Christopher Hewitt

Homosexual demography: implications for the spread of AIDS.

Using both national surveys and surveys of self‐identified gay men in the United States, the numbers, age distribution, life expectancy, and marital status of men who have sex with men is examined. It is concluded that five types can be distinguished: open preferential, repressed preferential, bisexual, experimental, and situational. These five categories have different patterns of sexual behavior, and the numbers in each category are influenced by changing social conditions, in particular the growth of gay neighborhoods, and public tolerance. The typology is used to explain the low rate of reported HIV transmission from bisexual men to their female partners.

Rioting in Northern Ireland

This article addresses empirically the effects of three different policy approachesreformist, repressive, and constitutional-to reducing the level of rioting in Northern Ireland over the 1968-1973 period. The analysis shows that none of these policy approaches is singularly successful in decreasing monthly levels of rioting. Furthermore, a given policys effects on violent activity is shown to vary depending on the group involved in the rioting, be it Catholics, Protestants, or both.

The political context of terrorism in America: Ignoring extremists or pandering to them?

This article examines the political context of four waves of terrorism in the United States: by White racists in the South during the civil rights period, by Black militants in the late 1960s and early 1970s, by left‐wing revolutionaries in the 1970s, and by contemporary anti‐abortion extremists. Two alternative theories are considered; that citizens resort to violence because their views and interests are ignored by politicians; and that politicians by ‘pandering to extremists’ incite them to violence. The evidence appears to support the first theory. In the cases examined, a sizable number of people felt very strongly about some social/political issues ‐ segregation, racial equality, the Vietnam war, abortion ‐and also felt that the political system ignored, or was hostile to, their concerns. Terrorism was most likely to occur under presidential administrations hostile to the goals of the terrorists, rather than under sympathetic administrations.

Patterns of American terrorism 1955–1998: An historical perspective on terrorism‐related fatalities

Although the Oklahoma City Bombing of 1995 which killed 168 people was the most devastating terrorist attack on American soil, terrorism‐related deaths have occurred almost every year since 1955. A distinctive feature of American terrorism is the ideological diversity of perpetrators. White racists are responsible for over a third of the deaths, and black militants have claimed almost as many. Almost all of the remaining deaths are attributable to Puerto Rican nationalists, Islamic extremists, revolutionary leftists and emigre groups. Most victims were killed because of their race, religion or sexual orientation, or just simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time when a bomb went off.

Foreign Fighters in Iraq: A Cross-National Analysis of Jihadism

Statistics on the national origin of almost one thousand killed and captured foreign fighters in Iraq reveal noticeable differences among Muslim majority countries in their jihadism rate (number of fighters/million population). These cross-national differences are used to test different theories as to the causes of Islamist extremism. The findings do not support those theories which see the cause of jihadism in the political and economic failures of Muslim societies, since the foreign fighters come from the more developed countries. The foreign fighters also come from the more religious societies, and from those societies “occupied” by U.S. or Israeli military forces.

The spread of HIV into the general population of the USA: A simulation

The spread of HIV from injection drug users and male homosexuals into the general US population is simulated, using survey data on sexual behavior. We estimate that approximately 150,000 persons are currently infected with HIV through heterosexual transmission, the majority of whom are female partners of drug-using or bisexual men. The estimated number of AIDS cases generated by the model is close to the CDC statistics for males, but much higher for females. We conclude that prevention efforts should be targeted towards these high risk groups rather than the general population.