The Effects of Violence on Communities: The Violence Matrix as a Tool for Advancing More Just Policies

In this essay, I illustrate how discussions of the effects of violence on communities are enhanced by the use of a critical framework that links various microvariables with macro-institutional processes. Drawing upon my work on the issue of violent victimization toward African American women and how conventional justice policies have failed to bring effective remedy in situations of extreme danger and degradation, I argue that a broader conceptual framework is required to fully understand the profound and persistent impact that violence has on individuals embedded in communities that are experiencing the most adverse social injustices. I use my work as a case in point to illustrate how complex community dynamics, ineffective institutional responses, and broader societal forces of systemic violence intersect to further the impact of individual victimization. In the end, I argue that understanding the impact of all forms of violence would be better served by a more intersectional and critical interdisciplinary framework.

Institutional Responses to Drought in a High HIV Prevalence Setting in Rural South Africa

In 2015, South Africa experienced one of the worst (El Niño-induced) droughts in 35 years. This affected economic activities, individual and community livelihoods and wellbeing especially in rural communities in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Drought’s direct and indirect impacts on public health require urgent institutional responses, especially in South Africa’s stride to eliminate HIV as a public health threat by 2030 in line with the UNAIDS goals. This paper draws on qualitative data from interviews and policy documents to discuss how the devastating effect of the 2015 drought experience in the rural Hlabisa sub-district of uMkhanyakude, a high HIV prevalence area, imposes an imperative for more proactive institutional responses to drought and other climate-related events capable of derailing progress made in South Africa’s HIV/AIDS response. We found that drought had a negative impact on individual and community livelihoods and made it more difficult for people living with HIV to consistently engage with care due to economic losses from deaths of livestock, crop failure, food insecurity, time spent in search of appropriate water sources and forced relocations. It also affected government institutions and their interventions. Interviewed participants’ reflections on drought-related challenges, especially those related to institutional and coordination challenges, showed that although current policy frameworks are robust, their implementation has been stalled due to complex reporting systems, and inadequate interdepartmental collaboration and information sharing. We thus argue that to address the gaps in the institutional responses, there is a need for more inclusive systems of drought-relief implementation, in which government departments, especially at the provincial and district levels, work with national institutions to better share data/information about drought-risks in order to improve preparedness and implementation of effective mitigation measures.

Institutional listening in deliberative democracy: Towards a deliberative logic of transmission

This article explores the role of institutional listening in deliberative democracy, focusing particularly on its contribution to the transmission process between the public sphere and formal institutions. We critique existing accounts of transmission for prioritizing voice over listening and for remaining constrained by an ‘aggregative logic’ of the flow of ideas and voices in a democracy. We argue that formal institutions have a crucial role to play in ensuring transmission operates according to a more deliberative logic. To substantiate this argument, we focus on two recent examples of institutional listening in two different democracies: Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and the United States’ Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh. These cases show that institutional listening can take different forms; it can be purposefully designed or incidental, and it can contribute to the realization of deliberative democracy in various ways. Specifically, institutional listening can help enhance the credibility and visibility of minority groups and perspectives while also empowering these groups to better hold formal political institutions accountable. In these ways, institutional listening helps transmission operate according to a more deliberative logic.

Innovative Proposal Concerning the Human Factors Shaping Institutional Responses to Domestic Violence – the IMPRODOVA Project

The introductory chapter of this book presents the book's structure as a whole and gives a brief overview of its single chapters and their interrelatedness. The aim of IMPRODOVA - Improving Frontline Responses toHigh Impact Domestic Violence was to deliver recommendations, toolkits and collaborative training for European police organisations and medical and social work professionals to improve and integrate theinstitutional response to high-impact domestic violence. IMPRODOVA had two main components: analysis of current institutional responses to high-impact domestic violence and the development of effectivesolutions to improve those responses. Efforts were made to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach and contextualise our solutions, tools and guidelines to make them applicable to a wide range of societies.

'The Powerful Ones': Exploring Young Men’s Understandings of Sexual Violence and Rape Culture in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>The centralising of women within institutional responses to sexual violence (Ministry of Justice, 2019) and sexual violence scholarship (Fanslow & Robinson, 2004a, 2011; Fanslow, Robinson, Crengle, & Perese, 2010; Gavey, 1991; Jordan, 2004, 2008) consequently means that despite men being both the primary perpetrators of sexual violence, and whose privileged identities create and maintain rape culture, men often remain invisible within sexual violence discourse. To gain insight into how young men understand sexual violence, rape culture, and their own identity within these structures, this research involved (n=11) qualitative semi-structured interviews with cisgender men aged between 18-30 who identified as heterosexual. These interviews highlighted the complexities of participant’s comprehension of sexual violence, particularly regarding the typology and motivations of offenders, the relationship between gender, alcohol, power and consent, and the various perceived causes of sexual violence. Participants also signalled the importance of comprehensive consent and sex education as a method of sexual violence prevention. This research is essential to responsibilise sexual violence prevention as the obligation of men, effectively inform prevention, intervention and response measures, and work towards ultimately eradicating sexual violence and the wider rape culture in Aotearoa New Zealand.</p>

'The Powerful Ones': Exploring Young Men’s Understandings of Sexual Violence and Rape Culture in Aotearoa New Zealand

<p>The centralising of women within institutional responses to sexual violence (Ministry of Justice, 2019) and sexual violence scholarship (Fanslow & Robinson, 2004a, 2011; Fanslow, Robinson, Crengle, & Perese, 2010; Gavey, 1991; Jordan, 2004, 2008) consequently means that despite men being both the primary perpetrators of sexual violence, and whose privileged identities create and maintain rape culture, men often remain invisible within sexual violence discourse. To gain insight into how young men understand sexual violence, rape culture, and their own identity within these structures, this research involved (n=11) qualitative semi-structured interviews with cisgender men aged between 18-30 who identified as heterosexual. These interviews highlighted the complexities of participant’s comprehension of sexual violence, particularly regarding the typology and motivations of offenders, the relationship between gender, alcohol, power and consent, and the various perceived causes of sexual violence. Participants also signalled the importance of comprehensive consent and sex education as a method of sexual violence prevention. This research is essential to responsibilise sexual violence prevention as the obligation of men, effectively inform prevention, intervention and response measures, and work towards ultimately eradicating sexual violence and the wider rape culture in Aotearoa New Zealand.</p>

Institutional responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: Faculty and administrator experiences

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic required shifts in operations for institutions of higher education everywhere. Faculty and administrators were asked to adapt to meet the needs of students. We conducted a qualitative content analysis to understand institutional responses and examine the experiences of faculty and administrators during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of chaos theory. Institutional responses to the pandemic varied. Participants identified supports and resources deemed helpful, as well as those found to be inadequate or unwanted. We also found that the pandemic resulted in some positive outcomes for faculty and administrators, which led to growth in teaching and self-care. Implications for strategic planning and future directions for research are explored.

A Dance of Shadows and Fires: Conceptual and Practical Challenges of Intergenerational Healing after Mass Atrocity

The legacy of mass atrocity—including colonialism, slavery or specific manifestations such as apartheid—continue long after their demise. Applying a temporal intergenerational lens adds complications. We argue that mass atrocity creates for subsequent generations a deep psychological rupture akin to witnessing past atrocities. This creates a moral liability in the present. Healing is a process dependent on the authenticity (evident in discourse and action) with which we address contemporary problems. A further overriding task is to open social and political space for divergent voices. Acknowledgement of mass atrocity requires more than one-off events or institutional responses (the grand apology, the truth commission). Rather, acknowledgement has to become a lived social, cultural and political reality. Without this acknowledgement, healing, either collectively or individually, is stymied. Healing after mass atrocity is as much about political action (addressing inequalities and racism) as an act of re-imaging created through constant and contested re-writing.

Privilege and Oppression: Exploring the Paradoxical Identity of White Women Administrators in Higher Education

Race is a prominent issue in higher education, which has intensified demands upon postsecondary leadership to acknowledge and respond to increasing racial tensions within campus communities. Many administrators, who are mostly White, are left perplexed regarding how to address such demands. Having leaders who understand bias can potentially support institutional responses to racial tensions. As such, this study focused on the second largest share of college administrators, White women – an identity rooted in both privilege and oppression. White women may better understand the conditions of oppression given their gendered status, yet may also be unaware of the extent of their privilege or its effects on their leadership decisions. Their unique positioning calls for a deeper exploration of the role identity plays in leadership, especially in times of racial discord. Utilizing Putnam’s bridging capital and bonding capital framework, findings highlight where their privilege and oppression emerge in study participants’ leadership, leading to recommendations for future research and practice.

Investigating Extra-territorial Human Rights Violations in Conflict: A Principled Disharmony

<p>This paper discusses a sequence of litigation concerning attempts by Iraqi citizens to have the United Kingdom Government investigate their claims of ill-treatment and death by British soldiers during the six-year British occupation of Basra, Southern Iraq. This paper uses the litigation as a foil to examine broader issues arising from the extra-territorial application of the duty to effectively investigate rights violations under the European Convention on Human Rights, an unprecedented occurrence. Specifically, it compares the duty of effective investigation to comparative institutional responses to human rights violations in conflict. These mechanisms have developed a broader set of victim-oriented objectives in dealing with violations and this paper argues the duty of effective investigation is comparatively deficient. It then looks at the manner in which the domestic courts have applied the duty, arguing that the various factors have driven the High Court to adopt a limited model of investigation.</p>