Identifying,explaining, and targeting burglary ‘hot spots’

Conclusion The data-gathering and crime analysis part of the Task Force programme (while not yet completed) has generated some useful information about burglary in Cambridge which might inform a crime prevention strategy. The research has shown that residential burglary is not evenly distributed across Cambridge, but tends to be clustered in the northwest of the City. It has also shown that even in these high-burglary areas there are hot spots and cold spots of crime. These hot spots account for a relatively large proportion of all burglary.One factor contributing to the high burglary counts in the hot spot area is the high number of repeat burglaries, with as many as 35 percent of all burglaries recorded in the area being one of a repeat series of burglaries. Another factor which might have contributed to the high burglary counts was the abundance of access and escape routes of the kind identified in the environmental survey. Perhaps the most important factor which explains the high number of burglaries was the closeness of the area to the place of residence of known offenders. The hot spot site thus provides a local source of easy and rewarding opportunities for offenders who live in these areas.In the second stage of its work, the Cambridge Burglary Task Force will collate the information that has been collected in the first stage and devise appropriate intervention strategies. We aim to continue to monitor crime and criminals in the area and to evaluate the effectiveness the programmes implemented.     

A. Reviews: general

THE CIVILIZATIONS OF ASIA AND THE MIDDLE EAST BEFORE THE EUROPEAN CHALLENGE. By JAROSLAV KREJCI. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990. 348 pp. .£37.50 (hb).

THE ORIGINS OF ARAB NATIONALISM. Edited by RASHID KHALIDI, LISA ANDERSON, MUHAMMAD MUSLIH, and REEVA S. SIMON. 288 pp. + glossary, bibliography, index. New York, Columbia University Press, 1991.

THE ARAB STATE. Edited by GIACOMO LUCIANI. London, Routledge, 1990. 454 pp., bibliography, index, tables.

STATE, POWER, AND POLITICS IN THE MAKING OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST. By ROGER OWEN. London, Routledge, 1992. xiv, 302 pp. £40.00 (hb), £12.99 (pb).

L'ÉCHEC DE L'ISLAM POLITIQUE. By OLIVIER ROY. Paris, Editions du Seuil, 1992. 247pp.

MOSCOW AND THE MIDDLE EAST. By ROBERT O. FREEDMAN. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991. xii, 426 pp. $59.50 (hb), $16.95 (pb).

EURO‐ARAB RELATIONS: A STUDY IN COLLECTIVE DIPLOMACY. By HAIFAA A. JAWAD. Reading, Garnet Publishing, 1992. viii, 302 pp. £25.00

OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS: GULF WARS 1980–91. By JOHN CREIGHTON. London, Echoes, 1992. viii, 156 pp. £35.00.

ALL THAT REMAINS: THE PALESTINIAN VILLAGES OCCUPIED AND DEPOPULATED BY ISRAEL IN 1948. Edited by WALID KHALIDI. Washington, D.C., The Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992. li, 636 pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $59.00 (hb).

PALESTINE REBORN. By WALID KHALIDI. London, I.B. Tauris, 1992. xxi, 234pp. £35.00(hb), £14.95 (pb).

WILDFIRE: GRASSROOTS REVOLT IN ISRAEL IN THE POST‐SOCIALIST ERA. By SAM N. LEHMAN‐WILZIG. New York, State University of New York Press, 1992. x, 198 pp. $12.95 (pb).

MODERN ALGERIA. By CHARLES‐ROBERT AGERON. London, Hurst, 1991. x, 166 pp. £16.50 (hb).

L'ALGERIE PAR SES ISLAMISTES. By M. AL‐AHNAF, BERNARD BOTIVEAU and FRANCK FREGOSI. Paris, Karthala, 1991. 328 pp.

TUNISIA: RURAL LABOUR AND STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION. By SAMIR RADWAN, JAMAL VALI and AJIT GHOSE. London, Routledge, 1991. xii, 122 pp, £30.00 (hb).

SUDAN AFTER NIMEIRI. Edited by PETER WOODWARD. (Routledge/ SOAS Contemporary Politics and Culture in the Middle East series.) London, Routledge, 1991, xii, 223pp. £35(hb).

TRADE AND EMPIRE IN MUSCAT AND ZANZIBAR: ROOTS OF BRITISH DOMINATION. By M[OHMED] REDA BHACKER. (Exeter Arabic & Islamic series.) London & New York, Routledge, 1992. 278pp. £40.00

THE KURDS: A CONTEMPORARY OVERVIEW. Edited by PHILIP K. KREYENBROEK AND STEFAN SPERL. London, Routledge, 1991. xii, 250 pp. £35.00 (hb).

ARABIC ADENI TEXTBOOK. By HABAKA J. FEGHALI. Edited by ALAN S. KAYE. (Arabic dialect series (Yemen).) Wheaton, MD, Dunwoody, 1991. xx, 233 pp.

MOROCCAN ARABIC READER. By HABAKA J. FEGHALI. Notes by Alan S. Kaye. Wheaton, MD, Dunwoody, 1989. xi, 143 pp.     

Book reviews

Word Processing for Solicitors, Kevin Townsend and Kate Taphouse, Gower Publishing, 1983 £12.50

Computer Law, Colin Tapper, Longman, London and New York, 1983 Third Edition, £9.50

Understanding Computer Contracts, Martin Edwards, Waterlow Publishers, 1983 £6.50

Data Protection: Perspectives on Information Privacy, Edited by Colin Bourn & John Benyon, Department of Adult Education, University of Leicester, 1983 £5

The Computer in Court, Alistair Kelman and Richard Sizer, Gower Publishing Company, 1982 £15.50

Principles of Database Systems, Jeffrey D Ullman, Pitman Publishing Ltd, 1982 Second Edition £13.95

Computers and the Law Teacher, A report of the proceedings of a conference held at North Staffordshire Polytechnic, Edited by David V Marshall, North Staffordshire Polytechnic, 1983 £3     

From evaluation to auditing and from programs to institutions: Causes and consequences of the decline of the program approach

In the wake of the “audit revolution” during the 1980s and 1990s, administrative systems across the western world have tended to gradually downplay evaluation as a component of the policy process. At the same time, auditing has dramatically increased in scope and depth, and has also, to some extent, come to fill the role in policymaking previously played by evaluation studies. This article reviews this development from the perspective of policymaking and institutional change or “drift.” Specifically, we look at the types of information and knowledge that are lost and gained as a result of these developments. We apply a cross‐national approach, drawing on the examples from the European and North American contexts.     

Youth Pathways to Placement: The Influence of Gender, Mental Health Need and Trauma on Confinement in the Juvenile Justice System

Although the juvenile crime rate has generally declined, the involvement of girls in the juvenile justice system has been increasing. Possible explanations for this gender difference include the impact of exposure to trauma and mental health needs on developmental pathways and the resulting influence of youth’s involvement in the justice system. This study examined the influence of gender, mental health needs and trauma on the risk of out-of-home placement for juvenile offenders. The sample included youth referred to three urban juvenile probation departments in Texas between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2008 and who received state-mandated mental health screening (N = 34,222; 30.1 % female). The analysis revealed that, for both genders, elevated scores on the seven factor-analytically derived subscales of a mental health screening instrument (Alcohol and Drug Use, Depressed-Anxious, Somatic Complaints, Suicidal Ideation, Thought Disturbance, and Traumatic Experiences), especially related to past traumatic experiences, influenced how deeply juveniles penetrated the system. The findings suggest that additional research is needed to determine the effectiveness of trauma interventions and the implementation of trauma informed systems for youth involved with the juvenile justice system.     

Mainstreaming of Racist Anti-Roma Discourses in the Media in Hungary

The article focuses on the rise and spread of racist language in public debate in Hungary. It investigates how radical right discourses—that is, the relegitimating of the racist idea of “Gypsy crime”—have been transmitted by the mainstream media thus contributing to the decline of a short-lived political correctness in Hungary. The analysis explores how racism has become more and more accepted and how the mainstream has embraced the radical right's propositions, turning them into a “digestible” rhetoric while “breaking the taboos” of antiracism.     

A Model of Sexual Abuse’s Effects on Suicidal Behavior and Delinquency: The Role of Emotions as Mediating Factors

Drawing on Agnew’s general strain theory, we examined whether depressed mood and anger mediated the effects of sexual abuse on suicidal behavior and delinquency. Participants included 9,113 students attending high schools in Iceland. Structural equation modeling showed that, while controlling for family structure and parental education, being exposed to strain in the form of sexual abuse was positively related to both depressed mood and anger. The effects of sexual abuse on suicidal behavior of both boys and girls were twice as strong through depressed mood as through anger. The effects of sexual abuse on outwardly-directed forms of delinquency for both genders were stronger through anger than through depressed mood. These findings highlight the complex nature of the effects of strain on adolescents’ emotions and behavior. Moreover, they show that depression—in contrast to outwardly-directed delinquency, where feelings of anger are predominantly influential—is more relevant than anger to suicidal behavior.

The Public Cost of Unilateral Action

Scholarship on democratic responsiveness focuses on whether political outcomes reflect public opinion but overlooks attitudes toward how power is used to achieve those policies. We argue that public attitudes toward unilateral action lead to negative evaluations of presidents who exercise unilateral powers and policies achieved through their use. Evidence from two studies supports our argument. In three nationally representative survey experiments conducted across a range of policy domains, we find that the public reacts negatively when policies are achieved through unilateral powers instead of through legislation passed by Congress. We further show these costs are greatest among respondents who support the president's policy goals. In an observational study, we show that attitudes toward unilateral action in the abstract affect how respondents evaluate policies achieved through unilateral action by presidents from Lincoln to Obama. Our results suggest that public opinion may constrain presidents' use of unilateral powers.     

Norwegian parliamentary elections, 1906–2013: representation and turnout across four electoral systems

Since gaining full independence in 1905, Norway has experienced more than a century of democratic elections, and has reformed its electoral system three times, most notably with the switch from a two-round runoff system to proportional representation in 1919. This research note introduces a new dataset featuring all candidates running for parliamentary (Storting) elections from 1906 to 2013, and documents the patterns over time and across electoral systems in the development of the party system; candidates’ gender, age, occupation, and geographic ties; and voter turnout. Scholars interested in using the dataset can gain access to it through the Norwegian Centre for Research Data.     

Course corrections and failed rationales: how comparative advantage and debt are used to legitimise austerity in Africa and Latin America

This article examines the role of ideological mechanisms in support of long-term economic liberalisation. Specifically we examine the ideological roles of comparative advantage and debt reduction as precursors to austerity policy imposition. Austerity policies, as episodic mechanisms designed to deepen neoliberalisation, are examined in the comparative historical context of Africa and Latin America.