advancement of salivary diagnostics is the lack of information related to healthy state saliva vs. a diseased saliva, baseline levels and reference ranges and diurnal variations. Saliva has numerous advantages over blood or urine as a diagnostic fluid: (a) the non-invasive nature of sample collection and the simple, safe, painless and cost-effective methods to collect it; (b) unskilled personnel can collect saliva samples at multiple time points; and (c) the total protein concentration is approximately a quarter of that is present in plasma, which makes it easier to investigate low abundance proteins (Pfaffe et al., 2011). Currently, saliva assays are routinely used to determine, diseases such as HIV, drugs and substances of abuse to provide information on exposure and give qualitative information on the type of illicit drug used (Kintz et al., 2009), cortisol levels for diagnosing Cushing’s syndrome (Doi et al., 2008), and use for biomonitoring of exposure to chemicals (Caporossi et al., 2010) to measure hormones (Gröschl, 2009)....

Developing a Cross-cultural Law Curriculum

This work makes the case that cross cultural issues are central to the purposes of legal education, and no longer can such issues be seen as an add-on to the traditional curriculum. The authors argue instead for a critical multiculturalism that is attuned to questions of gender, class, sexuality and social justice, and that must inform the whole law school curriculum.

Introduction : studying Indonesian media worlds at the intersections of area and cultural studies

When preparing this special issue,1 our discussions with the editorial board of the International Journal of Cultural Studies (IJCS) included a moment of simultaneous surprise and reflection, which we would like to use as a starting point for our introduction to the articles appearing here. This occurred during communications about the number and length of the articles required for a special issue. The board’s representative stipulated that a specific number of articles were to be written by Indonesian scholars. The request surprised us. We had neither discussed nor anticipated ethnic or national quotas for authorial participation. But although the request caught us off guard it also stimulated us to think about the two disciplinary terrains traversed in the articles to follow.

LeaD-In : a cultural change model for peer review of teaching in higher education

Peer review of teaching is recognized increasingly as one strategy for academic development even though historically peer review of teaching is often unsupported by policy, action and culture in many Australian universities. Higher education leaders report that academics generally do not engage with peer review of teaching in a systematic or constructive manner, and this paper advances and analyses a conceptual model to highlight conditions and strategies necessary for the implementation of sustainable peer review in higher education institutions. The model highlights leadership, development and implementation, which are critical to the success and formation of a culture of peer review of teaching. The work arises from collaborative research funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching to foster and advance a culture of peer review of teaching across several universities in Australia.

The darker side of green : plantation forestry and carbon violence in Uganda

In recent years, there has been a significant trend toward land acquisition in developing countries, establishing forestry plantations for offsetting carbon pollution generated in the Global North. Badged as “green economic development,” global carbon markets are often championed not only as solutions to climate change, but as drivers of positive development outcomes for local communities. But there is mounting evidence that these corporate land acquisitions for climate change mitigation—including forestry plantations—severely compromise not only local ecologies but also the livelihoods of the some of the world’s most vulnerable people living at subsistence level in rural areas in developing countries.

Domestic violence (DV) service provision and the architecture of rural life: An Australian case study

This article uses the concept of the architecture of rural life to analyse domestic violence service provision in rural Australia. What is distinctive about this architecture is that it polices the privacy of the rural family. A tight cloak of silence is carved around instances of domestic violence. Imagined threats to rural safety are seen as coming from outsiders (i.e. urban influences or Indigenous), not insiders within rural families. This article draws on key findings from a study conducted in rural New South Wales, Australia. The study interviewed 49 rural service providers working in human services and the criminal justice system. The application of architecture of rural life as a conceptual tool demonstrates challenges with service provision in a rural setting. The main results of this study found that this architecture operates as a silencing form of social control in three distinctive ways. Firstly, shame about being a victim of domestic violence encourages rural women's complicity in remaining silent. Secondly, family privacy maintains a veil of silence that accentuates rural women's social and economic dependency on men. Thirdly, community sanctions act as a deterrent to women seeking help.

Cultural and linguistic localization of games to bridge the digital and cultural divide in indigenous populations

Localization of technology is now widely applied to the preservation and revival of the culture of indigenous peoples around the world, most commonly through the translation into indigenous languages, which has been proven to increase the adoption of technology. However, this current form of localization excludes two demographic groups, which are key to the effectiveness of localization efforts in the African context: the younger generation (under the age of thirty) with an Anglo- American cultural view who have no need or interest in their indigenous culture; and the older generation (over the age of fifty) who are very knowledgeable about their indigenous culture, but have little or no knowledge on the use of a computer. This paper presents the design of a computer game engine that can be used to provide an interface for both technology and indigenous culture learning for both generations. Four indigenous Ugandan games are analyzed and identified for their attractiveness to both generations, to both rural and urban populations, and for their propensity to develop IT skills in older generations.

Rural dispositions of floating children within the field of Beijing schools: can disadvantaged rural habitus turn into recognised cultural capital?

The rapid pace of urbanisation in China has seen a massive increase in the movement of the rural population to work and live in urban regions. In this large-scale migration context, the educational, health, and psychological problems of floating children are becoming increasingly visible. Different from extant studies, we focus our investigation on the rural dispositions of floating children through interviews with leaders, teachers, and students in four schools in Beijing. Drawing on Bourdieu’s key notions of habitus, capital, and field, our study indicates that the rural habitus of floating children can differentiate these children from their urban peers. This habitus can be marginalised and stigmatised in certain fields but can be recognised and valued as capital in other fields. Our paper offers some implications for research and practice in relation to the schooling of floating children.

Cultural relativity as exchange : J.W. Lindt’s bush character and Aboriginal from The Grafton Album (circa 1872)

J.W.Lindt’s Colonial man and Aborigine image from the GRAFTON ALBUM: “On chemistry and optics all does not depend, art must with these in triple union blend” (text from J.W. Lindt’s photographic backing card)...

Estimating the burden of disease attributable to interpersonal violence in South Africa in 2000

Violence, previously considered a social issue, is now an acknowledged public health problem. It is defined as the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against another person, against oneself, or against a group or community, that results in injury, death or deprivation.1 In this study we focus on exposure to the interpersonal type of violence, which includes acts of family violence and community violence. Family violence is further categorised by victim: child, intimate partner, or elder. Community violence occurs among unrelated individuals and includes sexual assault and rape by strangers as well as youth violence...

Interpersonal violence : an important risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa

Background Burden of disease estimates for South Africa have highlighted the particularly high rates of injuries related to interpersonal violence compared with other regions of the world, but these figures tell only part of the story. In addition to direct physical injury, violence survivors are at an increased risk of a wide range of psychological and behavioral problems. This study aimed to comprehensively quantify the excess disease burden attributable to exposure to interpersonal violence as a risk factor for disease and injury in South Africa. Methods The World Health Organization framework of interpersonal violence was adapted. Physical injury mortality and disability were categorically attributed to interpersonal violence. In addition, exposure to child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence, subcategories of interpersonal violence, were treated as risk factors for disease and injury using counterfactual estimation and comparative risk assessment methods. Adjustments were made to account for the combined exposure state of having experienced both child sexual abuse and intimate partner violence. Results Of the 17 risk factors included in the South African Comparative Risk Assessment study, interpersonal violence was the second leading cause of healthy years of life lost, after unsafe sex, accounting for 1.7 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) or 10.5% of all DALYs (95% uncertainty interval: 8.5%-12.5%) in 2000. In women, intimate partner violence accounted for 50% and child sexual abuse for 32% of the total attributable DALYs. Conclusions The implications of our findings are that estimates that include only the direct injury burden seriously underrepresent the full health impact of interpersonal violence. Violence is an important direct and indirect cause of health loss and should be recognized as a priority health problem as well as a human rights and social issue. This study highlights the difficulties in measuring the disease burden from interpersonal violence as a risk factor and the need to improve the epidemiological data on the prevalence and risks for the different forms of interpersonal violence to complete the picture. Given the extent of the burden, it is essential that innovative research be supported to identify social policy and other interventions that address both the individual and societal aspects of violence.