By JAMES JACCARD and Cl-JO! K. WAN

This monograph is a companion to our earlier book Interaction Effects in Multiple Regression (Sage QASS No. 72, by Jaccard, Turrisi, and Wan). In this monograph, we guide the reader through the use of the computer program LISREL and how it can be applied to multiple-indicator analyses of interactions in regression frameworks. We assume that the reader is familiar with the material in our previous monograph, but we assume no prior knowledge of LISREL or structural equation models. Readers with limited background in structural equation modeling can consult other texts to familiar- ize themselves with the complex issues involved in such model testing (e.g., Bollen, 1989; Bollen & Long, 1993; Loehlin, 1987).

Our approach is pedagogically oriented and will disappoint more technically oriented readers. Our goal is to introduce the general analytic strategy to the reader so that he or she can gain a general overview of the analytic methods. This is an introductory treatment aimed at the applied researcher with a reasonable background in traditional multiple regression. It is not intended to be a text on structural equation modeling. Because of page restrictions, we were unable to discuss many topics that more experienced analysts probably would have liked us to consider. To counteract this, we have directed the reader to additional resource materials that we have found to be useful. Wherever possible, we have provided practical recommendations for analysts based on the current literature. At times, this was difficult because of a paucity of research on the issue in question. Rather then leave the analyst hanging, we decided to give our "best guess" in terms of practical advice, recognizing full well that future research may alter our recommendations and that some analysts may disagree with our recommendations.

Sage Publications, Inc.,1996 ,110p.

By Harold J. Laski

I mean by liberty the absence of restraint upon the existence of those social conditions which, in modem civilization, are the necessary guarantees of individual happiness. I seek to inquire into the terms upon which it is attainable in the Western world, and, more especially, to find those rules of conduct to which political authority must conform if its subjects are, in a genuine sense, to be free. Already, therefore, I am maintaining a thesis. I am arguing, first, that liberty is essentially an absence of restraint. It implies power to expand, the choice by the individual of his own way of life without imposed prohibitions from without. Men cannot, as Rousseau claimed, be forced into freedom. They do not, as Hegel in- 1 LIBERTY IN THE MODERN STATE sisted, find their liberty in obedience to the law. They are free when the rules under which they live leave them without a sense of frustration in realms they deem significant. They are unfree whenever the rules to which they have to conform compel them to conduct which they dislike and resent. I do not deny that there are types of conduct against which prohibitions are desirable: I ought, for instance, to be compelled, even against my wish, to educate my children. But I am arguing that any rule which demands from me something I would not otherwise give is a diminution of my freedom.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK AND LONDON, 1930, 295p.

By John Ashton

Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen, meaning joy, pleasure, sports, or gaming—and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble—to play extravagantly for money, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later—as we see in Cotton’s Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word :— “ Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten between Idleness and Avarice-, an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula, are laughing themselves to death ; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow. It hath this ill property above all other Vices, that it renders a man incapable of prosecuting any serious action, and makes him always unsatisfied with his own condition ; he is either lifted up to the top of mad joy with success, or plung’d to the bottom of despair by misfortune, always in extreams, always in a storm

LONDON DUCKWORTH & CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C., 1898, 301p.

Edited by Alexander Klein

I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.------William Shakespeare There is a short period of infancy when, psychologists tell us, every human being feels himself omnipotent and unlimited. During this halcyon time the infant does not distinguish between himself and other objects: they are all himself, he is the whole universe. But, in due time, each infant makes the painful discovery that he is a limited being, dependent on others whose wishes do not always coincide with his own, imprisoned within his own skin, fated to live within the circumscribed orbit of his own experience. This loss of omnipotence is balanced, however, by the rise of the faculty of imagination, of dreaming and by the consequent creation of illusion and myth. A man is only as limited as his imagination.

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 1955, 378p.

By Norman G. Finkelstein

This book is not about Gaza. It is about what has been done to Gaza. It is fashionable nowadays to speak of a victim s agency. But one must be realistic about the constraints imposed on such agency by objective circumstance. Frederick Douglass could reclaim his manhood by striking back at a slave master who viciously abused him. Nelson Mandela could retain his dignity in jail despite conditions calibrated to humiliate and degrade him. Still, these were exceptional individuals and exceptional circumstances, and anyhow, even if he acquits himself with honor, the elemental decisions affecting the daily life of a man held in bondage and the power to effect these decisions remain outside his control. Gaza, as former British prime minister David Cameron observed, is an “open-air prison.”11116 Israeli warden is in charge. In the popular imagination confected by state propaganda, and dutifully echoed by everyone else in authority, Israel is almost always reacting to or retaliating against “terrorism.” But neither the inhuman and illegal blockade Israel imposed on Gaza nor the periodic murderous “operations” Israel has unleashed against it trace back to Hamas rocket fire.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2018, 424p.

JAMES A. BAKER, R. ALTA CHARO, et al.

Facial recognition technology (FRT) is an increasingly prevalent tool for automated identification and identity verification of individuals. Its speed and accuracy have improved dramatically in the past decade. Its use speeds up identification tasks that would otherwise need to be performed manually in a slower or more labor-intensive way and, in many use cases, makes identification tasks practical that would be entirely infeasible without the use of these tools. FRT measures the pairwise similarity of digital images of human faces to estab- lish or verify identity. It uses machine learning models to extract facial features from an­ ­ image, creating what is known as a template. It then compares these templates to compute a similarity score. In one-to-one comparison, the claimed identity of a single individual is verified by comparing the template of a captured probe image with an exist- ing reference image (is this person who they say they are?). In one-to-many comparison, an individual is identified by comparing the template of a captured face image to the templates for many individuals contained in a database of reference images known as a gallery (what is the identity of the unknown person shown in this image?). FRT accuracy is affected by image quality. Good quality is associated with coopera- tive capture in which the subject is voluntarily facing a good camera at close range with good lighting. Good lighting is especially important to give correct contrast in subjects with darker skin tones. Non-cooperative capture, in which subjects may not even realize that their image is being captured, such as images taken from security cameras, gener- ally results in lower-quality images.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine, (2024), 160 pages

By Parliament of Victoria, . Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee  

There is no single source of information that tells us about the profile and volume of people who use family violence in Victoria—or one single way to build our understanding of this cohort. Data is collected and held in multiple places and used for different purposes—including risk assessment and management, policy development, service planning, research and evaluation activities. Inquiry stakeholders identified consistent barriers to the collection, sharing and use of data about people who use family violence—all of which contribute to the barriers of achieving a full understanding of this cohort. This report’s recommendations seek to address these. Consistent barriers identified by stakeholders were: • system silos and data fragmentation—many sectors operate in data silos, making it challenging to see all the services someone is using and tracking their journey through sectors and multiple relationships. Data can also be fragmented within an organisation because they may be using multiple, different and unaligned databases. • data accuracy and reliability—several factors contribute to this, including inconsistent data collection standards, bias in data collection, and data collection not always being meaningful or what is needed. Collecting inaccurate or incomplete data about diversity also contributes, as does the underreporting of family violence. • organisational capacity and databases—data quality is impacted by the high level of administrative burden, and may be impacted by staff resources and capabilities. Outdated or onerous databases can add to the administrative burden, especially when the data comes in different formats that are difficult to analyse or share.  

East Melbourne Victoria: Parliament of Victoria,  Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee , 2025. 318p.

By Lauren Hamilton,  Lucy Macmillan,  Rodney Vlais

  • In 2023, the Northern Territory Department of Children and Families commissioned Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) to conduct separate process evaluations of the two government-funded community-based men’s behaviour change programs (MBCPs) in the NT. • The MBCPs are delivered by two service providers, CatholicCare NT in Darwin and Wadeye, and Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisation (ACCO) Tangentyere Council in Alice Springs. • This paper draws together key findings from the two evaluations relating to the MBCPs’ operating contexts, practice strengths, and the barriers and enablers to implementing quality practice. It provides recommendations from across the two  evaluations, focused on both the program level and the system level. • As part of the process evaluations, ANROWS developed the Quality Practice Elements for Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (MBCPs) in the Northern Territory (“quality practice elements”) in consultation with the two MBCP service providers and the Northern Territory Department of Children and Families. The quality practice elements were designed to support an assessment of quality practice being delivered by the two MBCPs. They outline nine areas of quality practice for MBCPs, contextualised to the NT, and were used to inform evaluation findings. The quality practice elements are published separately and can be read alongside this paper.   What was examined? The process evaluations examined two community-based MBCPs funded by the Northern Territory Department of Children and Families: CatholicCare NT’s Perpetrator Intervention Service operating in Darwin and Wadeye, and Tangentyere Council’s Marra’ka Mbarintja MBCP operating in Alice Springs. The focus on “process” meant the evaluations examined how the MBCPs were being delivered, rather than whether or not they were achieving intended outcomes. Specifically, the evaluations sought to understand how the MBCPs were being delivered in practice, and to compare this with what is understood to be quality practice for MBCPs in the context of the NT. The evaluations were guided by the following high-level questions: • How is each MBCP operating in its context? • How integrated is each MBCP with the community and service system? • How does each MBCP align with relevant standards of quality practice? • How does each MBCP manage risk and are there any unintended consequences? • What could be put in place to improve or prepare for future monitoring and evaluation of each MBCP?  Why is this important? There is a clear need for evaluations of domestic and family violence (DFV) programs and initiatives that are specific to the NT context, to support evidence-informed policy and practice to address the immense problem of DFV in the NT. This is particularly the case in relation to MBCPs, where evidence is needed to understand how these programs operate in different contexts, and the role they can play within a broader DFV service system. As this was the first time the two NT MBCPs have been externally evaluated since their inception, this work aimed to support the MBCPs and the NT Government to understand how the programs are being implemented, key factors that are influencing implementation, and areas for improvement. Findings from the evaluations are intended to support service provider-level decisions about adaptations or adjustments to the MBCPs and importantly, to identify system-level opportunities for the NT Government to support the MBCPs to work towards enhancing the safety of women and children in the NT.

Sydney: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS), 2025. 36p.

By Max Griswold, Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Alex Sizemore, Cheng Ren, Lawrence Baker, Khadesia Howell, Osonde A. Osoba, Jhacova Williams, Jason M. Ward, Sarah B. Hunter

From 1995 to 2020, 104 municipalities in California adopted crime-free housing policies (CFHPs), seeking to reduce crime rates in multifamily rental housing. Across the United States, it is estimated that 2000 cities adopted a CFHP by 2019. Proponents of CFHPs claim these policies reduce crime by deterring criminal activity in rental properties. Critics argue that CFHPs lead to increased evictions and disproportionally impact low-income individuals, particularly people of color.

The authors evaluate proponents' and critics' claims regarding the effects of CFHPs, examine the implementation and enforcement of CFHPs, and assess how CFHPs affect the lived experiences of tenants in California. Findings indicate that CFHPs do not achieve their intended objective of preventing or reducing crime, but use of CFHPs does lead to a significant increase in evictions.

Key Findings

In 2020, there were 104 municipalities in California with a crime-free housing policy (CFHP). Between 2009 and 2019, 34 municipalities implemented CFHPs, which potentially increased policy coverage by 2.4 million renters.

The results of our study indicate no statistically meaningful relationship between CFHPs and crime rates but a strong relationship with increased evictions.

Municipalities with CFHPs have larger population proportions of Black residents than municipalities without CFHPs. Additionally, within municipalities, rental units covered by CFHPs are in neighborhood blocks with lower per capita income than municipal blocks without CFHP units.

It is difficult to challenge evictions caused by CFHPs because tenants often do not know the cause of their eviction and because CFHP evictions are treated by the court system as standard lease violations.

Tenants in CFHP properties are closely surveilled by both law enforcement, landlords, and property managers. Law enforcement agencies stay in contact with landlords and property managers who lease CFHP-covered units, and some agencies maintain databases that track tenant encounters with law enforcement officers.

Recommendations

Municipalities should reconsider maintaining or adopting CFHPs. Prior research and the findings in this report show that CFHPs do not serve their main purpose of reducing crime and do increase evictions.

State law should ensure that tenants are informed about evictions caused by CFHPs. Tenants are frequently unable to understand the cause of their eviction, and therefore face barriers to seeking legal assistance in eviction proceedings

Legislators should consider adopting civil right-to-counsel policies in eviction proceedings. In general, without legal representation, tenants are more likely to be evicted, face larger monetary judgments, and are more likely to be removed from their housing. Adopting these policies could result in more-equitable outcomes.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2023, 24p.

By David de Groot

People from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds face discrimination and its consequences on a daily basis. However, the exact scale of the problem is hard to gauge, owing to a lack of data and general under reporting of racist incidents. Although the European Union (EU) has been introducing legislation to combat racial and xenophobic discrimination since 2000, the problem persists. The global Black Lives Matter protests highlighted the need for new measures, while the COVID 19 pandemic saw a major increase in reports of racist and xenophobic incidents, and the crisis it triggered had a disproportionately large negative effect on racial and ethnic minority groups, in the form of higher death and infection rates. Studies point to the cost of racial discrimination not only for the individuals concerned, but also for society as a whole. For instance, a 2018 EPRS report argued that the loss in earnings caused by racial and ethnic discrimination for both individuals and societies amounts to billions of euros annually. EU citizens also acknowledge this problem: a 2019 survey found that over half of Europeans believe racial or ethnic discrimination to be widespread in their country. To address racial discrimination and the inequalities it engenders, the European Commission has put forward a number of equality strategies and actions. The European Parliament, meanwhile, has long demanded an end to racial discrimination. In recent resolutions, Parliament has called for an end to structural racism, discrimination, racial profiling and police brutality; for protection of the right to protest peacefully; for an enhanced role for culture, education, media and sport in the fight against racism; and for authorities to take an intersectional approach. On 18 and 19 March 2025, Members of the European Parliament from the Anti Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) co hosted the fourth EU Anti Racism and Diversity Week. This updates a briefing from June 2024.

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service 2025. 12p.

By Elena Martellozzo, Andrew Monaghan, Julia Davidson, and Joanna Adler

Abstract

This article considers data from a large empirical study of nearly 1,100 U.K. adolescents aged 11 to 16 (in a mixed methods three-stage sample) and provides an overview of their experiences of online adult pornography. The article investigates how seeing online pornography influenced those who watched it, and to what degree, if any, the attitudes of those adolescents altered with repeat viewings. It concludes with an overview of the social policy challenges, both domestic and international, posed by the findings.

SAGE OpenVolume 10, Issue 1, January 2020, 11p.

By Sulin Sardoschau and Annalí Casanueva-Artís

Freedom of speech is central to democracy, but protests that amplify extremist views expose a critical trade-off between civil liberties and public safety. This paper investigates how right-wing demonstrations affect the incidence of hate crimes, focusing on Germany’s largest far-right movement since World War II. Leveraging a difference-in-differences framework with instrumental variable and event-study approaches, we find that a 20% increase in local protest attendance nearly doubles hate crime occurrences. We explore three potential mechanisms— signaling, agitation, and coordination—by examining protest dynamics, spatial diffusion, media influence, counter-mobilization, and crime characteristics. Our analysis reveals that large protests primarily act as signals of broad xenophobic support, legitimizing extremist violence. This signaling effect propagates through right-wing social media networks and is intensified by local newspaper coverage and Twitter discussions. Consequently, large protests shift local equilibria, resulting in sustained higher levels of violence primarily perpetrated by repeat offenders. Notably, these protests trigger resistance predominantly online, rather than physical counter-protests.

CESifo Working Paper No. 11745, Munich: Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH

By David J. Harding, Maria S. Smith, Da Eun Jung, Stephanie Luna-Lopez & Amanda Glazer

Sociologists use the concept of narrative as an analytical tool and theoretical concept to understand the stories that people tell and their role in social and cultural life. A key tenet of prior research on narratives is their capacity to shape the audience’s understanding and evaluation of the narrator. In this mixed-method study, we investigate the role of narratives in destigmatization through the case of criminal record stigma in the labor market. Based on evidence from a survey experiment in which people with managerial experience were randomly assigned to job applicants with different narratives, we show that evaluations differ across reentry narratives. Drawing on prior theorizations and qualitative interviews with employers, we identify and describe three processes through which narratives impact evaluation and destigmatization: moral justification, social affinity signaling, and information salience.

American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 2025, 33p.

By Rachel Kleinfeld

The United States feels roiled by polarization, and the philanthropic world is seized with debates about what to do. Some scholars claim that Americans are so polarized they are on the brink of civil war. Other polls suggest that voters agree on plenty of policies and that polarization is an illusion. Some philanthropists call for pluralism and civility, while others lean into activism, believing polarization is a byproduct of change toward a more just world. So, is the United States polarized or not? If it is, what is causing the polarization and what are its consequences? Should polarization be solved or tolerated? This paper is intended to answer these questions. It opens with five facts about polarization in the United States today and what those imply for possible interventions. A literature review follows, organized chronologically to explain the scholarly shift from thinking of polarization as an ideological, policy-based phenomenon to an issue of emotion, as well as the emerging understanding of polarization as both a social phenomenon and a political strategy. This paper is organized as follows. Part I: Introduction Five Facts About Polarization in the United States What This Understanding Means for Interventions Part II: The Literature on Polarization First Generation Understanding: Elite Ideological Polarization Polarization Is Policy Difference, and Congress Is the Problem How Was America Polarized? What Caused Elite Polarization? Interventions to Reduce Policy-Based Polarization Among Political Elites Second Generation Understanding: Mass Affective Polarization Polarization Is Emotional Dislike Based on Identity That Affects Regular People How Was America Polarized? What Is Causing Affective Polarization? Interventions to Reduce Affective Polarization Third Generation Understanding: Cracks in the Foundations Reducing Affective Polarization May Not Impact Violent or Antidemocratic Attitudes Antidemocratic Attitudes Political Violence Political Structures Affect Incentives to Polarize Part III: Conclusion What We (Think We) Know in 2023 Ideological Polarization Affective Polarization Washington, DC:

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 2023. 74p.

By Garen J. Wintemute, Andrew Crawford, Elizabeth A. Tomsich & Veronica A. Pear

Background

In 2022, a nationally representative longitudinal survey in the USA found concerningly high prevalences of support for and personal willingness to engage in political violence, but those prevalences decreased in 2023. This study examines changes in those prevalences from 2023 to 2024, an election year in the USA.

Methods

Participants were members of Ipsos KnowledgePanel. Wave 3 of the survey was conducted May 23-June 14, 2024; invitations to participate were sent to all respondents to prior waves who remained in KnowledgePanel. Outcome measures concern justification for the use of violence to advance any of 17 specified political objectives, personal willingness to engage in political violence at 4 levels of severity and against 9 target populations, and expectation of firearm use in political violence. Outcomes are expressed as weighted proportions. Year-to-year change is based on the means of aggregated individual change scores, which have a potential range from 0 (no change) to ± 2.

Results

The 2024 completion rates were 88.4% (8896 respondents/10,064 invitees) overall, 91.6% (8185 respondents/8932 invitees) for invitees in 2024 who had responded in 2023, and 62.8% (711 respondents/1132 invitees) for invitees in 2024 who had responded in 2022 but not in 2023. After weighting, 50.9% (95% confidence interval (CI) 49.5%, 52.3%) were female; weighted mean (SD) age was 48.5 (24.9) years. From 2023 to 2024, the prevalence of the view that violence was usually or always justified to advance at least 1 political objective did not change (2024: 26.2%, 95% CI 25.0%, 27.5%; 2023: 25.3%, 95% CI 24.1%, 26.5%). There were no changes from 2023 to 2024 in willingness to damage property, threaten a person, injure a person, or kill a person in an act of political violence, and no changes in expectations of firearm use in situations where respondents considered political violence justifiable. Changes on other measures were infrequent (17 of 58 comparisons in the main analysis) and small where they occurred (with 2 exceptions, change < 0.05).

Conclusions

Contrary to expectation, support for and willingness to participate in political violence in this cohort showed little to no change from 2023 to 2024, an election year in the USA. These findings can help guide prevention efforts.

Inj. Epidemiol. 12, 4 (2025), 29p.

By The Media Accountability Project

Media depictions of gun violence deeply influence how we perceive the individuals perpetuating or victimized in incidents, whether we feel safe, and how society collectively racializes crime and violence. The language that the media uses to describe individuals involved in gun violence incidents has evolved but remains deeply and problematically tied to race and other identities, as seen by the different connotations of “domestic terrorist,” “thug,” and “individual suffering from a mental illness” used to describe gun violence-involved individuals of different ethnicities and races. The impact of these depictions on the public can be profound, as differences in portrayals of gun violence, based on the race of those involved and where incidents occur, may reinforce harmful racial stereotypes and influence public support for gun reform policies. Most research examining gun violence in the media, 1-3 however, tends to overwhelmingly focus on deadly mass shootings and school shootings—fatalities that comprise only a fraction of firearm deaths—and overshadows more common forms of violence that routinely devastates cities across the United States, especially in Black and Latino communities. To better understand the way that media representations of shootings are influenced by race and place, Community Justice partnered with researchers at Northwestern University and the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science (CORNERS) to collect large portions of the U.S. media landscape on gun violence and analyze it using advanced computational and statistical methods. The goal of the project is to determine the extent to which racial differences among the individuals and communities where gun violence occurs create real, measurable differences in the way that incidents are reported and ultimately viewed. By understanding the relationship between race and media coverage of gun violence incidents, this Media Accountability Project aims to help news outlets, journalists, educators, and community stakeholders build more just

Chicago: Media Accountability Project, Northwestern University, 2024 14p.

By Jessica White, Claudia Wallner, Galen Lamphere-Englund, Love Frankie, Rachel Kowert, Linda Schlegel, Ashton Kingdon, Alexandra Phelan, Alex Newhouse, Gonzalo Saiz and Petra Regeni

As the popularity and social significance of online gaming have surged, with more than three billion gamers encompassing a broad spectrum of the global population, the urgency to understand how gaming spaces constitute formative identity- and community-building environments is more essential than ever. While acknowledging that many gamers have positive experiences, this project aims to understand, through a gender and intersectional lens, how socialisation processes coupled with exposure to harassment, hate-based discrimination and extreme content can potentially lower resilience to radicalisation in gaming and gaming-adjacent spaces. Governments are increasingly paying attention to this issue, considering regulatory requirements and effective intervention designs. This heightened awareness necessitates a deeper analysis of the nuances and complexities of the threats and risks. Therefore, this report aims to provide much-needed analysis of these issues, guiding the reader through the key research findings of the project ‘Examining Socialization with a Nexus to Radicalization Across Gaming (-Adjacent) Platforms Through a Gender Lens’, which was funded by Public Safety Canada, led by RUSI and implemented by a consortium of members of the Extremism and Gaming Research Network. Taking a cross-cultural global approach and drawing on primary survey data and data collected from and on multiple gaming and gaming-adjacent platforms, this project aims to provide accessible gender-sensitive research analysis, along with pragmatic recommendations for practitioners and policymakers engaged in these spaces. Following a conceptual framing section and a chapter outlining project scope and methodology, project analysis highlights the following four key analytical focuses: 1. An assessment of the prevalence of harmful, toxic and extremist content in gaming spaces. 2. Identification of the importance of (offline) identity and culture in the formation of gamer identity and communities. 3. Analysis of gender norms and dynamics in gaming communities and their potential exploitation for radicalisation and recruitment. 4. Exploration of where gendered socialisation processes combined with normalised exposure to extreme ideas and content can reduce resilience to radicalisation. Overall, this project adds new insights to the growing body of research on the topic of extremism and gaming through the gender and intersectional lens it applies to understanding the complex relationships between gaming, identity, community and radicalisation. Additionally, it breaks ground with the focus on cross-cultural data collection. However, it also highlights the need for further research to fully grasp how these dynamics play out across different contexts and identities, contributing to more nuanced and effective approaches to countering radicalisation in gaming spaces.

London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies RUSI, 2024. 81p.

By Rosie Cornish and Iain Brennan

Evidence for or against a causal effect of school exclusion on offending is inhibited by random allocation not being available on ethical grounds. To advance understanding of the connection between school exclusion and ofending—specifcally, serious violent ofending—we emulate a randomized controlled trial using a target trial framework and a linkage of national education and justice data. Across more than 20,000 matched pairs of excluded and not excluded children exclusion was associated with at least a doubling of risk for perpetrating serious violence (hazard ratio 2.05, 95% CI: 1.83, 2.29) and homicide/near-miss homicide (2.36, 95% CI: 1.04, 5.36) within 12 months of target trial entry. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and policy in education and criminal justice as well as discussing the extent to which the observed relationships can be considered causal.

The British Journal of Criminology, 2025, 20p.

By Sharon DeGraw

While the connections between science fiction and race have largely been neglected by scholars, racial identity is a key element of the subjectivity constructed in American SF. In his Mars series, Edgar Rice Burroughs primarily supported essentialist constructions of racial identity, but also included a few elements of racial egalitarianism. Writing in the 1930s, George S. Schuyler revised Burroughs' normative SF triangle of white author, white audience, and white protagonist and promoted an individualistic, highly variable concept of race instead. While both Burroughs and Schuyler wrote SF focusing on racial identity, the largely separate genres of science fiction and African American literature prevented the similarities between the two authors from being adequately acknowledged and explored. Beginning in the 1960s, Samuel R. Delany more fully joined SF and African American literature. Delany expands on Schuyler's racial constructionist approach to identity, including gender and sexuality in addition to race. Critically intertwining the genres of SF and African American literature allows a critique of the racism in the science fiction and a more accurate and positive portrayal of the scientific connections in the African American literature. Connecting the popular fiction of Burroughs, the controversial career of Schuyler, and the postmodern texts of Delany illuminates a gradual change from a stable, essentialist construction of racial identity at the turn of the century to the variable, social construction of poststructuralist subjectivity today.

London; New York: Routledge, 2007.

Edited by Silvio Cruschina & Chiara Gianollo

Language is a key element in constructing and reinforcing social identities. Through hate speech, language becomes an instrument of creating and spreading stereotypes, discrimination, and social injustices based on attributes such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, political ideology, disability, or sexual orientation. The rise of digital communication, especially social media, has made hate speech a major topic of research in various fields. An Investigation of Hate Speech in Italian analyses hate speech from a linguistic perspective. The focus is not only on lexical means, but also on more subtle grammatical and pragmatic strategies related to implicit meanings or conversational dynamics. The volume identifies the common linguistic characteristics of hate speech in different domains of communication and explores criteria that can help distinguish between hate speech and freedom of expression. The studies in this volume focus on Italian, but the methods and findings can easily be extended to other languages for comparative and contrastive purposes. The chapters utilize extensive research data. Social media platforms have provided linguistic data that would otherwise be challenging to collect and analyse systematically. The chapters allow readers to link linguistic insights to different real-world contexts, helping them understand the impact language has on various aspects of life and society.

Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2024. 384p.