Assessing and managing the threat posed by fixated persons in Australia

In July 2013, the Australian State of Queensland established the first fixated threat assessment service outside Europe to specifically assess and manage lone, fixated persons. The Queensland Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (QFTAC) is a collaboration between the Intelligence, Counter-Terrorism and Major Events Command of the Queensland Police Service and Queensland Health’s Forensic Mental Health Service. It has been modelled on the original Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) which has been operating in the United Kingdom since 2006, with modifications to reflect local needs and differing mental health and legal practices. This paper describes the background to the development of these services, the rationale for their expansion to the Asia Pacific region, and outcome data for QFTAC’s first 12 months of operations. These findings support the efficacy of proactive FTAC-style approaches to managing the threat posed by fixated individuals to public figures and the wider community.     

Adjudicating reasonable and necessary funded supports in the National Disability Insurance Scheme: A critical review of the values and priorities indicated in the decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal

Beyond the initial euphoria of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), tough choices will be needed for sustainability. Although the spirit of the NDIS is to deliver choice and control, the Australian government's objective is to ensure that rights and aspirations are proportionate to expectations of best practice, aptness of mainstream services and cost effectiveness. The position in this paper is that this test of ‘reasonable and necessary’ when determining funded supports, raises value dilemmas for government and citizens. The objective is to demonstrate this through a critical scrutiny of the reviews and decisions regarding reasonable and necessary funded supports of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). In this paper, a synthesis and critique of 35 appeals to the AAT and one Federal Court Appeal are used to make explicit the decisional ambiguities and contestations in the scheme and the values and priorities that are currently dominant in the allocation of reasonable and necessary support. This in turn is used as a basis for a discussion about the operation of rights in the scheme and what counts as legitimate support. The benefit is for scheme transparency and fairness but also broader debate about core principles and values to inform decisions about scarce resources in society.     

Routine Activities Theory as a Formula for Systematic Sexual Abuse: A Content Analysis of Survivors’ Testimony Against Larry Nassar

American Journal of Criminal Justice - Larry Nassar, a once world renowned Olympic doctor, was arrested and charged with child abuse and child pornography in 2016, becoming one of the most prolific...     

关于经验法则的思考

本文从经验法则的概念入手，厘清了经验法则的起源和限定，进而讨论了经验法则的具体类型。在此基础上，阐述了经验法则的三种功能：“启发性”功能；“认识性”功能；以及“证明性”功能，并就如何运用经验法则提出具体意见。     

Systems of Partial Control: Ethnic Dynamics in Post-Soviet Estonia and Latvia

This article offers a theory to capture ethnic dynamics in post-Soviet Estonia and Latvia. It also explores a research question of great interest to political scientists, historians, sociologists, and economists: what accounts for stability in deeply divided societies? Drawing on Ian Lustick’s formulation of control, the author suggests that stability in deeply divided societies is a result of conscious efforts made by elites to construct what she calls “systems of partial control.” In such systems, the majority ethnic group controls the political sector, but shares control of the economic sector with minority ethnic groups. Economic prosperity derived from dispersed economic control accounts for stability in Estonia and Latvia. The article identifies two conditions that must be satisfied for elites to tolerate partial control. First, elites must reach a threshold of political hegemony at which point they dominate the political sector and second, the respective state must have a flourishing private sector. The article concludes with an assessment of whether or not systems of partial control are likely to be stable, and a reflection on implications of these systems beyond the post-Soviet region.     

Citizen Participation and Congressional Responsiveness: New Evidence that Participation Matters

This article examines the influence of citizen participation, specifically voter turnout, on congressional policy responsiveness. We argue that higher levels of citizen participation signal to representatives greater surveillance of their actions by their constituents and, thus, a higher probability of sanction. Representatives respond to these signals by deploying resources in ways that provide better intelligence of district needs and preferences. As a consequence, higher citizen participation is rewarded with enhanced policy responsiveness.