By Cozens, P. M., Neale, R. H., Whitaker, J., Hillier, D., Graham, M.

This paper critically examines the relationship between street lighting and crime in the British city context. Prompted by recent government investment to modernize street lighting, the authors analyze how lighting affects both actual crime rates and fear of crime. It questions the reliability of current British Standards (BS 5489) that are used to determine lighting needs, pointing out discrepancies between official crime data and public perceptions of safety. Drawing on historical and contemporary research, the paper suggests that improved lighting can contribute to crime reduction and greater public confidence, but only when contextually appropriate. The review calls for a broader understanding of how urban lighting affects both real and perceived safety, arguing that current approaches may miss critical socio-environmental dynamics.

(Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2003, pp. 7–24)

By David Weisburd, Laura A. Wyckoff, Justin Ready, John E. Eck, Joshua C. Hinkle, Frank Gajewski

This study addresses the longstanding concern that focused crime prevention efforts—such as policing "hot spots"—might simply displace crime to nearby areas. While displacement has been a major critique of place-based policing, empirical studies have rarely been designed specifically to assess its presence or measure its impact. The authors designed and implemented a controlled field experiment in Jersey City, New Jersey, to examine whether such displacement occurs or whether crime control efforts might instead lead to a diffusion of benefits—i.e., crime reductions in areas surrounding targeted sites. The study focused on two areas: one known for street-level drug dealing and the other for prostitution. Using over 6,000 social observations, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, the researchers found little evidence of spatial displacement and instead documented significant diffusion of crime control benefits to adjacent areas. The findings challenge assumptions that crime merely moves elsewhere and reinforce the effectiveness of concentrated policing in reducing crime beyond targeted hot spots.

(Criminology, Volume 44, Number 3, 2006, pp. 549–594)

By Madeline Rolfe, Beth Mooney, Teresa Hulme, Millie Paine and Sophie Davi

Fraud is the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, making up around 41% of all crime against households and people aged 16 and over. 6 Data suggests that the scale of fraud is increasing, with fraud incidents rising by 19% between 2023 to 2024 across the whole population. 7 Fraud causes significant harm to individuals and the economy. 8 It also represents a national threat: fraud is a form of serious and organised crime. 9 One study found two thirds of serious and organised crime groups committing fraud were also involved in other criminal activity. 10 In some cases, proceeds from fraud were used to fund other illegal activity. 11 Tackling fraud is a strategic priority for policing and is included in the Strategic Policing Requirement. 12 The government has also underlined a commitment to tackling fraud in the Fraud Strategy. 13 This is an opportune time to generate insight around how best to tackle fraud. Previous Crest research found initial evidence to suggest that the risk of young people being exposed to and experiencing fraud is disproportionately growing compared to elderly people as the internet increasingly becomes part of their daily lives. 14 However, research to understand children and young people’s (CYP) experiences of fraud is lacking. This research is the first to specifically focus on fraud committed against CYP. It examines reporting data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), interviews with CYP, and nationally representative surveys with both CYP and parents and guardians. Findings from these sources have been triangulated to build a comprehensive picture of fraud experienced by CYP. A wider range of fraud experts have also been engaged throughout this project to ensure our research is cutting edge and informs action in this sector. This research is well timed given Fraud Minister David Hanson’s announcement at the Global Anti-Scam Summit in March 2025 that an expanded fraud strategy is to be developed and published later this year. Key findings Scale and nature of fraud against children and young people 1. Most CYP have been targeted by fraudsters within the last year. According to our survey, 88% of CYP aged 13-21 had been targeted by fraud in the last year. Only 1% of children and young people (CYP) have never encountered fraud. 2. Nearly a third (29%) of CYP have been a victim of fraud. Some CYP are more likely to experience fraud victimisation, including older CYP (aged 18-21) and CYP with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). 3. Milestones where CYP gained new or increased financial independence coincided with fraud victimisation. For example, some of our interviewees experienced fraud after opening their first bank account or getting their first job. There was also evidence of victimisation after CYP received a lump sum of money e.g. the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund. 4. The most commonly experienced types of fraud by CYP are advance fee fraud, banking and credit fraud, financial investment fraud, cyber fraud, and identity theft and fraud. Available data suggests that, on average, CYP lose the most money from financial investment fraud. 5. Advance fee fraud is the most commonly recorded fraud against CYP, it accounted for the majority of CYP reports to professionals and was commonly experienced CYP interview participants 6. CYP are more likely to experience fraud on certain online platforms. These were Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Interestingly, these platforms are not where they spend most of their time. Children and young people reporting fraud 1. Nearly two-thirds of CYP told someone about their experience of fraud. The most common person to tell was a parent/guardian, with over half (59%) of survey respondents telling their parent/guardian about their experience. Reporting the fraud to the bank (35%) and Action Fraud (22%) was less common. 2. The most common barrier to reporting fraud was due to feeling that nothing would happen, with 27% stating this reason. Impact of fraud on children and young people 1. CYP reported significant emotional impact as a result of fraud victimisation. Almost half (47%) of survey respondents reported feeling strong emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, frustration as a result of their victimisation; and over a quarter (27%) of survey respondents stated that being a victim of fraud impacted their mental health. 2. Fraud victimisation leads to CYP changing their behaviour. Changing internet use and online activity was a common impact of fraud victimisation amongst CYP, this ranged from being more cautious online with emails, websites and privacy settings to stopping a particular online activity altogether, such as online shopping or online banking.

London: Crest Advisory, 2025. 86p,

By MITCH MORRISSEY & ERIK GAMM

DNA evidence, where it’s available, is crucial to solving sexual assault cases—according to one study, it raises the likelihood of a guilty verdict from less than a third to nearly 75%. The trouble and expense of processing it, however, can create backlogs that put cases on hold for years. Dozens of state and local law-enforcement agencies have faced this problem over the decades since DNA technology emerged.

This year, due in part to years of alleged misconduct by one of its forensic scientists, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found itself with a queue of more than 1,400 untested sexual assault kits and without the means to process new ones promptly. The unsolved cases stuck in this backlog represent substantial further crime risks from repeat offenders, delayed justice for victims, and tangible costs to Colorado’s economy.

Key Findings

By processing all of the 1,369 DNA kits in the state’s backlog, Colorado could prosecute up to 200 rape cases.

This would also prevent up to 1,030 sexual assaults, 108 other violent crimes, 230 property offenses, and 113 drug/alcohol, public disorder, and other crimes.

At a testing cost of $2,000 per kit and adjudication, public-services, and work-loss costs totaling $82,000 per case, clearing the backlog and prosecuting cases associated with it will cost the state $21 million. In return, Colorado’s economy will eventually save $234.7 million due to prevention of future crimes.

The longer authorities take to clear the backlog, the larger the costs and smaller the savings will become.

CSI estimates that, by training 15 more DNA scientists over the next year, CBI will clear its DNA backlog of excess kits by July 2027. Delayed processing of kits currently in the backlog, which are expected to be tested by September 2026, will have allowed $51.8 million worth of additional criminal activity.

Even kits that don't lead to convictions are worth testing for the qualitative benefits they offer, like identifying deceased and incarcerated perpetrators, adding to the national DNA database, and providing closure to victims.

Common Sense Institute, 2025. 12p.

Age is a core part of our identity in the UK, both for adults and for children. As well as being a way of marking growth and maturity, chronological age determines how we are able to participate and develop as members of society and is intrinsically linked to our legal rights. However, for children seeking asylum in the UK, age is increasingly being used as a tool for excluding them from the support and protection to which they are entitled. Hundreds of children are having their ages questioned by border officials when they arrive in this country and are then being sent into the adult system. The government repeatedly claims that there are high numbers of adults pretending to be children, but this is not the case. Instead, our research has found that in 2022 more than 800 children were incorrectly treated as adults by the Home Office and placed alone in accommodation alongside adults, or in immigration detention, at significant risk.

Helen Bamber Foundation i. Asylum Aid, . Humans for Rights Network 2023. 8p

By Clare Garvie

A report released by the Center on Privacy & Technology evaluates the reliability of face recognition as it is used by police in the United States. The report examines the myriad human and machine factors, and their interactions, that might lead to bias and error when law enforcement agencies use face recognition. As a biometric, forensic investigative tool, face recognition may be particularly prone to errors arising from subjective human judgment, cognitive bias, low-quality or manipulated evidence, and under-performing technology. These errors have real-world consequences — the investigation and arrest of an unknown number of innocent people and the deprivation of due process of many, many more. As the grassroots movement to ban police use of face recognition grows, invoking the many overarching ethical problems with this kind of surveillance technology, it is important to point out that face recognition doesn’t work well enough to reliably serve the purposes for which law enforcement agencies themselves want to use it. Relying on the vast wealth of research and knowledge already present in computer science, psychology, forensic science, and legal disciplines, its key findings are:

As currently used in criminal investigations, face recognition is likely an unreliable source of identity evidence.

The algorithm and human steps in a face recognition search each may compound the other’s mistakes.

Since faces contain inherently biasing: information such as demographics, expressions, and assumed behavioral traits, it may be impossible to remove the risk of bias and mistake.

Face recognition has been used as probable cause to make arrests despite assurances to the contrary.

Evidence derived from face recognition searches are already being used in criminal cases, and the accused have been deprived the opportunity to challenge it.

The harms of wrongful arrests and investigations are real, even if they are hard to quantify.

This report is meant to be a resource for researchers examining the potential risks of this new technology, defense attorneys whose clients were identified using face recognition, judges seeking to understand the scientific merit of face recognition-derived evidence, police departments seeking to minimize the harms its use, and advocates and organizers seeking to protect rights in an age of ever expanding police deployment of this technology.

It calls on these communities to question any and all assumptions that the current use of face recognition is adequately controlled and reliable. It warns that we have a narrow and closing window of time in which to repeat the mistakes of previous forensic disciplines and avoid judicial certification of fundamentally flawed or unreliable methods.

Washington, DC: Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, 2022. 77p.

By M. Dylan Spencer, Cory Schnell, Samuel E. DeWitt

Objectives: Public transportation systems experience dynamic changes over time to accommodate growing cities, yet evaluations of their impact on crime often focus on shorter, static periods. This study examines the long-term relationship between light rail expansion and crime, using a 20-year observation period in Charlotte, NC. We analyze changes in crime patterns near original, expanded, and planned light rail station locations. Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental program evaluation of the opening of light rail stations on crime at place. We estimated Poisson regression models with fixed effects and difference in difference models to analyze crime incidents at street intersections surrounding light rail stations across varying spatial distances. Results: Our findings suggest that the expansion of the light rail system led to an increase in crime around train stations. We observe a significant intervention effect across multiple crime categories and spatial distances. These analyses suggest the effect appears stronger after the expansion of light rail service to additional train stations. Conclusions: These results have implications for a wide range of community stakeholders involved with the planning of public transportation. Given the evolving demand for transit systems, our findings highlight the need for crime prevention policies to accompany infrastructure expansion and mitigate crime.

J Exp Criminol (2025), 39p.

By the National Retail Federation, The Loss Prevention Research Council, Sensormatic Solutions

Retailers reported a 93% increase in the average number of shoplifting incidents per year in 2023 versus 2019 and a 90% increase in dollar loss due to shoplifting over the same time period. Conducted in partnership with the Loss Prevention Research Council and sponsored by Sensormatic Solutions, "The Impact of Retail Theft & Violence 2024" examines how theft and violence have evolved since before COVID and how retailers are combating today's retail crime landscape.

The survey was conducted online among senior loss prevention and security executives in the retail industry June 10 through July 12. The study contains results from mid-size to large retailers across 164 retail brands, which accounted for $1.52 trillion in annual sales in 2023 or 30% of total retail sales. The brands represent a variety of retail sectors including specialty and luxury retail, home improvement, mass merchandise, grocery and pharmacy.

Washington, DC: National Retail Federation, 2024. 26p.

By Michael Townsley · Benjamin Hutchins

This article aims to provide insights regarding crime problems affecting the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) retail sector, focusing primarily on the size and range of criminal behaviours. The research incorporated an online survey of retailers and police statistics. The study finds that the cost of retail crime increased by 28% over the last 4 years, against 25% growth in revenue. It also reveals that shoplifting remains the most significant and costly economic problem facing retailers, followed by employee theft. Additionally, fraud, notably in online channels, will remain a concern for the foreseeable future. We examine potential explanations and interpretations for retail crime through an environmental criminological lens. Increased research and involvement of researchers hold tremendous potential for reducing retail crime and preventing its growth in the future

Crime Prevention and Community Safety 26(2):1-23, 2024

By Cruz, J. M., Coombes, A., Mizrahi, Y., Vorobyeva, Y., Tanyu, M., Campie, P., Sánchez, J., & Hill, C

Can a gang member in Honduras leave the gang, abandon criminal activities, and rehabilitate? What factors facilitate the process of disengagement from gangs in Honduras? To answer these questions, the American Institutes for Research (AIR), the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University (LACC-FIU), and Democracy International (DI) conducted a study with Honduran gang members and former gang members across the country. The study is based on a survey with a sample of 1,021 respondents with a record of gang membership and 38 indepth interviews with former gang members and other community members. Active gang members do disengage from the gang and its activities, but this disengagement depends on a myriad of factors, including the types of social relationships which the individual establishes outside the gang, the type of gang organization, and the availability of faith-based programs willing to reach out to the individual. This study, funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Latin America and Caribbean Youth Violence Prevention project, builds on previous academic scholarship on gangs in Honduras and Central America. We conducted the survey interviews in three adult penitentiaries, three juvenile detention centers, two juvenile parole programs, and several faith-based centers which work with former gang members in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. We complemented the information with semistructured interviews with 14 former gang members in the metropolitan areas of San Pedro and La Ceiba. We also interviewed 24 subject-matter experts and community members in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and La Ceiba. We contracted a local firm, ANED, to conduct the survey interviews and trained a local team of interviewers, who collected the information under our direct supervision. For the in-depth interviews, we contracted and trained two local specialists. Data collection was conducted between October and December 2019. PRIMARY RESULTS The results indicate that gangs remain a predominantly male phenomenon, and the average age at which males join a gang is 15. Interviewed females joined the gang at an average age of 13.2. Nearly 46 percent of the subjects interviewed for this study are active members of a gang, while the rest are in different stages of gang membership. Approximately 54 percent of the subjects interviewed in the survey belong—or have belonged—to Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), while 35 percent expressed their loyalty to the 18th Street Gang, also known as Pandilla 18 (or 18th Street Gang). The rest of the interviewees indicated membership in smaller gang groups: Los Chirizos, El Combo que no se deja, Los Olanchanos, Los Vatos Locos, etc. Education The average number of years that individuals with a record of gang membership spent in school was 9.6 years, and 90 percent of our respondents never finished high school. Half of the respondents have a household income of less than 250 USD, and 84 percent did not have a regular job, either in the formal or informal sector, even before going to prison. One in every four gang members lived with their parents or step-parents, while 31 percent lived with other relatives or alone. Furthermore, 56 percent of gang members had children of their own, and 45 percent were married or in a stable relationship. Gang Activities Violence and criminal activities are essential components of gang life. Extortion, murder, and drug trafficking are the most common crimes of which gang members are accused. Nearly 69 percent of the respondents were accused of committing these types of crimes in addition to assaults, robberies, and illicit association. In Honduras, both gangs control territories through the use of extortion, drug trafficking, and violence. Such activities, in combination with seniority as an active gang member, are critical components for ascending the gang structure ranks. Contrary to the common assumption that gang members had to complete a “mission” to join the gang, evidence collected by the study suggests that most of them did not have to go through rites of initiation or perform a mission. Rather, “missions” become an important mechanism by which to ascend the gang ranks once the individual has joined the gang. Gang Structure Over the past two decades, the structures of MS-13 and Barrio 18 seem to have evolved and “mutated.” Gangs appear to be more structured and mandated by a system of unwritten norms and rules common to each organization and shared by the diverse subgroups who share the same gang affiliation. Gangs preserve a regionally fragmented structure (sectors and cliques) which enables them to operate with certain autonomy while adhering to the rules established by membership. The structure of both MS-13 and Barrio 18 include different levels of management, which typically start with the clique as its lowest operational level (i.e., at the neighborhood level). Cliques are the basic gang unit and are composed of several members. On average, cliques are composed of 36 male members, but they vary by size. However, cliques from other gangs (Los Chirizos, El Combo que no se deja, etc.) tend to be larger on average, with 45.8 male members per clique. Cliques are clustered in regional groups called sectores (sectors). Both cliques and sectores are run by a senior member of the gang. Senior members of the MS-13 gang are known as Compas and Palabreros, and Barrio 18 leaders are known as Toros and Homies. Half of the survey respondents (49 percent) held what can be considered a soldier position within the structure of the gang, 17 percent held some position of leadership, and 25 percent were aspiring members of the gang who served as collaborators or informants. Gang leaders do not consider collaborators or informants to be official members of the gang, yet they participate in core activities and play a significant role in the dynamics of gang survival and operation. Joining the Gang From the standpoint of former and active gang members, most (63 percent) joined the gang because of the “pull forces” which peers in the gang exert over them in their teenage years. Gang involvement revolves around the opportunity of disenfranchised teens to join a group which provides them with affection and care, which many do not find at home. Thus, gang members value the “solidarity,” “social respect,” and resources the gang provides, which otherwise would be absent if they were not part of the organization. Evidence suggests that several gang members grew up in environments in which problematic families, lack of opportunities, and lack of respect and affection from their communities were common. Gang recruiters appeal to youth by promising to supply such needs to grow and exert stronger control inside their territories. Thus, findings suggest that most people end up joining gangs in Honduras for “innocent” reasons rather than because of criminal intent. Gang Disengagement The findings of this study suggest that many members do in fact disengage from gangs, but they go through a process in which the interaction of several conditions determines how soon or how complicated the separation could be. More than half of active gang members want to leave the gang. There are four significant predictors of active gang members’ intentions to leave a gang: the type of organization to which the person belongs, the number of years that the person has been active in the gang, the individual’s religious affiliation, and the person’s immediate social circle. Members of the two major gangs expressed less intention of leaving the gang compared to members of the smaller gangs. Active members of MS-13 demonstrated fewer intentions of leaving the gang compared to their rivals in Barrio 18. Additionally, there is a U-shaped curve relationship between the number of years in the gang and intentions to leave. During the first years of gang membership, intentions to leave are stronger; then they subside for a while and start growing again after six years of being in the gang. This pattern suggests that the early months and years of gang life are probably full of doubts about membership. These doubts are later quenched by gratifying experiences as a gang member and then re-emerge as the individual matures. This finding is significantly different from that in Cruz and colleagues’ 2018 study in El Salvador, in which researchers found that intentions to leave the gang are low during the first years of gang membership and then grow as time passes. Religion plays an important role in the process of leaving the gang, although comparatively, this role seems less prevalent than in El Salvador. Belonging to an evangelical church not only contributes to one’s intention to disengage from the gang but also is approved by leaders of the gang (more specifically, MS-13). Further, evangelical churches seem to be more successful than other denominations in connecting with the spiritual needs of the gang population. In the in-depth interviews, half of the respondents referred to a connection to God as the most powerful change mechanism which enabled gang members to disengage from the gang. Survey data also reveal that one of the most important factors in an individual’s intention to leave a gang is social interaction. Gang members who spent the most time with non-gang individuals (their family, non-gang friends, or even alone) before they were detained in prison were more prone to thoughts about leaving the gang. Thus, one’s social circle has a significant influence on the intent to disengage. Gang members who are exposed to social groups different from the gang appear to be more willing to abandon gang life. Reintegration The process of leaving a gang doesn’t end there. Rather, being a defector is the beginning of a series of challenges and obstacles which a former gang member has to face. The most common reintegration challenges by a former gang member include lack of opportunities, insecurity, police abuse, social discrimination, poverty, and lack of family support. Most study participants (69.2 percent) said that church or faith-based organizations are the appropriate institutions to lead rehabilitation and reintegration programs. Otherwise, 14.6 percent of respondents said that nongovernmental organizations should lead rehabilitation programs. Few people interviewed saw government agencies leading rehabilitation efforts, and experts interviewed thought there was little to no political will to approach the gang phenomenon from a rehabilitation standpoint. RECOMMENDATIONS Our research indicates that violence prevention efforts should target the root causes of joining a gang, which are mostly related to absence of positive youth development opportunities in their communities, including lack of employment, insufficient access to education, weak family structures, and negative peer influences. We recommend that programming focus on providing relational, educational, community, and economic supports to young people from an early age to both prevent youth from joining gangs, as well as to support those who have disengaged. Prevention strategies should include efforts to support disengagement from the gangs during the first years of gang membership, when many youth are considering disengagement. Finally, once gang members disengage from gangs, we recommend supporting rehabilitation and reintegration of former gang members to help them become productive members of society and prevent their reinsertion into gang activity.

Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research & Florida International University. 2020. 91p.

By Bruce Wallace, Irene Shkolnikov, Collin Kielty, Derek Robinson, et al.

Background Illicit opioids, including fentanyl, are linked to unprecedented levels of overdose in Canada and elsewhere. The risks associated with illicit opioids can include high potency, unpredictable concentration and the unexpected presence in other drugs. Within this context, we examine drug checking data to better understand the presence of illicit opioids such as fentanyl in other drugs and possible ways to interpret these results. Methods Three years (2021–2023) of data (18,474 samples) from Substance Drug Checking in British Columbia, Canada were examined to investigate the risks associated with the detection of opioids in other drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as in other drug categories. Samples were tested by paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS), fentanyl test strips and Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). We examine the 8889 samples not expected to include fentanyl to confirm; if the expected drug was detected, if unexpected opioids were detected, and when the unexpected opioids are in trace concentration. Results Unexpected opioids were rarely detected (2%) in other drugs (189 of 8889 samples) with most (61.4%) detected at trace concentration levels. Unexpected opioids are far more likely to be found in samples that did not contain the expected drug than in samples that were confirmed to contain the expected drug. The least common scenario (below 1%) were substances that included the expected drug plus unexpected opioid above trace concentration. These findings raise questions on how to interpret and communicate the detection of fentanyl and related opioids in other drugs. We present three potential interpretations: (1) mistaken and misrepresented samples where the expected drug was never detected, (2) cross contamination when opioids were at trace concentration levels, or (3) adulteration as the least frequent scenario where opioids were detected above trace concentrations in combination with the expected drug. Conclusions In a region where fentanyl is associated with extreme rates of overdose, it remains rare to find such opioids in other drugs. However, the risk of fentanyl in other drugs remains an ongoing threat that warrants responses by individuals and public health. We provide possible interpretations to inform such responses. Our data raises questions on how to interpret and communicate the detection of fentanyl and other opioids in other drugs.

Harm Reduction Journal, (2025) 22:28, 8p.

By De Souza Oliveira, Elenice De Souza; Natarajan, Mangai; and da Silva, Bráulio

Abstract This study examines the spatial patterns and other situational determinants leading to the high number of bus robberies in Belo Horizonte. Main research questions include patterns of robberies, spatial concentration, locations prone to robberies, and environmental characteristics therein. This study also provides a variety of safety measures based on the Situational Crime Prevention approach. The Rapid Assessment Methodology (RAM) was employed using both quantitative and qualitative data. It involves spatial analysis, direct observation of hot spots using a safety audit protocol, and focus group discussions with key participants. Bus robberies involve minimum risk and low detection and arrest. The “hottest products” to be stolen include electronic devices and cash. The robberies occur at specific times and locations depending on opportunity. As many crimes go unreported, police data have inaccuracies. Therefore, it is impossible to verify the exact location of the robberies. This study concludes that for safe travel preventive measure should focus on reducing crime opportunities. A collaborative effort is needed from agencies and individuals alike. Further research should focus on examining why the majority of bus robberies are concentrated in only two main bus routes. Are these hot spots just recent spikes or are they chronic?

Crime & Delinquency 1–25 © The Author(s) 2019, 26p.

By Elenice De Souza Oliveira , Braulio Figueiredo Alves da Silva , Flavio Luiz Sapori & Gabriela Gomes Cardoso

Many studies demonstrate that homicides are heavily concentrated in impoverished neighborhoods, but not all socially disadvantaged neighborhoods are hotbeds of violence. Conducted in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this study hypothesizes that the association between high rates of homicide and impoverished areas is influenced by the emergence of a specific type of street drug-dealing common to favelas (slums). The study applies econometric techniques to police data on homicides and drug arrests from 2008 to 2011, as well as 2010 Census data, to test its hypothesis. The findings provide insight into the development of crime prevention policies in areas of high social vulnerability.

International Journal of Law and Public Administration Vol. 3, No. 2; December 2020

By Gabriel Brollo Fortes, Patricia Faraldo Cabana

The collateral consequences of the non-payment of fines have merited much attention in jurisdictions such as the USA or Australia, yet they are relatively unexplored in countries of the Global South. In this article, we analyse Brazil as a case study. Although Brazil has the third largest prison population in the world, its criminal justice system has received little attention. We intend to fill this gap by addressing the legal framework and practices surrounding the non-payment of fines in a country whose draconian policies cause social exclusion and impede rehabilitation.

The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice, 64, 129–144, 2025.

By Jennifer Yahner, Jeanette Hussemann, and Erica Henderson

Over the past two decades, as the proportion of older Americans has increased, so too have instances of elder abuse, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; financial exploitation; and caregiver neglect (Ervin and Henderson 2020; NCEA 2021). The most recent national survey estimates show at least 1 in 10 community-residing older adults experience elder abuse each year (Acierno et al. 2010; Rosay and Mulford 2017), which translates to over 7 million Americans annually. Rates of abuse are magnified for older adults with the least financial and social resources, including those with low incomes, living in isolated rural communities, and facing structural barriers such as systemic racism (Jervis et al. 2016; Joseph and Gonzalez 2018). Emerging research on the COVID-19 pandemic prompts even greater concern for elder abuse: the virus has disproportionately affected older adults, resulting in increased social isolation, physical health impairment, and exposure to COVID-related fraud (Makaroun, Bachrach, and Rosland 2020). Recognizing the urgent need to develop and rigorously evaluate programs aimed at preventing elder abuse, the US Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice funded a demonstration from 2017 to 2021 during which researchers from the Urban Institute and practitioners at the Phoenixbased Area Agency on Aging, Region One (“the Area Agency”) co-developed an elder abuse prevention program in Maricopa County, Arizona, which Urban’s team then evaluated through a randomized controlled pilot study. This multiphase demonstration included an initial planning phase (the activities of which are summarized in Hussemann and Yahner [2019]) and a subsequent pilot study, which is the focus of this report.

Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2022. 21p.

By Beatriz Magaloni, Kerpel Sofía Marinkovic Dal Poggetto, Tommy E. Murphy, Florencia Pucci, Beatriz Serra Fernández

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has become a powerful and effective tool to deal with violence in many at-risk areas in the world. However, its use for gender-based violence (GBV) and dating violence, although promising, has been limited and used as a response service for survivors, rather than for prevention. To understand to what extent such interventions can help provide tools and skills to young people in their impressionable years to produce behavioral changes that prevent GBV, we carried out such an intervention among high school students in the municipality of Ecatepec in Mexico. We assessed the intervention with a randomized control trial. We introduce the novelty of collecting objective measures from automated neuropsychological tests to explore whether CBT might be functioning through the development of subjects' executive functions. Results from this intervention fail to show any clear change in self-reported violence. They do show, however, impacts on executive functions related to violence, such as emotional recognition and inhibitory control skills.

Washington, EC: Inter-American Development Bank Gender and Diversity Division May 2025 79p.

By Agustina Suaya, Karen Martínez, Monserrat Bustelo, Claudia Martínez

Violence against women (VAW) remains a pervasive and deeply entrenched issue, posing significant challenges to policymakers, researchers, and practitioners worldwide. This policy brief contributes to advancing the field by presenting new evidence on innovative approaches to VAW prevention and response. Despite increasing global attention, VAW prevention remains an evolving area of research, with critical gaps in understanding what interventions work, under what circumstances, and for whom (Araujo et al., 2024). The studies discussed in this document aim to address some of these gaps, focusing on key interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In LAC, VAW persists at alarming levels. Twenty-five percent of women aged 15–49 have experienced physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lives, a figure that mirrors the global average of 27%. Furthermore, 11% of women in the region have faced sexual violence by non-partners, nearly double the global average of 6% (WHO, 2021). Psychological violence is even more widespread, with 64% of women in Colombia and 57% in Ecuador reporting such experiences (Araujo et al., 2024; Pispira et al., 2022). The region also faces the devastating toll of femicidal violence—the most extreme form of VAW. In 2022 alone, 4,050 women were victims of femicide across 26 LAC countries, with intimate partners or family members perpetrating a significant proportion of these crimes (ECLAC, 2023). Younger women are particularly vulnerable, with over 70% of femicide victims aged 15 to 44. These figures underline the critical need for comprehensive, evidence-based strategies to address the multifaceted nature of VAW.

POLICY BRIEF No IDB-PB-418

Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank Gender and Diversity Division , 2025. 18p.

By Ernesto Schargrodsky and Lucía Freira

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between inequality and crime, with a focus on the Latin America and Caribbean region. We find a significant, positive, and robust association between these variables.

The results persist if one instruments for inequality with historical variables in crime regressions, suggesting that a causal interpretation of the estimated effect is reasonable. Moreover, inequality is the only variable showing this robust regularity. Education levels, economic activity, income per capita, and poverty show weaker and unstable relationships with crime. The analysis of the distribution of crime victimization indicates that men and youth suffer more crime than women and the elderly. By socio-economic strata, high-income groups suffer more victimization relative to poorer groups in LAC countries, but the poor suffer more homicides.

UNDP LAC Working Paper 13.

Panama City, Panama: United Nations Development Programme, Latin America and the Caribbean , 2021. 48p.

By Lizabeth Remrey

In 2023, there were an estimated 19,800 homicide victimizations in the United States, a rate of 5.9 homicides per 100,000 persons (figure 1). This was lower than the estimated 22,240 victimizations (6.7 per 100,000) in 2022 but higher than the 16,670 victimizations (5.0 per 100,000) in 2019. (See appendix table 1 for state estimates.) Homicide refers to the offenses of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter and is defined as “the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.”1 Findings in this report are based on the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ and FBI’s National IncidentBased Reporting System (NIBRS) Estimation Program and the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR).

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics , 2025. 23p.

By Ronald V. Clarke and Phyllis A. Schultze

This guide, one of the Problem-Solving Tools Series, summarizes knowledge about information gathering and analysis techniques that might assist police at any of the four main stages of a problem-oriented project: scanning, analysis, response, and assessment. This tool takes the mystery out of conducting research on problems by helping the user to define their problem, use technology to conduct Internet searches, get advice from experts, visit libraries, and evaluate their primary sources of information. The guide offers helpful hints to understanding and identifying responses to problems based on the research gathered.

Problem-oriented policing focuses, one-by-one, on specific problems of crime and disorder with the intention of identifying and altering the particular factors giving rise to each problem. The problems addressed in problem-oriented policing tend not to be confined to just a few police jurisdictions, but are more widely experienced. It is therefore likely that some other agency has tried to solve the kind of problem that you are dealing with now. Or perhaps some researcher has studied a similar problem and learned things that might be useful to your work. You could save yourself a lot of time and effort by finding out what they did and why. In particular, you can learn which responses seemed to be effective and which were not. So long as they made available a written report of their work, this guide will help you discover what they did. Having found out what others have done, you cannot simply copy what they did. You will have to adapt any successful responses they used to your own situation. This guide does not tell you how to analyze and understand your own problem.† It will only help you to profit from the work of those who have dealt with a similar problem. It is designed to take you as quickly as possible to the information you need and to help you evaluate and make the best use of this information. In doing this, it assumes: • You are familiar with problem-oriented policing. The guide assumes that a problem-solving model, such as SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment), is guiding your project. The guide will assist you at the Analysis and Response stages by pointing you to the possible cause of the problem you are tackling and to the ways you might respond. • You are willing to consider new responses to the problem. Rarely does police enforcement alone solve a persisting problem. To bring a lasting improvement, it is almost always necessary to modify the conditions giving rise to the problem, such as a lack of security or surveillance. Whatever measures you adopt must be carefully matched to the nature of your problem. Many of the measures are likely to be outside your experience and, indeed, that of most police officers. So, you need to learn about the ones that have been successfully used before in dealing with the kind of problem you face. While it is not usually recommended that a police agency blindly adopt another agency's responses to a problem, neither is it a good idea to be blind to what others have done. The key is to understand whether lessons learned elsewhere would apply under the conditions that exist for your problem. • You have limited time. The guide assumes that you have limited time to research best practice and that you want results quickly. You are not writing an academic paper where you might be faulted for missing a particular article or book. You are simply trying to find information that will help you with the practical task of dealing with your problem. For this reason, the guide does not provide a comprehensive description of all information sources, whether on the Internet † or in libraries. † Comprehensive descriptions are provided by Benamati et al. (1998) and Nelson (1997). Rather, it is intended to help you find two main categories of information relevant to your task: (1) articles by researchers who have studied the problem you are facing and, (2) reports of police projects dealing with the problem. The first category of information will help you understand the factors giving rise to your problem; the second will help you find effective responses. Later in the project, you might wish • You have Internet access. Nowadays, it is very difficult to research a problem without having access to the Internet. The guide assumes that you have this access and that you are familiar with searching for information on the Internet. (Indeed, you might have found this guide on the Internet.) The computer you use will need † a copy of Adobe Reader, which allows you to read and download articles in portable document format (.pdf) that you find at websites on the Internet. Unless your computer has a high speed connection, this process of visiting websites and reading and downloading material can be slow and frustrating. Most computers in libraries have high speed connections and you can usually pay to obtain print copies of the material you have downloaded

Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Solving Tools Series No. 2

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2005. 72p.