FREDERICK GOULBURN: THE MAN AND HIS OFFICE

Major Frederick Goulburn's appointment in 1820 as Colonial Secretary and Registrar of the Records of New South Wales was something more than the appointment of just another colonial official. It was also a recognition by the home government, as had been the appointment of a Commissioner of Inquiry the previous year, of the changing character of the colony. Though still predominantly a penal colony, it was no longer that alone but was developing also into a colony of free British settlement with economic potential. "Considering the Importance which the Colony has attained from its rapid Increase in Wealth and Population", wrote Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and Colonies, "His Majesty has thought it adviseable to take this opportunity of placing these officers [Colonial Secretary and Provost Marshall] on the Footing on which they stand in other Foreign Possessions of the Crown"; their Commissions were to be prepared for the King's signature in the usual form.     

Public disclosure: Sex offenders' perceptions of the pilot scheme in England. Compliance,legitimacy and living a “Good Life”

Abstract

In 2008–09 four police forces in England piloted a scheme requiring disclosure of information about registered sex offenders (RSOs) to members of the public meeting certain eligibility criteria. Drawing upon data gathered during the evaluation of the pilot, this paper explores the offenders' perceptions of the scheme. In particular, the paper explores RSOs' perceptions of fairness and legitimacy of public disclosure and how these may impact upon their compliance. The RSO interviews also provided limited but informative evidence on the ways in which RSOs manage their lives in the community, and the potential for public disclosure to both hinder and reinforce the living of a “Good Life”.     

Mature suburbs,property values,and decline in the midwest? The case of Cuyahoga county

Abstract

For most U.S. homeowners, a home represents the biggest investment they will ever make, and until recently, most expected the value of their property to rise. If the mature suburbs in which many of these homeowners live have problems or are in decline, property values could decrease and investment value will be lost.

We define mature suburbs for Cuyahoga County, OH (the Cleveland area), and analyze the property values of single‐family homes there. We examine how property values have behaved in mature suburbs compared with the central city and developing suburbs and analyze specific factors that have influenced the property value of single‐family homes in these three submarkets from 1985 to 2000. Our analyses show that there is no overall decline in nominal property values. Housing space, nearness to workplaces and transportation networks, and tax rates are important variables in the model, affecting mature suburbs and developing suburbs differently.     

Governance and Hyper-corruption in Resource-rich African Countries

Official corruption is frequently associated with the abundance of valuable extractive resources. This article reviews the worst cases of ‘resource curse’ in Africa—Angola, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria—in light of the most recent developments. Despite its systematic association with public corruption, however, mineral wealth is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition. Corruption is widespread in resource-poor countries as well—in Africa and elsewhere—and some resource-rich African countries such as Botswana have a record of good economic performance and high public integrity, suggesting specific ways in which transparency and accountability for the use of mineral resources can be encouraged and corruption correspondingly reduced. Because corruption in resource-rich African countries is heavily influenced by external interests, particularly the multinational extractive industries, recent initiatives by the United States and the international community to foster transparency carry a significant potential for reducing corruption and improving governance.     

Communicating about child sexual abuse with the public: learning the lessons from public awareness campaigns

Despite numerous public awareness campaigns child sexual abuse (CSA) remains a significant global issue affecting millions of children. This suggests that such campaigns have had minimal impact, and the paucity of good quality empirical evaluation makes it difficult to establish what has worked and what has not. This article considers how different and evolving approaches to public awareness campaigning on CSA since the 1990s have influenced (or not) attitudinal and behavioural change. The article reviews a number of key initiatives from around the world and identifies common themes that can inform campaigning and prevention efforts. Recommendations for further research efforts, social problem framing, and targeting are offered. The article concludes by arguing that more recent multi-faceted campaigns which combine a range of messaging methods are more likely to turn public awareness campaigning into public action campaigning.     

White collar crime,consumers and victimization

Consumers have long been recognized as one of the major groups of victims of white collar and corporate crime, although many of the activities which harm them are not widely regarded as ‘crime’. They tend to attract less publicity, and have been subject to less academic research, particularly in comparison with major financial frauds or cases involving mass harms. Moreover, there has been a tendency to view consumers as a relatively undifferentiated group, all of whom are likely to be victimized. This article identifies a wide range of crimes which affect consumers and explores some of the characteristics of victims and offenders, arguing that while all consumers are at risk, the impact of consumer crime, like other forms of crime, reflects wider patterns of structural inequality and falls most severely on the most disadvantaged.

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Drugs in oral fluid Part II. Investigation of drugs in drivers

As part of the European project, Impaired Motorists, Methods of Roadside Testing and Assessment for Licensing, otherwise known as IMMORTAL (Deliverable R4.2), the University of Glasgow was required to analyse 1396 oral fluid samples, collected from drivers, for a wide range of drugs. A previously described method to include 49 drugs and metabolites was used. To include cannabis in the study a separate extraction method was required because of interferences caused by the collection device. The study group included drivers who were stopped at random and participation was entirely voluntary. The results showed that out of the 1396 samples tested, 16.8% were positive for at least one drug. In the majority of positive cases (85%), monodrug use was found and the most commonly detected drug was 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine. This study showed that a significant number of the driving population are positive for at least one drug.     

Crime and economic instability: the real security threat from North Korea and what to do about it

This essay examines the domestic and international causationof the socioeconomic transformation that has taken place inthe DPRK since the 1990s. In the process the essay demonstrateshow the DPRK socio-economy has become an enabling environmentfor crossborder illicit economic activity. The argument is thatthere is little evidence that the DPRK government fully comprehendsthe potential problems for its own society from the lack ofregulation of market transactions and therefore not much likelihoodthat it is currently able or willing to prevent spillover ofthe numerous grey areas of North Korean marketization into thesocio-economies of its neighbours. What is therefore neededis positive interaction by foreign economic interlocutors, includinggovernments and international institutions. A policy of 'intelligentintervention' that combines closely monitored but relativelysubstantial economic interaction integrally linked to a programmeof market institution-building in the DPRK, along with a policyof military deterrence, could best contribute to preventingthe growth of economic and political instability in NortheastAsia.