“Yesterday Redeemed and Tomorrow Made More Beautiful”: Historical Injustice and Possible Collective Selves

This research examines the ways in which talk about reparations for historical injustice demonstrates individuals' ambitions for future collective identities. Interviews with White Tulsans (n = 25) illustrate how discursive temporal constructions justify support for or opposition to reparations for the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. It is argued that White Tulsans strategically employed these constructions to either transform or maintain collective identities. These findings bring a discursive approach to theories of collective continuity (Sani, Bowe, & Herrera, 2008) and possible selves (Cinnirella, 1998; Markus & Nurius, 1986; McAdams, 2006; Vignoles, 2008). From this perspective, reckoning with the past is as much about who we can be tomorrow as it is guilt for who we were yesterday.     

艾滋病揭示的性别不公正

贫困妇女人群中HIV新发感染不成比例上升的现象揭示了社会中的性别不公正,通过美国和肯尼亚的案例说明,预防艾滋病需要认可和促进妇女的人权,减少针对妇女的暴力,并保障妇女的教育,普及艾滋病相关知识.对女性主义进行了重新阐释,并以南非"和平与和解"运动为例指明了新的前进方向.     

Partner violence against heterosexual and gay men: Prevalence and correlates

Female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been the focus of a substantial amount of research. However, the subject of male victims of IPV remains a controversial topic, and one which has been comparatively neglected within the literature, despite some findings suggesting that men are victimized by intimate partners at an equivalent, or even higher rate than women. This paper reviews the literature on male victims of IPV, both within opposite and same-gender relationships, focusing on the prevalence and correlates of IPV, as well as exploring the relationship between IPV and ethnicity. According to the literature reviewed, the prevalence of female perpetrated IPV against heterosexual male victims ranges from 0.2% to 93%, homosexual male victimization ranges between 1.8% and 93.7%, and heterosexual female victimization ranges between 1.3% and 86% depending on the type of IPV included, whether the reference period includes the past 12 months, or lifetime experience, and the method used to assess IPV. These data indicate that victimization is as much an issue for men as it is for women. In addition, it appears that men of certain ethnicities may be more at risk than others. Finally, the empirical literature which examines the correlates of male victimization indicates that male victims in heterosexual and gay relationships share many correlates. Unfortunately however, methodological weaknesses in the available literature and a lack of research in some areas restrict the extent to which conclusions can be drawn, and findings generalized. Recommendations for future research are made.     

Perception of Injustice as a Predictor of Support for Workplace Aggression

In order to determine the relationship between perceptions of injustice and support for workplace aggression, 139 subjects were presented with four scenarios representing different levels and types of injustice. Subjects then responded to an eight-item aggression scale. Support for aggressive behavior across the scenarios generally corresponded to the amount and type of perceived injustice; a procedural injustice scenario was perceived as the most unjust and led to the most support for aggression. Although the interpersonal and distributive injustice scenarios were seen as virtually identical in terms of injustice, there was significantly more support for aggression with interpersonal injustice. The strongest predictor of support for aggression in the justice scenarios, however, was simply the degree of support for aggression in a neutral, or control, scenario. It is suggested that employers need to be concerned both about fair and courteous relations with employees and also with identifying generally aggressive employees.     

Neuropsychological Issues in the Assessment of Refugees and Victims of Mass Violence

Brain injury, stressor severity, depression, premorbid vulnerabilities, and PTSD are frequently intertwined in trauma populations. This interaction is further complicated when the neuropsychologist evaluates refugees from other cultures. In addition, the observed psychiatric symptoms reported in refugees and victims of mass violence may in fact not be the primary features of PTSD and depression but psychiatric symptoms secondary to the effects of traumatic brain injury. This paper reviews the occurrence of starvation, torture, beatings, imprisonment, and other head injury experiences in refugee and POW populations to alert treators to the presence of chronic and persistent neuropsychiatric morbidity, with implications for psychosocial adjustment. The concept of fixed neural loss may also interact with environmental and emotional stresses, and a model of neuropsychological abnormalities triggered by traumatic events and influenced by subsequent stress will also be considered. Neuropsychologists working with refugees play an important role in assessing the possibility of traumatic brain injury with tools that are relatively culture-fair.     

Practitioners’ Views on the Role of Spirituality in Working With Women Victims and Survivors of Domestic Violence

Based on a study of 1,481 domestic violence workers or practitioners from 180 organizations across 12 countries, this article studies their views on spirituality for domestic violence women victims and survivors. Results showed that spirituality is favored by domestic violence workers, and more so by Christians and those with higher spiritual self-inclination. Subtle variations exist between views of practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia vis-à-vis those from Asian and African countries. Whereas practitioners from the former attested mindfulness, peace, and letting go as spiritual techniques for domestic violence work, Asian and African practitioners were more in favor of practiced distance detachment. In terms of goals of spiritually sensitive interventions, Asian and African practitioners favored letting go and empowered reconciliation, whereas their counterparts favored moving on and detachment. Practitioners from European countries, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, and Australia endorsed ‘letting go’ as a technique of living in the present, with a sense of positive orientation. Spirituality creates spaces in the psychic domains for women to exert their free will and address hegemonic masculinity. Asian and African practitioners saw the potential of spirituality in engendering systems and structures. This calls for a culturally alert approach in deploying spirituality in violence against women work.     

Clergy Response to Domestic Violence: A Preliminary Survey of Clergy Members,Victims, and Batterers

Although the presence of both religious organizations and violence in American communities is pervasive, scant attention has focused on how to best enroll clergy and religiously oriented resources in the battle against family violence. Given that it is not uncommon for women or couples to seek counseling or advice from clergy before accessing community-based resources, the frequency, nature, and utility of these contacts were assessed in this exploratory study from the perspectives of 47 female victims and 70 male perpetrators of domestic violence. Forty-one clergy members from various denominations were also surveyed about their contacts with those seeking help for domestic violence. Results indicated that 43% of the victims and 20% of the perpetrators did seek help from clergy. Almost all of the victims who contacted clergy reported satisfaction with the counsel they received. All clergy respondents reported counseling people who had experienced domestic violence during their career, and 80% had violence-related contacts in the past year. The service-related implications of these clergy contacts from victim, perpetrator, and clergy perspectives are discussed.     

Psychosocial Variables Associated With Verbal Abuse as a Form of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in a Spanish Sample

This article aims to analyze psychosocial variables associated with verbal abuse in women who suffer intimate partner violence. The following factors, taken from the scientific literature, were examined: social and family isolation; low self-esteem; an excess of empathy for the abuser; submission; psychological dependence on the abuser; and, self-blame as internal attribution for the cause of abuse. Our results show that low self-esteem has a direct relationship with verbal abuse. Additionally, family (including in-laws) and social (from friends, workmates, and neighbors), isolation are significantly and positively related to verbal abuse. The results of our study raise questions about the adoption of gender roles and their consequences when stereotyped tendencies are acquired. Implications, as well as ideas future research, are discussed.     

History, Human Rights, and Globalization

An illustrative comparison of human rights in 1948 and the contemporary period, attempting to gauge the impact of globalization on changes in the content of human rights (e.g., collective rights, women's rights, right to a healthy environment), major abusers and guarantors of human rights (e.g., state actors, transnational corporations, social movements), and alternative justifications of human rights (e.g., pragmatic agreement, moral intuitionism, overlapping consensus, cross‐cultural dialogue).     

FOCUS INTRODUCTION: TOWARD SHARING VALUES ACROSS CULTURES AND RELIGIONS

The contributors to this focus issue participated in a unique gathering of over sixty scholars in Lukenya, Kenya in January 2009, organized by Globethics.net. The three contributions here by Sumner B. Twiss, Shanta Premawardhana, and Ariane Hentsch Cisneros are not the outcome of the deliberations and discussions there; however, they led to the idea of this focus issue. Each essay incorporates major aspects of the general themes discussed in different groups at the Lukenya meeting: (1) defining global ethics; (2) ensuring a successful interreligious dialogue on ethics; (3) integrating means and methods of sharing values in a human to human approach; (4) balancing power relations, inducing a real transformation; and (5) sharing values in the Kenyan and East‐African contexts.