Explaining Crime Diversity with Google Street View

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Crime diversity is a measure of the variety of criminal offenses in a local environment, similar to ecological diversity. While crime diversity distributions...     

Application of non-contact scanning to forensic podiatry: A feasibility study

Foot impression evidence recovered from crime scenes can be available in the form of barefoot prints, sock-clad footprints, or as impressions within footwear. In some cases, suspects leave their footwear at the scene of the crime, and the insoles from the footwear can be important in linking a person to the footwear. The application of 3D data-collecting technology is becoming more and more popular within forensic science and has been used to recover footwear impression evidence. The present study is a feasibility study to discover if 3D data capturing devices can be applied to insoles; to capture the footprint impression for measurement using the Gunn method (a method used in forensic podiatry casework). Three different methods of data capture were conducted; Adobe Photoshop, MeshLab, and calipers used directly on the insole. Paired t-tests and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) were conducted for all three data capture methods. Seven measurements used in this study were significantly different across all three methods. ICC scores were moderate to excellent for the Photoshop method, poor to good for the 3D method, and moderate to excellent for the Direct method.     

Political Science Research Internships and Political Science Education

This article reports on the evaluation of political science research internships and considers their costs and benefits for a political science education. Students indicated high levels of appreciation of the inaugural Political Science Research Internship Unit at the University of Western Australia in terms of its contribution to their personal development and work experience. A substantial number of interns gained insights into the policy process through this form of experiential learning. Many came to appreciate the contingency and the normative dimensions of knowledge in the policy process. Whereas about half of the students found the transition from the seminar room to the policy world difficult, the other half were more successful in applying their theoretical knowledge to practical experiences. The article also indicates how this evaluation informs future course design.     

宪法学的教义化——德国国家法学方法论的发展

本文主要介绍了德国自19世纪下半叶以来的国家法学方法论的发展。从1871年开始,德国经历了三次政治上的转折,政治的变化同样反映到国家法学和宪法学的研究当中,在近一个半世纪的时间里,如何通过方法论努力科学地进行国家法和宪法的体系建构或者解释,一直是问题的重心。而德国国家法学和宪法学方法论的发展对于今天的中国而言也具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Does GPS supervision of intimate partner violence defendants reduce pretrial misconduct? Evidence from a quasi-experimental study

Objectives

This research examines the effect global positioning system (GPS) technology supervision has on pretrial misconduct for defendants facing intimate partner violence charges.

Methods

Drawing on data from one pretrial services division, a retrospective quasi-experimental design was constructed to examine failure to appear to court, failure to appear to meetings with pretrial services, and rearrest outcomes between defendants ordered to pretrial GPS supervision and a comparison group of defendants ordered to pretrial supervision without the use of monitoring technology. Cox regression models were used to assess differences between quasi-experimental conditions. To enhance internal validity and mitigate model dependence, we utilized and compared results across four counterfactual comparison groups (propensity score matching, Mahalanobis distance matching, inverse probability of treatment weighting, and marginal mean weighting through stratification).

Results

Pretrial GPS supervision was no more or less effective than traditional, non-technology based pretrial supervision in reducing the risk of failure to appear to court or the risk of rearrest. GPS supervision did reduce the risk of failing to appear to meetings with pretrial services staff.

Conclusions

The results suggest that GPS supervision may hold untapped case management benefits for pretrial probation officers, a pragmatic focus that may be overshadowed by efforts to mitigate the risk of pretrial misconduct. Further, the results contribute to ongoing discussions on bail reform, pretrial practice, and the movement to reduce local jail populations. Although the cost savings are not entirely clear, relatively higher risk defendants can be managed in the community and produce outcomes that are comparable to other defendants. The results also call into question the ability of matching procedures to construct appropriate counterfactuals in an era where risk assessment informs criminal justice decision-making. Weighting techniques outperformed matching strategies.

     

Disrupting Daesh: Measuring Takedown of Online Terrorist Material and Its Impacts

Abstract

This article contributes to public and policy debates on the value of social media disruption activity with respect to terrorist material. In particular, it explores aggressive account and content takedown, with the aim of accurately measuring this activity and its impacts. The major emphasis of the analysis is the so-called Islamic State (IS) and disruption of their online activity, but a catchall “Other Jihadi” category is also utilized for comparison purposes. Our findings challenge the notion that Twitter remains a conducive space for pro-IS accounts and communities to flourish. However, not all jihadists on Twitter are subject to the same high levels of disruption as IS, and we show that there is differential disruption taking place. IS’s and other jihadists’ online activity was never solely restricted to Twitter; it is just one node in a wider jihadist social media ecology. This is described and some preliminary analysis of disruption trends in this area supplied too.     

专访赞比亚驻华大使努潘多·姆瓦佩

记者：前不久,您刚刚出席了在温州举行的中非中小企业合作论坛,据我们所知这也是您在近三个月内第三次到温州。您对这次论坛总体有什么看法？     

Is There a Culture or Religion of Torture? International Support for Brutal Treatment of Suspected Terrorists

Do certain cultures or religions predispose citizens to support the deployment of torture against suspected terrorists? Based on an international survey of 31 different countries, we examine how religion and culture affect respondents' position on torture. We find that at the individual level, the nonreligious are resolutely opposed to torture, and that Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and other faiths are more supportive. Among world cultures, Muslim/African cultures are most opposed to the torture of terrorists, while Confucian, English-speaking, and South Asian cultures are the most supportive of it. We also find that the use of torture has less support in countries that are suffering from terrorism, once religion and culture are considered.