By Mark Elliot, Anna M. Mandalari, Miranda Mourby, and Kieron O’Hara

This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. It is free to read, download and share on Elgaronline.com. The Dictionary of Privacy, Data Protection and Information Security explains the complex technical terms, legal concepts, privacy management techniques, conceptual matters and vocabulary that inform public debate about privacy.

Cheltenham, UK: Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024. 652p.

By Centre for Justice Innovation

For some women, substance use can cause significant harm and problems for themselves and for those around them. Problems with substance use among women have well-established links to gendered experiences of trauma, abuse and exploitation, and women deserve to receive the kind of support that is appropriate for them. Our previous research identified that many of the mainstream, mixed-gender treatment services we looked at were not working well for women. We found evidence that women were accessing treatment services in spaces that exposed them to risks of abuse or exploitation, and that did not give them space to explore their gendered experiences. Our research indicated that treatment services were not able to effectively respond to the needs of women with trauma. This project set out to explore what a better system of substance use treatment would look like from the perspective of women in treatment. Working with women’s centre and treatment provider The Nelson Trust, we spoke to women accessing treatment in seven different locations, and asked about their experiences of a range of treatment provision and what they wanted from treatment services. We explored their perceptions of effective treatment and what support they would want women to be able to access in an ideal system. The women who participated identified six key characteristics of effective treatment: 1. Effective treatment is holistic. It considers and responds to all of a woman’s needs and strengths, including issues like domestic abuse, mental health, offending and children’s social care involvement. 2. Effective treatment is compassionate and respectful. It respects women’s dignity and agency, and responds to their individual needs and experiences with understanding rather than judgement. 3. Effective treatment is person-led and non-coercive. It enables women to determine what treatment and recovery looks like for themselves and to work towards it in their own time, without threat of further scrutiny or punitive measures. 4. Effective treatment addresses the root causes of substance use problems. It supports women to work through drivers of their substance use, heal from past traumas and have their wider needs met. 5. Effective treatment is trauma-responsive. It embeds understanding of trauma and shame throughout, following principles of safety, collaboration and transparency. It does not label women or discharge them when they go quiet. 6. Effective treatment builds strength and resilience. It promotes women’s agency through interventions aimed at promoting self-worth, confidence and acceptance, providing them with new skills and ways of coping. Delivering an effective treatment system requires a significant shift in the way treatment services are commissioned and managed. Current funding models have usually promoted the delivery of large-scale, one-size-fits-all provision in isolation from other services. Whole system approaches – where all services with a role in supporting women are integrated into a cohesive system of care – represent an alternative model that could more effectively address women’s needs. Local areas seeking to implement whole system approaches face significant challenges in breaking down funding silos, supporting information sharing and securing sufficient resources. One solution may be found in place-based approaches to funding and commissioning – approaches that work at local or regional levels to combine funding from multiple sources to co-commission a range of services for women. We therefore call on central government to remove the structural barriers inhibiting the growth of whole system approaches, and for local commissioners to explore place-based approaches as a way of implementing more whole system ways of working. Adopting these new approaches would not only improve the efficacy and efficiency of services, but it would also, more importantly, enable women to lead fulfilling lives. 

London: Centre for Justice Innovation, 2025. 56p.

By Giovanni Nicolazzo , Bohdan Bernatsky , et al.

This report, carried out by Transcrime – Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, explores the results of the first comprehensive analysis of the recurrent schemes used by sanctioned entities to evade international sanctions, with the aim of reducing the current gaps in sanctions enforcement thanks to a deeper understanding of the phenomenon.

After a general assessment of the nature and effectiveness of sanctions (a more detailed review on this topic is available here) and of shortcomings in the enforcement framework, the report focuses on:

🔹 Most violated sanctions by category, region, goods, and assets.

🔹 The role of facilitators, corporate vehicles, and satellite jurisdictions.

🔹 Recurrent evasion schemes and transactions.

🔹 Policy implications and risk indicators.

This document provides a comprehensive resource for public and private sector stakeholders for both investigation and due diligence purposes, and enabled the development of an advanced tool for assessing high-risk entities and for tracing and re-covering illicit assets, which is now made available to interested EU competent authorities for the purpose of tracing criminal assets and sanction evasion schemes.

Milan: Transcrime, 2025. 82p.

By Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate D. Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan

This paper examines global systemic racism’s influence on mass atrocities. The authors, Pratima T. Narayan, Ronnate Asirwatham, and Abiola Afolayan, explore policy changes that can help bring about shared and sustainable peace, leading to greater recognition and dignity for survivors and communities harmed by racial injustice worldwide. Each of the three sections of the paper is geared to challenge thinking on systemic racism in mass atrocity prevention.

The authors analyze racism during the time of the founding of the United Nations, as well as in its present-day application in different international mechanisms such as the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) and domestic mechanisms such as the United States Atrocities Prevention Board and subsequent Atrocity Prevention Task Force. The countries discussed include South Africa, Sri Lanka, Burma, the United States, and Nigeria. The issues discussed include the interplay on the international and domestic levels where there was, at times, mutual reinforcement of the dynamics of racism and mass atrocities. Read the full report which consists of the following three sections:

How the Quest for Racial Equality Led to a Modern Human Rights Movement

Pratima Narayan

The institutions, policies, and initiatives introduced to eradicate racism have fallen short in consistently providing victims and communities of racially- motivated violations adequate redress, and have arguably perpetuated racial subordination. This section explores that systemic failure.

Institutional Racism in the Conceptualization and Implementation of the Principle of Sovereignty

Ronnate D. Asirwatham

This section explores the conceptualization of state sovereignty, its use to further structural racial injustice and resulting mass atrocities, and the use and application of sovereignty by the UN Security Council, including through the Responsibility to Protect.

Ending Business as Usual: Mass Atrocities of People of African Descent

Abiola Afolayan

The paper’s final section examines the intentional exclusion of people of African descent from the originating conversations that formed such central mechanisms as the United Nations, US Constitution, and US Atrocities Prevention Board, as well as the consequences thereof.

Muscatine, IA: The Stanley Center for Peace and Security, 2022. 36p.

By Andrew Blum

The core goal of this report is to explore how “democracy can provide the antidote” to political violence within the United States. In the last several years, we have seen extremist attacks, a surge in hate crimes, protests by heavily armed militias, and vicious acts of brutality by law enforcement. Violence and the threat of violence are harming communities throughout the U.S. and undermining our democracy 

At the same time, hard-won experience from communities within the United States and around the world has revealed concrete strategies that can be used to prevent, respond to, and recover from political violence. Political violence imposes real costs, but it also drives communities to create real solutions. Many of those solutions were on display during the 2020 election, which contributed to creating a largely peaceful election. The polarization and violent rhetoric on display during the election, however, also makes clear that we have work to do moving forward. Now is time to start that work. Now more than ever people understand the risk of political violence and the urgent need to invest in efforts to prevent it. Our goal must be to leverage that awareness and that energy into creating longer-term, sustainable, democracy-strengthening solutions to prevent political violence in the United States. This paper thus focuses on two basic questions: • Why should we care about political violence? What are the human and economic impacts of political violence? After the headlines cease and attention fades, what are the real costs of political violence to communities? • What can communities do about political violence? What are the community-centered strategies that address political violence? What does the evidence say about which strategies are most effective? How do we build communities that are resilient to various forms of political violence? We pose these questions primarily to funders. Democracy Fund has commissioned this research to inform the community of funders to which it belongs— funders committed to strengthening democracy within the United States 

Washington, DC: Democracy Fund, 2021. 40p.

By  Rachel Locke , Cari Luna

Democracy cannot function without individuals stepping up to serve as representatives of their community. The presence and growth of threats and harassment directed towards elected representatives poses a direct risk to our democracy, weakening community cohesion and our ability to address collective challenges. While our research found threats and harassment to be present across political parties, it identified women as far more likely to be on the receiving end both in terms of quantity and severity. If under-represented groups are pushed out of the processes of debate and decision-making, solutions will not be oriented around the diversity of our society. Without clear data on the scale of the problem, the rise in threats and ad hominem attacks are too easily discounted by public officials, the media and the public at large. Possible consequences range from an increased potential for physical violence and the resignation from public life of elected officials. The research outlined in this report helps to expose the scale of threats and harassment, while in turn providing recommendations from those directly impacted, concerned community members and scholars on how to reinforce safe and non-threatening local governance. While several studies have shown that cities, counties and states across the country are experiencing an increased level of hostility towards elected officials, very few geographically designated areas are measuring incidents in any structured way. The research outlined in this report aims to set a clear baseline on the extent of aggressive behavior towards nearly all categories of elected office in San Diego County. Our research looked at all County School Boards, Community College Boards, City Councils, Mayors, and the County Board of Supervisors. Using a mixed methods approach that included surveys, interviews, a traditional media review and social media review, our team was able to get a clear picture of the problem both objectively and subjectively. Our findings confirm that the rise in threats and harassments targeting elected officials identified in national studies is also occurring at the local level in San Diego County. This rise in hostile threatening behavior towards elected officials is having a measurable impact on a) the ability of elected office holders to effectively participate in the public policy process; b) the likelihood of elected officials seeking to encourage others to enter public life or remain in public life themselves; and c) the psychological and physical health of office holders and their families. The vitriol we are seeing risks significantly and negatively impact the vitality of local democracy, civic engagement and effective policy making on across the policy spectrum. The vast majority of local elected officials in San Diego County are impacted. Seventyfive percent of all elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment. Of these, 47% reported the threats and harassment occurs monthly. Thus, not only do threats and harassment impact most of San Diego County elected officials, but the aggression is taking place on a regular basis. Of those who have not themselves been threatened or harassed, nearly half said they had witnessed threats and harassment against others. These data indicate nearly 90% of all San Diego County elected officials have either been threatened or harassed or have witnessed such abuse directed at their peers. While there is not a significant partisan difference, with moderates most likely to be on the receiving end of threats and harassment, there is a big gender divide. Women are far more impacted than men. Eighty-two percent of female elected officials reported being on the receiving end of threats and harassment compared with 66% of all men. Of the 24 incidents of threats and harassment reported in local media, 19 incidents involved women, and five involved men. On social media, when examining men and women of comparable Twitter usage and prominence of position, women received 15 to 20 times the aggressive interaction as their male peers. With 66% of survey respondents reporting that threats and harassment have gone up over the course of their time in office, the implications of a continued rise are concerning. Roughly half (52%) of all survey respondents have considered leaving public service because of the threats and harassment they endure. Disaggregating by gender, twice as many women considered leaving public office as did men (61% compared to 32%). This is alarming, although not surprising given the elevated frequency and intensity of threats and harassment women face compared to men. Forty-five percent of those we surveyed stated they think new solutions are needed to handle the increasingly vitriolic environment. Several initiatives have been developed in the San Diego area in the last 2 years to provide new solutions, but more work is needed. As part of our effort to understand potential solutions, we conducted three “community conversations” across the County. The group discussions, and the recommendations that came from them, form the backbone of our recommendations, alongside insights from other national studies and academic sources. A summary of those recommendations is here, with detail provided in the relevant section below. 

San Diego: University of San Diego, Kroc School, Violence, Inequality and Power Lab: Institute for Civil Civic Engagement,  2023. 36p.

By K. Viswanath, Tiffany E. Taylor, and Holly G. Rhode

This headline is an outstanding example of how misinformation is perceived in the public arena. The headline makes a causal assumption that misinformation is “getting in the way” of recovery from the hurricane’s devastating impact. The degree of accuracy of this assumption is a question for further study and empirical examination, but the very assumption that misinformation has a direct causal impact on relief efforts with significant negative consequences is noteworthy. And newsworthy. And is part of what motivated this report. Information, and misinformation, is everywhere—on our phones, televisions in the gym, social media. Some of this misinformation is brain candy, simple entertainment, and inconsequential; some of it, though, has the potential to impact public health, inform policy responses, and shape people’s perceptions of the world. If misinformation about science leads to beliefs that are in conflict with accepted science, the consequences can be profound. False perceptions and beliefs may lead to behaviors and support for policies that are not supported by accepted science and/or are not aligned with individual preferences and goals, with negative consequences for individuals, communities, and broader society.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine (2025), 356 pages

By James Q. Wilson

This is a study of a phenomenon which many people be- JL lieve does not exist. Anyone wishing to examine Negro leadership in a city such as Chicago will be met at the outset with the assertion, particularly from intellectual Negroes, that “there is no Negro leadership.” At the same time, the person who makes this comment will very likely be himself a member of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) or the Urban League, or perhaps both; he will - be a member of one of the major political parties, probably the Democratic; he will often be in a fraternity, an organization which exists largely as a part of adult, rather than student, life; he may well be a member of a social club, a church, one or more organizations affiliated with the church, or a lodge; if he is a worker, he will likely be a union member; if he is a businessman, he will probably belong to a chamber of commerce; and it would not be unusual if he were a supporter of the YMCA, a boys’ club, a settlement house, a professional society, a neighborhood block club, or a conservation association. Each of these organizations will almost inevitably be led, at least at the local level, by a Negro. These men are, in some sense, Negro leaders. What is meant, of course, is that there are no “good” Negro leaders — leaders who are selflessly devoted to causes which will benefit Negroes as a race and as a community. One will also be told that Negroes are “unorganized.” But the simplest reckoning of the number of organizations in a Negro community will immediately suggest that this comment, like the • 3 4 NEGRO POLITICS one about leadership, cannot be taken at face value. In 1937, when Chicago had only 275,000 Negroes, an actual count revealed more than 4,000 formal associations among them.*1 Today, when the Negro population is about three times as large, there seems to be little doubt that the number of organizations is also comparably greater. In comparison with white communities of equivalent size, there is some evidence that Negroes are organized to an even greater extent than whites.2 Although Negroes, like whites, are more organized among middle-class than lower-class groups, on the whole, Negroes are fully as inclined to join associations as whites.3 The Negro community, whatever else its problems, is not characterized by an inability to create and sustain at least some kinds of organizations. What the Negro critics who argue that the Negro is “unorganized” mean is that he is not organized as a community to seek ends of benefit to the community or the race as a whole. There can be little doubt that the great majority of Negro associations have purposes other than Negro protest or improvement, and that these associations consume much of the time and money of Negroes which, their critics argue, should be devoted to race ends. Periodically, attempts are made to alter this, either by starting a new organization which will be the organization for the betterment of Negroes and to which all Negroes can flock, regardless of their special interests, or by creating an “umbrella” organization which will “co-ordinate” the plethora of existing Negro associations into collective action for communal goals. Such organizations have not endured.

STATE COLLEGE FOR TEACHERS, 1960, 338p.

By Harold J. Laski

I mean by liberty the absence of restraint upon the existence of those social conditions which, in modem civilization, are the necessary guarantees of individual happiness. I seek to inquire into the terms upon which it is attainable in the Western world, and, more especially, to find those rules of conduct to which political authority must conform if its subjects are, in a genuine sense, to be free. Already, therefore, I am maintaining a thesis. I am arguing, first, that liberty is essentially an absence of restraint. It implies power to expand, the choice by the individual of his own way of life without imposed prohibitions from without. Men cannot, as Rousseau claimed, be forced into freedom. They do not, as Hegel in- 1 LIBERTY IN THE MODERN STATE sisted, find their liberty in obedience to the law. They are free when the rules under which they live leave them without a sense of frustration in realms they deem significant. They are unfree whenever the rules to which they have to conform compel them to conduct which they dislike and resent. I do not deny that there are types of conduct against which prohibitions are desirable: I ought, for instance, to be compelled, even against my wish, to educate my children. But I am arguing that any rule which demands from me something I would not otherwise give is a diminution of my freedom.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK AND LONDON, 1930, 295p.

By John Ashton

Gaming is derived from the Saxon word Gamen, meaning joy, pleasure, sports, or gaming—and is so interpreted by Bailey, in his Dictionary of 1736; whilst Johnson gives Gamble—to play extravagantly for money, and this distinction is to be borne in mind in the perusal of this book; although the older term was in use until the invention of the later—as we see in Cotton’s Compleat Gamester (1674), in which he gives the following excellent definition of the word :— “ Gaming is an enchanting witchery, gotten between Idleness and Avarice-, an itching disease, that makes some scratch the head, whilst others, as if they were bitten by a Tarantula, are laughing themselves to death ; or, lastly, it is a paralytical distemper, which, seizing the arm, the man cannot chuse but shake his elbow. It hath this ill property above all other Vices, that it renders a man incapable of prosecuting any serious action, and makes him always unsatisfied with his own condition ; he is either lifted up to the top of mad joy with success, or plung’d to the bottom of despair by misfortune, always in extreams, always in a storm

LONDON DUCKWORTH & CO. 3 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C., 1898, 301p.

Edited by Alexander Klein

I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.------William Shakespeare There is a short period of infancy when, psychologists tell us, every human being feels himself omnipotent and unlimited. During this halcyon time the infant does not distinguish between himself and other objects: they are all himself, he is the whole universe. But, in due time, each infant makes the painful discovery that he is a limited being, dependent on others whose wishes do not always coincide with his own, imprisoned within his own skin, fated to live within the circumscribed orbit of his own experience. This loss of omnipotence is balanced, however, by the rise of the faculty of imagination, of dreaming and by the consequent creation of illusion and myth. A man is only as limited as his imagination.

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, 1955, 378p.

By Norman G. Finkelstein

This book is not about Gaza. It is about what has been done to Gaza. It is fashionable nowadays to speak of a victim s agency. But one must be realistic about the constraints imposed on such agency by objective circumstance. Frederick Douglass could reclaim his manhood by striking back at a slave master who viciously abused him. Nelson Mandela could retain his dignity in jail despite conditions calibrated to humiliate and degrade him. Still, these were exceptional individuals and exceptional circumstances, and anyhow, even if he acquits himself with honor, the elemental decisions affecting the daily life of a man held in bondage and the power to effect these decisions remain outside his control. Gaza, as former British prime minister David Cameron observed, is an “open-air prison.”11116 Israeli warden is in charge. In the popular imagination confected by state propaganda, and dutifully echoed by everyone else in authority, Israel is almost always reacting to or retaliating against “terrorism.” But neither the inhuman and illegal blockade Israel imposed on Gaza nor the periodic murderous “operations” Israel has unleashed against it trace back to Hamas rocket fire.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2018, 424p.

JAMES A. BAKER, R. ALTA CHARO, et al.

Facial recognition technology (FRT) is an increasingly prevalent tool for automated identification and identity verification of individuals. Its speed and accuracy have improved dramatically in the past decade. Its use speeds up identification tasks that would otherwise need to be performed manually in a slower or more labor-intensive way and, in many use cases, makes identification tasks practical that would be entirely infeasible without the use of these tools. FRT measures the pairwise similarity of digital images of human faces to estab- lish or verify identity. It uses machine learning models to extract facial features from an­ ­ image, creating what is known as a template. It then compares these templates to compute a similarity score. In one-to-one comparison, the claimed identity of a single individual is verified by comparing the template of a captured probe image with an exist- ing reference image (is this person who they say they are?). In one-to-many comparison, an individual is identified by comparing the template of a captured face image to the templates for many individuals contained in a database of reference images known as a gallery (what is the identity of the unknown person shown in this image?). FRT accuracy is affected by image quality. Good quality is associated with coopera- tive capture in which the subject is voluntarily facing a good camera at close range with good lighting. Good lighting is especially important to give correct contrast in subjects with darker skin tones. Non-cooperative capture, in which subjects may not even realize that their image is being captured, such as images taken from security cameras, gener- ally results in lower-quality images.

National Academies Sciences Engineering Medicine, (2024), 160 pages

Edited by Silvio Cruschina & Chiara Gianollo

Language is a key element in constructing and reinforcing social identities. Through hate speech, language becomes an instrument of creating and spreading stereotypes, discrimination, and social injustices based on attributes such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, political ideology, disability, or sexual orientation. The rise of digital communication, especially social media, has made hate speech a major topic of research in various fields. An Investigation of Hate Speech in Italian analyses hate speech from a linguistic perspective. The focus is not only on lexical means, but also on more subtle grammatical and pragmatic strategies related to implicit meanings or conversational dynamics. The volume identifies the common linguistic characteristics of hate speech in different domains of communication and explores criteria that can help distinguish between hate speech and freedom of expression. The studies in this volume focus on Italian, but the methods and findings can easily be extended to other languages for comparative and contrastive purposes. The chapters utilize extensive research data. Social media platforms have provided linguistic data that would otherwise be challenging to collect and analyse systematically. The chapters allow readers to link linguistic insights to different real-world contexts, helping them understand the impact language has on various aspects of life and society.

Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 2024. 384p.

By Fernanda Otilla

This book investigates how digital technologies, such as social media and artificial intelligence, can contribute to combatting corruption in Brazil. Brazil, with its long history of scandals and abundant empirical data on digital media usage, serves as a perfect case study to trace the development of bottom-up and top-down digital anti-corruption technologies and their main features. This book highlights the connections between anti-corruption reforms and the rapid implementation of innovative solutions, primarily developed by tech-savvy public officials and citizens committed to anti-corruption efforts. The book draws on interviews with experts, activists and civil servants, as well as open-source materials and social media data to identify key actors, their practices, challenges and limitations of anti-corruption technologies. The result is a thorough analysis of the process of digitalisation of anti-corruption in Brazil, with a theoretical framework which can also be applied to other countries. The book introduces the concept of “integrity techies” to encompass social and political actors who develop and facilitate anti-corruption technologies, and discusses different outcomes and issues associated with digital innovation in anti-corruption. This book will be a key resource for students, researchers and practitioners interested in technologies and development in Brazil and Latin America, as well as corruption and anti-corruption studies more broadly.

Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2025. 152p

By Justine Nolan and Samuel Pryde

Modern slavery in global supply chains is attracting increased attention from states, businesses and civil society including momentum to seek a "regulatory solution" to combatting it. In 2018, Australia introduced a Modern Slavery Act which was modelled on (in part) the UK Modern Slavery Act (2015). These laws emphasise corporate disclosure as the primary means of identifying and remedying modern slavery in supply chains. Whilst these disclosure-based laws harden the expectation that business will conduct itself responsibly, they are ultimately founded on a soft approach that assumes that the transparency gained from disclosure will incentivise corporate action to address human rights risks. Two independent reviews conducted in relation to the UK Act (in 2018) and the Australian law (in 2023) recommended significant changes to improve their regulatory effectiveness, including establishing a more ambitious enforcement model and a requirement to conduct human rights due diligence. This article considers the lessons learned since the establishment of the two modern slavery regimes, it explores the role of human rights due diligence in strengthening the current regulatory regimes and the efficacy of establishing a "failure to prevent" offence to enforce due diligence compliance. Finally, it discusses the utility of states adopting a forced labour import ban as a complementary regulatory strategy to contribute to a holistic regulatory framework to address modern slavery.

UNSW Law Research No. 24-37, 2024, 24p.

By Holly Nguyen, Kyle J. Thomas, Jennifer J. Tostlebe

Employment theoretically serves as a source of informal social control that can promote desistance from crime (Sampson & Laub, 1993). Findings from studies assessing the effects of employment, however, have been mixed. In a seminal study, Uggen (2000) reanalyzed data from the National Supported Work (NSW) Demonstration Project and found that employment significantly reduced the rate of recidivism among individuals aged 27 and older but had no impact on younger individuals. We reproduce and replicate Uggen's (2000) findings with data from four distinct employment programs: The National Supported Work Program (1975–1979), the Transitional Aid Research Project (1976–1977), the Employment Services for Ex-Offenders (1981–1984), and the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Center for Employment Opportunities (2004–2008). We closely reproduced Uggen's original findings in the NSW but found evidence that the statistically significant interaction between age and employment in the NSW was only present at the year 3 follow-up and the observed effect is highly sensitive to minor threats to internal validity. Furthermore, a significant age–employment interaction was not observed in the three other data sources. These findings should encourage scholars to continue to investigate the age-graded nature of employment and crime, especially through a sociohistorical lens.

Criminology, Volume61, Issue3, August 2023, Pages 449-481

By Prithika Balakrishnan

Incarceration has become the norm for those who assert their innocence. A staggering number of defendants are incarcerated prior to the adjudication of their cases—a reality that has become a central paradox of an American criminal justice system which holds axiomatic the presumption of innocence. Recent attempts to address pretrial mass incarceration through bail reform and the COVID-19 pandemic compassionate release programs have embraced digital surveillance, resulting in unintended and little-understood consequences. This Article examines how the expanded use of pretrial GPS surveillance is radically changing the presumption of innocence by implicating punitive measures absent constitutional protections and amplifying the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. Largely viewed as a substitution for physical detention and therefore a less onerous intrusion on a defendant’s liberty, pretrial GPS surveillance erodes fundamental liberties under the guise of criminal justice regulation. These highly racialized but invisible repercussions include harms to physical and psychological health, freedom of movement, privacy, and future economic self-determination. I argue that, in light of these substantial harms, courts must examine how they evaluate technological surveillance, affording defendants substantive and procedural due process protections where there currently are none. Part I of this Article charts the ways in which bail reform and the COVID-19 pandemic-related compassionate release programs have resulted in the expansion of pretrial GPS monitoring far beyond the footprint of physical incarceration. Part II, examining an empirical case study as a basis, details the specific and racialized harms imposed by technologically-mediated restraint. Part III offers a substantive and procedural due process framework for how courts should weigh these harms. Finally, I argue for a re-assessment of United States v. Salerno to recognize future dangerousness as a fundamentally racialized concept that, guided by increasingly sophisticated means of constant surveillance, oversteps the boundary between regulatory and punitive purposes.

71 UCLA L. Rev. 478 (2024), 61p.

By The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

  The Media Literacy Index, compiled in 2023 by the Open Society Institute, suggests that SouthEastern Europe (SEE) is among the most vulnerable regions in Europe to potential online harms. Violent extremist and terrorist groups exploit the internet to spread violent content, gain support, and recruit members. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a proliferation of hostile, sexist and xenophobic conspiracy theories, as highlighted by the UN Secretary-General in August 2022. Emerging studies find that media- and information literacy (MIL) can be useful for preventing the spread of mis- and disinformation and other harmful content online. OSCE Secretariat and field operations in the region have extensively worked on both preventing/ countering violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (P/CVERLT) and MIL. They have organized a number of activities, including workshops, training sessions, TV programmes and lectures for students – all designed in an effort to address the multi-faceted challenges posed by violent extremism and radicalization that lead to terrorism (VERLT) in the region, in line with OSCE’s comprehensive security approach, as well as to forge close collaborations with state authorities and civil society, in addition to partnering with the private sector in SEE. The first part of this report places the vulnerability to online harms in the context of broader MIL trends and challenges, with a particular focus on P/CVERLT. It highlights the multi-faceted challenges posed by disinformation – including polarization, radicalization to terrorist violence and threats to democracy – before outlining key technological and psychological challenges in addressing disinformation. The second part of the report analyses how these challenges are impacting SEE. Violent extremist groups remain resilient and adaptable, maintaining their audience, size despite repeated removals of their channels and accounts from the most popular online platforms in SEE. It also explores why SEE governments are struggling to respond to the current violent extremism environment,  highlighting media issues (including challenges around transparency, regulation and threats to journalists), the lack of effective and sustainable digital and media literacy education, failures of political leadership, and poor co-ordination among relevant stakeholders. The third part then examines the impact of existing media literacy campaigns, using the OSCE’s research and engagement with experts to identify what works and why. Different approaches – including inoculation theory, counter-narratives and technological approaches – are explored, while also explaining how they can be used to address issues such as confirmation bias and how they can be integrated into age-sensitive MIL approaches. The final part of the report provides substantive recommendations for all stakeholders on framing and communication. It also suggests content and format for a multi-stakeholder training curriculum, including methodology and design as well as strategies for avoiding backlash. The report concludes that, while there are numerous resources and initiatives on addressing the information disorder5 and aiming to foster medial literacy skills, there is a significant gap in connecting these efforts to projects focused on P/CVERLT. This report represents the beginning of an initiative that seeks to raise awareness of critical thinking and analysis, and meaningful engagement in the digital space, in order to build resilience to VERLT. Its follow-up project ‘INFORMED: Information and Media Literacy in Preventing Violent Extremism. Human rights and Gender-sensitive approaches to addressing the Digital Information Disorder’ seeks to support the OSCE participating States in identifying opportunities for collaboration with non-government stakeholders, including the private sector and civil society.    

Vienna:   Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 2024. 60p.

By Lina Jakob and Caroline Anderson

This Evidence Brief provides a snapshot of recent research findings on child maltreatment and its impacts on individuals, families and the community. It brings together some of the latest research findings in one place. While the brief is not a comprehensive summary of all relevant evidence, it aims to deliver clear and accessible insights for those involved in developing policies, programs and strategies within the child and family sector. The Evidence Brief also contains a number of infographics that staff working in the sector may find useful to include in presentations and other communication materials.1

Family and Communities Services Insights, Analysis and Research (FACSIAR)

Parramatta NSW : Department of Communities and Justice (NSW), 2024. 14p.