By Michael Jendrykea, , Stephen C. McClure

From time to time the popular media draws attention to hate crimes and hate groups, evoking images of NaziGermany and the rise of fascism. The geographic association between hate groups and hate crimes is uncertain. In this research we ask whether hate crimes are co-located and correlated to the presence of hate groups to explore a potential association between these two phenomena. Publicly available point level data on hate crimes and hate groups collected by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) were aggregated to unitary framework of hexagonal grid cells of a Discrete Global Grid System (DGGS) at multiple scales for consistent analysis. We explore the effects of proximity by interpreting a co-location map, deploying a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) for count data, and apply a Spatial Lag Model (SLM) at multiple scales, to ascertain the effects of the size of the aggregation units on the relationship between hate groups and hate crimes. Controlled or uncontrolled for spatial dependence, at all scales, the Spatial Lag Model (SLM) shows that an average of 39.5% of the hate crimes was correlated with hate groups. These results are consistent with the existing research but show that in most instances spatial dependence was present, regardless of the size of the aggregation unit or the distance to neighboring cells. Our future research will consider additional racial, economic and social variables using a DGGS.

Applied Geography. Volume 111, October 2019, 102072

By Gary Sweeten and Matthew Larson

This report describes a project that had the main goal of developing a broad, nationally representative understanding of how often statutory rape occurs in the U.S., who the victims and perpetrators are, how self-reported estimates compare to estimates from law enforcement data, and whether short- and/or long-term consequences exist and if they do, what the consequences might be. In order to accomplish that goal, the project had four specific objectives: to estimate nationally representative rates of statutory rape victimization and perpetration using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97); to assess situational differences between first sexual experiences that are statutory rape compared to those that are not; to estimate the likelihood of women’s statutory rape victimization being reported to police, using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS); and to assess the short- and long-term consequences of statutory rape victimization, based on the nature and characteristics of relationships as well as on the age differences between victims and perpetrators. The authors provide a breakdown of their research design, methods, analytical and data analysis techniques, results and findings for the four objectives, research limitations, artifacts, datasets generated, and dissemination activities.

Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice Research and Evaluation on Violence Against Women, 2023. 57p.

By Linda M. Williams, April Pattavina, Alison C. Cares, and Nan D. Stein

Given the considerable changes in federal legislation and the pressing requirements that colleges and universities develop policies and practices that meet the needs of victims and of those accused of sexual assault, there is a critical need to document and understand how colleges are handling these demands and coordinating campus approaches to investigation and adjudication of sexual assaults. In 2015, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) funded a project to commence January 2016, designed to examine the variations in policies and practices and understand more about challenges and emerging best practices. The research reported here was designed to identify the range and scope of policies and practices related to the investigation and adjudication of sexual assault on college campuses in the U.S. The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) with the assistance of an expert panel of advisory board members has documented and classified the current landscape (the breadth and differences) of campus approaches to investigations and adjudication of sexual assault. Our first step, informed by a victim-centered focus, was a web-based search of a randomly selected sample of four year colleges and universities (Institutions of Higher Education, IHEs) on policies and practices for investigation and adjudication of sexual assault reports. This web search was a systematic broadbased environmental scan designed to examine the policies and practices promulgated to the public and, most importantly, made available to students by IHEs. This environmental scan was followed by interviews with Title IX coordinators to develop a clearer understanding of the challenges and successes of these policies.

Washington, DC: U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2020. 91p.

By The Victorian Law Reform Commission

This report contains 45 recommendations for stalking law reform. They aim to improve the ways that the justice system treats people who have experienced stalking in a non-family violence context.

The report recommends that victims should have easier access to financial and practical support, such as technology to prevent cyberstalking. Victims should be supported by independent advocates to guide them through every stage, from reporting the stalking activity to accessing support services and any court actions.

The report also recommends improvements to the personal safety intervention order (PSIO) system. The system is currently swamped, so non-family violence stalking matters do not receive the attention they need. The VLRC recommends developing guidance on how to identify and prioritise stalking cases.

Another recommendation calls for the Crimes Act to be amended to make the stalking offence clearer and easier to apply.

Melbourne: The Commission, 2022. 238p.

By John Coyne and Teagan Westendorf

THis report helps develop an understanding of the quantum of profits being made and where in the value chain they occur. Australians spent approximately A$5.8 billion on methamphetamine and A$470 million on heroin in FY 2019.

Approximately A$1,216,806,017 was paid to international wholesalers overseas for the amphetamine and heroin that was smuggled into Australia in that year. The profit that remained in Australia’s economy was about A$5,012,150,000. Those funds are undermining Australia’s public health and distorting our economy daily, and ultimately funding drug cartels and traffickers in Southeast Asia.

One key takeaway from the figures presented in this report is that the Australian drug trade is large and growing. Despite the best efforts of law enforcement agencies, methamphetamine and heroin use has been increasing by up to 17% year on year. Falling prices in Southeast Asia are likely to keep pushing that number up, while drug prices and purity in Australia remain relatively stable.

Canberra: Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2021. 40p.

By Shannon Brennan and Benjamin Mazowita

 Between 2011 and 2016, 2,362 people in British Columbia had a fatal overdose from illicit drugs, with 332 occurring in Surrey specifically. The majority of individuals who died of an illicit drug overdose in British Columbia (66%) and specifically in the City of Surrey (64%) had no contact with police in the 24 months preceding their overdose death. For the purposes of this study, a contact with the police is defined as an official intervention, where the individual was identified by police as a person accused of a criminal incident.  Overall, most of the decedents (66%) held some form of employment in at least one of the five years preceding their overdose death, regardless of any contact with police. That said, decedents who had a formal contact with the police were less likely to have experienced consistent employment over the 5 years. One in five (20%) decedents who had contact with police were employed in each of the 5 years prior to their fatal overdose, compared to 29% of decedents who did not have contact.  More than two-thirds (68%) of decedents who had contact with police had also received social assistance benefits in the 5 years prior to their death, a proportion that was significantly higher than their counterparts who had no contact with police (55%).  In general, most decedents were not hospitalized in the year before their death. This held true for both those who had contact with police (72%) and those who did not (75%). The remaining one in four decedents were hospitalized at least once in the year preceding their death. The most common reasons for hospitalization among decedents in the year before their death besides opioid poisonings were in connection to substance use related disorders and mental health conditions.  While the majority of decedents never came into contact with police, among those who did (34%), many did so multiple times. Overall, 15% of decedents in British Columbia and 16% of decedents in the City of Surrey had three or more formal contacts with police in the 24 months preceding their overdose death.  Overall, among decedents who had a contact with police, 33% in British Columbia (and 24% in the City of Surrey) had a fatal overdose in the 90 days following their last contact with police. These findings indicate the need for timely interventions.  The majority of decedents who came into contact with police prior to their fatal overdose did so for a non-violent crime: 83% of police contacts were for non-violent offences whereas the remaining 17% involved violent offences. Shoplifting of items valued at $5,000 or under was the most common reason decedents came into contact with police in the 24 months prior to their death. Aside from property offences and, more specifically, shoplifting, offences against the administration of justice were also among the most common reasons decedents came into contact with police. These offences were also highly represented among the decedent cohort, relative to the province as a whole.  In line with their police interactions, most of the decedents who appeared in a criminal court within the 2 years preceding their overdose death did so in relation to property offences and offences against the administration of justice. Specifically, cases involving theft, breach of probation and failure to comply with an order were among the most prevalent

Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2019. 18p.

By Benjamin Ferri and Lia Yin

Does inequality lead to more crime? We develop a new model that articulates how Poverty (the lower tail of the earnings distribution) and Earnings (the upper tail) enter into equilibrium crime rates. In our model, individuals in Poverty have less to lose in the context of criminal punishment, so are less averse to committing crimes in general. The presence of high Earnings (therefore things worth stealing) heightens the expected gain to offenders per crime - but specifically in terms of financial gain, not emotional gain. We estimate our model on a comprehensive panel of U.S. Commuting Zones (1980-2016), deploying novel Shift-Share instruments to correct for reverse causality (of crime on the earnings distribution). Corroborating our hypothesis, we find that high Earnings plays a much larger role in driving crimes that yield financial gain to the offender (various forms of theft) than it does for crimes of emotional gain; while Poverty is a driving force equally across both types of crime. In each case, not accounting for reverse causality would underestimate both effects, often by more than double.

Unpublished paper, 2022. 50p.

By The San Francisco Domestic Violence Death Review Team

This Domestic Violence Death Review Team (DVDRT) Pilot was created under the provisions of the California Penal Code 11163.3, in order to fulfill a commitment to review domestic violence-related fatalities, strengthen system policies and procedures, and identify prevention strategies that will reduce future incidents of domestic violence-related injuries and deaths. The DVDRT fulfills a need in San Francisco, as the city lacks staffing for a dedicated Death Review Team. This DVDRT Pilot provides an overview of the DVDRT process and methodology for their investigation into a murder case from October 2014; it lays out details of the event as well as DVDRT’s analysis of evidence and case-related data, and notes the aspects of the event that the DVDRT focused on include: computer-aided dispatch (CAD) systems; real-time assistance for police officers in crime scene evaluation; broad interaction and information gathering; the ability of the police department to enforce physical separation when physical violence has occurred; custodial treatment of intoxicated individuals; real-time assistance for police from domestic violence advocates; providing closure and well-being assistance to 911 call-takers and dispatchers; availability and use of body-worn video (BWV) cameras; and in multiple responses to the victim’s address, the efficient and thorough transfer of information to later-responding officers.

San Francisco: The Review Team, 2023. 57p.

By Dyna Ibrahim

Intimate partner violence is a serious issue which continues to negatively affect victims long after the abuse has ended (McGarryet al. 2017; Campbell et al. 2002). This complex issue, broadly, involves physical, sexual, emotional and financial abuse, between current and former partners (Northcott 2012; Coker et al. 2002). While, presently, there are no legislated offences in the Canadian Criminal Code specifically related to intimate partner violence, Criminal Code offences of general application, such as physical and sexual assault, criminalize intimate partner violence. There are Criminal Code provisions which consider the fact that an offender abused their intimate partner an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes (Heslop et al. 2016). Even with ample tools, programs and policies at the national, provincial and community levels dedicated to reducing and preventing intimate partner violence in Canada (McCormick and Irwin 2016; Gill and Fitch 2016; Hilton and Eke 2016; Beaupré 2015; Benoit et al. 2014; Northcott 2012), there remains much to be done in the area. In particular, while many studies (Simpson 2018; Calton et al. 2016; Parry and O’Neal 2015; Perreault 2015; Sinha 2013; Beauchamp 2004) have shown that people who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual are at increased risk for victimization in general, there is little quantitative research on the extent and nature of violence which takes place within same-sex intimate relationships in Canada (Langenderfer-Magruder et al. 2016; Ristock 2011). Related studies suggest that individuals in same-sex partnerships who experience intimate partner violence may face special barriers when it comes to disclosing their experiences or seeking help. For example, the threat of exposing one’s sexual orientation to others and fears about other people’s misguided beliefs that abuse among same-sex partners is mutual have been identified as obstacles which are often unique to victims in same-sex relationships. Moreover, individuals who are in same-sex intimate partnerships are vulnerable to “minority stress”, the psychological pressure from being a member of a minority group that is stigmatized or marginalized. Additionally, previous negative experiences such as discrimination and harassment, and perceptions or anticipation of stigma and negative stereotypes—all of which are particularly prevalent among individuals in same-sex partnerships—may lead to beliefs that these experiences will occur in various other facets of life (Calton et al. 2016; Baker et al. 2015; Edwards et al. 2015; Parry and O’Neal 2015; Benoit et al. 2014; Overstreet and Quinn 2013; Brown 2008; Rostosky et al. 2007). All these factors can reduce the reporting of violence to police and help-seeking among this share of the population. This Juristat article aims to help shed light on the nature of violence which is experienced within same-sex intimate partnerships. Using data from the Incident-based Uniform Crime Reporting Survey, this article will examine, for the first time, the characteristics of police-reported violence among same-sex intimate partners in Canada. In order to increase the scope of analysis and allow for a more detailed examination of incident, victim and accused characteristics, data from 2009 to 2017 are pooled.1 In addition, data from the most recent (2014) General Social Survey on Canadians’ Safety (Victimization) is included in order to examine the self-reported experiences of various forms of intimate partner violence whether it was reported to the police or not. While the focus of this article is violence among individuals in same-sex relationships, information on gender-diverse individuals is not included. Research has shown that people who identify as transgender or non-gender conforming are especially vulnerable to violence in general, as well as violence within an intimate partner setting (Langenderfer-Magruder et al. 2016; Mitchell-Brody et al. 2010; Stotzer 2009). However, the data sources used in this article do not allow for the examination of the experiences of individuals belonging to this segment of the population.

Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2019. 29p.

By Claire Ferguson and Freya McLachlan

Links between IPF and homicide concealment have been observed but not explained. We theorize IPF perpetrators use concealment to continue coercively controlling investigators, children, courts and finances post-IPF. We compare abuse in the relationship and surrounding IPF in five diverse cases. Facilitated by concealment, offenders use versatile, subtle and overt tactics to extend control post-IPF. They capitalize on opportunities for concealment and regaining control, sometimes without other benefits. Tactics are akin to those employed previously, aligning with the power and control wheel. Concealment allows offenders to dominate the death narrative and assists with remaining unaccountable.

Feminist Criminology 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–23

By Jens Ludwig

The purpose of this project, a collaboration between the University of Chicago Crime Lab and the New York City Police Department, was to develop and test a novel machine-learning based statistical model to predict the risk of domestic-violence victimization to improve intervention in cases at high risk for violence. The field intervention with the NYPD was launched in July 2017. NYPD command maintains a list of high-priority individuals who are thought to be at risk for serious domestic assault. Individuals on this list receive regular home visits from one of the local NYPD’s Domestic Violence Officers (DVOs) to reduce the risk of future victimization. The researchers believe that upon the completion and dissemination of this work, the results will be relevant to researchers and policymakers who are assessing ways to reduce domestic violence.

Washington, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Research and Evaluation, National Institute of Justice, 2022. 11p.

By Kristine Denman, Callie Dorsey, Joel Robinson, Jenna Dole and Ashleigh Maus

The New Mexico Statistical Analysis Center received funding from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to study the case processing of domestic and non-domestic aggravated and sexual assault cases. Two primary research questions guide the study. First, it explores whether there are criminal justice disparities among aggravated assault and sexual assault cases involving domestic violence relative to cases not involving domestic violence. Second, it examines whether female defendants are treated differently than male defendants. Overall, we find that case processing outcomes for domestic assault are either the same or less serious than case processing outcomes for non-domestic assault. These findings differ from those found in a national study conducted by BJS, but are similar to other findings in New Mexico and elsewhere. We also find that male defendants generally have more serious case processing outcomes than female defendants, but this is moderated somewhat by domestic violence involvement. This report describes these findings. A summary report can be found in the “Fast Facts” section of our website.

Albuquerque: New Mexico Statistical Analysis Center, 2020. 37p.

By HM Inspectorate of Probation (UK)

The impact of domestic abuse is significant and far-reaching. An estimated 2.4 million adults were victims of domestic abuse across England and Wales last year, and one in seven children live with domestic abuse at some point in their childhood. Women are disproportionately affected by domestic abuse, with an estimated 1.7 million female victims last year. Those responsible for this abuse account for a very significant part of the Probation Service caseload, with approximately 30 percent of people on probation identified as current or previous perpetrators of domestic abuse. When we last inspected this topic in 2018, we reported that too many individuals were drifting through their sentences without being challenged or supported to change their abusive behaviours. Very concerningly, despite some positive developments in policy, little appears to have improved in practice, and in some respects, things have deteriorated. Only 28 per cent of the cases we inspected for this review had a sufficient assessment which analysed the risks of further domestic abuse, and only 23 per cent had been reviewed adequately to consider significant changes in the case. This is unacceptable and is leaving far too many potential victims at risk. People on probation can be offered a range of interventions aimed at helping them make positive changes in their lives and equipping them to have safe and healthy relationships. However, too few people gain access to these interventions; 45 percent of our case sample should have had access to an intervention but had not. In addition, there is insufficient monitoring of referral, take-up, and completion rates for interventions at a national level to understand the overall picture. It is unacceptable that requirements to undertake a domestic abuse perpetrator programme made as part of sentencing are not delivered, yet this happens in many cases. Staffing shortages in the Probation Service have led to reductions in expectations around minimum levels of contact with people on probation, partnership working, and the delivery of interventions. In domestic abuse cases, this has led to worrying deficits in the standard of sentence management. Probation staff demonstrate high levels of commitment to their work, often working well over their expected hours, but high caseloads often prohibit them from being able to complete meaningful work. In addition, recent changes in legislation through the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, such as the recognition of children affected by domestic abuse as victims in their own right, have not been incorporated into probation practice. More needs to be done to ensure that there is a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities among agencies working with domestic abuse, and that information is shared to safeguard victims

Manchester, UK: HM Inspectorate of Probation, 2023. 61p.

By Katherine A. Fowler, Rachel A. Leavitt, Carter J. Betz, Keming Yuan & Linda L. Dahlberg

Multi-victim homicides are a persistent public health problem confronting the United States. Previous research shows that homicide rates in the U.S. are approximately seven times higher than those of other high-income countries, driven by firearm homicide rates that are 25 times higher; 31% of public mass shootings in the world also occur in the U.S.. The purpose of this analysis is to examine the characteristics of mass, multiple, and single homicides to help identify prevention points that may lead to a reduction in different types of homicides.

We used all available years (2003–2017) and U.S. states/jurisdictions (35 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) included in CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), a public health surveillance system which combines death certificate, coroner/medical examiner, and law enforcement reports into victim- and incident-level data on violent deaths. NVDRS includes up to 600 standard variables per incident; further information on types of mental illness among suspected perpetrators and incident resolution was qualitatively coded from case narratives. Data regarding number of persons nonfatally shot within incidents were cross-validated when possible with several other resources, including government reports and the Gun Violence Archive. Mass homicides (4+ victims), multiple homicides (2-3 victims) and single homicides were analyzed to assess group differences using Chi-square tests with Bonferroni-corrected post-hoc comparisons.

Results: Mass homicides more often had female, child, and non-Hispanic white victims than other homicide types. Compared with victims of other homicide types, victims of mass homicides were more often killed by strangers or someone else they did not know well, or by family members. More than a third were related to intimate partner violence. Approximately one-third of mass homicide perpetrators had suicidal thoughts/behaviors noted in the time leading up to the incident. Multi-victim homicides were more often perpetrated with semi-automatic firearms than single homicides. When accounting for non-fatally shot victims, over 4 times as many incidents could have resulted in mass homicide.

Conclusions: These findings underscore the important interconnections among multiple forms of violence. Primary prevention strategies addressing shared risk and protective factors are key to reducing these incidents.

Injury Epidemiology (2021) 8:49

USED BOOK. MAY CONTAIN MARK-UP

By Luke Harding

FROM THE FOREWORD: “Edward Snowden is one of the most extraordinary whistleblowers in history. Never before has anyone scooped up en masse the top-secret files of the world's most powerful intelligence organisations, in order to make them public. But that was what he did. His skills are unprecedented. Until the present generation of computer nerds came along, no one realised it was possible to make off with the electronic equivalent of whole libraries full of triple-locked filing cabinets and safes - thousands of documents and millions of words. His motives are remarkable. Snowden set out to expose the true behaviour of the US National Security Agency and its allies. On present evidence, he has no interest in money - although he could have sold his documents to foreign intelligence services for many, many millions….”

NY. Vingtage. 2014. 350p.

By The International Justice Mission

The UK Government is among the world leaders in combatting various forms of OSEC both at home and abroad. Some of those significant contributions include: • Launching the WePROTECT Global Alliance; • Providing, through the National Crime Agency (NCA), equipment, training, case referrals, and other partnership to Philippine law enforcement as a founding member of the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center (PICACC); • Investing £40 million in the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children; • Safeguarding 8,329 children and arresting 7,212 perpetrators in relation to online child sexual abuse (during a 12-month period ending March 2020); and • Sponsoring the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and publishing the Online Harms White Paper.6 Through this report, IJM aims to provide OSEC and CSEM offender case studies, analyses, and recommendations relevant to the UK’s already robust efforts to end online child sexual abuse and exploitation, including through the NCA and local police units. IJM seeks to provide the perspective of an NGO with experience dating to 2011 working “in the trenches” with Philippine Government, international law enforcement, and NGO partners, to support investigations, prosecutions, and social service delivery to survivors of livestreamed child sexual abuse and exploitation in the Philippines. IJM’s Composite Case Review found a trend of low sentences for UK offenders who paid for, directed, and consumed live sexual abuse and exploitation of Filipino children. These are not image offenders—they are remote abusers and exploiters fuelling modern slavery. An offence’s gravity is often reflected in the maximum penalty a government prescribes through legislation. UK laws against OSEC offending are serious, holding maximum penalties of 10 to 14 years imprisonment. Yet, while most of the offenders in this Review were convicted of multiple counts of serious offences, they each received a sentence less than half the maximum sentence for one count.

International Justice Mission, 2020. 72p.

By The International Justice Mission

Online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) includes a range of in-person and online harms that were unimaginable before the digital age. In fact, the trafficking of children to create new child sexual exploitation material, including through livestreaming, is a form of modern slavery growing globally. And this crime is driven and fueled by demand-side sex offenders who pay for, direct, and view the abuse online.

International Justice Mission, 2020. 29p.

By The Office of the Illinois Attorney General

In the late summer of 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury found that more than 300 Catholic clerics (ordained bishops, priests, and deacons) ministering in the Commonwealth sexually abused over 1,000 children during the prior 70 years. Soon after the grand jury released its report, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago penned a letter describing the “anger, shock, grief, and shame” he felt upon “learning about the devastating revelations of sexual abuse—and the failures of bishops to safeguard the children entrusted to their care—published in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.” Bishop Daniel R. Conlon, then of the Diocese of Joliet, termed the Pennsylvania numbers “staggering.” He found it “alarming to realize the extent to which some of my brother bishops and priests have failed to uphold their obligations to care for the people.” Along those same lines, Bishop Edward K. Braxton, then of the Diocese of Belleville, thought the Pennsylvania grand jury’s findings “deeply disturbing,” causing “anger, frustration, disappointment, and bewilderment in the minds and hearts of Catholic laity and clergy.” Consistent with the reactions of these Illinois Catholic leaders, shock waves were felt across the nation as a result of the Pennsylvania report. Attorneys General from multiple states, including Illinois, announced investigations into child sex abuse by Catholic clerics.

Springfield: Office of the Illinois Attorney General, 2023. 696p.

By Dyna Ibrahim

More than ever, technology, and the Internet in particular, has become an integral part of the daily lives of Canadians. In 2018, it was estimated that all but about 1% of Canadian households with children had access to the Internet (Frenette et al. 2020). Concerns over online safety and online victimization were exacerbated with many daily activities moving online in 2020 as Canadians grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. As public health measures were put in place across Canada to combat the virus, many children relied on virtual learning and spent more time indoors and online (Moore et al. 2020). Undoubtedly, there are many advantages to using technology and, for children, being connected helps them learn, grow and fulfil their potential (UNICEF 2017). However, the use of technology and the Internet also comes with risks. Among the most serious risks of spending time online, especially for children, is the susceptibility to online sexual exploitation and abuse (ECPAT 2016; UNICEF 2017). There is no one standard definition for online child sexual exploitation and abuse. It encompasses a wide range of behaviours and situations, from sexual solicitation of a child—with or without a response from the child—to sexual grooming (the trust-building period prior to abuse), to sexual interaction online (cybersex) or offline (meeting in person), to accessing, producing or sharing images related to the abuse of children and youth (De Santisteban and Gamez-Guadix 2018; Kloess et al. 2014). It can be committed by adults or youths, and it can involve strangers or family members and acquaintances (Mitchell et al. 2005). Generally, in the Canadian legal context, the crime of online child sexual exploitation and abuse includes: child sexual abuse material, selfgenerated materials and sexting1 (often distributed without consent), sextortion,2 grooming and luring, live child sexual abuse streaming and made-to-order content (Public Safety Canada 2022). The short- and long-term effects of childhood sexual victimization are well documented (Beitchman et al. 1991; Browne and Finkelhor 1986; Hailes et al. 2019; Olafson 2011). More recently, research on the effects of online child sexual exploitation has found that victims of this crime often suffer a range of negative impacts including psychological difficulties, negative sexual development, and subsequent substance misuse and depressive symptomology (Carnes 2001; Hanson 2017; Ospina et al. 2010; Say et al. 2015; Whittle et al. 2013a). Additionally, victims of online child sexual exploitation continue to experience victimization through the actual or threatened re-distribution of their images, long after any contact abuse has ended (Canadian Centre for Child Protection 2017; Martin 2015). Every child has a right to protection, as a fundamental human right. Children (under age 18) also have specific rights, recognized in the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, given their vulnerability and dependence. In 1991, Canada ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, pledging to protect children from all forms of exploitation and abuse, among other forms of harm and endangerment. The provision and protection of children’s Convention rights is the primary responsibility of governments at all levels (UNICEF Canada 2022). Canada has also signed on to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner 2022). As the use of technology among Canadians has increased in recent years, so too have Canada’s efforts to protect children from online predators. In 2004, the National Strategy for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet was developed to combat this crime in Canada. Since then, the National Strategy has been renewed and expanded, and in 2019, a renewed commitment was made with the Government of Canada allocating funds to supports efforts to raise awareness, reduce the stigma associated with reporting, increase Canada’s ability to pursue and prosecute offenders and work together with the digital industry to find new ways to combat the sexual exploitation of children online. Most recently, budget 2021 proposed to provide $20.7 million over five years, starting in 2021-22, for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to enhance its ability to pursue online child sexual exploitation investigations, identify victims and remove them from abusive situations, and bring offenders to justice—including those who offend abroad (Public Safety Canada 2022). Currently, little is known about the prevalence and characteristics of online child sexual exploitation and abuse within the Canadian context. To provide some insight, this Juristat article presents an analysis of police-reported data from the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Survey where children and youth under the age of 18 were victims of Criminal Code sexual offences, and where information and communication technology was integral in the commission of the offence—better known as cybercrime. Moreover, data on court charges and cases involving sexual offences against children (which likely involved an online component) are presented using data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey (ICCS), along with the outcomes of these cases.

Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2022. 36p.

By Kathryn E. Schertz, James Saxon, Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Yi Ding, Henry Hoffmann & Marc G. Berman

Crime is a costly societal issue. While many factors influence urban crime, one less-studied but potentially important factor is neighborhood greenspace. Research has shown that greenspace is often negatively associated with crime. Measuring residents’ use of greenspace, as opposed to mere physical presence, is critical to understanding this association. Here, we used cell phone mobility data to quantify local street activity and park visits in Chicago and New York City. We found that both factors were negatively associated with crime, while controlling for socio-demographic factors. Each factor explained unique variance, suggesting multiple pathways for the influence of street activity and greenspace on crime. Physical tree canopy had a smaller association with crime, and was only a significant predictor in Chicago. These findings were further supported by exploratory directed acyclic graph modeling, which found separate direct paths for both park visits and street activity to crime.

Urban Sustainability (2021) 1-19.