Determining the correlates of police victimization: An analysis of organizational level factors on injurious assaults

The current study attempted to expand the understanding victimization of police by examining the impact of a variety of factors related to community and aggressive policing styles on injurious assaults rates across 267 large municipal police departments. Regression analyses indicated that policing styles related to community meetings are associated with low levels of assault rates. Second, policing styles related to aggressive enforcement of drug laws has an aggravating effect on police victimization. Finally, departments that had high police-to-citizen population ratios also had lesser rates of injurious assaults.     

The anonymous police blogger,the newspaper and the unmasking of Night Jack

The English High Court recently refused to grant an injunction to restrain The Times newspaper from publishing the identity of an anonymous political blogger (The author of a blog v Times Newspapers Limited [2009] EWHC 1358 (QB)). The facts of the case were unusual: there was no clearly unlawful behaviour by the blogger, who was also a police officer highly critical of political figures and policies. There was also no relationship between the blogger and the journalist who deduced the blogger's identity; the court therefore focussed on the tort of misuse of private information and countervailing public interests, such as freedom of expression. This article describes the approach of the court and considers the earlier case of Mahmood v Galloway ([2006] EWHC 1286 (QB)) concerning an undercover journalist's attempt to prevent publication of photographs showing what he looked like. It also discusses whether data protection law could have a role to play in future cases concerning attempts to preserve an online author's anonymity. The conclusion of the article is that this case does not spell the end of all anonymous blogging.     

Knowing When to Salute

Due to a strong “Can Do” spirit and a well-engrained, albeit simplistic, notion of civilian control over the military, senior military leaders are disinclined to publicly share their disagreement with emerging national security policy. Many senior officers mistakenly believe that there are no alternatives other than just silently executing, resigning, or retiring when confronted with bad policy formulation. There are, however, options available to senior uniformed leaders when confronted with policy formulation that they, in their professional opinion, believe is flawed. Depending on the degree to which the civilian authorities are receptive to military advice and the magnitude of the threat to national security involved in the policy, senior military leaders can choose among many alternatives to widen the policy debate.     

AFRICOM's Relationship to Oil, Terrorism and China

Why a combatant command for Africa? I argue that AFRICOM was formed to implement the U.S. national security strategy that seeks to strengthen states and eliminate ungoverned space, as well as establish relationships with African states that offer a means to greater state stability and foster economic development. In so doing, it counters global jihadist by denying them haven among weak governments or in ungoverned areas. It protects U.S. interests in resources by helping governments become more stable. And it competes with the Chinese approach that could worsen the status quo of ineffective states and ungoverned space. Indeed, the U.S. approach of increasing state effectiveness makes African countries less susceptible to the problems that may arise from the Chinese approach and so serves China's interests in access to natural resources.     

Legal developments and industry issues relevant to IT,media and telecommunications law in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific

This column provides a country by country analysis of the latest legal developments, cases and issues relevant to the IT, media and telecommunications' industries in key jurisdictions across the Asia Pacific region. The articles appearing in this column are intended to serve as ‘alerts’ and are not submitted as detailed analyses of cases or legal developments.     

Towards a new generation of CCTV networks: Erosion of data protection safeguards?

CCTV networks are progressively being replaced by more flexible and adaptable video surveillance systems based on internet protocol (IP) technologies. The use of wireless IP systems allows for the emergence of flexible networks and for their customization, while at the same time video analytics is easing the retrieval of the most relevant information. These technological advances, however, bring with them threats of a new kind for fundamental freedoms that cannot always be properly assessed by current legal safeguards. This paper analyses the ability of current data protection laws in providing an adequate answer to these new risks.     

War and the East

This article proposes three lesson plans for teaching Asian military history to High School students. Each case study—Sun Tzu's Art of War, the Mongols, and the Rise and Fall of Imperial Japan—is structured around a primary source in translation and is designed to highlight the depth and diversity of the Asian experience with war. They allow us to see the East as more than a venue for the West's wars and also to appreciate the array of indigenous military and strategic cultures that have arisen and competed in Asia over the last three millennia.