Non-violent uses of small unmanned aerial vehicles

In today\u27s modern age of drone strikes by the military, and the cost of electronic technology becoming more and more affordable every day, one may wonder why there are not many small unmanned aircraft being used for useful purposes that are not violent. I am designing, building and programming a model plane that is capable of autopilot flight, along with exploring its possible every day, non-violent uses. The initial prototype is made of form or a similar material with an autopilot system. Speculations of how to use this technology to benefit society are presented

Gender and countering violent extremism (CVE) in the Kenya- Mozambique region

This summary synthesises evidence on the diverse roles that women/girls can play in the context of violent extremism and the contributions that women/girls can make in countering violent extremism in Kenya and Mozambique by drawing on a mixture of academic and grey literature. This report covers three main themes: the role of women in violent extremism and in CVE (drawing on global evidence); Kenyan women’s involvement in Al-Shabaab and approaches to CVE and gender in that country; and recommendations/guidance for gender and CVE programming. Previous recommendations on gender and CVE programming highlight three aspects: the need to carry out gendered analysis of violent extremism, to understand drivers and roles of women in relation to VE; the need to mainstream gender into all CVE activities; and the need to ensure participation of women and women’s organizations. In 2019 the Global Counterterrorism Forum issued an update on its 2015 good practices on women and CVE particularly on Mainstream gender in CVE including promoting policy coherence with women, peace and security (WPS) frameworks; Develop a gender-sensitive approach to the handling of former combatants (and their families) and Design and support gender-responsive reintegration and rehabilitation processes and measures. With regard to areas for further research, the complete dearth of information on women and violent extremism in Mozambique and the Mozambique-Tanzania cross-border region clearly points to the need for research on these. More research is also needed to fill the ‘gaps’ in the evidence base on women and violent extremism in Kenya, notably the respective situations of female non-combatant, combatant and former combatant returnees.FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

ANTISEMITISM AS AN UNDERLYING PRECURSOR TO VIOLENT EXTREMISM IN AMERICAN FAR-RIGHT AND ISLAMIST CONTEXTS

Executive Summary Antisemitism is pervasive throughout several categories of American extremist movements, both violent and non-violent. American extremists incorporate antisemitic tropes and narratives in every level of their worldviews, using them to help construct “us/them” dichotomies and wide-sweeping conspiracies that are essential to their movements. During the past several decades, the American extremist movements that have been among the most violent—specifically, far-right and jihadist groups—have used antisemitism to target Jewish people, Jewish houses of worship, Jewish community institutions, and Americans supporting the Jewish state of Israel. Antisemitism, as a belief and world-structuring theory, can at times serve as a gateway issue for individuals into further radicalization to violent extremism. Non-violent and violent iterations of the same extremist milieus often share antisemitic views as central elements of their belief system, and thus antisemitism constitutes a linkage between activist and violent extremist segments of the same movement. Several case studies of violent American extremists, representing far-right and jihadist movements respectively, demonstrate that antisemitism can be an integral part of American extremists’ progression through the radicalization process and in justifying terrorist attacks. Based on this report’s finding that antisemitism is foundational to multiple violent extremist movements in the United States, counter-extremism practitioners and scholars may consider incorporating antisemitism as a diagnostic factor for extremist radicalization. o While there is no single profile of an American extremist, antisemitism has long been widespread among American extremist movements of multiple persuasions, acting as a least common denominator between extremist groups. o Antisemitic beliefs often serve as a key entry point for individuals to radicalize, join extremist groups, and progress into violent mobilization. o By using promotion of antisemitism as a factor in identifying key influencers and ideologues in extremist movements, Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) programming can isolate key nodes in extremist groups and debunk the narratives they promote without engaging in theological debates. Studying the role of antisemitism in extremist groups can assist scholars in identifying common themes between different types of extremism, as well as between non-violent and violent strands of the same extremist movements. This can improve analysis on the broader relationships between and within extremist groups

Portrayal of Mental Illness on Television: A Review of the Literature

The focus of this thesis is to present peer-reviewed studies relating to mental illness and television. Up to this point there has not been a review paper exclusively examining mental illness and television exclusively. For this review, only articles with a defined research design were included. Seven content analysis articles were identified measuring images of mental illness on television. Content analysis articles covered children's television, primetime entertainment programs, and soap operas. Five studies were identified surveying attitudes and beliefs of viewers after seeing images of mental illness on television. Research revealed that mental illness is portrayed negatively on television. Commonly, characters with mental illness are shown as violent, villainous, and unintelligent. Attitudes are affected by the number of hours of television watched, the viewer's education level, having direct experience with a person diagnosed with a mental illness, as well as seeing negative portrayals of mental illness on television.In the future, collaborative relationships to educate professionals working in media need to be established. Anti-stigma interventions should target specific populations that do not have regular contact with mentally ill patients. Future research needs to include the opinions and experiences of mental health service consumers. Current content analysis research focuses heavily on programs aired on American network television (ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox); in the future original programs on cable networks should be included in the samples. Similarly, unscripted reality television is gaining popularity and should be considered for analysis in the future. When attitudes and beliefs are measured, the samples of participants surveyed need to be made up of a wide range of ages, education levels, and experiences, instead of the homogenized groups currently being surveyed. Public health professionals have a responsibility to be advocates to the mental health community. It is of public health significance to ensure the most accurate information is disseminated to the general public in order to reduce incorrect assumptions and negative stigmas surrounding mental illness

Confronting Criminal Law’s Violence: The Possibilities of Unfinished Alternatives

Confronting criminal law’s violence calls for an openness to unfinished alternatives — a willingness to engage in partial, in process, incomplete reformist efforts that seek to displace conventional criminal law administration as a primary mechanism for social order maintenance. But despite all indications that the status quo in U.S. criminal law administration is profoundly dysfunctional — an institutional manifestation of the deepest pathologies in our society — contemporary criminal law reform efforts and scholarship focus almost exclusively on relatively limited modifications to the status quo. These modifications may well render criminal law administration more humane, but fail to substitute alternative institutions or approaches to realize social order maintenance goals. In particular, these reformist efforts continue to rely on conventional criminal regulatory approaches to a wide array of social concerns, with all of their associated violence: on criminalization, policing, arrest, prosecution, incarceration, probation, and parole. Thus, even as these reformist approaches may offer substantial benefits, they remain wed to institutions that perpetrate criminal law’s violence and to limited temporal and imaginative horizons. By contrast, this essay explores a series of criminal law reform alternatives that offer more fundamental substitutes for criminal law administration. More specifically, this essay focuses on the possibilities of alternatives to criminal case processing that substitute for the order-maintaining functions currently attempted through criminal law enforcement. These alternatives hold the potential to draw into service separate institutions and mechanisms from those typically associated with criminal law administration. Further, these alternatives enlist on more equal footing and invite feedback and input from persons subject to criminal law enforcement. Importantly, this latter subset of reform alternatives is decidedly unfinished, partial, in process. I will argue that this unfinished quality ought not to be denied as an embarrassment or flaw, but instead should be embraced as a source of critical strength and possibility. In this dimension, this essay is a preliminary call for more attention on the part of legal scholars and criminal law reform advocates to unfinished partial substitutes for the order-maintaining work performed by criminal law administration — a call to attend further to as yet incomplete reformist alternatives that may portend less violent and more self-determined ways of achieving some measure of social order and collective peace. I begin to develop this argument by drawing, in particular, on the work of the Norwegian social theorist and prison abolitionist Thomas Mathiesen

Justice in Review: New Trends in State Sentencing and Corrections 2014-2015

In 2014 and 2015, 46 states enacted at least 201 bills, executive orders, and ballot initiatives to reform at least one aspect of their sentencing and corrections systems. In conducting this review of state criminal justice reforms, Vera found that most of the policy changes focused on three areas: creating or expanding opportunities to divert people away from the criminal justice system; reducing prison populations by enacting sentencing reform, expanding opportunities for early release from prison, and reducing the number of people admitted to prison for violating the terms of their community supervision; and supporting reentry into the community from prison. By providing concise summaries of representative reforms in each of these areas, this report serves as a practical guide for other state and federal policymakers looking to affect similar changes in criminal justice policy

Youth Violence Myths and Realities: A Tale of Three Cities

A study of media coverage of youth violence, actual crime data, and interviews with committed youth and the professionals that work with them

Differentiating Violent and Non-Violent Extremists: Lessons from 70 Years of Social Control Theory

P/CVE programs engaging in primary (prior to radicalization) or secondary (following exposure to radicalizing influences) prevention are often predicated on delivering interventions to individuals or groups at-risk of engaging in violent extremism. Preventative actions must take place before the potential negative outcome; however, additional research is still required to identify and empirically validate the factors that distinguish violent from non-violent extremists. In the interim, P/CVE programs have instead targeted all individuals within a community or those deemed “at-risk” of adhering to extremist belief systems or movements. Due to resource limitations, this approach dilutes the allocation of resources to individuals and/or communities with higher propensities for extremist violence and may incidentally increase the likelihood of violence. This paper argues that empirical and theoretical insights from criminological theories of social control can enhance the understanding of violent extremism and can be used to tailor P/CVE programs. Unlike most criminological theories, social control theories focus on why people do not commit these acts, giving it a unique perspective on identifying how to prevent violent extremism. Drawing on 70 years of research, we explore how variation in various forms of control can explain differences in extremist offending. We hypothesize how the antecedents to low social control may be connected to violent extremism and propose a research agenda to test these hypotheses. Finally, we examine how existing measures of self-control can be incorporated by P/CVE programming to better distribute services to their target population and reduce the risk of adverse outcomes

Optimism as a Mediating Factor in the Relationship between Anxiety and News Media Exposure in College Students

Recently, media research has focused on young people to determine what effect violent media images may have on aggressive behavior, but little research has investigated the kind of psychological distress similar images may cause. What emotional impact does increased exposure to negative and even violent news coverage have on young adults? In this study, the relationship between such news media and anxiety levels is examined, as well as the possible mediating role that an optimistic life orientation may play in that relationship. It is hypothesized that the degree to which these individuals follow news media will positively correlate with their state anxiety levels, but when accounting for an optimistic worldview, this effect will be minimized or eliminated. A survey was administered to a sample of 278 undergraduate students attending Bryant University that measured their anxiety levels, life orientation in terms of optimism, and news media viewing habits. The results showed no significant correlation between news media viewing and state anxiety, and therefore also could not support any mediating role of optimism either. Limitations and mitigating factors regarding this study as well as possible avenues for future research are discussed