Victimization in Childhood of Male Sex Offenders: Relationship between Violence Experienced and Subsequent Offenses through Discourse Analysis

This study aims at better understanding how the form of childhood violence experienced and the type of offense subsequently committed affect how sex offenders recall punishments and difficult events. Fifty-four male perpetrators convicted of sexual offenses against children (SOCs) or against adults (SOAs) were interviewed in France, Belgium, and Switzerland using the Lausanne Clinical Interview (Entretien Clinique de Lausanne or LCI). Almost three-quarters of the sex offenders reported having been victimized during childhood. The correspondence analysis identified several factors that differentiated them. Their appraisal of the distressing event, method of coping with and distancing themselves from it, and how they dealt with emotions varied markedly depending on whether they recognized having experienced various forms of violence during childhood and on what type of offense they subsequently committed. Victimization can be identified as much by the events experienced as by their effect on the sex offender's discourse. Identification of these discursive indicators may lead to an improved therapeutic approach for potentially traumatic childhood experiences.

Anàlisi de l'obra cinematogràfica de quatre documentalistes russos o de repúbliques ex-soviètiques: la relació amb les noves tendències del documental i el llegat soviètic.

El treball de recerca té com a principal objectiu l'estudi del cinema documental rus contemporani a través de l'obra cinematogràfica d'Alexander Sokurov, Sergei Dvortsevoi, Sergei Loznitsa i Victor Kossakovski. En un primer moment la investigació s'havia encaminat en un estudi comparatiu sobre les noves tendències del documental i els models de realisme proposats des de la Rússia post-comunista. El treball s'ha realitzat a partir de tres vies d'investigació. La primera ha consistit en una exhaustiva recerca bibliogràfica sobre cinema documental i cinema soviètic. La segona s'ha plantejat a partir d'un anàlisi acurat de les diverses pel•lícules. Finalment, la tercera via s'ha desenvolupat a partir d'un treball de camp realitzat durant una estada a Rússia, un període en el qual va ser possible entrevistar dos dels cineastes protagonistes de l'estudi, Sergei Dvortsevoi i Victor Kossakovski, així com el crític de cinema Andrei Xemijakin. També va ser fonamental l'assistència a la taula rodona i la master class impartida per Sergei Loznitsa en el marc del desè aniversari del Màster en Teoria i Pràctica de Documental Creatiu de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Tot i que es poden traçar vincles entre el treball dels quatre cineastes escollits i algunes de les pràctiques contemporànies en l'àmbit de la no-ficció, com pot ser l'experiència de Sergei Loznitsa en el terreny del found-footage, o els documentals experimentals de caràcter assagístic d'Alexander Sokurov, així com la tendència observacional i el pas al cinema de ficció de Segei Dvortsevoi, o l'ús de la tecnologia digital en les últimes pel•lícules de Victor Kossakovski. Tot i aquestes aproximacions, es pot afirmar que el model de realisme proposat per aquests cineastes troba el seu autèntic llegat en el cinema soviètic. Una herència que comença amb el cinema de Dziga Vertov –pioner del documental artístic i revolucionari- i acaba en el d'Artavadz Pelechian –cineasta armeni i un dels màxims representatnts del documental poètic-. El treball de recerca ha estat presentat en forma de comunicació en el congrés internacional “IMAGEing Reality: Representing the Real in Film, Television and New Media”, celebrat a Pamplona el mes d'Octubre de 2009. La comunicació s'ha redactat en format article i està pendent de publicació.

Patients' spontaneous discourse on the importance of significant others in the course of transplantation: A qualitative study

Background: This study explores significant ones' implication before and after transplantation. Methods: Longitudinal semi-structured interviews were conducted in 64 patients awaiting all-organ transplantation. Among them, 58 patients spontaneously discussed the importance of their significant other in their daily support. Discourse analysis was applied. Findings: During the pre-transplantation period renal patients reported that significant others took part in dialysis treatment and participated to regimen adherence. After transplantation, quality of life improved and the couple dynamics returned to normal. Patients awaiting lung or heart transplantation were more heavily impaired. Significant others had to take over abandoned roles. After transplantation resuming normal life became gradually possible, but after one year either transplantation health benefits relieved physical, emotional and social loads, or complications maintained the level of stress on significant others. Discussion: Patients reported that significant others had to take over various responsibilities and were concerned about long-term stress that should be adequately supported.

The category 'natural' in the discourse of couples who used medically assisted procreation

As a constantly evolving set of complex biotechnologies, medically assisted procreation (MAP) jeopardises a category that seems to be taken for granted: that of 'natural'. What is 'natural' or not when MAP is used to procreate? What are the boundaries between a 'natural' and a 'non-natural' fertilisation? Drawing upon a dialogical approach to language and cognition, our study examined the semantic field of the category 'natural' as expressed in interviews between a psychiatrist and seven couples who resorted to MAP and had to decide whether to keep their frozen pre-embryonic cells (zygotes) for further procreation or to allow them be destroyed. We examined how these couples evoked the category 'natural' and showed that in their argumentation, the category 'natural' encompassed a wide variety of phenomena, which shifted the boundaries between the 'natural' and 'non-natural'. In so doing, the couples 'renaturalised' MAP, normalized it, moved the boundaries between what is legitimate or not, and showed their accountability. Hence, reference to the category 'natural' seemed to act both as an argumentative and a psychological resource in the elaboration of the person's experience in resorting to MAP.

A Sociological Analysis of Contemporary Irish Social Drinking Patterns

This thesis seeks to provide an understanding of contemporary Irish social drinking patterns by conducting a detailed analysis of the evolving sociological theories of alcohol consumption in Ireland. ‘Alcohol is a social drug which, to this day, evokes the divisive moral qualities that originated, or at least were solidified, in the last century with the birth of temperance movements’ (Cassidy, 1997:175). The temperance movement in Ireland under Father Mathew, a legacy which still reverberates in Irish society, served to further ingrain the ‘image of the whisky drinking Irishman’ (Ibid: 17). This is seen in such work as Stivers (1976) who uses sociological labelling theory to provide verification of a deviant Irish status, biologically, socially and culturally predisposed to alcohol. The author argues that these temperance movements sought to remove the linkages of alcohol and “Irishness” but this quasi-stigmatisation process created a “self-fulfilling prophecy”, which further abetted the legitimisation of alcohol within cultural spheres. The tourism industry, in connection with drink manufacturers, has had a monumental role in alcohol’s contemporary position within the upper echelons of Irish culture and heritage. Their hand in the commodification of “Stage Irishy”, seen as “craic”, has further entrenched the links between consumption of alcohol and the consumption of Irish Identity “McGovern, 2002). Furthermore, commercial interests are keen to cash in and maintain the dominance of alcohol in Irish society. This thesis concludes that this factor, in connection with the accelerated modernisation that Ireland has experienced since the mid-nineties, has malleable consequences for Irish society. As Keohane and Kuhling (2007) assert, post-modern consumption patterns of excess and ‘insatiability’ have been introduced into contemporary Irish drinking patterns and are affecting the nature of alcohol consumption in Ireland.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Changing the future: experiencing adolescence in contemporary Ireland: sexual health and behaviour.

If we create the space in which children and young people can talk openly and in their own language even upon challenging subjects such as sex, then we are likely to learn more from what they tell usâ?T proposes the final UNICEF Ireland report which examines adolescent perspectives on sexual health and behaviour. Key findings in the report included: 63%, and 1 in 5 sixteen year old respondents, reported that they have had sex; 1 in 5 sexually active respondents reported that they did not use a condom the first time that they had sex; 2 in 5 girls who were sexually active reported that they had consumed alcohol before their first sexual experience, compared to 3 in 10 boys; The majority of respondents (54%) reported that they had watched pornography on the internet, and more than one third of the respondents who had watched pornography on the internet believed that it was accurate or educational; Only 1 in 5 respondents reported that they ever speak to their parents about sex. Noting â?~the broad spectrum from which young people living in Ireland draw down information about sexâ?T the UNICEF Ireland report concludes that â?~we must be sure that when a young person is making decisions about their sexual health and behaviour, every opportunity is afforded them in terms of open discussion, understanding, support, information and adviceâ?T Commenting on the Report, Amel Yucef a Youth Health Coordinator at the Base Youth Centre, Ballyfermot said â?oAs the participants in UNICEF Irelandâ?Ts survey have shown, many young people do not feel equipped with the information and support they need to make informed choices about their sexual health. Providing those supports is a priority for us at the Base.â? The Youth Health Programme, that Amel co-ordinates is a HSE funded initiative which was created to respond to the health needs of young people, as identified by the young people of the Dublin 10 area themselves. The Programme delivers community-based and youth-friendly health responses, based upon a harm-reduction model. The Youth Health Programme works towards building the capacity of young people to access health services, while also encouraging those services to deliver in an accessible and youth-friendly way.This resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Migration and information flows. A new lens for the study of contemporary international migration

Aquest document de treball mira d'establir un nou camp d'investigació a la cruïlla entre els fluxos de migració i d'informació i comunicació. Hi ha diversos factors que fan que valgui la pena adoptar aquesta perspectiva. El punt central és que la migració internacional contemporània és incrustada en la dinàmica de la societat de la informació, seguint models comuns i dinàmiques interconnectades. Per consegüent, s'està començant a identificar els fluxos d'informació com a qüestions clau en les polítiques de migració. A més, hi ha una manca de coneixement empíric en el disseny de xarxes d'informació i l'ús de les tecnologies d'informació i comunicació en contextos migratoris. Aquest document de treball també mira de ser una font d'hipòtesis per a investigacions posteriors.

The Role of Information in Contemporary Migration. More Sources but Less Informed

La migració internacional contemporània és integrada en un procés d'interconnexió global definit per les revolucions del transport i de les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació. Una de les conseqüències d'aquesta interconnexió global és que les persones migrants tenen més capacitat per a processar informació tant abans com després de marxar. Aquests canvis podrien tenir implicacions inesperades per a la migració contemporània pel que fa a la capacitat de les persones migrants per a prendre decisions més informades, la reducció de la incertesa en contextos migratoris, el desdibuixament del concepte de distància o la decisió d'emigrar cap a llocs més llunyans. Aquesta recerca és important, ja que la manca de coneixement sobre aquesta qüestió podria contribuir a fer augmentar la distància entre els objectius de les polítiques de migració i els seus resultats. El paper que tenen els agents de la informació en els contextos migratoris també podria canviar. En aquest escenari, perquè les polítiques de migració siguin més efectives, s'haurà de tenir en compte la major capacitat de la població migrant de processar la informació i les fonts d'informació en què es confia. Aquest article demostra que l'equació més informació equival a més ben informat no es compleix sempre. Fins i tot en l'era de la informació, les fonts no fiables, les expectatives falses, la sobreinformació i els rumors encara són presents en els contextos migratoris. Tanmateix, defensem l'argument que aquests efectes no volguts es podrien reduir complint quatre requisits de la informació fiable: que sigui exhaustiva, que sigui rellevant, que s'hi confiï i que sigui actualitzada.

Le déterminisme linguistique en Russie actuelle

Résumé : Depuis la fin de la perestroïka s'est mis en place en Russie un discours identitaire qui, en linguistique, prend des formes extrêmes, reposant sur un strict déterminisme de la pensée par la langue. Les organismes de financement de la recherche scientifique soutiennent des projets qui étudient le rapport entre la grammaire russe et le « caractère national russe ». Des objets nouveaux apparaissent : « l'image linguistique russe du monde », « la personnalité linguistique », la « linguoculturologie ». Cet ensemble discursif construit dans l'imaginaire une identité collective rassurante, reposant sur l'idée que 1) tous les gens qui parlent la même langue pensent de la même façon; 2) les langues, donc les pensées collectives, sont imperméables entre elles, et donc intraduisibles. Cette tendance néo-humboldtienne dans la linguistique russe actuelle se déploie en toute méconnaissance de ses origines historiques : le Romantisme allemand dans son opposition à la philosophie des Lumières, le positivisme évolutionnisme d'Auguste Comte et la linguistique déterministe de l'Allemagne des années 1930.AbstractSince the end of perestroika, in linguistics in Russia, a new form of discourse has taken place, which stresses a very tight determinism of thought by language. The funding organizations of scientific research back up projects studying the relationship between Russiangrammar and the « Russian national character ». New objects of knowledge come to light : « the Russian linguistic image of the world », « linguistic personnality », « culturology ». This kind of discourse builds up an imaginary comforting collective identity, which relies on the principle that 1) all the people who speak the same language think the same way; 2) languages, hence collective kinds of thought, are hermetically closed to each other, and untranslatable. This neo-humboldtian trend in contemporary Russian linguistics has no knowledge of its historical origins : German Romanticism in its Anti-Enlightenment trend, evolutionnist positivism of Auguste Comte, and deterministic linguistics in Germany in the 1930s.