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Edited by Paul Ekblom

In the realm of product design, the concept of crime-proofing everyday products has emerged as a vital consideration. With the objective of enhancing safety and security in mind, designers are exploring innovative ways to deter criminal activities through the very objects we interact with on a daily basis. By integrating elements such as tamper-proof features, anti-theft mechanisms, and user-friendly security measures, these products aim to provide users with a heightened sense of protection and peace of mind. Design Against Crime represents a proactive approach towards creating a more secure environment, where intelligent design serves as the first line of defense against potential threats.

Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012 , 293 pages

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By Dennis R. Dalton

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 changed the way the world thinks about security. Everyday citizens learned how national security, international politics, and the economy are inextricably linked to business continuity and corporate security. Corporate leaders were reminded that the security of business, intellectual, and human assets has a tremendous impact on an organization's long-term viability.

In Rethinking Corporate Security, Fortune 500 consultant Dennis Dalton helps security directors, CEOs, and business managers understand the fundamental role of security in today's business environment and outlines the steps to protect against corporate loss. He draws on the insights of such leaders as Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Charles Schwab, and Tom Peters in this unique review of security's evolving role and the development of a new management paradigm.

* If you truly wish to improve your own skills, and the effectiveness of your Corporation's security focus, you need to read this book
* Presents connections of theory to real-world case examples in historical and contemporary assessment of security management principles
* Applies classic business and management strategies to the corporate security management function

NY. BUTTERWORTH/HEINEMANN. 2003. 346p.

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David C. Perry

Police in the Metropolis by David C. Perry offers readers a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of law enforcement in a bustling urban landscape. Perry delves into the complexities of policing in a metropolis, tackling issues of crime, justice, and power dynamics with a keen eye for detail. Through vivid storytelling and meticulous research, the author sheds light on the challenges faced by those who protect and serve in a city teeming with life and conflict. Police in the Metropolis is a riveting read that provides valuable insights into the nuanced world of urban law enforcement.

CHARLES E. MERRILL PUBLISHING COMPANY.. Columbus, Ohio. 1973. 193p.

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By Andrew von Hirsch, David Garland and Alison Wakefield

Situational crime prevention has drawn increasing interest in recent years,yet the debate has looked mainly at whether it 'works' to prevent crime. This volume addresses the ethics of situational crime prevention and also examines the place of situational crime prevention within criminology. The contributors are twelve distinguished criminologists who together advance our understanding of the ethical and societal questions underlying crime prevention.

Hart Publishing, Nov 18, 2000, 230 pages

RAND CORP.

Facilitator, law law enforcement, and and community organizers introduce themselves and and summarize overall aim of the dialogue. For example, “Now we’d like to tell you why of the example, "Now we'd like to tell we we are are engaged in in this this work. In In recent years, we've seen many examples of tension of between police and the communities they serve. Importantly, events that happen and the that elsewhere can also affect and inform local community-police relations. We're doing also affect and inform this this exercise to help community members and police better communicate their to and police expectations." expectations.” It It also helps participants participants to to think about " “what what if if something happened here that is similar to what we’re seeing nationally?” “Would we be prepared?” here “Would that we is know similar how to what to respond? we're ” seeing “How nationally? should we " " respond? Would we ” be p

Santa Monica. CA. RAND CORP. 2023. 28p.

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EDITORS Clifford D. Shearing AND Philip C. Stenning

The increased use of private policing has led to a growing awareness that policing can no longer be thought of as just being about crime, but as the enforcement of order and the way it can be both established and maintained. Private Policing charts the development of social control mechanisms -- both public and private -- from historical, legal, ethical and managerial perspectives.

SAGE PUBLICATIONS.. Newbury Park Beverly Hill. 1987. 329p.

Rand Corp.

In recent years, a number of serious conflicts between police officers and members of the communities they serve have raised the importance of effective community-police relations in the United States. Building on its policing and community-based participatory research portfolio, RAND designed a community-based dialogue to address this problem. The dialogue is designed to start a conversation about these issues among community stakeholders, including police, government agencies, social service providers, resident representatives, and other concerned organizations. RAND has also designed a youth-focused dialogue to address specific scenarios most relevant to youth-police interactions.

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By Dionne Barnes-Proby ,Samuel Peterson, Alex Andra Mendoza-Graf, Pierrce Holmes, Danielle Sobol, Nipher Malik A. Malika And Meagan Cahill

Despite widespread recognition that community engagement is important for improving community-police relations, there is little guidance for how to systematically promote and sustain long-term relationship building. This guide was developed to share best practices from the RAND Corporation's work in implementing six community-police dialogues across four sites. This guide provides background on the purpose for the development of the community-police dialogue, guidance for planning and implementing the dialogue, and materials to help carry out the dialogue effectively.

By Kourtney A. D. Byrd, David K. Lohrmann, Cecilia Obeng, Jon Agley, Beth Cate, Y. Joel Wong, Tyler M. Nolting and Brittanni Wright

Further study is needed regarding the intersection of community violence exposure, coping strategies, and health behaviors among young adult African American men and Hispanic/Latino men. This study did so in Lake County, Indiana, which contains multiple areas with disproportionate prevalence of violence relative to population size. Approximately 22 miles from Chicago, Lake County includes noteworthy mid-sized cities such as Gary, Hammond, and East Chicago. This study explored the perceptions of African American men and Hispanic/Latino men ages 18 to 25 regarding coping strategies and both healthy and health risk behaviors after directly witnessing or indirectly experiencing a violent act or event. We used aspects of social cognitive theory to design this community-based participatory research study. Thirteen males who self-identified as African American, Hispanic/Latino, or both, completed 34- to 80-minute, audio-recorded phone interviews. Audio recordings were transcribed, and NVivo 12 Windows was used by the research team (primary researchers and two coders) to complete transcript analysis. Findings from this study provided insight around African American men and Hispanic/Latino men regarding (a) witnessing violence directly or indirectly experiencing violence; (b) changes in everyday life experiences; (c) coping strategies that involved socio-emotional health, spiritual health, social health, and risky health behaviors; (d) rationales for not asking for help; (e) observations of significant others’ coping; (f) what to do differently in the future; (g) beliefs about mentors; and (h) beliefs about mental health providers. Delving into participants’ experiences revealed that African American men and Hispanic/Latino men in Lake County, Indiana chose to adopt a range of health risk and health positive strategies after directly witnessing or indirectly experiencing violence. Becoming knowledgeable about African American men’s and Hispanic/Latino men’s diverse coping strategies and health behaviors may help inform the community about how best to cocreate spaces that aim to alleviate the traumatic experience of having directly or indirectly experienced community violence.

Journal of Interpersonal Violence Volume 39, Issue 3-4 Feb 2024 Pages 477-920

By Alexandra V. Nur and Rory Monaghan

Contact with the justice system is associated with negative overall employment and wage outcomes. An understudied employment-based outcome of interest for justice-involved populations is occupational prestige attainment, or relative social status position based on occupation. This outcome is salient to justice-involved populations as embedment in low-quality, low-prestige work may have substantial impacts on later upward mobility. Using longitudinal data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (n = 1,382), we assess whether arrest, probation, and jail are differentially related to occupational prestige attainment for young adults. Results indicate that justice involvement inhibits occupational prestige attainment, and that removal from the community in the form of jail may pose particular detriments to overall occupational prestige attainment compared to arrest or probation.

Crime & Delinquency Volume 70, Issue 2 Feb 2024 Pages 291-639

By Karolien Garritsen, Marija Janković, Erik Masthoff, Elien De Caluwé and Stefan Bogaerts

This study investigated which risk and protective factors, based on the 14 clinical indicators of the Historical-Clinical-Future Revised, significantly predicted violent recidivism in a sample of 315 male forensic psychiatric patients. Additionally, it was investigated whether these associations were moderated by intellectual ability. Regarding risk factors, a stronger influence of risky network members, and higher levels of hostility, impulsivity, and addiction significantly predicted violent recidivism. Likewise, regarding protective factors, poorer social and labor skills, and a lower degree of patient’s acceptance of crime responsibility were significant predictors of violent recidivism. Contrary to our expectations, better coping skills and more insight into risky behaviors that can lead to relapse also contributed significantly to an increased likelihood of violent recidivism. Intellectual ability had no significant moderating effect on the associations between the factors and violent recidivism. The results offer an insight into which factors need to be prioritized during treatment.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume 68, Issue 2-3 Feb 2024 Pages155-295

By the Texas Center for Justice and Equity: Edited by América Malacara, Will Cover, and Jay Jenkins

Since the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the death penalty in 1976, Harris County, Texas, has executed more people than any other non-Texas state in the union. 1 In part, this can be atributed to systemic issues with the county’s capital representaton process: despite a dramatc reducton in the number of defendants sentenced to death in the recent past, Harris County’s justice system remains rife with dysfunction in capital cases.

Harris County’s shortcomings were recently detailed in Death by Design, a report by the nonprofit Wren Collective that highlights failures in how the County handles cases where a defendant is accused of a capital crime and faces the death penalty or a sentence of life without parole – effectively death by incarceration. The full Death by Design report is a damning and comprehensive indictment of capital representation in Harris County, based on a detailed analysis of evidence presented in capital cases, attorney caseload numbers, attorney billing records, and case outcomes. Among other things, the report uncovered four cases wherein a defendant facing capital murder charges had no contact with their attorneys outside of court appearances. Not everyone agreed with the conclusions of Death by Design; one local defense attorney (whose law practice has previously represented defendants facing the death penalty) opined that, “Academicians should shut up about something they know nothing about, which is running a small business.” This response is telling, given that community members and advocates have long raised criticisms regarding the financial element of indigent defense in Harris County, largely stemming from the attorney appointment system. While the establishment and slow growth of the Harris County Public Defender’s Office within the last 15 years has been encouraging, the County’s elected criminal court judges retain control as to which attorneys are appointed to represent indigent defendants. Previous research has revealed that defense attorneys from the private bar who donate to judicial election campaigns are often rewarded by those same judges with indigent defense appointments. These attorneys are paid for their services out of the public coffers, but the judge must approve expenses related to their cases, such as hiring experts and investigators, as well as approve the amount of compensation to be paid to lawyers for their work. In years past, several attorneys have regularly received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in reimbursement per year in these cases, with one attorney recently topping one million dollars in yearly fees.6 Unfortunately for indigent defendants in Harris County, the Public Defender’s Office does not accept capital cases, leaving those defendants’ attorneys to be chosen by the judge presiding over their case. These attorneys steadfastly maintain that this appointment system in no way affects their representation.

Austin, TX: Texas Center for Justice and Equity, 2024. 6p.

By Dorothea Delpech , Herve Borrion and Shane Johnson

Illegal activities concerning terrestrial species (TS) are responsible for a variety of health, environmental, economic and security issues. The majority of academic research associated with species relates to conservation, with few publications specifically investigating the scale of crimes impacting species or how they can be prevented. This article systematically reviews the available evidence about what works to prevent crime against terrestrial species. Of over 29,000 documents that were returned in the first stage of the review, these were filtered to just over 100. The remaining documents were partially or fully read to identify the most relevant documents to include in the final qualitative synthesis. The review results show there is a significant lack of primary research in this area, as only five articles were found that met the study inclusion criteria. The identified articles focus on the effects of two types of situational crime prevention interventions: community outreach and ranger patrol frequency. Community outreach was shown to have a significant impact on local poaching levels, while for patrolling the evidence suggests a positive impact on the discovery of poachers, animal carcasses and poaching paraphernalia, however, the quality of these studies varied greatly. To prevent the further decline of species numbers internationally, more effort should be invested in publicising existing research into the effectiveness of prevention strategies that have not reached the wider scientific audience, as well as the funding and promotion of research into alternate methods of crime prevention. 

Crime Sci (2021) 10:1 

By Ashly Fuller | Marie Vasek | Enrico Mariconti  | Shane D. Johnson

Issues: The sale of illicit drugs online has expanded to mainstream social media apps. These platforms provide access to a wide audience, especially children and adolescents. Research is in its infancy and scattered due to the multidisciplinary aspects of the phenomena. Approach: We present a multidisciplinary systematic scoping review on the advertisement and sale of illicit drugs to young people. Peer-reviewed studies written in English, Spanish and French were searched for the period 2015 to 2022. We extracted data on users, drugs studied, rate of posts, terminology used and study methodology. Key Findings: A total of 56 peer-reviewed papers were included. The analysis of these highlights the variety of drugs advertised and platforms used to do so. Various methodological designs were considered. Approaches to detecting illicit content were the focus of many studies as algorithms move from detecting drug-related keywords to drug selling behaviour. We found that on average, for the studies reviewed, 13 in 100 social media posts advertise illicit drugs. However, popular platforms used by adolescents are rarely studied. Implications: Promotional content is increasing in sophistication to appeal to young people, shifting towards healthy, glamourous and seemingly legal depictions of drugs. Greater inter-disciplinary collaboration between computational and qualitative approaches are needed to comprehensively study the sale and advertisement of illegal drugs on social media across different platforms. This requires coordinated action from researchers, policy makers and service providers. 

Drugs and Alcohol Review, 2023

By Neil Donnelly and Sara Rahman

To understand whether the introduction of penalty notices in New South Wales (NSW) for first time low, special and novice range drink-driving and drug-driving offences reduced the number of court appearances and increased the certainty of licence sanctions for these offences. Data was obtained from the NSW Police Force’s Computerised Operational Policing System (COPS) for all first time low, special and novice range exceed the prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA) incidents and first time drug-driving incidents occurring between 5 December 2016 to 1 March 2020. We used a combination of interrupted time series analysis, and descriptive analysis respectively to determine the changes in CANs and dismissals post-reform. We used logistic regression to identify significant correlates of receiving a penalty notice among the first time PCA and drug-driving offenders in our sample. The introduction of penalty notices significantly reduced the number of CANs issued for first time low, special and novice range PCA offences by 81.0%, or 4,779 fewer CANs than predicted. For first time drug-driving there was a significant, though smaller (29.8%) reduction in CANs (or 1,118 fewer CANs issued). These changes also translated into decreases in court dismissals and conditional discharges. Among first time low, special and novice range PCA offenders, the percentage receiving a court dismissal or conditional discharge decreased from 51.5% to 8.0% while among first time drug-driving offenders it decreased from 28.0% to 15.2%. Among both first time low, special and novice range PCA offenders and drug-driving offenders, having no concurrent offences and no prior proceedings to court in the previous 5 years predicted receipt of a penalty notice. The smaller reduction in court appearances for drug-driving was primarily due to those charged with this offence having more concurrent and prior offences. The introduction of penalty notices significantly reduced the number of court appearances for first time low, special and novice range PCA offences and to a lesser extent, first time drug-driving offences, and decreased the percentage of offenders who received a court dismissal or conditional discharge for these offences.

Sydney:  NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, 2023. 22p.

By Lisa Fedina; Rich Tolman; Todd Herrenkohl

This paper addresses gaps in available prevalence data on campus sexual assault rates found among women, including demographic differences among student groups and variations in characteristics of college campuses. The research study also investigated how attitudes and norms vary across college campuses and whether characteristics of those campuses can help explain variations in experiences at the individual (student) level, by analyzing data from the Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduates (SAPU) online sexual assault prevention education program. Data from SAPU includes a large, demographically diverse sample of college students, which allows for in-depth investigation of the prevalence and predictors of sexual assault victimization and perpetration across different types of college campuses; it also includes contemporaneous measures of sexual assault victimization and perpetration during the highest period of risk, early in students’ first year of college. The five stated aims of the research study were: to examine variation in school-level prevalence of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by school type, size, and region from academic year (AY) 2016-2017 to 2019-2020; to assess subgroup differences in school-level prevalence of sexual assault victimization and perpetration, accounting for school region, size, and type; to investigate the relationship between attitudes and perceptions of campus norms and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration, accounting for precampus sexual assault and individual demographics and school characteristics; to examine the variation in the relationship between attitudes and perceptions of campus norms and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by subgroups, accounting for precampus sexual assault and individual and school characteristics; and to examine variation in bystander intentions, efficacy, and behaviors and self-reports of sexual assault victimization and perpetration by subgroups, accounting for attitudes, perceptions of campus norms, and precampus sexual assault, as well as individual and school characteristics. 

Final Report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2024. 20p.

By Lenny Roth

The issue of criminal responsibility for workplace deaths has generated debate in NSW and nationally for many years. In October 2023, the New South Wales government announced that it would introduce an industrial manslaughter offence in the first half of 2024, with severe penalties for serious work health and safety breaches that result in death.

The purpose of this paper is to put the proposed reforms in their current and historical context. The paper discusses the general criminal offence of manslaughter, outlines the key offences in current work health and safety laws, summarises the debate, and examines industrial manslaughter laws in other Australian jurisdictions.

Sydney: State of New South Wales through the Parliament of New South Wales , Parliamentary Research Service, 2024. 28p.

By: Kesha Moore, Ryan Tom, Jackie O’Neil

Promoting public safety is serious business and requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger.

We model the contextual analysis of crime data needed to guide an effective approach to improving public safety.

Unsubstantiated crime narratives prevent us from understanding the factors contributing to recent increases in violent crime and undermine our investments in evidence-based solutions. Misdiagnosing the causes of crime compromises public safety, similar to when a doctor misdiagnoses you with the wrong ailment and subsequently prescribes medication that fails to address your underlying issues while exacerbating your condition.

Politicians have lobbed disparaging attacks against criminal justice reforms despite contradictory evidence. Public officials, regardless of party affiliation, create fear-mongering narratives about why crimes are happening to convince the public that their strategy is correct. Whether it is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) incorrectly arguing that crime would increase without aggressive prosecutors and increased police funding, or New York City’s Democratic Mayor, Eric Adams, blaming the city’s bail reforms for increases in crime, public actors disparage criminal justice reforms based on false and inaccurate premises. These political actors engage in this rhetoric despite research studies proving their assertions are flatly wrong. This rhetoric leads to harmful and counterproductive policies that aim to increase policing and incarceration, which particularly harm Black people. Unfortunately, the pattern of peddling harmful “tough-on-crime” narratives is not new, but a cyclical component of U.S. history.

Promoting public safety is serious business that requires precise, thoughtful analysis, not distortions designed to evoke fear and anger. Crime is a complex and varied phenomenon, and solutions to address crime must be grounded in data, equity, and fairness. The need for accurate assessments is critical, lest false narratives and distorted data contribute to the harming of communities by law enforcement, just as they did in the War on Drugs. Here, we examine three false narratives presented by politicians and the media to explain the recent increase in homicides nationwide: the expansion of bail reform, practices of progressive prosecutors, and calls to defund the police. Our analysis reveals that the empirical data contradicts these narratives. Our data substantiates other reasons for a spike in homicide rates: pandemic-induced instability and econmic inequality.

Washington, DC: NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 2020. 41p.

By NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Ferguson, Missouri has emerged as the site of the most disturbing display of racial tension, political powerlessness, and police violence in recent memory. The fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, is the latest tragic incident in a recent spate of police-involved homicides. Ferguson’s history of economic exclusion, disenfranchisement, segregation and poverty helped create a political system in which African Americans are grossly underrepresented in local government as well as an environment in which protesters and journalists from around the country were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, assault rifles, Kevlar vests, and military tanks as they bore witness to and reported on the aftermath of Michael Brown’s killing. This briefing paper aims to put Ferguson in focus by opening a window into the political, social, and economic conditions surrounding the life of Michael Brown. The report will look at Ferguson through the lenses of educational inequality, political disenfranchisement, economic inequality, and the criminal justice system – areas in which the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.’s historically has rooted its advocacy in support of African-American and other marginalized communities. Ferguson’s unadorned image revealed here is a candid snapshot into many of fault lines in American society. The challenges facing Ferguson are shared by locales across the country, and we can no longer turn a blind eye.

Washington, DC: NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 2024. 9p.

By Trine Filges, Mette Verner, Else Ladekjær, Elizabeth Bengtsen

Background: Healthy after‐school activities such as participation in organised sport have been shown to serve as important resources for reducing school failure and other problem/high‐risk behaviour. It remains to be established to what extent organised sport participation has positive impacts on young people in unstable life circumstances. Objectives: What are the effects of organised sport on risk behaviour, personal, emotional and social skills of young people, who either have experienced or are at‐risk of experiencing an adverse outcome? Search Methods: The database searches were carried out in March 2023 and other sources were searched in May 2023. We searched to identify both published and unpublished literature. Selection Criteria: The intervention was participation in leisure time organised sport. Young people between 6 and 18 years of age, who either have experienced or are at‐risk of experiencing an adverse outcome were eligible. Primary outcomes were problem/high‐risk behaviour and a secondary outcomes social and emotional outcomes. Studies that used a control group were eligible for. Studies that utilised qualitative approaches were not. Data Collection and Analysis: The number of potentially relevant studies was 43,716. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Only seven studies could be used in the data synthesis. Five studies were judged to have a critical risk of bias and were excluded from the meta‐analysis. One study did not report data that enabled the calculation of effect sizes and standard errors. Meta‐analyses were conducted on each conceptual outcome separately. All analyses were inverse variance weighted using random effects statistical models. Main Results: Two studies were from Canada, one from Australia, and the remaining from the USA. The timespan of the interventions was 23 years, from 1995 to 2018. The median number of participants analysed was 316, and the median number of controls was 452. A number of primary outcomes were reported but each in a single study only. Concerning secondary outcomes, two studies reported the effect on overall psychosocial adjustment at post‐intervention. The standardised mean difference was 0.70 (95% CI 0.28–1.11). There was a small amount of heterogeneity. Three studies reported on depressive symptoms at 0–3 years follow‐up. The standardised mean difference was 0.02 (95% CI −0.01 to 0.06). There was no heterogeneity between the three studies. In addition, a number of other secondary outcomes were reported each in a single study only. Authors' Conclusions: There were too few studies included in the meta‐analyses in order for us to draw any conclusion. The dominance of Northern America clearly limiting the generalisability of the findings. The majority of the studies were not considered to be of overall high quality and the process of excluding studies with critical risk of bias from the meta‐analysis applied in this review left us with only 7 of a total of 13 possible studies to synthesise. Further, because too few studies reported results on the same type of outcome, at most three studies could be combined in a particular meta‐analysis and no meta‐analysis could be performed on any of the primary outcomes.

Campbell Systematic Reviews. 2024;20:e1381.