Applying classification methodology to high-consequence firesetting

ABSTRACT

Although classification research has improved our understanding about different types of firesetters, very little is known about those responsible for the most injurious or destructive fires. This study explored variables associated with high-consequence firesetting in an Australian sample (n?=?114). Data across 41 variables were subject to multidimensional scaling (MDS) and principle component analysis. Five types of high-consequence firesetting were identified: (1) Intimate Partner Violence, (2) Hopeless Endangerment, (3) Instrumental Gain, (4) Vandalism, and (5) Fire Interest. Firesetting in the first two types involved individuals with increased rates of past violence, fewer instances of previous firesetting, increased psychiatric morbidity and fires directed at people (person-centred targets). In comparison, individuals represented in the latter two types were younger, focused on object-related targets and had engaged in repeated firesetting. Implications for investigating deliberate firesetting and assessing and managing the risk of deliberate firesetting were discussed.     

Virtual reality: a use case for criminal justice practice

ABSTRACT

In recent years, virtual reality (VR) technology has convincingly demonstrated its potential for assessment, training, rehabilitation and treatment purposes in a variety of domains, including (mental) healthcare and education. This paper explores the possibilities for VR application within criminal justice practice. Criminological literature and literature of related disciplines on VR applications were reviewed with a special focus on risk assessment, correctional rehabilitation, and reintegration. We also devoted attention to the VR-based treatment of anxiety-related disorders among victims of crime. Literature shows that VR can provide safe learning environments that would otherwise involve risk, generate ethical and ecologically valid virtual alternatives for which real-life situations would be unethical to use, and develop environments that are impossible to create in the real life. These unique characteristics make VR a promising tool to expand the current toolbox of risk assessment instruments, and correctional rehabilitation and reintegration programs in important ways. Before implementing VR in criminal justice practice, an elementary understanding of both the advantages and disadvantages of VR technology is desirable but given a longstanding and effective VR tradition in other domains, the future of VR in criminal justice practice is bright.     

The predictive validity of youth violence risk assessment tools: a systematic review

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the findings of a systematic search of published literature which reports the predictive validity of violence risk assessment tools specifically designed for use with youth. A total of 38 studies, involving 9,307 participants, reported data for six different tools; the most common of which were the SAVRY and the YLS/CMI. Each of the tools demonstrated at least moderate levels of predictive validity, with the predictive validity of several newer assessment tools yet to be established. The results provide an up-to-date overview of the state of knowledge in an area in which practitioners make choices about which tools to use on an almost daily basis. It is important that practitioners are aware of the strength of evidence that is available to support the choice of violence risk assessment tools and the interpretation of results.     

Fighting risk with risk: solar radiation management,regulatory drift,and minimal justice

ABSTRACT

Solar radiation management (SRM) has been proposed as a means of mitigating climate change. Although SRM poses new risks, it is sometimes proposed as the ‘lesser evil’. I consider how research and implementation of SRM could be regulated, drawing on what I call a ‘precautionary checklist’, which includes consideration of the longer term political implications of technical change. Particular attention is given to the moral hazard of ‘regulatory drift’, in which strong initial regulation softens through complacency, deliberate deregulation (‘regulatory gift’) and the limited constituency of people with the skills to regulate (‘thin markets’). I propose the strengthening of civil society groups to keep regulators in check.     

Collective Action,Civil Society,and Public Policy in Turkey

Abstract

Understanding policy change mechanisms has been a key question for scholars of public policy and collective action. However, policy scholarship mostly ignores civil society-based explanations of policy processes. In order to address this gap, this study combines the Advocacy Coalition Framework with networked collective action perspectives and analyzes a successful case of mobilization of women’s rights organizations in Turkey to reverse a bill on child marriage. Study findings suggest that advocacy coalitions are not static entities. When different issues in a policy subsystem are invoked, the structure of inter-coalition networks can change substantially and these variations in inter-coalition interactions may have consequences for influencing policy change. Moreover, this paper argues that extensive street protests and online campaigns by civil society organizations have the capacity to boost the bargaining power of minority coalitions, especially in contexts that lack multiple formal venues for making policy claims.     

社会领域重大风险的评估及防范化解

从国外对社会风险的研究情况看,国家进入现代化后社会领域出现的风险不仅具有自反性而且有时会产生放大效应。当前中国正在进入现代化阶段,社会领域出现的公共治理问题容易形成风险,一旦处理不当还有可能升级为重大风险。在结合国内实际情况把握社会领域重大风险的特点和评估方法,同时,应当从科学、法治、政府诚实度、社会自治等角度寻找防范化解社会领域重大风险的方法路径。     

论互联网社交在法治社会建设中的功能

作为一个同法治国家、法治政府相区别的概念,法治社会命题致力于实现社会生活的秩序化、法治化,并尤其强调社会力量对国家法治建设的推动作用,试图借助多元社会主体的参与来型构法治发展的动力基础。准确认识当下的社会状况,充分挖掘现有的社会力量,是开展法治社会建设的正确路径。在当代,互联网信息技术的纵深发展日益改变着现代社会的交往模式,并塑造出互联网社交这一新型的社会关系形态。互联网社交的出现与发展孕育了以网络为介质的社会力量,使社会逐渐获取了同国家对话并参与国家法治建设的能力。互联网社交在法治社会建设中的功能可以从四个向度获得理解:互联网社交缔造着网络公共空间的公民品格;互联网社交孕育了网络社会的自治能力;互联网社交构成了民主参与的"非正式"渠道;互联网社交提供了权力制约的社会手段。     

主体多元、权力交织与乡村适应性治理

多主体的共同在场使村治空间中交织着行政权力、村庄治权、经济权力和道德权威四种主要的权力类型。不同的权力来源决定了它们之间的异质性和各自有限的作用范围。从适应性治理的角度来看,过于规整的行政权力在乡村治理中欠缺及时的回应能力,而精英个人的经济权力和道德权威又兼具实用性和风险性。相比之下,灵活的村庄治权最具治理优势,但其自身正在内外因素的制约下不断弱化。为此,应从政策引领和机制监督两方面来促成有效的乡村多元治理,减少基层行政干预、强化村庄治权、规范私人权力并鼓励精英回归。     

Canada,the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the flexibility of terror identities

ABSTRACT

Security governance practices are contingent on the imagination of future threats. The “war on terror” has produced a very narrow imagination of threats, almost singularly focused on suspect communities that are Arab, Muslim, or perceived to be Middle Eastern. Discussing how immigration practices in Canada have been influenced by counter-terrorism trends, we argue that “terror identities” are mutable and highly racialised imaginaries that cast indelible marks of suspicion on subjects who are deemed as security threats. Examining the case of a journalist deemed inadmissible to Canada because of her “membership” in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), we argue that terror identities impose authoritative control over the status and lived experiences of individuals who are cast through these racialised labelling practices. Focussing on the shifting characterisation of the PLO by Canadian officials as both political interlocutor and terrorist organisation, our purpose is to highlight how racialised imaginations of terror identities enact punitive and discriminatory practices.     

人工智能时代生物识别信息刑法保护的国际视野与中国立场——从“人脸识别技术”应用下滥用信息问题切入

人脸识别技术作为人工智能学科中发展最为迅捷的一个分支,被广泛地被运用于社会生活的各个领域,生物识别信息因其所具备的专属性和唯一性的特征在大量身份核验的场景被采集,在审慎借鉴欧美先进立法经验和对我国实践困境的反思基础上,我国应当构建完善生物识别信息刑法保护制度,优化生物识别技术的刑事规制界限,完善生物识别信息层次特殊保护体系,将滥用生物识别信息行为入罪,实现生物识别信息合理开发利用与公民个人有序生活不受侵扰的基本价值诉求之平衡。