By Ioli Filmeridis, Rachel Hodel, Thomas Oliver,

Targeted threats, harassment, and the perpetration of physical violence against elected officials are increasingly prevalent around the world. The United States and Southern California are no exception. Local leaders - the most foundational representatives of the democratic processes that undergird our system of government - face unprecedented levels of uncivil and anti- democratic threats, harassment, and attacks. 1 The language, actions and mobilization targeting elected officials is often intended to

intimidate and silence individuals and can lead to their resignation, self-censorship, or disengagement from public meetings and interactions with constituents. The tactics are often purposeful, intended to achieve a political goal with a chilling effect on politics and policy. This type of political violence (the use of force or violence to achieve political objectives) has been increasingly common and prevalent, marked by an increase in threats against public officials at all levels of government. 2 By nearly all measures, political violence is considered to be more acceptable in the US than it was five years ago. 3 Faith in the government's ability to resolve issues and ‘do the right thing’ has declined to the lowest levels in over 70 years. 4 This disillusionment and polarization is concomitant with the rising number of threats targeting public officials. 5 According to the United States Capitol Police, the number of threats targeting members of Congress went up 45% between 2018 and 2022 (from 5,206 to 7,501 over five years),

requiring additional investment of resources and funding to investigate, protect and mitigate threats. Other research reveals a spike in federal charges in response to threats made against public officials - almost doubling between 2016 and 2022. During the 2013- 2016 period there were 38 federal charges per year, in the subsequent six-year period this reached 62 charges per year. Initial research for 2023 and 2024 has recorded an even higher number of charges.

San Diego: University of San Diego, Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice. 2024. 51p.

By Elena B. Stavrevska, Nattecia Nerene Bohardsingh, María Dolores Hernández Montoya, Tania Cecilia Martínez, Briana Mawby and Aliza Carns

Violence has traditionally been viewed through the lens of armed conflict or specific, concrete violent incidents. However, it is necessary to understand that violence may be a chronic phenomenon— a persistent, deeply ingrained aggression affecting daily lives. Chronic violence, as conceptualized in the work of authors including Tani Adams and Jenny Pearce, is embedded in societal structures, often perpetuated by socio-economic disparities, political instability and cultural norms. This report contributes to the study of chronic violence in three distinct ways: this

research centers gendered experiences and perspectives on chronic violence; the findings are based on the insights and research of authors living in contexts experiencing chronic violence; and the report focuses primarily on the connection between national- and international-level policies and frameworks to address chronic violence. Women and marginalized gender groups experience a particular type of chronic violence, stemming from deeply rooted patriarchal structures. These experiences, while diverse, share a common thread: they are manifestations of systemic oppression and inequality, from domestic violence to broader societal discrimination. The report makes the case for reconceptualizing violence in the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and gender equality fields, building upon feminist conceptions of the continuum of violence to recognize that societal structures, systemic discrimination and even pervasive cultural norms can be sources of violence. This comprehensive view has significant implications for policy, demanding multisectoral strategies that address not just symptoms but the root causes. This report illuminates the pervasive issue of chronic violence, especially its gendered dimensions, and advocates for comprehensive approaches to understanding and addressing it. Multidimensional strategies, inclusive policies and a global commitment are needed to elevate women’s roles across sectors, from community development to high-level peace negotiations. Understanding the deep intricacies of violence can serve as the bedrock for constructing sustainable, equitable peace. The analysis presented here reveals the following key findings: iv Chronic violence is pervasive and endemic, not episodic. Chronic violence affects women and LGBTQ+ people in distinct ways. A nuanced understanding of violence is necessary. Women are key actors in addressing chronic violence. Holistic, people-centered approaches at the international, national and local levels are imperative.

San Diego:

Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice, University of San Diego,

2023, 74p.

By David J. Bier

In “The Lifetime Fiscal Impact of Immigrants” (2024), the Manhattan Institute (MI) constructed a sophisticated model to estimate the likely lifetime fiscal e!ect of new immigrants on the US federal budget. MI concludes that the average immigrant will be fiscally positive a modest $10,000 in present value over a lifetime but that immigrants without a bachelor’s degree will be extremely fiscally negative. MI projects that the recent increase in migration will cost the federal government over $1.1 trillion over a century. A careful review of MI’s model finds that this result hinges on several unlikely assumptions, such as new arrivals causing large, immediate increases in defense spending, and no increase in corporate tax payments. When more realistic assumptions are adopted, MI’s model indicates that young, low-skilled immigrants will produce a positive lifetime contribution to the federal budget. For instance, the fiscal e!ect for a 22-year-old high school dropout changes from a negative $315,000 to a positive $45,000. After making revisions, including accounting for lower rates of benefits usage by immigrants, the model predicts the new group of unlawful entrants will likely be positive an aggregate $4.9 trillion.

Cato Institute, Working Paper, no 82

Washington, DC: Cato Institute 2024. 22p.

By Cevat Giray Aksoy, Barry Eichengreen, Anastasia Litina, Cem Özgüzel, Chan Yu:

Scholars and politicians have expressed concern that immigrants from countries with low levels of political trust transfer those attitudes to their destination countries. Using large-scale survey data covering 38 countries and exploiting origin-country variation across different cohorts and survey rounds, we show that, to the contrary, immigrants more exposed to institutional corruption before migrating exhibit higher levels of political trust in their new country. Higher trust is observed for national political institutions only and does not carry over to other supra-national institutions and individuals. We report evidence that higher levels of political trust among immigrants persist, leading to greater electoral participation and political engagement in the long run. The impact of home-country corruption on political trust in the destination country is further amplified by large differences in levels of income and democracy between home and host countries, which serve to highlight the contrast in the two settings. It is lessened by exposure to media, a source of information about institutional quality. Finally, our extensive analyses indicate that self-selection into host countries based on trust is highly unlikely and the results hold even when focusing only on forced migrants who were unlikely to have been subject to selection.

IZA DP No. 17553

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2024. 76p.

By Amnesty International

Peaceful protest is a powerful and public way for people to make their voices heard. It has long been a vital means for advancing human rights around the world. However, in Europe, the right of peaceful assembly is increasingly coming under attack, with state authorities stigmatizing, impeding, deterring, punishing and cracking down on those organizing and participating in peaceful protests.

This report documents an array of trends and patterns of human rights violations that curtail this right, and contains detailed recommendations for states to ensure that everyone’s right to protest is protected, respected and fulfilled.

London: Amnesty International, 2024. 209p.

By Brandon Cheng, Carmen C.W. Lim, Juliane Pariz Teixeira , Matthew J. Gullo , Gary C.K. Chan , Jason P. Connor

Background and aims: Social media use is now a significant part of modern daily life. Little is known about how social media impacts young peoples’ drinking behaviours and drinking-related consequences. This cohort study aims to explore the prospective relationship between social media use and future drinking. Methods: 1473 alcohol naïve young people, who at Wave 5 (aged 12–13 years) reported no lifetime alcohol use, were included (social media use, peer alcohol use, and covariates were also reported at Wave 5). At Wave 8 (aged 17–18 years), participants reported alcohol use outcomes, including age of drinking initiation, past month and past week risky consumption (>10 drinks/week), and problem drinking (alcohol-related troubles, injuries, and fights). Results: After controlling for factors known to be associated with alcohol use in young people and applying a conservative significance level (α =.01), results revealed that children who engaged in almost daily social media use at ages 12–13 later reported a younger age of drinking onset (β = − 0.56, 95 % CI = − 0.74, − 0.39, p <.001) and greater problem drinking (β = 0.48, 95 % CI = 0.13, 0.83, p =.008) at ages 17–18, compared to those who never used social media at ages 12–13. Early social media use was not associated with odds of subsequent pastmonth alcohol use or risky alcohol consumption. Conclusion: Young peoples’ social media use was associated with future drinking behaviours, prompting the need for preventative measures to acknowledge the salient impacts of social media.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Volume 265, 1 December 2024, 112478

By Zhuoer Lin, Yi Wang, Thomas M. Gill, Xi Chen:

Disparities in cognition persist between non-Hispanic Black (hereafter, Black) and non-Hispanic White (hereafter, White) older adults, and are possibly influenced by early educational differences stemming from structural racism. However, the relationship between school racial segregation and later-life cognition remains underexplored. We examined a nationally sample of older Americans from the Health and Retirement Study. Utilizing childhood residence data and cognitive assessment data (1995-2018) for Black and White participants aged 65 and older, Black-White dissimilarity index for public elementary schools measuring school segregation, multilevel analyses revealed a significant negative association between school segregation and later-life cognitive outcomes among Black participants, but not among White participants. Potential mediators across the life course, including educational attainment, explained 58-73% of the association, yet the associations remained large and significant among Black participants for all outcomes. Given the rising trend of school segregation in the US, educational policies aimed at reducing segregation are crucial to address health inequities. Clinicians can leverage patients' early-life educational circumstances to promote screening, prevention, and management of cognitive disorders.

IZA DP No. 17466

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. 2024. 64p.

By Zhuoer Lin, Yi Wang, Thomas M. Gill, Xi Chen:

Disparities in cognition persist between non-Hispanic Black (hereafter, Black) and non-Hispanic White (hereafter, White) older adults, and are possibly influenced by early educational differences stemming from structural racism. However, the relationship between school racial segregation and later-life cognition remains underexplored. We examined a nationally sample of older Americans from the Health and Retirement Study. Utilizing childhood residence data and cognitive assessment data (1995-2018) for Black and White participants aged 65 and older, Black-White dissimilarity index for public elementary schools measuring school segregation, multilevel analyses revealed a significant negative association between school segregation and later-life cognitive outcomes among Black participants, but not among White participants. Potential mediators across the life course, including educational attainment, explained 58-73% of the association, yet the associations remained large and significant among Black participants for all outcomes. Given the rising trend of school segregation in the US, educational policies aimed at reducing segregation are crucial to address health inequities. Clinicians can leverage patients' early-life educational circumstances to promote screening, prevention, and management of cognitive disorders.

IZA DP No. 17466

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics. 2024. 64p.

By South Australia Department of Education (SA)

This strategy has been developed by the Education Department through the South Australian Bullying Prevention Coalition, which includes Catholic and Independent school sectors, the Commissioner for Children and Young People, government departments and leading bullying prevention researchers.

Actions within the school gates include:

• strengthening bully prevention policy requirements and compliance measures in schools

• providing evidence-based curriculum content for children to learn about bullying, cyberbullying and online safety

• a targeted expansion of the PEACE Pack program based on the findings of the pilot

• providing all teachers with access to foundational training about supporting students who are at higher risk of bullying

• piloting the Friendly Schools program across all public schools in the Greater Gawler partnership

• providing new resources and training for teachers, students and families about bullying; and

• a partnership with the Youth Affairs Council of South Australia to support student-led bullying prevention initiatives in schools.

Actions beyond the school gates include:

• piloting a community recreation program in the City of Playford council area, strengthening children’s involvement in community programs

• an initiative that will see young people advise decision makers and urban planners about the establishment of safe child and youth-oriented spaces; and

• a comprehensive consultation process across the major sporting codes, led by the Commissioner for Children and Young People, to develop child-designed bullying prevention initiatives.

Adelaide: Government of South Australia 2019. 32p.

By Queensland Audit Office

This report examines whether the Queensland Department of Education’s (the department) strategies are effective in protecting students from bullying. The audit specifically focused on the role of the Department of Education in setting the strategic direction, providing support, and monitoring the implementation of bullying prevention initiatives across Queensland state schools.

The audit involved site visits to five schools, analysis of student behaviour data, and consultation with stakeholders including parents, teachers, principals, and peak bodies.

Key findings

• The department’s strategies and procedures are effectively designed in line with better practice research on bullying, and these provide its schools with an evidence-based approach to manage bullying on a day-to-day basis. However, the department could be more explicit and better communicate how its strategies are intended to address bullying.

• The strategies lack specific objectives, targets, and measures for monitoring progress.

• Communication of school codes of conduct could be improved. The codes of conduct are lengthy and often omit mandatory elements, such as details about staff training and reporting thresholds.

• Data collection on students who experience bullying is limited, hindering the department's understanding of the extent and impact of bullying and its ability to provide targeted support.

Recommendations for the department

1. Clearly document its approach to bullying.

2. Support more effective communication of schools' codes of conduct.

3. Enhance data collection to include information on students who experience bullying, including cyberbullying.

4. Enhance monitoring of student bullying by: collecting and analysing information on experiences of bullying, establishing processes for monitoring school implementation of bullying policies, and evaluating the effectiveness of its policies and resources.

5. Review the Parent and Community Engagement framework to provide specific guidance on engaging parents on complex policy issues such as bullying.

6. Provide readily available resources for school staff on preventing and responding to bullying behaviour. 

 Report 6: 2024–25

Brisbane: The State of Queensland (Queensland Audit Office). 2024. 48p.

By Courtney Burke and Asmaul Shukh

Across the nation, a large number of adults, children, and their loved ones are grappling with substance-use disorders and mental health challenges. Many are people seeking the behavioral health services they need to address these issues, however, can face months or even years of waiting for urgently needed care, during which time their conditions can worsen, leading to preventable and devastating life-altering outcomes, including overdose or suicide.These effects ripple through families and communities, with disparities in access to care further impacting marginalized communities, such as racial and ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people living with disabilities. Access to behavioral health services is challenged by underfunding the service system, reimbursement rates that may fail to cover the full cost of care, and, at times, constraints imposed by rules and regulations. These systemic issues also contribute to widespread staffing shortages in behavioral health, further reducing the availability of essential services. While there are multiple factors that contribute to delays in access to substance use disorder and mental health services, this paper examines barriers arising from insurance-related challenges. It provides examples of existing and proposed policies and initiatives from several states that demonstrate ways to improve access to care through insurance policy reforms. Finally, it provides options and opportunities to improve access to care through both public and private insurance at the state and federal levels.

Albany, NY: Rockefeller Institute of Government, 2024. 32p.

By Lydia Bates, et al.

Why this guide? A wide variety of forms of misogyny and gender-based bigotry have spiked in recent years. This includes a documented rise in forms of male supremacist violence that are now recognized as part of the spectrum of domestic violent extremism, including threats, plots and attacks from misogynist incels. Everyday forms of misogyny and hostile sexism, especially online, have also increased, with one study showing that misogynistic tweets positively predict domestic and family violence in the United States. Further, anti-feminist sentiments have been rising among Generation Z boys and young men. This rise in gender-based bigotry includes a surge of anti-LGBTQ+ ideas and beliefs, evidenced through the hundreds of discriminatory bills introduced across the United States in 2024. At the intersection of anti-Black racism, anti-LGBTQ+ hate and misogyny, Black women, girls and transgender women experience an outsized amount of harm and violence. On the community level, these harms manifest from harassment at Pride month events and attacks on LGBTQ+ friendly businesses to unequal reproductive health care access and deadly transmisogynist violence. These surges are partially explained by the sheer breadth of online spaces where gender-based hate is fostered and thrives, such as video game chats, comment trolls on mainstream social media sites, and dedicated Reddit pages focused on ways to manipulate and denigrate women. Because hateful comments, memes and short-form videos are often infused with irony, satire or other forms of humor, gender-based hate online is sometimes disguised as “just a joke” or hidden behind the excuse of having two different meanings. Hate and policing individuals’ gender have also been legitimized and normalized by politicians, elected officials, and online influencers who peddle supposed success stories of wealth and status that rely on the exploitation and domination of women. And extremist groups who embrace racism and political violence, like the Proud Boys, have joined the fray by directly targeting bookstores that host Drag Story Hours and demonstrations advocating for abortion rights. Falsely linking drag performances and LGBTQ+ people with sexual predation, sometimes called “grooming,” they have sought new ways to build sympathy among mainstream conservatives. Collaboration & Scope A collaborative team of experts from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) drafted this guide. It is part of a broader public health approach for the prevention of violence and harm stemming from extremism, manipulative disinformation and dehumanizing rhetoric. Our organizations root our development of this approach in communities’ needs and by centering support for targeted individuals and survivors. And our approach is necessarily noncarceral, so that we can emphasize education and prevention over monitoring, surveillance and other security-based approaches. This guide is a resource for caregivers who surround and support young people – parents and relatives, teachers and educators, counselors and therapists, coaches and youth mentors, and more. It includes an overview and introduction to the concepts, trends and risks related to gender-based bigotry alongside the tools to build resilience and awareness, as well as ways to intervene. It also provides strategies and resources to support survivors and targeted individuals and communities. While this guide cannot cover every harm that young people will encounter related to gender-based bigotry, we aim for as wide a breadth as possible. 

Montgomery, AL: Southern Poverty Law Center, 2024. page 1-28.

UNITED STATES. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. CHIEF DIGITAL AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICE

From the document: "On December 11th, the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) launched the Artificial Intelligence Rapid Capabilities Cell (AI RCC), charged with accelerating the adoption and delivery of frontier and advanced AI capabilities for the Department of Defense (DoD). Through targeted initiatives aimed at putting advanced AI in the hands of warfighters, the AI RCC will allow the Department to move at speed to capitalize on emerging technologies, like Generative AI (GenAI), while building the foundational technical enablers to scale these technologies across DoD. The AI RCC will be managed by the CDAO and executed in partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The AI RCC is leveraging the findings from Task Force Lima (TFL) [hyperlink] to accelerate and scale the deployment of cutting-edge AI-enabled tools across 15 use cases for Generative AI covering warfighting and enterprise management."

UNITED STATES. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.. 2024. 3p.

By The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Guidelines for the Dismantling of Clandestine Laboratories (ST/NAR/56) is one in a series of similar UNODC publications dealing with clandestine manufacture of substances under international control, and the safe handling and disposal of chemicals used in the illicit manufacture of drugs. These manuals form part of a programme pursued by UNODC since the early 1980s to enhance the operational capacity of law enforcement personnel and drug testing laboratories, to improve the quality of their performance, and to promote standardization of working practices. This is to ensure that both scientific and non-scientific personnel have comprehensive information on risks of exposure and appropriate controls, precautions for evidence searching and handling as well as emergency medical and overdose responses. The target audience for this manual are law enforcement personnel that may encounter clandestine laboratories in their duties, crime scene and forensic experts that may have to collect evidence, process and dismantle these facilities, and also, the judiciary and policymakers and other stakeholders who may benefit from a greater understanding of the risks involved in dismantling clandestine laboratories. Furthermore, the manual underlines the importance of the development of national capacity, inter-agency cooperation and national legal frameworks in order to effectively respond to challenges encountered in laboratories where substances under international control are clandestinely manufactured.

Vienna: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2024. 81p.

By Margaret Love

This report deals with a form of relief from the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction that is less far-reaching than expungement or other forms of record clearing, but is potentially available to more people at an earlier point in time. These so-called “certificates of relief” do not limit public access to a person’s record, but they may be effective in reducing many conviction-related disadvantages in the workplace, including by providing employers and others with protection against the risk of being sued for negligence. At least as long as expungement and sealing remain unavailable to many people with a felony conviction record, or are available only after lengthy waiting periods, certificates of relief can provide an important addition to a state’s reentry scheme, and serve as a bridge to more thorough forms of record relief like expungement. We believe that, rather than competing as alternative forms of relief, certificates and expungement can operate as complementary parts of a structured system of serially available criminal record relief. Yet it appears that certificates have been largely ignored in many states by courts that are empowered to dispense them, as well as by the advocacy community whose clients might benefit from them. State court systems have failed to collect, track, or aggregate basic data like the number of certificate applications, grants, and denials, a failure that makes it almost impossible to evaluate a certificate’s effectiveness in a given state. At the same time, in a promising development, certificates are being used by prison and parole agencies to facilitate reentry for those exiting prison or completing supervision. Given the perceived limits of record clearing as a comprehensive reentry strategy, social science researchers have become interested in studying the effect of laws that aim to increase the positive information about individuals with a criminal record to counter the negative effect of the record itself. This report is intended to support these research efforts by describing the state of the law relating to certificates of relief in the 21 states that now offer them. A follow-up study will look at the state of executive pardoning

Washington, DC: Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC), 2024. 42p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Science Education; Susan Debad, Rapporteur

The complex challenges facing society today call for new ways of doing research that bring researchers, policy makers, community leaders and members, industry stakeholders, and others together to identify evidence needs, contribute different kinds of knowledge and expertise, and use evidence to accomplish shared goals. Although momentum is building toward a research enterprise that more routinely enables and rewards this type of collaboration, the development of institutional capacities to support diverse forms of engaged research have not kept pace with the need for them.

The National Academias Press, 2001, 148 pages

By: B.L. Putnam Weale

Conflict of Colour: The book discusses the global racial tensions and the inevitable conflicts arising from them, focusing on the division between East and West. It highlights the impact of population growth on global politics, emphasizing that density of population will increasingly influence world movements..The author argues that Western powers often fail to understand the cultural and emotional needs of Asian populations, leading to ineffective governance.The document explores the strategic importance of regions like India and China, and the shifting power dynamics due to rising Asian powers.

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910.

By Manfred Halpern

Defensive Aggressiveness: Groups may retreat to defensive aggressiveness, risking repression of individual consciousness and creativity.

Group vs. Individual: True societal transformation requires new individual consciousness and creativity, not just group victories.

Racism and Ideologies: Racism is compared to other ideologies like nationalism and revolution, showing how they can become reified and lead to incoherence.

Global Comparisons: The document compares the capacity of different societies, including American and African Blacks, to deal with continuity,change, collaboration, conflict, and justice in the face of incoherence.

Race and Nations Monograph Series, 1970, 41 pages

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Health Care Services; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Committee on Unequal Treatment Revisited: The Current State of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care; Georges C. Benjamin, Jennifer E. DeVoe, Francis K. Amankwah, and Sharyl J. Nass, Editors

Racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care impact individual well-being, contribute to millions of premature deaths, and cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Addressing these inequities is vital to improving the health of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities—and will also help to achieve optimal health for all. In 2003, the Institute of Medicine examined these inequities in Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care.

Because disparities persist, the National Academies convened an expert committee with support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health. The committee’s report reviews the major drivers of health care disparities, provides insight into successful and unsuccessful interventions, identifies gaps in the evidence base, and makes recommendations to advance health equity.

National Academies. 2024. 375p..

By Robert A.LeVine and Donald .T Campbell

Origins and Purpose: The book originated from a 1958 seminar oninternational relations, highlighting the lack of cross-cultural data oninterethnic relations. It aims to address this gap by proposing acooperative research project on ethnocentrism.

Ethnocentrism Defined: Ethnocentrism is described as viewing one's own group as the center of everything, with other groups rated andscaled in reference to it. This includes attitudes, emotions, and collective actions that reinforce group solidarity and intergroup conflict.

Theoretical Framework: The book surveys various social science theories about ethnocentrism, focusing on cross-cultural variations in ethnocentric actions, institutions, ideologies, and attitudes. It aims to clarify contradictions and agreements among these theories.

Research Methodology: The authors developed a field manual for ethnographic research on ethnocentrism, emphasizing the importance of understanding both in group and out group dynamics.

John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1972, 310 pages