Taking North American White Supremacist groups seriously: The scope and the challenge of hate speech on the internet

This article aims to address two questions: how does hate speech manifest on North American white supremacist websites; and is there a connection between online hate speech and hate crime? Firstly, hate speech is defined and the research methodology upon which the article is based is explained. The ways that ‘hate’ groups utilise the Internet and their purposes in doing so are then analysed, with the content and the functions of their websites as well as their agenda examined. Finally, the article explores the connection between hate speech and hate crime. I argue that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that speech can and does inspire crime. The article is based in the main on primary sources: a study of many ‘hate’ websites; and interviews and discussions with experts in the field

School shootings in seven countries: Testingand developing the theory of five necessary conditions

To test and further develop Newman and collaborators’ 2004 theory of the five necessary conditions for school shootings to occur, this chapter investigates 14 school shootings in seven countries. Using case-based comparison with pattern matching, the study draws primarily upon texts, pictures, films and other material created by the perpetrators themselves. The theory is found to be generally valid even in contexts where socio-cultural conditions and shooters’ modus operandi differ notably from those in its original focus. Many of its key elements nevertheless call for further elaboration, such as the role played by social marginalization and cultural scripts, and the relation between the use of cultural scripts and other types of rationalizations requires clarification

Participation, Agency and Gender: The Impacts of Participatory Video Practices on Young Women in India

The use of Participatory Video (PV) in development projects with marginalised communities by Non-government organisations is increasing. Though PV practice has expanded, there has been limited academic discussion and debate on the subject. PV is often assumed to be a non-problematic process that enables less powerful groups to gain power and participate in social change processes. This research contributes to the emerging academic debates by critically investigating how participating in a long-term PV project can provide participants the opportunity to gain agency and to engage with local social change in a sustained manner. It studies projects by two NGOs in Hyderabad and Mumbai, which work with young women participants, using gender as a lens to examine the role of power relations within the projects. This thesis draws on three key concepts: (i) participation, (ii) agency and (iii) gender norms. Using the conceptualisation of agency in the Capability Approach, it focuses on the various aspects of a long-term PV project that can either promote or restrict young women’s agency. The methods of collecting data were interviews, group discussions, participatory observation and participatory video-making with the research participants. The analysis of the data was carried out using a framework which maps the relationships between the various phases of a long-term PV project and the participants’ agency. Based on the findings of the analysis, this thesis argues that oppressive gender power relations within their household and the community, and hierarchy within a supposedly participatory project are critical influences on young women’s ability to become agents of change. In particular, the thesis draws attention to: (i) participants’ need to continuously negotiate power with the household and community members, (ii) inherent hierarchy and the nature of participation in a long-term PV project, (iii) the relation between participants’ need to access resources and hierarchy within a project, and (iv) the difference in needs, goals and impacts identified by donors/NGOs and the participants. The thesis proposes a conceptual model of participatory video as an agency-development process, which shows how these factors are crucial in developing and sustaining participants’ agency. This thesis builds new knowledge by providing an in-depth understanding of power relations in long-term PV projects and what impacts agency - areas which are often overlooked in the literature on PV

Injecting equipment schemes for injecting drug users : qualitative evidence review

This review of the qualitative literature about needle and syringe programmes (NSPs) for injecting drug users (IDUs) complements the review of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. It aims to provide a more situated narrative perspective on the overall guidance questions

Research quality and psychological theory in publications on school shooters with multiple victims : a systematic review of the literature

School shooting homicide events generate considerable attention. A substantial number of research reports have tried to explain the phenomenon. However, the outcome of these studies has produced a conflicting picture of the issue. Our systematic review explored the quality of research in publications on school shooters. Research quality was assessed concerning description of design, method, and interpretation of results according to PRISMA and CRD criteria. We investigated evidence of the impact of psychological theories on how research was designed and interpreted. A total of ten papers met the criteria for inclusion in the review. With a few exceptions the research quality was low. Only three studies contained a separate methods section. Two out of ten studies reported from an interview with a school shooter. Secondary sources such as school, hospital and/or psychological evaluations, were used in four studies, while the rest had only applied tertiary data sources. There was a void of psychological theoretical analysis to inform the creation of relevant research designs. No study discussed psychological theories to inform inference from empirical data to conclusion. Higher quality of research and enhanced focus on theoretical understanding of psychological factors in school shooting are called upon. Keywords: School shootings, homicide, violent crime, psychological theory, literature reviewpublishedVersio

Public-private tragedy: Stigma, victimisation and community identity

On 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton shot and killed 16 children and 1 teacher at Dunblane Primary School, Scotland. In the weeks and months that followed, intense and extensive media coverage focused on the victims, the community, the aftermath and the subsequent intense and emotional outpouring of grief for Dunblane that seemed to come from around the world. The impact of crime on indirect victims has generated a wealth of research; however, surprisingly little is known regarding the impact of ‘high-profile’ crime on a community living in a location that has become synonymous with the crime that took place there. Drawing on a unique set of interviews with members of the Dunblane community, this article explores the victimizing experiences and processes by which some build their sense of identity in the wake of such a high-profile crime. Empirical findings highlight the ways in which private tragedy becomes public property and how some community members are stigmatized by, manage (and are sometimes resilient to) the impact of wider societal reaction. The aftermath of events at Dunblane encouraged some to identify as victims, whilst others were more resilient to the stigmatizing effects of the crime that labelled them and their community with a ‘spoiled victim identity’

Deadly Sista Girlz final evaluation report

Background The Deadly Sista Girlz (DSG) program is one of several school-based mentoring programs currently operating in Australia to improve educational outcomes of Indigenous girls. Deadly Sista Girlz runs programs on 12 DET WA school sites, 1 Catholic Education school site in Broome and 1 in Victoria. Each school site has a dedicated DSG room where DSG coordinators and mentors support the girls individually and communally whilst also running regular program workshops. There are currently over 732 high school aged girls enrolled in the program. DSG is part of the large and well established Wirrpanda Foundation. Overall aims This External Evaluation Review was commissioned as part of an agreement between the Wirrpanda Foundation and the Western Australian Department of Education. An External Evaluation was one of the recommendations made by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) in its 2020 Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) funding review. The overarching aim of the Evaluation was to examine the focus and scope of the Deadly Sista Girlz Program. More specifically to: • Identify a broad range of strategies to include the WA Education Department’s Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework (ACSF), to strengthen the existing Deadly Sista Girlz Program • Evaluate the learning environments and the extent of the cultural safety and welcoming • Identify examples of evidence based best practice optimising culturally appropriate learning environments for Aboriginal girls. What we examined The evaluation covers the time period from mid 2020 to February 2021 and examined aspects of the Deadly Sista Girlz program. The objective of the evaluation is to provide an evidence based neutral assessment of all working aspects of the Deadly Sista Girlz Program that can be used to inform future decision making. Methods Indigenous methodological principles were used to ethically guide this research. Yarning was the key methodological approach used to gather the data alongside comprehensive literature reviews. We understood that the most important and insightful people to tell us about the program were the participants - the school site coordinators and mentors; the DSG central office staff, alumni and school leaders and ideally and in a longer term project the girls themselves. We also understood that in order to evaluate the cultural safety of the schools and the DSG rooms we would need to visit them. Given the reduced scope of research, we did not visit the DSG rooms on any of the DET sites nor did we interview or contact school principals. Despite the limitations, our evaluation provides in depth and authentic insights into the program as it draws on the standpoint of the site coordinators, staff and alumni gathered through yarning. The report also draws from a review of contemporary literature relevant to the education, health and well-being of Indigenous young women in Australia

Putting the pieces in place: children, communities and social capital in Australia

Provides insights into the aspects of Australian communities that support children and those that fail them. It examines the ways in which communities can be strengthened from the standpoint of children. The report documents how excessive use of alcohol, aggressive drivers and the threat of violence make children feel unsafe in their communities. It also highlights the importance of strong, caring relationships. Executive summary   What do children in Australia value about their communities? How are communities supporting children? How are communities failing them – and why? Over the past fifteen years, governments at Commonwealth, state and local levels have been concerned with strengthening communities as part of a policy shift towards "local solutions to local problems" and to place-based initiatives. This policy shift was heavily influenced by ideas of social capital. Children are often assumed to benefit from "strong communities", yet we know very little about children‟s views on what makes a strong, supportive community. Indeed, we know very little about children‟s places and roles within Australian communities. If policies and initiatives are to be inclusive of children – as this report argues they should – it is crucial that we understand children‟s views and experiences of their communities. The research project explores in depth what children in middle childhood think about their communities, how children experience "community‟ on a daily basis, and what vision they have for their communities. This report presents the findings of participatory, rights-based research with 108 children aged between eight and twelve years across six sites in eastern Australia. The findings provide important insights into communities from a child\u27s standpoint. This research also demonstrates children‟s capacity to engage in detailed discussion and deliberation about "what works" - and "what is broken" – within their community. Additionally, it demonstrates the important insights children can provide into how to fix that which is broken

Let Go and Remember. How Finnish Communities Experienced and Memorialized School Shootings

This study examines the aftermath of mass violence in local communities. Two rampage school shootings that occurred in Finland are analyzed and compared to examine the ways in which communities experience, make sense of, and recover from sudden acts of mass violence. The studied cases took place at Jokela High School, in southern Finland, and at a polytechnic university in Kauhajoki, in western Finland, in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Including the perpetrators, 20 people lost their lives in these shootings. These incidents are part of the global school shooting phenomenon with increasing numbers of incidents occurring in the last two decades, mostly in North America and Europe. The dynamic of solidarity and conflict is one of the main themes of this study. It builds upon previous research on mass violence and disasters which suggests that solidarity increases after a crisis, and that this increase is often followed by conflict in the affected communities. This dissertation also draws from theoretical discussions on remembering, narrating, and commemorating traumatic incidents, as well as the idea of a cultural trauma process in which the origins and consequences of traumas are negotiated alongside collective identities. Memorialization practices and narratives about what happened are vital parts of the social memory of crises and disasters, and their inclusive and exclusive characteristics are discussed in this study. The data include two types of qualitative interviews; focused interviews with 11 crisis workers, and focused, narrative interviews with 21 residents of Jokela and 22 residents of Kauhajoki. A quantitative mail survey of the Jokela population (N=330) provided data used in one of the research articles. The results indicate that both communities experienced a process of simultaneous solidarity and conflict after the shootings. In Jokela, the community was constructed as a victim, and public expressions of solidarity and memorialization were promoted as part of the recovery process. In Kauhajoki, the community was portrayed as an incidental site of mass violence, and public expressions of solidarity by distant witnesses were labeled as unnecessary and often criticized. However, after the shooting, the community was somewhat united in its desire to avoid victimization and a prolonged liminal period. This can be understood as a more modest and invisible process of “silent solidarity”. The processes of enforced solidarity were partly made possible by exclusion. In some accounts, the family of the perpetrator in Jokela was excluded from the community. In Kauhajoki, the whole incident was externalized. In both communities, this exclusion included associating the shooting events, certain places, and certain individuals with the concept of evil, which helped to understand and explain the inconceivable incidents. Differences concerning appropriate emotional orientations, memorialization practices and the pace of the recovery created conflict in both communities. In Jokela, attitudes towards the perpetrator and his family were also a source of friction. Traditional gender roles regarding the expression of emotions remained fairly stable after the school shootings, but in an exceptional situation, conflicting interpretations arose concerning how men and women should express emotion. The results from the Jokela community also suggest that while increased solidarity was seen as important part of the recovery process, some negative effects such as collective guilt, group divisions, and stigmatization also emerged. Based on the results, two simultaneous strategies that took place after mass violence were identified; one was a process of fast-paced normalization, and the other was that of memorialization. Both strategies are ways to restore the feeling of security shattered by violent incidents. The Jokela community emphasized remembering while the Kauhajoki community turned more to the normalization strategy. Both strategies have positive and negative consequences. It is important to note that the tendency to memorialize is not the only way of expressing solidarity, as fast normalization includes its own kind of solidarity and helps prevent the negative consequences of intense solidarity.Tämä tutkimus kartoittaa massaväkivallan seurauksia paikallisyhteisöissä. Tutkimuksessa analysoidaan ja vertaillaan kahta Suomessa tapahtunutta koulusurmaa ja tarkastellaan sitä miten yhteisöt kokevat äkillisen massaväkivallan, miten tapauksia käsitellään ja miten niistä toivutaan. Ensimmäinen tutkituista ampumistapauksista tapahtui Jokelan koulukeskuksessa vuonna 2007, toinen Kauhajoella ammattikorkeakoulussa vuonna 2008. Näissä kahdessa koulusurmassa menehtyi 20 ihmistä tekijät mukaan luettuna. Kyseiset tapaukset voidaan nähdä osana maailmanlaajuista kouluampumisilmiötä. Koulusurmien määrä on ollut kasvussa viimeisten 20 vuoden ajan, ja suurin osa tapauksista tapahtuu Pohjois-Amerikassa ja Euroopassa. Useissa massaväkivaltaa ja katastrofeja käsittelevissä tutkimuksissa on havaittu yhteisöllisyyden lisääntyvän nopeasti kriisien jälkeen, ja konfliktien puolestaan seuraavan yhteisöllistä vaihetta. Yhteisöllisyyden ja konfliktien välinen dynamiikka onkin yksi tämän väitöskirjan pääteemoista. Tutkimus hyödyntää traumaattisten tapahtumien muistamiseen, kertomiseen ja muisteluun liittyviä teoreettisia keskusteluja, sekä kulttuurisen trauman käsitettä, jonka mukaan traumaattisten tapahtumien syyt ja seuraukset määritellään kollektiivisiin identiteetteihin liittyvissä neuvotteluprosesseissa. Kollektiiviset muistelu- ja suremiskäytännöt sekä kertomukset tapahtuneesta ovat tärkeä osa kriisejä ja katastrofeja koskevaa sosiaalista muistia. Näiden käytäntöjen inklusiivisista ja ulossulkevista ulottuvuuksista keskustellaan tutkimuksen teoreettisessa osiossa. Tutkimuksen pääasiallisena aineistona käytetään 11 kriisityöntekijän haastatteluja sekä 21 jokelalaisen ja 22 kauhajokisen narratiivisia haastatteluja. Yhdessä tutkimuksen artikkeleista käytetään myös Jokelassa kerättyä postikyselyaineistoa (N=330). Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että molemmissa yhteisöissä esiintyi koulusurmien jälkeen samanaikaisesti sekä yhteisöllisyyttä että konflikteja. Jokelassa yhteisö miellettiin uhrina ja yhteisön toipumisen kannalta julkisia surun ilmauksia pidettiin tärkeinä. Kauhajoella yhteisö taas kuvattiin koulusurman sattumanvaraisena tapahtumapaikkana ja sivullisten julkisia surun tai solidaarisuuden ilmauksia pidettiin turhina ja niitä jopa kritisoitiin. Kauhajoellakin paikallisyhteisö kuitenkin tiivistyi torjuessaan uhrin leiman ja pyrkiessään välttämään pitkäkestoista poikkeustilaa koulusurman jälkeen. Tämä voidaan ymmärtää vaatimattomampana ja näkymättömämpänä, ”hiljaisen yhteisöllisyyden” prosessina. Vahvistuneen yhteisöllisyyden mahdollistivat osaltaan ulossulkemisen käytännöt; Jokelassa osa osallistujista sulki tekijän perheen yhteisön ulkopuolelle, Kauhajoella taas koko koulusurmatapaus seurauksineen ulkoistettiin. Tiettyjen paikkojen ja yksilöiden yhdistäminen pahuuden käsitteeseen liittyi ampumistapausten ulossulkemiseen ja auttoi selittämään ja ymmärtämään käsittämättömiltä tuntuvia väkivallantekoja. Ristiriidat liittyivät sopivaan tunteiden ilmaisemiseen, suru- ja muistelukäytäntöihin, toipumisen tahtiin sekä Jokelassa tekijän perheeseen suhtautumiseen. Perinteiset sukupuoliroolit pysyivät tunteiden ilmaisun ja tunnereaktioiden osalta kriisitilanteissa melko vakaina, mutta poikkeuksellisissa tilanteissa heräsi myös ristiriitaisia mielipiteitä siitä, miten naisten ja miesten tulisi ilmaista koulusurmiin liittyviä tunteita. Jokelan paikallisyhteisöstä saadut tiedot viittaavat myös siihen, että vaikka lisääntyneen yhteisöllisyyden katsottiin edistävän järkytyksestä toipumista, sillä oli myös kielteisiä seurauksia, kuten kollektiivinen syyllisyydentunne, yhteisön jakautuminen sekä sosiaalinen stigma. Tulosten perusteella voidaan tunnistaa kaksi kummassakin yhteisössä käytettyä strategiaa, joiden avulla yhteisöt pyrkivät palauttamaan koulusurmien heikentämää turvallisuuden tunnetta; nopea arkeen palaamisen strategia ja muistelun strategia. Jokelassa paikallisyhteisö painotti muistelemista ja sururituaaleja, kun taas Kauhajoella tilanne pyrittiin normalisoimaan mahdollisimman pian. Molemmilla strategioilla oli sekä myönteisiä että kielteisiä seurauksia. On tärkeää huomata, ettei muistelun strategia ole ainoa tie yhteisöllisyyteen, sillä myös nopea arkeen palaaminen edistää tietynlaista yhteisöllisyyttä ja ehkäisee samalla voimakkaan yhteisöllisyyden negatiivisia seurauksia.Siirretty Doriast