The Center for The Study of Society

The Center for the Study of Society was established in the mid 90's as "The Minerva Center for Youth Studies" following an endowment from the Minerva Foundation in Germany to pursue a longitudinal youth study.  After 10 years the Youth Study project ended. In 2006 the name of the center changed to The Center for the Study of Society to better reflect the scope of research at the center.

Over the years the center has been involved in a variety of studies of juveniles and family.

Over the years, the main topics that the research fellows have been engaged in included: family violence and escalation of violence, sexual abuse and trauma, longitudinal study of violence in Israel over the last 25 years, political socialization of youth, attitudes and leisure activities of youth, internet and social relations, Judicial behavior and the effect of nationality on sentencing, acculturation of adolescent immigrants.

  • Zvi Eisikovits was invited to participate in conference on the subject of: violence of medical patients and their family members against doctors and nurses" in Vietnam on behalf of the University of Colorado Denver, School of Medicine. The conference took place in Vietnam in February of 2017.
  • Zvi Eisikovits participated in a conference on" Global Partnership for Transformative Social Work" in Vermont he was invited on behalf of the GPTSW Board of Directors, to act as a charter member of the GPTSW Associates Council.
  • Computer Networks and Social Networks: An International Conference (25 -27.8.2003)

Current Projects

  • MCIA

Prof. Eisikovits is now a PI in the new “Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging (MCIA)” located in the faculty of Health and Welfare Sciences, the University of Haifa.

The multiple marginalization of older adults is a consequence of a socially constructed process including ageism, various social and health-related disadvantages, and a lack of balance between needs and rights within these elements. Such issues are expressed by intersectionality within and between, older immigrants, aging LGBTQI (Lesbian, Gays, bisexual, Transgender, Queers, Intersexed) people with lifelong disability, old persons involved in various forms of violence, abuse and neglect, and persons with criminal careers over the life course.

The Minerva Center on Intersectionality in Aging is initiating an innovative, interdisciplinary, multi-method research and implementation project of intersectional analysis in order to enable a cross-disciplinary understanding of the needs of those populations.

  • Violence in Arab communities in Israel - the extent of the cultural effect

Professor Rattner and professor Fishman have embarked on a new project in which they are looking at the effect of the community characteristics on violent conduct.

The alarming figures regarding homicide in the Arab communities a popular statement by many people argue that it reflects an Arab culture. However, the traditional socio- criminological has treated violent behavior as an outcome of socio economic conditions. The study is designed to find out to what extent each these two robust factors account for violence.

Since different communities contribute to this phenomenon differentially, our analysis will focus on macro level rather than individual characteristics while comparing matched communities also in the Jewish sector.

Past Projects:

  • Follow Up Study of Immigrant Youth

The current project is a follow-up study of immigrant youth from the former Soviet Union who participated in three consecutive waves of panel study 12 years ago.

The original study aims at exploring the impact of the social and cultural adaptation of juvenile immigrants on their delinquent and deviant behavior.

In the current study, we revisit those respondents who have become young adults, and identify and record the changes and meaningful events that might have affected the course of their lives. 

  • Acculturation of Immigrant Youth
  • Escalation of confrontations in intimate relationships - A Longitudinal Validation of a new model and constructs.
  • Ethnic and Gender Differences in Juvenile Justice Outcomes in Israel.
  • Evaluation of Batterers Programs in Israel - A comparison of three national settings - Cost Effectiveness of Batterers Programs in Israel - A comparison of three national settings.
  • Judicial Decision Making in the Israeli Court System
  • National Youth Survey
  • The impact and cultural adaptation of juvenile immigrants from the FSU in Israel & Germany.
  • The Official Delinquent Career of Juvenile Offenders in Israel.
  • The Political Socialization of Youth
  • The Prevalence and Correlates of Domestic Violence in the Israeli Population.

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