Surveillance and identity management: Migrant perspectives on UK Biometric Residence Permits

The identity card for foreign nationals - now known as the Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) - was first introduced in November 2008. Following the May 2010 UK general election, the newly formed Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government announced that the scheme would not be extended to UK citizens. To date, over 300,000 BRPs have been issued to UK foreign nationals - a group of non-EEA migrants that include international students, visiting scholars and entrepreneurs. In this paper, we draw on findings from interviews conducted with policymakers, advocacy groups, Higher Education administrators and foreign nationals - between March and December 2010 - to highlight some policy issues arising from the continued roll-out of the BRPs to this migrant group. We conclude by arguing that, although interviewees raised few objections to the BRPs in principle, cardholders were concerned about being unfairly ‘targeted’ for additional surveillance and remained unclear about the true purpose of the BRP. We identify a number of areas for further policy development.     

Renewing IMF surveillance: Transparency, accountability, and independence

In this paper, we present a vision for IMF surveillance that seeks to produce a more accountable, transparent, and independent surveillance process. First, to make surveillance more focused, the IMF’s assessment should be principles-based; that is, the Fund should assess the overall coherence of exchange rate, monetary, fiscal and financial policies, with a view to analyzing their effects on external stability. Second, the IMF should have a governance structure that increases incentives to support candid, transparent assessments of surveillance. In practice, this entails a different role for the Executive Board: the Board will set out the Fund’s strategic framework for surveillance; the Managing Director and the staff will conduct surveillance. These reforms clarify the roles and responsibilities of the IMF and its member countries in the surveillance process. Also, our proposed reforms aim at making surveillance more even-handed and objective. We believe that this principles-based approach can bolster the credibility and legitimacy of surveillance, giving the Fund greater influence on the economic policies of members.

关于修改后刑事诉讼法执行情况的若干思考

The revised Law of Criminal Procedure, of which the key idea is to tighten the restraint on and supervi-sion over public power and protect the private rights effectively, shows the pursuits of refined,...     

How Situational Crime Prevention Contributes to Social Welfare

Situational crime prevention has been met with considerable scepticism from academic criminologists primarily for its indifference to social welfare. It has been seen as contributing to a law-and-order agenda with its focus on making public places secure for business and as supplanting social welfare policies as means of responding to crime. But situational crime prevention contributes more to social welfare than sceptics allow and its advocates (may) believe. Situational crime prevention has enjoyed its fullest and robust expression, not in the free-market, neo-liberal environment of America, but within the leading welfare states of Norway, Sweden and Denmark. This essay considers the politics of the situational approach, the alleged benefits of social crime prevention, criminalisation of social policy, unplanned social welfare benefits, assumptions about the role of business, and concerns about privacy, surveillance and control. The discussion centres on the European experience: the UK, France, The Netherlands and the Nordic countries.

Assessment of approximate likelihood ratios from continuous distributions: a case study of digital camera identification

A reported likelihood ratio for the value of evidence is very often a point estimate based on various types of reference data. When presented in court, such frequentist likelihood ratio gets a higher scientific value if it is accompanied by an error bound. This becomes particularly important when the magnitude of the likelihood ratio is modest and thus is giving less support for the forwarded proposition. Here, we investigate methods for error bound estimation for the specific case of digital camera identification. The underlying probability distributions are continuous and previously proposed models for those are used, but the derived methodology is otherwise general. Both asymptotic and resampling distributions are applied in combination with different types of point estimators. The results show that resampling is preferable for assessment based on asymptotic distributions. Further, assessment of parametric estimators is superior to evaluation of kernel estimators when background data are limited.     

Accountability in the Internet of Things

Accountability of governing bodies in the Internet of Things (IoT) is of major importance and requires a partly different approach than applied in the (general) Internet. Improving accountability makes the implementation of new general principles necessary in order to provide for a stable and foreseeable legal framework on which businesses can rely. In particular, standards need to be introduced that hold governing bodies accountable, information should be made more readily available and beneficiaries of accountability must be able to impose some sort of sanction on the accountable in case of non-compliance. Improving accountability by creating such framework also supports the betterment of security in the Internet of Things.     

浅论数码照相提取现场粉尘足迹

选用佳能G5照相机进行数码照相有利于提取犯罪现场粉尘足迹。根据分析实验拍照效果后发现,对拍照平面粉尘足迹影响较大的是配光方法。在实践中,拍照平面粉尘足迹配光方法主要有定向反射用光法、暗视场照明法和掠入射照明法。在拍照粉尘足迹过程中,应当注意使用传统的手动曝光方法和运用不同的配光方式,理顺配光与主客体之间的关系,尽可能使用掠入射照明法进行配光。     

析视频监控在刑事诉讼中的作用

新的刑讼法颁布实施后对刑事技术提出了更高的要求,案件如何能破得了、诉得上、判得了、取证成了关键的环节。以往单一的现场痕迹物证显得相当无力,如何将现场痕迹物证与其他证据形成一个完整的证据链、在零口供的情况下将犯罪分子绳之以法是当前刑事技术发挥更大作用的突破口。视频资料是刑诉法规定的证据之一,其中视频监控资料与现场物证相结合就能为证实犯罪,案件审理提供完整的证据链。