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Harassment
Kinds of Harassment Selected AbstractsINCORPORATING ECONOMIC ANALYSIS INTO UNDERGRADUATE BUSINESS LAW AND LEGAL ENVIRONMENT COURSES: EMPLOYER LIABILITY FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT AS A MODELJOURNAL OF LEGAL STUDIES EDUCATION, Issue 2 2000Susan Willey [source] LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF DISPOSITIONAL INFLUENCES AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT: EFFECTS ON JOB AND PSYCHOLOGICAL OUTCOMESPERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2000LIBERTY J. MUNSON Research consistently demonstrates that sexual harassment is related to a variety of negative outcomes. Negative outcomes, however, may be influenced by respondents' dispositions or response biases rather than by their sexual harassment experiences alone. This study investigates relationships between negative outcomes and sexual harassment over time in an attempt to assess this possibility. Further, little empirical research on sexual harassment has explored the impact of various coping strategies on experiences of harassment over time. Sexual harassment experiences, job-related and psychological outcomes, and coping responses were obtained from 216 female faculty and staff members at a midwestern university at 2 times, 24 months apart. Patterns of results suggests that sexual harassment has important effects on job-related and psychological outcomes that operate independently of dispositional influences or response biases. Results also indicate that sexual harassment at Time 1 is a better predictor of harassment at Time 2 than are coping strategies. [source] Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace: 10 Years LaterFAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005Catherine Amoroso Leslie Sexual harassment continues to be a pervasive and costly problem for businesses, government, and educational institutions. In the past 15 years, workplace sexual harassment has become prominent in the public consciousness. In fashion retailing, an industry with a large number of young, unmarried female employees and relatively large power differentials between organizational levels, sexual harassment is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to replicate Workman's 1993 article "Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace." The same instrument was administered to 144 female clothing and textile students at a large state university. One hundred six participants (73.6%) had experienced at least one incident of sexual harassing behavior. This was consistent with Workman's finding of 73.5%. In the majority of the variables tested, very little had changed between 1993 and 2003. [source] Perceptions of Effectiveness of Responses to Sexual Harassment in the US Military, 1988 and 1995GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2003Juanita M. Firestone This analysis compares patterns of response to the harassment experiences that had the greatest effect on the respondents to the ,1988 Department of Defense (DoD) Survey of Sex Roles in the Active-Duty Military' and Form A of the ,1995 Armed Forces Sexual Harassment Survey'. We analyse the respondents' perceptions about effectiveness of their responses, and respondents' opinions about the efforts of senior military leadership, and their own immediate supervisors' efforts to ,make honest and reasonable efforts to stop sexual harassment in the active-duty military' (DoD, 1988; Bastian et al., 1996). Results indicate that while the military has been somewhat successful in attempts to lower actual incidence of sexual harassment, the percentage of those experiencing such uninvited and unwanted behaviours remains high. Similar patterns of responses in both years, with most employing personal solutions and few filing complaints with officials, may reflect the fact that official DoD policy focuses on individual behaviour and does not address the masculine environmental context that promotes such behaviours (see also Harrell and Miller, 1997). Findings also suggest that the ,no tolerance' policies adopted by the military may concentrate on the military image but ignore the wishes of the complainants who fear reprisals. If the rights and wishes of all parties involved are not taken into account, policies are unlikely to be successful (see, for example, Rowe, 1996). [source] Foucault, Politics and Organizations: (Re)-Constructing Sexual HarassmentGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2001Joanna Brewis This article reviews the body of knowledge around workplace sexual harassment. In deploying a Foucauldian analysis, it attempts to argue that this knowledge, as part of the wider discourse on sex, may (re)produce consequences counter to those which its proponents espouse. In particular, the discussion seeks to problematize the status of harassment knowledge as truth; the depiction within this knowledge of ,good' and ,bad' sex; the roles this knowledge identifies for men and women within the phenomenon of harassment; and the theme within harassment knowledge that sex is central to our existence. The conclusion aims to suggest the ways in which this kind of analysis is useful by addressing the criticisms usually levelled at Foucault's work. [source] Sexual Harassment as an Exercise of PowerGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2001Fiona Wilson This article argues that the key to the explanation as to why sexual harassment is a feature of organizational life lies in the issue of power. Yet there has been little attempt to link sexual harassment with theories or explanatory models of power. This article first takes Lukes's (1986) three-dimensional model as a framework to explore how harassment may be understood as an exercise of power at different levels then shows how radical feminist and post-structuralist analyses overlap with and are distinct from Lukes's third dimension of power. [source] The Experiences of Bystanders of Workplace Ethnic HarassmentJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 10 2007K. S. Douglas Low The present research examined the experiences of individuals who witnessed or knew about ethnic harassment of their coworkers. Through 3 studies, we found that knowledge of other people's harassment was differentiated from personal experiences as a target and was associated with deleterious occupational, health-related, and psychological consequences beyond those accounted for by direct harassment and affective disposition. Ethnicity and gender did not moderate these relationships. Knowledge of others' ethnic harassment can therefore be construed as bystander harassment. Results also indicated that bystander and direct harassment were relatively common occurrences. Both harassment types contributed to how ethnic conflict is experienced. The consequences of ethnic harassment are not restricted to ethnic minority employees. Rather, everyone is at risk from such behaviors. [source] A Study on Singaporeans' Perceptions of Sexual Harassment From a Cross-Cultural Perspective,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Shu Li This paper addresses the question of whether culture and language in Singapore affect the interpretation of sexual harassment; that is, whether speakers from a different language and ethnic background will interpret the discourse domain of sexual harassment differently. Three studies constitute this research. The first study investigates whether certain cues relating to sexual harassment are judged equivalently across the ethnic groups. The second study examines how verbal space is conceptualized and ruled by the use of different languages used by different ethnic groups. The third study explores whether English, as a medium of communication, is a low-context language. Results show that different ethnic groups perceived the cues differently; that ethnicity affects the interpretation of a single English phrase; and that English as used by Singaporeans is a high-context language, which complicates the understanding of victims' coping responses. [source] Risk Factors of Sexual Harassment by Peers: A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and European American AdolescentsJOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 2 2007Sara E. Goldstein The present research explores risk factors for, and longitudinal associations of, sexual harassment by peers during adolescence. Eight-hundred and seventy-two African American and European American adolescents (65.4% African American, 51.1% females) were assessed during the summer after the eighth grade (mean age=14.2 years) and then again in the 11th grade (mean age=17.1 years). At the first assessment, adolescents were asked about their experiences with sexual harassment, their psychological reactions to sexual harassment, and also about their peer relationships, perceived pubertal timing, problem behavior, and mental health. At the second assessment, adolescents reported on their problem behavior and mental health. In general, youth who associated with peers who were involved in problem behavior were at risk for victimization. Among females, those who perceived themselves to be experiencing early pubertal development were also at risk. Additionally, for some adolescents, sexual harassment predicted later adjustment difficulties. [source] Creating Peer Sexual Harassment: Mobilizing Schools to Throw the Book at ThemselvesLAW & POLICY, Issue 1 2006JODI L. SHORT This paper describes how peer-to-peer sexual harassment rapidly was transformed from an unremarkable reality of secondary school life into a serious social and legal problem. First, it shows how organizations and professionals served as an entry point for social change and legal mobilization. I argue that schools were quick to address peer sexual harassment because activists framed it as a moral and pedagogical issue that resonated with educators' deeply held professional values. Second, the paper shows how law and organizations developed endogenously. Without any legal mandate, schools created and institutionalized harassment policies. Courts then looked to these organizational practices to determine the content and scope of Title IX. In this way, schools literally "enacted" the law through their practices. This finding goes beyond previous work on endogeneity in that school policies influenced law at the level of doctrine, not simply at the level of meaning, enforcement, or application. [source] Injustice Frames, Legality, and the Everyday Construction of Sexual HarassmentLAW & SOCIAL INQUIRY, Issue 3 2003Anna-Maria Marshall This paper examines the frames that women use to understand their experience with sexual harassment. While legal frames do provide crucial guidance to women evaluating the behavior of their colleagues and supervisors, working women deployed a number of other interpretive frames when deciding whether they had been harmed by such behavior. Some of those frames emerge from feminist messages about discrimination and male abuse of power in the workplace; some emerge from management ideology that emphasizes efficiency and productivity; and some emerge from the criticism of sexual harassment policies as an unnecessary limitation on women's sexual freedom. But feeling a sense of harm does not automatically translate into the use of the label sexual harassment. Rather, women also employed an objective standard that compared their experience to some threshold of harassing behaviors. Only when the behaviors met this standard of offensiveness and were perceived as harmful did women consider their experiences sexual harassment. [source] Aggression in Organizations: Violence, Abuse, and Harassment at Work and in SchoolsPERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Article first published online: 28 APR 200 First page of article [source] Recent Thinking about Sexual Harassment: A Review EssayPHILOSOPHY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, Issue 3 2006ELIZABETH ANDERSON First page of article [source] High Schools Can Be "Toxic"AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2002Alice Sterling Honig PhD Book reviewed in this article: And Words Can Hurt Forever. How to Protect Adolescents From Bullying, Harassment, and Emotional Violence, by J. Garbarino and E. DeLara. [source] The harassment and stalking of plastic surgeons by their patients in AustralasiaANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 7-8 2009Stephen Allnutt Abstract Medical professionals come into direct contact with the public. The relationships are often personal. The aim of the survey is to examine the prevalence of harassment of plastic surgeons by their patients. Survey questionnaires were mailed to all plastic surgeons listed in the 1999 Australasian Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery List of Members. A very wide definition of harassment was then provided and information in regard to the nature of the harassment was obtained. This was a descriptive survey of plastic surgeons' experiences of harassment by patients in Australia and New Zealand. More than half of the plastic surgeons in Australia and New Zealand who responded to the questionnaire reported having been a victim of harassment at some point of their careers. One quarter had been harassed in the previous year. Over 20% of cases met the legal criteria for stalking. These estimates are in excess of those reported in the other studies of the general community. Harassment persisted in the majority of cases for at least a month and in a third of cases for up to 5 years. The recognition of psychiatric disorder, particularly personality dysfunction, prior to embarking on surgery may limit the likelihood of harassment by difficult patients. Formal teaching may be helpful to surgical registrars and consultants. Expert intervention could assist in reducing clinician anxiety. [source] The Determinants of Racial Harassment at the Workplace: Evidence from the British Nursing ProfessionBRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2002Michael A. Shields This paper examines which individual and work-related characteristics increase the probability of an employee being racially harassed at the workplace using a unique sample of NHS nurses. The reported incidence of racial harassment at the workplace is staggeringly high , 8.9 per cent of all nurses report such episodes involving work colleagues and 22.4 per cent have experienced such abuse from patients (or their families). Nurses who are young, male or from the ethnic minorities are the most likely to be affected. The findings have important implications for equal opportunities policies and the retention of nursing staff in the NHS. [source] Female Adolescents and Their Sexuality: Notions of Honour, Shame, Purity and Pollution during the FloodsDISASTERS, Issue 1 2000Sabina Faiz Rashid This paper explores the experiences of female adolescents during the 1998 floods in Bangladesh, focusing on the implications of socio-cultural norms related to notions of honour, shame, purity and pollution. These cultural notions are reinforced with greater emphasis as girls enter their adolescence, regulating their sexuality and gender relationships. In Bangladeshi society, adolescent girls are expected to maintain their virginity until marriage. Contact is limited to one's families and extended relations. Particularly among poorer families, adolescent girls tend to have limited mobility to safeguard their ,purity'. This is to ensure that the girl's reputation does not suffer, thus making it difficult for the girl to get married. For female adolescents in Bangladesh, a disaster situation is a uniquely vulnerable time. Exposure to the unfamiliar environment of flood shelters and relief camps, and unable to maintain their ,space' and privacy from male strangers, a number of the girls were vulnerable to sexual and mental harassment. With the floods, it became difficult for most of the girls to be appropriately `secluded'. Many were unable to sleep, bathe or get access to latrines in privacy because so many houses and latrines were underwater. Some of the girls who had begun menstruation were distressed at not being able to keep themselves clean. Strong social taboos associated with menstruation and the dirty water that surrounded them made it difficult for the girls to wash their menstrual cloths or change them frequently enough. Many of them became separated from their social network of relations, which caused them a great deal of anxiety and stress. Their difficulty in trying to follow social norms have had far-reaching implications on their health, identity, family and community relations. [source] Conspecifics and Their Posture Influence Site Choice and Oviposition in the Damselfly Argia moestaETHOLOGY, Issue 8 2009Catherine J. Byers Finding a suitable oviposition site can be costly because of energy and time requirements, and ovipositioning can be dangerous because of the risk of predation and harassment by males. The damselfly Argia moesta oviposits, contact-guarded by her mate, on vegetation in streams. Oviposition aggregations are commonly observed in this species, despite their territorial nature during other behaviors. We conducted experiments in the field to test the hypothesis that aggregations are the result of conspecific attraction. In the first experiment, two oviposition sites (sycamore leaves) were provided, one with models of ovipositing pairs, and one without. In the second experiment, one leaf again had ovipositing models, while the other had models of uncoupled males and females in a resting posture. In both experiments, damselfly pairs preferred the site with ovipositing models. In general, they visited the ovipositing models first more often than expected by chance, stayed longer there, were more likely to oviposit there, and laid a greater total number of eggs there. These results support the hypothesis that conspecific attraction is responsible for ovipositing aggregations in A. moesta and that posture is an important cue for attraction. Using conspecific cues could be a beneficial strategy to save in search costs while taking advantage of the presence of ovipositing conspecifics to dilute the effects of harassment and predation. [source] Natal Attraction in Adult Female Baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) in the Moremi Reserve, BotswanaETHOLOGY, Issue 8 2003Joan B. Silk Mammalian females are strongly attracted to infants and interact regularly with them. Female baboons make persistent attempts to touch, nuzzle, smell and inspect other females' infants, but do not hold them for long periods, carry them, or provide other kinds of care for them. Mothers generally tolerate these interactions, but never initiate them. The function of these brief alloparental interactions is not well understood. Infant handling might be a form of reproductive competition if females' interest in infants causes distress to mothers or harm to their infants. Alternatively, infant handling might be the product of selection for appropriate maternal care if females who are highly responsive to infants are the most successful mothers. We test several predictions derived from these hypotheses with data collected in a free-ranging group of baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) in the Moremi Reserve of Botswana. Infants were most attractive when they were very young. Mothers of young infants were approached by other adult females on average once every 6 min, and other females attempted to handle their infants approximately once every 9 min. By the time infants were a year old, their mothers were being approached only once every 30 min and infants were being handled only once every 5 h. Females were more strongly attracted to other females' infants when they had young infants of their own, and their interest in other females' infants declined as their own infants matured. Females seemed to be equally attracted to all infants, but had greater access to offspring of their relatives and subordinate females. Females nearly always grunted as they handled infants. As in other contexts grunts are a reliable predictive signal that non-aggressive behavior will follow, the use of grunts before handling suggests that these interactions were not a form of deliberate harassment. [source] Female Baboons' Responses to Male Loud CallsETHOLOGY, Issue 5 2003Dawn M. Kitchen Male baboons (Papio cynocephalus ursinus) give loud, two-syllable ,wahoo' calls in response to predators (alarm wahoos) and during aggressive displays that may include multiple males chasing each other or females (contest wahoos). Although acoustic analysis has revealed significant differences between the two calls, these differences are subtle and the two subtypes can be difficult for humans to distinguish. Whatever the evolutionary mechanisms that might have acted on the production of acoustically graded loud calls, it would seem to be adaptive for listeners to discriminate among calls that are given in qualitatively different contexts. This is particularly true in the case of female baboons. Alarm wahoos, which are given during predator encounters, demand qualitatively different responses from contest wahoos, which are given in contexts when females are at risk of harassment and infanticide by males. In playback experiments, females responded for significantly longer durations to alarm than to contest wahoos. Moreover, only alarm wahoos caused females to flee. Despite their acoustic similarity, female baboons appear to associate alarm and contest wahoos with qualitatively different events. [source] Female Choice, Female Reluctance to Mate and Sexual Selection on Body Size in the Dung Fly Sepsis cynipseaETHOLOGY, Issue 7 2000Wolf U. Blanckenhorn We investigated the mechanisms of sexual selection in the common dung fly Sepsis cynipsea and how these affect selection on body size at the population level. Because of the presumed costs associated with mating, we predicted that there would be a decrease in the general reluctance of females to mate with any particular male at higher male densities at the mating site, a fresh cow pat, resulting in indirect female choice and a decrease in the strength of sexual selection. In contrast, classical direct female choice and male-male competition should result in increased selection intensities because more opportunities for choice and competition exist at higher densities. Female reluctance to mate and female assessment of males are expressed in prominent female behaviour to repel mates in several insect species, including S. cynipsea. Laboratory pair-wise choice experiments showed that large males were more likely to obtain copulations, which also ensued more promptly, suggesting female assessment of male quality (direct female choice). There was a basic influence of male activity but little further effect of male scramble competition on the outcome of mating. Another laboratory experiment showed a decrease in female shaking duration per male, associated with an asymptote in the shaking duration per female, as male density and harassment increased, but did not show the increase in mating frequency predicted by the female reluctance hypothesis. A study estimating sexual selection differentials in the field showed that directional selection for larger males was present overall and was negatively related to seasonally mediated variation in male density. Our study suggests that direct female choice in combination with indirect female choice (due to an interaction of female reluctance to mate and male persistence) is most consistent with the behavioural and selection patterns observed in S. cynipsea, but male effects cannot be definitively excluded. [source] Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace: 10 Years LaterFAMILY & CONSUMER SCIENCES RESEARCH JOURNAL, Issue 1 2005Catherine Amoroso Leslie Sexual harassment continues to be a pervasive and costly problem for businesses, government, and educational institutions. In the past 15 years, workplace sexual harassment has become prominent in the public consciousness. In fashion retailing, an industry with a large number of young, unmarried female employees and relatively large power differentials between organizational levels, sexual harassment is an important issue. The purpose of this study was to replicate Workman's 1993 article "Extent and Nature of Sexual Harassment in the Fashion Retail Workplace." The same instrument was administered to 144 female clothing and textile students at a large state university. One hundred six participants (73.6%) had experienced at least one incident of sexual harassing behavior. This was consistent with Workman's finding of 73.5%. In the majority of the variables tested, very little had changed between 1993 and 2003. [source] Perceptions of Effectiveness of Responses to Sexual Harassment in the US Military, 1988 and 1995GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2003Juanita M. Firestone This analysis compares patterns of response to the harassment experiences that had the greatest effect on the respondents to the ,1988 Department of Defense (DoD) Survey of Sex Roles in the Active-Duty Military' and Form A of the ,1995 Armed Forces Sexual Harassment Survey'. We analyse the respondents' perceptions about effectiveness of their responses, and respondents' opinions about the efforts of senior military leadership, and their own immediate supervisors' efforts to ,make honest and reasonable efforts to stop sexual harassment in the active-duty military' (DoD, 1988; Bastian et al., 1996). Results indicate that while the military has been somewhat successful in attempts to lower actual incidence of sexual harassment, the percentage of those experiencing such uninvited and unwanted behaviours remains high. Similar patterns of responses in both years, with most employing personal solutions and few filing complaints with officials, may reflect the fact that official DoD policy focuses on individual behaviour and does not address the masculine environmental context that promotes such behaviours (see also Harrell and Miller, 1997). Findings also suggest that the ,no tolerance' policies adopted by the military may concentrate on the military image but ignore the wishes of the complainants who fear reprisals. If the rights and wishes of all parties involved are not taken into account, policies are unlikely to be successful (see, for example, Rowe, 1996). [source] Foucault, Politics and Organizations: (Re)-Constructing Sexual HarassmentGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2001Joanna Brewis This article reviews the body of knowledge around workplace sexual harassment. In deploying a Foucauldian analysis, it attempts to argue that this knowledge, as part of the wider discourse on sex, may (re)produce consequences counter to those which its proponents espouse. In particular, the discussion seeks to problematize the status of harassment knowledge as truth; the depiction within this knowledge of ,good' and ,bad' sex; the roles this knowledge identifies for men and women within the phenomenon of harassment; and the theme within harassment knowledge that sex is central to our existence. The conclusion aims to suggest the ways in which this kind of analysis is useful by addressing the criticisms usually levelled at Foucault's work. [source] Sexual Harassment as an Exercise of PowerGENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 1 2001Fiona Wilson This article argues that the key to the explanation as to why sexual harassment is a feature of organizational life lies in the issue of power. Yet there has been little attempt to link sexual harassment with theories or explanatory models of power. This article first takes Lukes's (1986) three-dimensional model as a framework to explore how harassment may be understood as an exercise of power at different levels then shows how radical feminist and post-structuralist analyses overlap with and are distinct from Lukes's third dimension of power. [source] Popular Attitudes, Globalization and Risk,INTERNATIONAL FINANCE, Issue 2 2005Marcus Noland Popular opposition to globalization may be interpreted as xenophobia or hostility to market economics and signal country risk, including the degree of security risk , the possibility that local staff or facilities could be subject to discriminatory treatment, harassment or attack. This paper integrates the Pew Global Attitudes data into a series of economic models on foreign direct investment (FDI), sovereign ratings and local entrepreneurship, and finds that some responses correlate with economic variables of interest, conveying information beyond what can be explained through standard models. More tolerant countries attract more FDI, obtain better ratings and exhibit more entrepreneurship. [source] The Experiences of Bystanders of Workplace Ethnic HarassmentJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 10 2007K. S. Douglas Low The present research examined the experiences of individuals who witnessed or knew about ethnic harassment of their coworkers. Through 3 studies, we found that knowledge of other people's harassment was differentiated from personal experiences as a target and was associated with deleterious occupational, health-related, and psychological consequences beyond those accounted for by direct harassment and affective disposition. Ethnicity and gender did not moderate these relationships. Knowledge of others' ethnic harassment can therefore be construed as bystander harassment. Results also indicated that bystander and direct harassment were relatively common occurrences. Both harassment types contributed to how ethnic conflict is experienced. The consequences of ethnic harassment are not restricted to ethnic minority employees. Rather, everyone is at risk from such behaviors. [source] A Study on Singaporeans' Perceptions of Sexual Harassment From a Cross-Cultural Perspective,JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2005Shu Li This paper addresses the question of whether culture and language in Singapore affect the interpretation of sexual harassment; that is, whether speakers from a different language and ethnic background will interpret the discourse domain of sexual harassment differently. Three studies constitute this research. The first study investigates whether certain cues relating to sexual harassment are judged equivalently across the ethnic groups. The second study examines how verbal space is conceptualized and ruled by the use of different languages used by different ethnic groups. The third study explores whether English, as a medium of communication, is a low-context language. Results show that different ethnic groups perceived the cues differently; that ethnicity affects the interpretation of a single English phrase; and that English as used by Singaporeans is a high-context language, which complicates the understanding of victims' coping responses. [source] Riot control agents: pharmacology, toxicology, biochemistry and chemistry,JOURNAL OF APPLIED TOXICOLOGY, Issue 5 2001Eugene J. Olajos Abstract The desired effect of all riot control agents is the temporary disablement of individuals by way of intense irritation of the mucous membranes and skin. Generally, riot control agents can produce acute site-specific toxicity where sensory irritation occurs. Early riot control agents, namely, chloroacetophenone (CN) and chlorodihydrophenarsazine (DM), have been replaced with ,safer' agents such as o -chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS) and oleoresin of capsicum (OC). Riot control agents are safe when used as intended: however, the widespread use of riot control agents raises questions and concerns regarding their health effects and safety. A large margin exists between dosages that produce harassment and dosages likely to cause adverse health effects for modern riot control agents such as CS and dibenz[b,f]1 : 4-oxazepine (CR). Yet, despite the low toxicity of modern riot control agents, these compounds are not entirely without risk. The risk of toxicity increases with higher exposure levels and prolonged exposure durations. Ocular, pulmonary and dermal injury may occur on exposure to high levels of these substances, and exposure to riot control agents in enclosed spaces may produce significant toxic effects. Reported deaths are few involving riot control agents, and then only under conditions of prolonged exposure and high concentrations. Recently, concern has focused on the deaths resulting from law enforcement use of OC, a riot control agent generally regarded as safe because it is a natural product. As with other xenobiotics, not enough is known concerning the long-term/chronic effects of riot control agents. Clearly, there is considerable need for additional research to define and delineate the biological and toxicological actions of riot control agents and to illuminate the full health consequences of these compounds as riot control agents. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Species conservation on human-dominated landscapes: the case of crowned crane breeding and distribution outside protected areas in UgandaAFRICAN JOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2010William Olupot Abstract Species primarily dependent on habitats outside protected areas have to cope with the direct pressure of human utilization or harassment, and the indirect pressure of habitat modification. In Uganda, wetlands mainly used by cranes occur mostly outside protected areas. The country's wetlands are however under heavy modification, and this and other pressures are thought to have reduced crane populations to 10,30% of the number in the early 1970s. From January 2005 to January 2006, we assessed the status of crane breeding and distribution in the country. Breeding and foraging sites were assessed through a nationwide newspaper survey, and visits to wetlands. We established occurrence of 21 nests during the study period, and crane use of 27 out of 30 districts surveyed. Crane harassment and trapping were common during breeding, as was crop damage by cranes. This is the first attempt to show the distribution of crane breeding outside protected areas throughout the country. In addition to maintaining suitable breeding habitat, survival of cranes in Uganda lies in part in community engagement and punishing crimes related to hunting and destruction of nests. Résumé Les espèces qui dépendent principalement d'habitats situés en dehors des aires protégées doivent supporter la pression directe de l'utilisation ou du harassement humains, et la pression indirecte de la modification de l'habitat. En Ouganda, les zones humides que les grues fréquentent le plus souvent se trouvent en dehors des aires protégées. Les zones humides du pays subissent pourtant de lourdes modifications, et ceci, entre autres pressions, est censéêtre ce qui a causé la réduction des populations de grues à 10,30% de ce qu'elles étaient au début des années 1970. De janvier 2005 à janvier 2006, nous avons évalué le statut de la reproduction et de la distribution des grues dans le pays. Les sites de reproduction et de nourrissage ont étéévalués grâce à une étude dans tout le pays via les journaux, et à des visites des zones humides. Nous avons pu établir la présence de 21 nids au cours de l'étude, et la fréquentation par les grues de 27 des 30 districts étudiés. Le harassement et le piégeage des crues ont été fréquents pendant la reproduction, comme l'étaient les dommages causés aux cultures par les grues. Ceci est la première tentative pour montrer la distribution de la reproduction des grues dans le pays en dehors des aires protégées. En plus du maintien d'habitats favorables à la reproduction, la survie des grues en Ouganda repose en partie sur l'implication communautaire dans la conservation des grues et sur le renforcement des mesures de sanctions contre les crimes liés à la chasse et à la destruction des nids. 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