688 research outputs found
The Social Construction of the Child Sex Offender Explored by Narrative
No full textThe notion of "child sex offender" provokes aversion, but it may be that it is a social construction. We suggest that a Dominant narrative, in which child sex offenders are constructed as irredeemable, persists, despite the emergence of assumption challenging Alternative narratives. A story completion method was used to elicit themes of Dominant or Alternative narratives, theory-led thematic analysis was used to identify them. The use and analysis of narrative and free-form stories are well established in social research, but remain a novel concept in the study of offenders. The results support the persistence of the Dominant narrative with two notable exceptions. Conclusions centre on utility of the narrative method to examine offender constructions, and the pervasiveness of Dominant narratives. Key Words: Dominant and Alternative Narrative, Social Construction, Child Sex Offenders, and Thematic Analysi
Evil and Superstition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Religious Infanticide and Filicide
No full textA distinct category of women has been identified in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, those who commit extreme forms of violence and murder against their children in order to fulfil their religious obligations or to protect themselves from perceived magico-spiritual harms from their children. The whole of Africa is currently witnessing a heightened level of witch-hunting. Historically, some African witch-hunting incidents are triggered by witch-doctors who are keen to protect their clients from any perceived diabolical effects of witches while others are triggered by mere gossips or rumours from neighbours. However, dramatized preaching on witchcraft by revivalist Christian prophets and prophetesses whose major occupations are the ‘sale’ of exorcisms to the bewitched has become the latest trend in the region. These prophets and prophetesses are keen to teach their followers the importance of the ‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’ biblical passage in their lives as well as how ‘the Kingdom of God suffereth violence’. By means of case study analysis, this paper presents a new pattern of evil that is perpetrated in the form of abandonment, torture, mutilation and murders of children by their mothers, those women who should protect their children from such evils. It also presents the cases of another group of women (prophetesses) who preach and deliver prophecies purportedly from God about particular children who are the alleged witches. This latter category also decides the nature of evil to be committed against such children – all in the name of fulfilling their religious obligations
1993-1994 T. R. Pearson
No full textT. R. Pearson, a.k.a. Rick Gavin, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was a student at North Carolina State University, where he gained a B.A. and M.A. in English. He was the first recipient of the John and Renée Grisham Writer in Residence Fellowship. He is the acclaimed author of fourteen novels, including A Short History of a Small Place and Warwolf, and a dozen screenplays. Top of the Rock is his fifth nonfiction book. He lives in Virginia and Brooklyn, New York. (Photo credit: Marian Young)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/grisham_res/1026/thumbnail.jp
Social and Virtual Networks: Evaluating Synchronous Online Interviewing Using Instant Messenger
No full textThis paper describes an evaluation of the quality and utility of
synchronous online interviewing for data collection in social network
research. Synchronous online interviews facilitated by Instant Messenger
as the communication medium, were undertaken with ten final year
university students. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis of
respondent and researcher evaluation of the quality and utility of IM
indicated that IM was an integral part of student university life and also
an excellent and innovative communication platform; a potential
advancement for research interviewing. IM was subsequently compared
with face-to-face communication in terms of gains and losses for research
interviewing. The efficacy of the method of online interviewing using IM in
this context is discussed. Key Words: Synchronous Online Interviewing,
Instant Messenger, Social Support Networks, Virtual Networks, and
Content Analysi
New Caledonian Crows Learn the Functional Properties of Novel Tool Types
No full textPubMed ID: 22194779This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Theology in suspense : how the detective fiction of P.D. James provokes theological thought
No full textElectronic redacted version excludes material for which permission has not been granted by the rights holderThe following dissertation argues that the detective fiction of P.D. James
provokes her readers to think theologically. I present evidence from the body of
James’s work, including her detective fiction that features the Detective Adam
Dalgliesh, as well as her other novels, autobiography, and non-fiction work. I also
present a brief history of detective fiction. This history provides the reader with a
better understanding of how P.D James is influenced by the detective genre as well as
how she stands apart from the genre’s traditions.
This dissertation relies on an interview that I conducted with P.D. James in
November, 2008. During the interview, I asked James how Christianity has
influenced her detective fiction and her responses greatly contribute to this
dissertation. However, James’s novels should be interpreted and explored in the
manner that they are received by the reader. How the reader receives and responds to
the novels, not only how James writes the novels, is what causes her stories to
provoke theological thinking.
By examining Christian symbolism that is present in setting, character, the
Detective Adam Dalgliesh, and plot, this dissertation seeks to assert that James
contributes to a theological conversation through her popular detective fiction
Ecology and conservation of the kagu Rhynochetos jubatus of New Caledonia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology at Massey University
No full textContent removed due to copyright restrictions:
Appendix I.
Hunt, G. R. (1996). Environmental variables associated with population patterns of the kagu Rhynochetos jubatus of New Caledonia. Ibis, 138(4), 778-785.
Appendix IX.
Hunt, G. R., Hay, R., & Veltman, C. J. (1996). Multiple kagu Rhynochetos jubatus deaths caused by dog attacks at a high-altitude study site on Pic Ningua, New Caledonia. Bird Conservation International, 6(4), 295-306.I carried out two phases of an internationally co-ordinated recovery project for the kagu Rhynochetos jubatus of New Caledonia between June 1991 and March 1995. In Phase One, between June 1991 and January 1992, I established kagu abundance and distribution on Grande Terre in the first comprehensive survey of the species outside Parc Rivière Bleue, where kagu distribution was known through Yves Létocart's work there. In 177 different listening areas, I recorded a total of 491 adult kagus, including 208 pairs, in 84 of the areas, mostly in Province Sud (403 birds; 177 pairs). Low kagu numbers (1-4 birds) were recorded in 56% (n = 47) of the areas. More than nine kagus were recorded in each of 19 areas, which accounted for 57% (n = 282) of all birds. In these 19 areas, virtually all birds sang from intact forest. Kagus occurred in 'patches' over a large area of the island, but mostly in inland mountainous regions. Analyses indicated that larger numbers of kagus were likely to be found on volcanic rock types and with increasing distance from human settlements. In Phase Two, from August 1992 to March 1995, I carried out a 32-month field-research programme at two high altitude study areas, Pic Ningua and Mt Cindoa, with the main objective of investigating if food supply was limiting annual fecundity of kagus. I found that kagu pairs probably lived on relatively fixed territories year-round where independent offspring may also be present, as was the case at Parc Rivière Bleue. At Pic Ningua, one pair nested in early December 1994, and another also probably around that time in 1993, which contrasted with the main breeding period of June-August at Parc Rivière Bleue. I recorded no breeding at Mt Cindoa, where kagus' bodyweights were generally lower than those of birds at Pic Ningua, probably due to poorer food supplies at Mt Cindoa. Kagus appeared to moult their primary feathers annually between approximately December and May, starting in close association with hot, wet conditions in the wet season, as they appeared to do at Parc Rivière Bleue. Moult may be delayed or suspended in parents feeding chicks in the wet season. After dogs Canis familiaris killed most of the kagus I knew at Pic Ningua (see below), remaining birds quit or extended the territories they held before the attacks. This behaviour in widowed birds may have been mostly related to a search for mates. I found distinct seasonal patterns in kagu food supplies at high altitude closely related to seasonality in climate, especially temperature, and probably highly similar year-to-year. Food supplies peaked in the wet season and were lowest around late October when conditions were driest, and were also relatively spatially uniform in forest. It is not clear why birds do not generally use the period of peak food supplies for breeding, but it may be better for birds to moult their primary feathers at that time. Kagus were generalists in the types of the larger-sized soil and litter fauna they ate, and I recorded many new taxa not previously known to be eaten by the birds. Birds' diets were strongly influenced by seasonality in climate and food supplies, but they did not just track changing patterns in food availability. They were probably also a result of birds approaching local optima in the efficient use of available prey in response to changing environmental and physiological conditions. Birds appeared to use larger prey items when food was more abundant, and be least selective at times of greatest food scarcity in the driest periods. Birds used larvae at high frequencies in the early dry season; larvae might provide energy assimilation benefits in cold conditions. Bodyweights of mostly non-breeding kagus at Pic Ningua and Mt Cindoa varied seasonally in close positive association with temperature and food supplies, and varied negatively with use of sheltered roosts. Bodyweights peaked at the end of the wet season around April and were lowest in the driest period of the late dry season around late October. Lack of other factors likely to be affecting the kagus' bodyweights like competition, parasites and reproduction indicated that climate and food supplies were closely linked to the seasonal variation in them. The close association between variation in temperature and kagu bodyweights and roosting behaviour appeared to be clear evidence of phenotypic adjustment in roosting behaviour for energy conservation in response to cold conditions, particularly wind chill, and food shortage. There is little direct evidence that food supply is limiting the kagu's annual fecundity, but indirect support for this comes from, for example, the difficulty birds have in finding and capturing prey present in the soil and litter, and that they generally breed outside the period of peak food supplies and forage for long hours each day. More research is needed on whether food is limiting for aspects of kagu reproduction like egg formation and chick provisioning. Data suggest that the kagu's food supplies are independent of pair densities, thus the kagu's life history characteristics may have been strongly influenced by selection to maximise energy resources through interaction with the environment rather than by competition. This is consistent with aspects of the kagu's life history like for example its relatively non-competitive social organisation which means that birds can devote most of their time to foraging. I propose that density-independent food limitation has played an important role in shaping annual fecundity and other life history characteristics like social organisation in tropical, and possibly south temperate, forest birds. At Pic Ningua in 1993, I described the first documented case of multiple kagu deaths caused by dogs. Twenty kagus were found dead (15) or wounded (5; one survived) from dog attacks in four distinct episodes over a 14 week period from late April to early August. Older remains of two other birds were also found. Eighteen of the 22 birds wore radio-transmitters, and the four non-radio-tracked birds were found by chance. Dogs errant from a nearby tribal village were strongly implicated in carrying out most, if not all, of the attacks. The events on the peak showed that dogs are dangerous predators of adult kagus, and dog predation may have been important in shaping kagu distribution patterns. Four other important implications of my study for kagu conservation management are (1) the kagu's reproductive success may be greater in low altitude compared to high altitude rainforest; (2) because the kagu's clutch size is low and invariable, and the number of successful broods per year is also low and seems to be more influenced by density-independent factor(s), birds are especially vulnerable to predation because they cannot respond to lower densities by lifting their reproductive output; (3) feral pigs Sus scrofa at sufficiently high densities could potentially reduce prey availability for kagus; and (4) at least two additional managed reserves like Pare Rivière Bleue protecting up to 200 kagus are required to ensure that birds remain in the wild for the long term
The genus Orionis Shaw (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Euphorinae) in the Old World
No full textThe euphorine braconid genus Orionis Shaw, 1987 is found to be more diverse in the Old World than had previously been recognised. Orionis was regarded previously as largely Neotropical, with one Oriental species (Orionis orientalis Shimbori & Shaw, 2016) known from Thailand, but we recognise an additional three species from the Oriental and Palaearctic regions. Three species of Euphorinae are transferred to Orionis Shaw, 1987 and are new combinations: Orionis coxator (Belokobylskij, 1995), comb. nov., Orionis erratus (Chen & van Achterberg, 1997), comb. nov., and Orionis flavifacies (Belokobylskij, 2000), comb. nov. Previously known from the Far Eastern Palaearctic, O. coxator has surprisingly been found in Europe, in Belgium, England and the Netherlands. The inclusion of these species in Orionis whereas most previous species have been described from the Neotropics, is justified by Bayesian analysis of the D2 region of 28S, Cytochrome Oxidase I barcode sequences, and morphology.Copyright Gavin R. Broad, Julia Stigenberg. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are creditedNHM Repositor
Jealous Men but Evil Women: The Double Standard in Cases of Domestic Homicide
No full textIn 1989, Sarah Thornton killed her abusive husband with a knife, after years of abuse and threats to her daughter. She was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also in 1989, Kiranjit Ahluwalia soaked her husband’s bedclothes with petrol and set them alight. He died from burns 10 days later, and she was subsequently convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
In 1991, Joseph McGrail kicked his alcoholic common-law wife to death whilst she lay unconscious. He walked free from court, the judge telling him that “this lady would have tried the patience of a saint”. In 1992, Les Humes told a court that he “saw a red mist” after his wife admitted loving someone else. He fatally stabbed her whilst their teenage children struggled with him. He was convicted of manslaughter due to provocation and was imprisoned for 7 years.
Double standards in judicial processes are notorious. Chivalric justice is the case in which women are given lighter sentences for similar offences to men. This does not apply in the case of domestic homicide, where women are seen as evil and calculating when killing a spouse, men are seen as provoked beyond reason. Women who kill husbands do so with weapons that they need to acquire, men do it with their hands or weapons that are immediately available. So it is seems the defence of crime passionnel is reserved for men; women, it is implied, premeditate the murder of abusive husbands, and are justifiably punished. This paper explores the double standard in uxoricide vs. mariticide, and why it appears that killing a wife is justified and killing a husband is evi
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