Translating CPTED into Crime Preventive Action: A Critical Examination of CPTED as a Tool for Active Guardianship

This paper will argue that the effectiveness of CPTED ought to be judged in terms of the extent to which it is successful in facilitating opportunities for active guardianship of places. With this premise in mind, the CPTED component of surveillance will provide the focal point of investigation. Reynald (Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal, 11(1):1-20, 2009, Journal of Research in Crime & Delinquency, 2010b) demonstrated that supervision or natural surveillance is one of the core dimensions of active guardianship in residential areas. This paper will begin with an illustration of how the CPTED principles are translated into crime preventive action in residential environments by using observational data to get a first-hand look at how CPTED functions in practice. The paper will then go on to combine these field observations with interview data from residents themselves to show the ways in which opportunities for the CPTED component of surveillance are affected, not simply by the design of the physical environment, but also by the context in which the opportunities exist. These results will be used to critically reflect on some inherent conflicts and points of neglect in the relationship between the components of surveillance, territoriality and image/maintenance, as a means of airing some of the conceptual and practical weaknesses that may serve to limit the existing CPTED model.     

Enhancing judicial skills in domestic violence cases: the development,implementation, and preliminary evaluation of a model US programme

ABSTRACT

The overwhelming number and complexity of domestic violence cases in criminal and family courts has resulted in the development of education programmes to assist judges. There is limited research on judicial education in this area. This paper reviews one such initiative entitled ‘Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases’ (EJS) that has been developed and implemented over the last 20 years by the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence, a partnership of the US Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and Futures Without Violence. We present findings of a preliminary evaluation of the programme based on the self-reports of 480 judges who had taken the four-day workshop between 2006 and 2010. Overall, judges reported the programme to be engaging and effective. At a six-month follow‐up, most of the judges identified specific benefits and behavior changes in the areas of access to justice, judicial leadership, victim safety, and abuser accountability as a result of participating in the programme. Critical issues in judicial education are highlighted based on the authors’ experiences in the development and implementation of this programme.     

Navigating the Legal System After a Motor Vehicle Collision

More often than not, individuals involved in motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) do not sustain physical injuries. When individuals are involved in serious, injury-causing MVCs, the consequences may be devastating. Injured persons sometimes elect to pursue legal action to address the medical costs incurred and earning losses experienced in association with their injuries and the resulting impairments in function. This article presents a comprehensive review of the requirements of MVC-related litigation and the laws that govern this process, with emphasis placed on Ontario law in effect at the time of writing. Information considered germane to the decision to pursue legal action is reviewed, including the likely settlement amount, length of the legal process, costs associated with legal services and fee agreements that govern remuneration paid to the lawyer. Also described are no-fault regime and civil lawsuit, the two avenues of compensation that injured persons can pursue in an effort to recover losses and obtain the assistance they need to recover from their MVC-related injuries.     

Examining the good lives model and antisocial behaviour

This study examined the utility of the Good Lives Model (GLM) (Ward, T., &; Stewart, C. A. (2003). The treatment of sex offenders: Risk management and good lives. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 34(4), 353–360. doi:10.1037/0735-7028.34.4.353) in understanding offending behaviour in students. Two hypotheses were made, consistent with the assumptions of the GLM. First, that participants would endorse the importance of the primary goods set out in the GLM. Second, that reports of antisocial behaviour would relate to a lack of effective strategies, or use of maladaptive strategies, to achieve primary goods. Participants (n?=?340, M age?=?20 years) completed a questionnaire (Measure of Life Priorities) assessing their pursuit, valuation, and achievement of the primary human goods as set out in the GLM and a Self-Report of Offending questionnaire. Results supported our hypotheses, and subsequently the assumptions of the GLM. Our findings support the continued use of the GLM as a theoretical and treatment oriented framework in diverse groups engaged in offending behaviour. Future research should continue to ground the GLM in empirical support.     

An exploration of burglary in the criminal histories of sex offenders referred for civil commitment

Commission of nonsexual crimes generally antedates officially recorded sexual offenses. In particular, burglary has been hypothesized to be a potential ‘stepping stone’ in the development of one's sexual criminal career in the same way that marijuana has often been considered a ‘gateway drug’ to more serious drug-related offenses. The present study examined the officially recorded criminal histories of 828 male sex offenders to determine the relevance of burglary in their criminal histories. One third of the men in the sample (n=281, 34%) had been charged at least once for burglary. These 281 men committed a total of 762 separate incidents of burglary. Offenders with at least one officially recorded charge for burglary (BSOs) were compared with those with no such charges (SOs). Next, the characteristics of each burglary were examined and four distinct types of burglary were identified: nonsexual, covertly sexual, overtly sexual, and combination burglary/rape. BSOs accrued twice as many charges as the SOs and were significantly more likely to have an earlier age of onset, a longer criminal career, more employment problems, elementary school problems, antisocial behavior, and substance abuse.     

Bacterial Degradation of Risperidone and Paliperidone in Decomposing Blood

The stability of two benzisoxazole antipsychotics was determined in vitro in decomposing porcine blood inoculated with bacteria, utilizing a high‐performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet and fluorescence detection method for drug quantitation. Stability experiments for risperidone and paliperidone were conducted at 7, 20 and 37°C for 4 days using sterile and bacterially inoculated porcine blood. The drugs were stable in sterile blood at each temperature and in inoculated blood at 7°C, but degraded significantly in inoculated blood at 20 and 37°C. Complete loss occurred within 2 days when incubated at 37°C. The benzisoxazole‐cleaved degradation products for both drugs were identified as 2‐hydroxybenzoyl‐risperidone and 2‐hydroxybenzoyl‐paliperidone utilizing liquid chromatography quadrupole‐time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry and accurate mass measurements. The degradation products have been found in postmortem case studies, including one case where risperidone and paliperidone were not detected, indicating complete conversion can occur in situ.     

Genetic and environmental influences underlying the relationship between low self-control and substance use

Purpose

The current study seeks to examine the relationship between low self-control and cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use in adolescence and adulthood using behavioral genetic methodology.

Methods

Using a subsample of twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the current study estimates the genetic and environmental overlap between low self-control and substance use (or problems associated with substance use) across four waves of data collection.

Results

The overall pattern of results suggests that genetic factors explain a moderate proportion of the variance in low self-control and substance use in both adolescence and adulthood. Furthermore, bivariate genetic analyses reveal that the correlation between low self-control and substance use is due, for the most part, to common genetic and nonshared environmental factors.

Conclusions

The current study adds to a growing body of biosocial research on self-control and its relationship to criminal and analogous behaviors. The implications of our findings for the general theory of crime are discussed.     

Navigating the System: A How-To Guide for Implementing a Kinship Navigator Program

This article describes key programmatic and evaluation elements that guided the implementation of the San Diego County YMCA Kinship Navigator Program. A 3-year demonstration project funded by the Administration on Children Youth and Families designed to build a regional navigator system in collaboration with the local child welfare agency to support kinship caregivers. Kinship caregivers (relatives and non-relatives) play a significant role in the well-being of the children in their care. The findings suggest that successfully implemented kinship navigator models are a viable preventive intervention for addressing the needs of kinship families.     

Predicting Children’s Depressive Symptoms from Community and Individual Risk Factors

Community, demographic, familial, and personal risk factors of childhood depressive symptoms were examined from an ecological theoretical approach using hierarchical linear modeling. Individual-level data were collected from an ethnically diverse (73% African-American) community sample of 197 children and their parents; community-level data were obtained from the U.S. Census regarding rates of community poverty and unemployment in participants’ neighborhoods. Results indicated that high rates of community poverty and unemployment, children’s depressive attributional style, and low levels of self-perceived competence predict children’s depressive symptoms, even after accounting for demographic and familial risk factors, such as parental education and negative parenting behaviors. The effect of negative parenting behaviors on depressive symptoms was partially mediated by personal variables like children’s self-perceived competence. Recommendations for future research, intervention and prevention programs are discussed.