The Role of Humiliation in Collective Political Violence

A humiliating event can generate powerful emotions that can become part of a group’s identity. The need for vengeance can erupt into violence decades later, even across generations, especially in situations where physical force is associated with respect or status. Humiliation is a neglected area of the violence literature, yet has the power to turn insult into retribution, and indignation into fury. When humiliation takes the form of extreme degradation, then the resulting fury washes away the shame of helplessness. I take the psychoanalytical theories of child development, social trauma, demonisation of the enemy and the entitlements of victimhood and show how they combine with humiliation to yield violence. Humiliation also interferes with the mourning process, making it difficult to come to terms with loss and leads to an obsession with the past events. Violence against a humiliator is usually paid back in the same currency, so a humiliated people will tend to humiliate their oppressors. Political leaders can manipulate this need for revenge, and if they have personal narcissistic tendencies will merge their personal need to avoid humiliation with that of society at large, potentially embarking on unnecessary conflicts. In societies where security or status relies on a reputation of toughness or a credible threat of violence, any potential challenge or insult must be confronted aggressively to avoid humiliation. These ideas are brought together in an analysis of Israeli Palestinian conflict in Gaza. Here two societies, each having undergone deep trauma and humiliation, remain locked in violent conflict. The thesis suggests that the daily humiliations of the people of Gaza helps to build a pool of resentful young men and women, and that this becomes a fertile recruitment ground for resistance organisations. Retaliation against aggression results in deeper humiliation and the cycle of violence continues

Cusp Disruption in Minor Mergers

We present 0.55 x 10^6 particle simulations of the accretion of high-density dwarf galaxies by low-density giant galaxies, using models that contain both power-law central density cusps and point masses representing supermassive black holes. The cusp of the dwarf galaxy is disrupted during the merger, producing a remnant with a central density that is only slightly higher than that of the giant galaxy initially. Removing the black hole from the giant galaxy allows the dwarf galaxy to remain intact and leads to a remnant with a high central density, contrary to what is observed. Our results support the hypothesis that the persistence of low-density cores in giant galaxies is a consequence of supermassive black holes.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figures, uses emulateapj.sty. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Crime, punishment and segregation in the United States: the paradox of local democracy

Patterns of crime and punishment in the USA greatly magnify corresponding developments in other liberal market economies – Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK – faced with similar broad macro-technological transformations, namely the collapse of Fordism in the 1970s and 1980s and the development of knowledge economies in the 1990s and 2000s. In this article, we set out the case for seeing these differences as largely the product of dynamics shaped by the institutional structure of the US political system. We focus on the exceptional direct and indirect role of local democracy in key policy areas including law and order and beyond that in residential zoning, in public education and in incorporation of suburbs, which has no parallel in the other Anglo-Saxon polities, and which magnifies through residential and educational segregation and concentrated poverty the social problems caused by socio-economic developments

Exploring Interpersonal Relationships in Security Information Sharing

Information fraud is a significant problem for modern firms. Firms may share information about vulnerabilities, but prior research into sharing has delivered mixed results. Most prior research work has examined sharing at the organizational level and we know little of the role of interpersonal relationships in security information sharing. This paper uses a case study of a large Asia-Pacific telecommunications provider to develop theory about interpersonal security information sharing. The results suggest that sharing is promoted by trust, risk and uncertainty, knowledge management and relationship factors. Investigators shared information partly to overcome tensions with other business areas and to ameliorate operational risk perceptions. Interpersonal relationships allowed sharers to benefit from complementary and specialist knowledge in other firms, thereby translating the meaning of fraud information between business environments

Comparing serious violent crime in the US and England and Wales: why it matters, and how it can be done

Comparative analysis of violent crime is hampered by a lack of reliable statistics, even between relatively similar countries, with doubts about existing studies suggesting that further comparative data is needed. Violent crime presents particular problems of variation in offence definition and recording practices. We can, however, derive reasonably valid comparative data for the US and England and Wales for the narrower category of serious violent crime. We show broadly that the incidence of serious violent crime per capita is between three and seven times as high in the US as in England and Wales. This parallels the comparative data on homicide; existing comparisons with Canada and New Zealand lend further weight to the claim that levels of serious violence in the US are distinctively high

Who goes where? The importance of peer groups on attainment and the student use of the lecture theatre teaching space

Understanding how students interact and learn within the lecture theatre environment is central to successful learning outcomes. Previous studies into the use of the lecture theatre teaching space have found that students sit in specific locations due to a range of factors; these include being noticed, addressing anxiety or an ability to focus. This study further explores the personal and social factors at play within students’ lecture theatre seating choice and the resulting effects on attainment. Student responses on seating preferences detailing why they chose a given location were mapped at a seat‐specific level and correlated against attainment. In parallel, staff perceptions of student attainment in relation to their seating choice were obtained. No direct correlation between student location and attainment was found, contrary to staff perceptions. Interestingly, it was found that students physically locate into friendship groups clusters and that these clusters obtained similar levels of attainment in problem‐solving tasks, with pockets of both high‐ and low‐performing students being observed. It was also noted that isolated students performed less well. These data would indicate that peer group formation exerts a strong impact on attainment and engagement. Outcomes from this study will enable academic staff to better understand the student body and inform the way in which teaching sessions are performed within a lecture theatre

H-Diplo Roundtable XXI-28 on Tworek. News from Germany: the competition to control world communications, 1900-1945

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Owen County Transportation Vulnerability Study

In this session we discuss the Transportation Vulnerability Assessment the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Polis Center completed for Owen County, Indiana. The results were presented to state and community officials in a public meeting held on December 7, 2015. A focus analysis of the vulnerable assets will be performed, including developing engineering hydraulic models for the site, flood depth grids, fluvial erosion mapping, and cost estimates for suggested mitigation