Pandora's box: Women guards in men's prisons

The assignment of women guards to security positions in men's prisons in the United States is increasingly a correctional reality. This article considers the problems these women face in entering a previously all-male, “front-line” occupation. The discussion focuses on (1) how well female officers meet the security demands of security work, (2) the nature of, and basis for, difficulties in relating to male co-workers, and (3) occupational socialization and advancement. Drawing on available empirical and anecdotal data on women officers in male prisons and on the more general prison guard literature, the intent is to present what is known about these women officers. A research agenda is offered to guide inquiry into the problems of the sexual integration of correctional institutions.     

Bedroom rape: sequences of sexual behavior in stranger assaults

This article examines the sequential, temporal, and interactional aspects of sexual assaults using sequential analysis. Fourteen statements taken from victims of bedroom-based assaults were analyzed to provide a comprehensive account of the behavioral patterns of individuals in sexually charged conflict situations. The cases were found to vary in the sexual severity of assault, distinguishing a variety of motivations and behavioral repertoires of offender and victim. Two quite distinct styles of offense were identified: multiple and single, which may have very different implications for research into rapist taxonomies and rape prevention strategies.     

Crime Risk Assessments in New South Wales

Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) guidelines have been adopted in numerous jurisdictions around the world. In 2001, guidelines were introduced in New South Wales (Australia) to ensure that proposed developments/redevelopments of the built environment reflected key CPTED principles. The guidelines state that in certain circumstances a crime risk assessment is required for the proposed development and the resulting report forms part of the development application, which is reviewed by the relevant consent authority (a council or state government department depending upon the size of the development). To date, these guidelines have not been evaluated, making it impossible to assess their impact and the utility of the associated crime risk assessment reports. Moreover, much of the academic literature on CPTED has historically tended to focus on the implementation of CPTED strategies and not on the processes adopted pre-development. To partially fill this gap in knowledge, a small number (4) of publicly available crime risk assessment reports have been reviewed here and key issues highlighted. In particular, the relevance of some aspects of these reports is questioned, as is the impact of the relationship between the client (i.e. developer) commissioning the report and the findings of the ‘independent’ consultant. The small sample of risk assessment reports randomly selected for review cannot be considered representative of the larger body of such reports. Nonetheless, the insights generated from this exercise should be of interest to policy makers and practitioners engaged in this work.     

Damages in medical litigation in New South Wales

In the period 2001 to 2003, the New South Wales legislature enacted four Acts that impinge on the assessment of damages in litigation against health professionals. They are the Health Care Liability Act 2001 (NSW), the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) (as originally enacted), the Civil Liability Amendment (Personal Responsibility) Act 2002 (NSW) and the Civil Liability Amendment Act 2003 (NSW). This article considers the principles on which damages are assessed in medical litigation and how those principles have been affected by these four enactments. It points out that each piece of legislation was retrospective in applying to events that occurred both before and after its commencement. However, proceedings already issued before a particular date were excluded in each case from the retrospective operation of the legislation. The article provides details of the relevant dates of operation of each of the statutes.     

The prominence of fraud in New South Wales metropolitan media reporting

This study analyses the coverage of six major crime types in two of Australia’s largest newspapers. The study aims to test the prevailing viewpoint that fraud and financial crimes are proportionally underreported in the media. The study considers the cost of fraud and financial crime to society, the choices the media makes when reporting on fraud and financial crime, and the impact of media reporting on public policy and law enforcement. The study challenges prevailing views on the extent of media coverage of fraud, finding that there is significant coverage of fraud in the sampled Australian newspapers.     

Trends in the management of registered sexual offenders across England and Wales: a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending

Abstract

Social scientists, and geographers in particular, have long been interested in examining spatial patterns of offending in order to generate a “geography” of crime and criminality. This paper examines what value, if any, a geographical approach to the study of sexual offending might offer. Utilising published official data from England and Wales it presents for the first time geographical analyses of the registration, risk assessment and management of Registered Sexual Offenders (RSOs) across 42 Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangement (MAPPA) areas. In doing so it considers and evaluates the methodological issues pertaining to the use of such data and such a geographical approach. We conclude that geographical interpretations of both the incidence of RSOs and the rates of risk allocations between MAPPA areas provide valuable insights and raise new questions about the way in which RSOs are managed nationally and are thus worthy of further exploration.     

Motor accidents and blood samples in New South Wales

In the 12 months to June 2007, more than 26,000 people were injured in motor accidents on New South Wales roads. More than 400 people were killed. Alcohol was an important factor in a significant number of these accidents. The Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 (NSW) contains provisions for the mandatory taking of blood samples from drivers who have caused death while driving and who are suspected of having driven under the influence of drugs or alcohol. This article considers the law regarding the requirement of hospital staff to collect blood samples from drivers involved in motor vehicle accidents in New South Wales.     

Water rights and correlative duties in New South Wales

This article discovers how the development of water rights in New South Wales might have been changed. This is important because, one publicly listed company has amassed ownership of water rights, while using no water and owning no land. Some rivers have ceased flowing after the building of privately owned dams. The article identifies five signifant judicial changes to the law, decoupling water rights from correlative duties. Its research paradigm is meta-legal historiography, because it occurs as historical significations, so that the research methodology is legal narrative analysis. Discussion favors a review of industrial priorities in water rights.     

Examination of acetone findings in suspected drug-facilitated sexual assaults: A case series

Acetone presence in human biological specimens can result from exogenous administration or endogenous production, resulting from diabetes, dietary composition, alcoholism, and stress response. Victims of drug-facilitated sexual assaults (DFSA) are understood to experience enhanced stress. At the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences (HCIFS), DFSA drug testing includes analysis of volatile compounds, ethanol, methanol, isopropanol, and acetone, by headspace gas chromatography/flame ionization detection. The prevalence of acetone-positive specimens in DFSA casework has been observed to exceed that of other human performance case types. In this report, DFSA cases received between 2019 and 2021 (n = 393) were reviewed and 41 acetone-positive cases were detailed. Overall, nearly 11% of the DFSA cases had acetone-positive blood or urine specimens, where 3% identified acetone only, 6% identified acetone and other drug(s), and 2% identified acetone, ethanol, and other drug(s). Acetone concentrations ranged from 0.010 to 0.147 g/100 mL in urine. Other drugs such as nor-carboxy-Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol, amphetamine, methamphetamine, ethanol, and benzoylecgonine were commonly detected. Elevated stress response encountered during DFSAs may facilitate the mechanism behind enhanced acetone production leading to increased identification. Limited availability of victim medical history precludes understanding the contribution of other disease states or physiological conditions. Nonetheless, the identification of acetone in DFSA specimens supports its potential as a biomarker of trauma in forensic toxicology casework and warrants future research within the community.     

Work release and periodic detention in New South Wales: The custodial model and role experimentation

The custodial model is singled out from among the possible alternative models for work-release programs. Although custody-oriented staff typically are conservative and oppose change, work release programs press them into unfamiliar relationships with residents and with members of the free community. Without formal guidance, personnel engage in role experimentation that holds potential as a prelude to significant penal reform. Implications are suggested through analysis of periodic detention and work release as different schemes followed in New South Wales.     

Free Vote Patterns in the New South Wales State Parliament

This research note examines patterns of MPs’ voting behaviour during ‘conscience’ or ‘free’ votes on three ‘morality politics’ issues in the lower house of the New South Wales state parliament in Australia: adoption rights for gay couples; scientists’ use of therapeutic cloning; and the status of the Sydney Medically Supervised Injection Centre. First, the research note reviews the literature on conscience voting and hypothesises that party will be the main predictor of voting patterns, but also establishes that previous studies have almost exclusively focused on national legislatures. Next the research note discusses methodological issues. Third, it presents the analysis of free vote patterns in the New South Wales parliament on the three ‘morality politics’ issues, along four key variables: party; sex; social ideology; and religion. The analysis of voting in the New South Wales parliament challenges existing explanations of free voting, where party is the key predictor of voting patterns. Intra-party unity figures show that party membership is a weaker predictor of voting behaviour in the two main political parties in New South Wales than in either the Australian parliament or in overseas parliaments. It is argued that at the subnational level other factors are more important in explanations of free vote patterns.     

Regulating for Fair Dealing in Work Contracts: A New South Wales Approach

From 1959 till 2006, all workers in New South Wales had recourseto review of contracts ‘and arrangements’ underwhich work is performed on the grounds of ‘unfairness’.This jurisdiction—initially instigated to capture schemesand subterfuges by which employers escaped industrial awardsby contracting out to dependent contractors—has been expandedover the years to allow review of all sorts of arrangementsunder which work is performed. This article will review thatjurisdiction to demonstrate the potential of statutory unfaircontracts review to meet some of the challenges that changesin labour market structures have presented for the protectiveagenda of labour law.     

In the eye of the beholder: Meaning and structure of informal status in women's and men's prisons*

Applying an abductive mixed‐methods approach, we investigate the informal status systems in three women's prison units (across two prisons) and one men's prison unit. Qualitative analyses suggest “old head” narratives—where age, time in prison, sociability, and prison wisdom confer unit status—are prevalent across all four contexts. Perceptions of maternal “caregivers” and manipulative “bullies,” however, are found only in the three women's units. The qualitative findings inform formal network analyses by differentiating “positive,” “neutral,” and “negative” status nominations, with “negative” ties primarily absent from the men's unit. Within the women's units, network analyses find that high‐status women are likely to receive both positive and negative peer nominations, such that evaluations depend on who is doing the evaluating. Comparing the women's and men's networks, the correlates of positive and neutral ties are generally the same and center on covariates of age, getting along with others, race, and religion. Overall, the study points to important similarities and differences in status across the gendered prison contexts, while demonstrating how a sequential mixed‐methods design can illuminate both the meaning and the structure of prison informal organization.     

Colonial origins of land acquisition law in New South Wales and Queensland

F.W. Maitland. G.R. Elton. London. 1985. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. vii &; 118 pp. (incl. Index). £12.95.

Victorian Prison Lives: English Prison Biography (1830–1914). Philip Priest‐ley. London and New York. 1985. Methuen. xiii &; 311 pp. (incl. index). £25.00.

Christopher St German on Chancery and Statute. J.A. Guy. London. 1985. Selden Society Supplementary series vol. 6. x &; 149 pp. (incl. index). £15.

Imprisonment in England and Wales: A Concise History, Christopher Harding, Bill Hines, Richard Ireland and Philip Rawlings, Beck‐enham. Croom Helm. 1985. xiii &; 308 pp. £25.00.

The Evolution of Law. Alan Watson. Oxford. 1985. Basil Blackwell. xi &; 156 pp. (incl. index). £17.50.

Unequal Access: Women Lawyers in a Changing America. Ronald Chester. Massachusetts. 1985. Bergin &; Garvey Publishers, Inc. viii &; 135 pp.(incl. index). £24.95.

Unequal Laws unto a Savage Race: European Legal Traditions in Arkansas, 1686–1836. Morris S. Arnold. Fayetteville. 1985. University of Arkansas Press, xviii &; 234 pp.

Returns of Strangers in the Metropolis 1593, 1627, 1635, 1639: A Study of an Active Minority. Ed. Irene Scouloudi. London. 1985. The Huguenot Society.

’Without the Law’: Administrative Justice and Legal Pluralism in Nineteenth Century England. H.W. Arthurs. Toronto. 1985. University of Toronto Press, xvi + 312 pp. (incl. index). £20.00.     

The Impact of Field Court Attendance Notices on Property Crime in New South Wales,Australia

Objectives

This paper investigates the impact of Field Court Attendance Notices (FCANs) on rates of property crime in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. FCANs are used for relatively minor offenses, are issued ‘on the spot’, and provide an alternative to the time consuming process of arresting an alleged offender and taking them to the police station for processing. Despite their use in NSW for over 20 years, this study is the first to evaluate their impact on crime.

Methods

We use data provided by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. We specify a general dynamic panel data model estimated via the Arellano and Bond (Rev Econ Stud 58:277–297, 1991) estimator, specifically the first-differenced twostep generalised method of moments (GMM) estimator.

Results

For property crime as a whole, in both the short- and long-run, we find no significant relationship between the use of FCANS and levels of offending. However, when offending rates are disaggregated into 11 sub-categories, we find that in the short-run an increase in the use of FCANs leads to statistically significant decreases in the rate of crime for five of the sub-categories offenses considered (break and enter dwelling; motor vehicle theft; steal from motor vehicle; steal from retail store and; steal from dwelling). The long-run results are largely consistent with the short-run results in terms of their signs and statistical significance, suggesting that the effects persist.

Conclusions

The empirical analysis presented in this paper suggests that the use of FCANs is an effective and potentially efficient policing strategy for a subset of property offenses, in that offenders can be processed at lower cost and long-run rates of certain crimes reduced.

     

Windows of detection of zolpidem in urine and hair: application to two drug facilitated sexual assaults

A LC-MS/MS method for the detection of zolpidem in hair was developed to detect this drug after a single dose in possible drug facilitated sexual assaults. To determine the window of detection of zolpidem in both urine and hair, three volunteers received a 10 mg dose. Urine specimens were collected each 12 h for 144 h. Hair was sampled 3-5 weeks after exposure. Hair and urine extracts were separated on a Xterra MS C18 column using a gradient of acetonitrile and formate buffer. For each compound, detection was related to two daughter ions. Zolpidem was detected for up to 60 h in urine with peak concentrations obtained at 12 h. A single exposure to zolpidem was detected in hair at concentrations ranging from 1.8 to 9.8 pg/mg. Hair analysis was applied to two possible criminal cases. In the first case, zolpidem tested positive in the corresponding hair segment at 4.4 pg/mg. In the other case, zolpidem was detected in all the segments analyzed, demonstrating likely previous drug use in addition to recent exposure associated with a positive blood result.