Constructing a global counterterrorist legislation database: dilemmas, procedures, and preliminary analyses

Counterterrorist legislation is one of the main ways in which countries, particularly democracies, respond to terror attacks. Yet, there is to date no comprehensive cross-national database of counterterrorist legislation. This article introduces an overarching global counterterrorist legislation database (GCLD), covering more than 1,000 laws in 219 countries and territories over the years 1850-2009. I present the dilemmas and difficulties involved in constructing a global terrorism database and explain how these difficulties were addressed when assembling the current database. The article also brings descriptive statistics and analyses of the data, focusing on the historical development of global counterterrorist legislation and on the regional distribution of this legislation. It concludes with some recommendations for future researchers who may want to use the database.Publisher PD

Why men receive much more media coverage than women

In terms of the representation of women in society, great strides have been made in some areas, but less so in others. In new research using newspapers, magazines and online sources, Eran Shor examines the representation of women in the media, finding that 82 percent of the names mentioned are men’s. He writes that the underrepresentation of women is mostly down to the media’s near exclusive focus on individuals at the top of occupational and social hierarchies, who are still mostly men

"Shades of foreign evil": "honour killings" and "family murders" in the Canadian press

This article compares murder cases labelled “honour killings” to cases labelled “family/spousal murders” in the Canadian news media, exploring the construction of boundaries between these two practices. We conducted a systematic qualitative content analysis, examining a sample of 486 articles from three major Canadian newspapers between 2000 and 2012. Our analysis shows that “honour killings” are framed in terms of culture and ethnic background, presenting a dichotomy between South Asian/Muslim and Western values. Conversely, articles presenting cases as “family/spousal murders” tend to focus on the perpetrators’ personalities or psychological characteristics, often ignoring factors such as culture, patriarchy, honour, and shame

Aggression in Pornography

Aggression in Pornography focusses on the issue of violence in mainstream pornography and examines what we know, what we think we know, and what are some surprising research findings and insights about the place of violence within pornography today. The authors first review the modern pornography industry, theoretical claims about pornography as violence, and the ways in which aggression has been defined and measured in previous research. Next, they review the findings of empirical research on violent content in pornographic materials and the potential effects of such content on audiences. The main part of the book relies on systematically collected empirical data, as the authors analyze the content of hundreds of pornographic videos as well as more than a hundred interviews with men and women who regularly watch pornography. These analyses provide surprising insights regarding the prevalence of and trends in violent content within mainstream pornography, the popularity of violent and non-violent content among viewers, and variations in aggression by race and sexual orientation. As such, Aggression in Pornography will be of interest to students and researchers in sociology, gender and sexuality studies, and media and film studies, as well as to wider audiences who are interested in today’s pornography industry and to policymakers looking to devise empirically driven policies regarding this industry and its potential effects

Losing life and livelihood: A systematic review and meta-analysis of unemployment and all-cause mortality

Unemployment rates in the United States remain near a 25-year high and global unemployment is rising. Previous studies have shown that unemployed persons have an increased risk of death, but the magnitude of the risk and moderating factors have not been explored. The study is a random effects meta-analysis and meta-regression designed to assess the association between unemployment and all-cause mortality among working-age persons. We extracted 235 mortality risk estimates from 42 studies, providing data on more than 20 million persons. The mean hazard ratio (HR) for mortality was 1.63 among HRs adjusted for age and additional covariates. The mean effect was higher for men than for women. Unemployment was associated with an increased mortality risk for those in their early and middle careers, but less for those in their late career. The risk of death was highest during the first 10 years of follow-up, but decreased subsequently. The mean HR was 24% lower among the subset of studies controlling for health-related behaviors. Public health initiatives could target unemployed persons for more aggressive cardiovascular screening and interventions aimed at reducing risk-taking behaviors

Misery loves company? A meta-regression examining aggregate unemployment rates and the unemployment-mortality association

Purpose: Individual-level unemployment has been consistently linked to poor health and higher mortality, but some scholars have suggested that the negative effect of job loss may be lower during times and in places where aggregate unemployment rates are high. We review three logics associated with this moderation hypothesis: health selection, social isolation, and unemployment stigma. We then test whether aggregate unemployment rates moderate the individual-level association between unemployment and all-cause mortality. Methods: We use six meta-regression models (each using a different measure of the aggregate unemployment rate) based on 62 relative all-cause mortality risk estimates from 36 studies (from 15 nations). Results: We find that the magnitude of the individual-level unemployment-mortality association is approximately the same during periods of high and low aggregate-level unemployment. Model coefficients (exponentiated) were 1.01 for the crude unemployment rate (P = .27), 0.94 for the change in unemployment rate from the previous year (P = .46), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 5-year running average (P = .87), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the 10-year running average (P = .73), 1.01 for the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average (measured as a continuous variable; P = .61), and showed no variation across unemployment levels when the deviation of the unemployment rate from the overall average was measured categorically. Heterogeneity between studies was significant (P < .001), supporting the use of the random effects model. Conclusions: We found no strong evidence to suggest that unemployment experiences change when macroeconomic conditions change. Efforts to ameliorate the negative social and economic consequences of unemployment should continue to focus on the individual and should be maintained regardless of periodic changes in macroeconomic conditions

Meta-analysis of marital dissolution and mortality: Reevaluating the intersection of gender and age

The study of marital dissolution (i.e. divorce and separation) and mortality has long been a major topic of interest for social scientists. We conducted meta-analyses and meta-regressions on 625 mortality risk estimates from 104 studies, published between 1955 and 2011, covering 24 countries, and providing data on more than 600 million persons. The mean hazard ratio (HR) for mortality in our meta-analysis was 1.30 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23–1.37) among HRs adjusted for age and additional covariates. The mean HR was higher for men (HR, 1.37; 95% CI, 1.27–1.49) than for women (HR, 1.22; 95% CI: 1.13–1.32), but the difference between men and women decreases as the mean age increases. Other significant moderators of HR magnitude included sample size; being from Western Europe, Israel, the United Kingdom and former Commonwealth nations; and statistical adjustment for general health status

Meta-Analysis for Sociology – A Measure-Driven Approach

Meta-analytic methods are becoming increasingly important in sociological research. In this article we present an approach for meta-analysis which is especially helpful for sociologists. Conventional approaches to meta-analysis often prioritize “concept-driven” literature searches. However, in disciplines with high theoretical diversity, such as sociology, this search approach might constrain the researcher’s ability to fully exploit the entire body of relevant work. We explicate a “measure-driven” approach, in which iterative searches and new computerized search techniques are used to increase the range of publications found (and thus the range of possible analyses) and to traverse time and disciplinary boundaries. We demonstrate this measure-driven search approach with two meta-analytic projects, examining the effects of various social variables on all-cause mortality

Widowhood and Mortality: A Meta-Analysis and Meta-Regression

The study of spousal bereavement and mortality has long been a major topic of interest for social scientists, but much remains unknown with respect to important moderating factors, such as age, follow-up duration, and geographic region. The present study examines these factors using meta-analysis. Keyword searches were conducted in multiple electronic databases, supplemented by extensive iterative hand searches. We extracted 1,377 mortality risk estimates from 123 publications, providing data on more than 500 million persons. Compared with married people, widowers had a mean hazard ratio (HR) of 1.23 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.19–1.28) among HRs adjusted for age and additional covariates and a high subjective quality score. The mean HR was higher for men (HR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.19–1.35) than for women (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08–1.22). A significant interaction effect was found between gender and mean age, with HRs decreasing more rapidly for men than for women as age increased. Other significant predictors of HR magnitude included sample size, geographic region, level of statistical adjustment, and study quality