By Chris O'Leary, Rob Ralphs, Jennifer Stevenson, Andrew Smith, Jordan Harrison, Zsolt Kiss, Harry Armitage

Background

Homelessness is a traumatic experience, and can have a devastating effect on those experiencing it. People who are homeless often face significant barriers when accessing public services, and have often experienced adverse childhood events, extreme social disadvantage, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, neglect, low self-esteem, poor physical and mental health, and much lower life expectancy compared to the general population. Rates of problematic substance use are disproportionately high, with many using drugs and alcohol to deal with the stress of living on the street, to keep warm, or to block out memories of previous abuse or trauma. Substance dependency can also create barriers to successful transition to stable housing.

Objectives

To understand the effectiveness of different substance use interventions for adults experiencing homelessness.

Search Methods

The primary source of studies for was the 4th edition of the Homelessness Effectiveness Studies Evidence and Gaps Maps (EGM). Searches for the EGM were completed in September 2021. Other potential studies were identified through a call for grey evidence, hand-searching key journals, and unpacking relevant systematic reviews.

Selection Criteria

Eligible studies were impact evaluations that involved some comparison group. We included studies that tested the effectiveness of substance use interventions, and measured substance use outcomes, for adults experiencing homelessness in high income countries.

Data Collection and Analysis

Descriptive characteristics and statistical information in included studies were coded and checked by at least two members of the review team. Studies selected for the review were assessed for confidence in the findings. Standardised effect sizes were calculated and, if a study did not provide sufficient raw data for the calculation of an effect size, author(s) were contacted to obtain these data. We used random-effects meta-analysis and robust-variance estimation procedures to synthesise effect sizes. If a study included multiple effects, we carried out a critical assessment to determine (even if only theoretically) whether the effects are likely to be dependent. Where dependent effects were identified, we used robust variance estimation to determine whether we can account for these. Where effect sizes were converted from a binary to continuous measure (or vice versa), we undertook a sensitivity analysis by running an additional analysis with these studies omitted. We also assessed the sensitivity of results to inclusion of non-randomised studies and studies classified as low confidence in findings. All included an assessment of statistical heterogeneity. Finally, we undertook analysis to assess whether publication bias was likely to be a factor in our findings. For those studies that we were unable to include in meta-analysis, we have provided a narrative synthesis of the study and its findings.

Main Results

We included 48 individual papers covering 34 unique studies. The studies covered 15, 255 participants, with all but one of the studies being from the United States and Canada. Most papers were rated as low confidence (n = 25, or 52%). By far the most common reason for studies being rated as low confidence was high rates of attrition and/or differential attrition of study participants, that fell below the What Works Clearinghouse liberal attrition standard. Eleven of the included studies were rated as medium confidence and 12 studies as high confidence. The interventions included in our analysis were more effective in reducing substance use than treatment as usual, with an overall effect size of –0.11 SD (95% confidence interval [CI], −0.27, 0.05). There was substantial heterogeneity across studies, and the results were sensitive to the removal of low confidence studies (−0.21 SD, 95% CI [−0.59, 0.17] − 6 studies, 17 effect sizes), the removal of quasi-experimental studies (−0.14 SD, 95% CI [−0.30, 0.02] − 14 studies, 41 effect sizes) and the removal of studies where an effect size had been converted from a binary to a continuous outcome (−0.08 SD, 95% CI [−0.31, 0.15] − 10 studies, 31 effect sizes). This suggests that the findings are sensitive to the inclusion of lower quality studies, although unusually the average effect increases when we removed low confidence studies. The average effect for abstinence-based interventions compared to treatment-as-usual (TAU) service provision was –0.28 SD (95% CI, −0.65, 0.09) (6 studies, 15 effect sizes), and for harm reduction interventions compared to a TAU service provision is close to 0 at 0.03 SD (95% CI, −0.08, 0.14) (9 studies, 30 effect sizes). The confidence intervals for both estimates are wide and crossing zero. For both, the comparison groups are primarily abstinence-based, with the exception of two studies where the comparison group condition was unclear. We found that both Assertative Community Treatment and Intensive Case Management were no better than treatment as usual, with average effect on substance use of 0.03 SD, 95% CI [−0.07, 0.13] and –0.47 SD, 95% CI [−0.72, −0.21] 0.05 SD, 95% CI [−0.28, 0.39] respectively. These findings are consistent with wider research, and it is important to note that we only examined the effect on substance use outcomes (these interventions can be effective in terms of other outcomes). We found that CM interventions can be effective in reducing substance use compared to treatment as usual, with an average effect of –0.47 SD, 95% CI (−0.72, −0.21). All of these results need to be considered in light of the quality of the underlying evidence. There were six further interventions where we undertook narrative synthesis. These syntheses suggest that Group Work, Harm Reduction Psychotherapy, and Therapeutic Communities are effective in reducing substance use, with mixed results found for Motivational Interviewing and Talking Therapies (including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). The narrative synthesis suggested that Residential Rehabilitation was no better than treatment as usual in terms of reducing substance use for our population of interest.

Authors' Conclusions

Although our analysis of harm reduction versus treatment as usual, abstinence versus treatment as usual, and harm reduction versus abstinence suggests that these different approaches make little real difference to the outcomes achieved in comparison to treatment as usual. The findings suggest that some individual interventions are more effective than others. The overall low quality of the primary studies suggests that further primary impact research could be beneficial.

Campbell Systematic Reviews, Volume 20, Issue , June 2024, 65 pages

By Daniel Rosenblum, Jeffrey Ondocsin, Sarah G. Mars, Dennis Cauchon, Daniel Ciccarone

We investigate the relationship between the supply of methamphetamine and overdose death risk in Ohio. Ohio and the overall US have experienced a marked increase in overdose deaths from methamphetamine combined with fentanyl over the last decade. The increasing use of methamphetamine may be increasing the risk of overdose death. However, if people are using it to substitute away from more dangerous synthetic opioids, it may reduce the overall risk of overdose death.

Methods

Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s crime lab data include a detailed list of the content of drug samples from law enforcement seizures, which are used as a proxy for drug supply. We use linear regressions to estimate the relationship between the proportion of methamphetamine in lab samples and unintentional drug overdose death rates from January 2015 through September 2021.

Results

Relatively more methamphetamine in crime lab data in a county-month has either no statistically significant relationship with overdose death rates (in small and medium population counties) or a negative and statistically significant relationship with overdose death rates (in large population counties). Past overdose death rates do not predict future increases in methamphetamine in crime lab data.

Conclusions

The results are consistent with a relatively higher supply of methamphetamine reducing the general risk of overdose death, possibly due to substitution away from more dangerous synthetic opioids. However, the supply of methamphetamine appears unrelated to the past illicit drug risk environment.

  Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, (2024), 31 pages

By Matthijs Gardenier

Towards a Vigilant Society sheds light on the emergence of a new society of vigilance, in particular the actions of anti-migrant groups around Dover and Calais. Based on field research on both sides of the channel, it studies the dynamics of these groups – midway between a social movement and vigilantism – at these two key points in the international migration route between the European Union and the United Kingdom. In recent years, a series of anti-migrant groups have been mobilising on both sides of the Channel to counter migrations. Their actions range from demonstrations, to violence against migrants. And by staging their actions on social media, which is an extraordinary sounding board, these groups can build an online community and a mass audience, influencing public opinion and even the migration policies of states.

Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, 2022. 215p.

By Busker, A.L.J. Choenni, S.Bargh, M.S.

ChatGPT is rapidly gaining interest and attracts many researchers, practitioners and users due to its availability, potentials and capabilities. Nevertheless, there are several voices and studies that point out the flaws of ChatGPT such as its hallucinations, factually incorrect statements, and potential for promoting harmful social biases. Being the focus area of this contribution, harmful social biases may result in unfair treatment or discrimination of (a member of) a social group. This paper aims at gaining insight into social biases incorporated in ChatGPT language models. To this end, we study the stereotypical behavior of ChatGPT. Stereotypes associate specific characteristics to groups and are related to social biases. The study is empirical and systematic, where about 2300 stereotypical probes in 6 formats (like questions and statements) and from 9 different social group categories (like age, country and profession) are posed ChatGPT.

Rotterham, NETH: Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences - Research Center Creating 010, 2023. 13p.

By Elise Thomas

Drag Queen Story Hours (DQSH) and similar drag events for child audiences have been held in libraries across Australia for several years. In previous years these events were mostly uncontroversial and the response to them positive, despite some critical commentary from right-wing media and politicians. In late 2022 and over the course of 2023, however, the situation changed.  

Inspired by increasing transphobic and anti-drag rhetoric and conspiracy theories about drag performers emanating from the US, a loose network began to mobilise to disrupt all-ages drag events in Australia. At least a dozen events across the country were targeted with online harassment and/or offline protest between September 2022 and February 2024, and likely more which were not publicly reported on. This is occurring in the context of broader anti-LGBTQ+ hate and mobilisation, including incidents during WorldPride celebrations in Sydney, which ran from 17 February to 5 March 2023; a violent mass attack on pro-LGBTQ+ protesters on 21 March; and the attendance of neo-Nazis at an anti-trans rally in Melbourne on 18 March.  

This country profile uses analysis of open sources including social media content (primarily from Facebook and Telegram), protest footage and media interviews to examine the growth of anti-drag hate and harassment in Australia. It breaks down the groups and influencers involved into four broad categories: fringe politicians and far right media; conspiracy theory groups left over from the anti-lockdown movement; neo-Nazis; and Christian groups active in anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrations.  

Amman; Berlin; London;Paris; Washington, DC : Institute for Strategic Dialogue. 2024, 22pg

By Richard A. Mendel

The early stages of the youth justice process – arrest and the decision whether to formally process in court rather than divert delinquency cases – are plagued by large and consequential racial and ethnic disparities. Although available evidence suggests little difference in offending rates for most lawbreaking behaviors, Black youth were arrested 2.3 times as often as white youth nationwide in 2020, while Tribal youth were arrested 1.7 times as often as white youth. Among delinquency cases referred to juvenile court, 50% of those involving white youth were diverted, far higher than the share of cases diverted involving Black youth (39%) and Tribal youth (38%), and slightly higher than Latinx and Asian American youth (both 48%). Overwhelming research finds that disparities at arrest and court intake are driven at least partly by biased decision-making that treats white youth more favorably than comparable peers who are Black, Latinx, or Tribal. Bias in these early stages is a key factor driving the large disparities in incarceration that continue to plague youth justice systems nationwide. Expanding the use of pre-arrest and pre-court diversion, especially for youth of color, is an essential priority for reducing racial and ethnic disparities and promoting greater equity in youth justice. Fortunately, many effective strategies are available at both the state and local levels to accomplish this goal.6 This brief suggests practical steps that advocates, system leaders, and in some cases legislators can take to address disparities in diversion, including many examples where these suggested reforms are being implemented effectively. 

Issue Brief #1

Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2024. 8p.   

By Pauline Moore, Brian A. Jackson, Jennifer T. Leschitz, Nazia Wolters, Thomas Goode, Melissa Kay Diliberti, Phoebe Felicia Pham

Shooting events and threats of shootings have come to shape the educational environment of many schools across the United States in recent years. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of threats alone rose by 60 percent, and most of these threats were made anonymously on various social media platforms commonly used by youth. While the overwhelming majority of these threats are meant to be jokes or to create havoc across a school or district, the resources that schools and law enforcement partners must devote to investigating and tracking down the source of each threat are significant. The resulting lockouts, lockdowns, and school cancellations that schools are often forced to implement have a severe emotional toll on students, teachers, and school staff.

Seeking to shed additional light on how K–12 schools in the United States are being targeted by social media–based threats, the authors of this report examine what schools are doing to investigate each threat's credibility, ensure the safety of their communities, and work with local and other partners in these areas. To this end, they conducted a literature review to identify existing practices for assessing and responding to such threats, analyzed over 1,000 news reports about threats from 2012 to 2022 to identify trends, and interviewed more than 60 K–12 stakeholders representing 17 school districts in 12 U.S. states about the challenges these threats pose and the decision making processes and active steps they take to respond to them.

Key Findings

• When responding to a threat, schools must balance the risk that a threat might be credible with the trauma and disruption that repeated responses to hoax threats induce. One way to strike this balance is to work closely with law enforcement partners to identify less overt response options that start at a lower intensity but can be scaled up rapidly if necessary as the threat investigation process proceeds.

• Habituating students and school staff to certain response measures can potentially alleviate the fear and trauma that they might otherwise cause during threat and other emergencies.

• Establishing a strong reporting culture in which students, parents, and others immediately report threats when they become aware of them can give decisionmakers more time to make critical response decisions.

• The lack of standard nationwide or even statewide protocols for responding to social media–based threats exacerbates the significant challenges that schools face in this area.

• The potential consequences of threat-making, even when threats are meant to be jokes, are not sufficiently emphasized to students and others in the community.

• Sharing responsibilities allows for local education agencies and law enforcement personnel to draw on one another's unique capabilities during the threat investigation process and has been critical to making difficult and potentially high-stakes decisions in response to threats.

Recommendations

• Approaches to navigating social media–based threats need to balance risks of both under- and over-response and integrate options for escalation as new information about a threat comes in.

• Because investigating social media–based threats—particularly anonymous ones—needs to be a multidisciplinary effort involving school personnel, law enforcement, and other specialist partners, such as psychologists, agencies involved in a response should establish clear command and control protocols early on in the process.

• Consensus practices need to be established nationwide for assessing the level of concern posed by threats, identifying pathways for balancing response and escalating responses to threats based on new information, coming to agreement on common vocabulary for response options that would be used by both schools and law enforcement (e.g., “secure hold”), and communicating with families and the broader community during a threat situation.

• Schools should consider habituating students and staff to various emergency response measures (for instance during medical emergencies) in order to make certain types of responses to shooting threats (e.g., lockouts) less traumatizing.

• New approaches for detecting and deterring social media–based threats, for instance by educating students, parents, and others about the consequences of threat-making, should be emphasized, while technological surveillance tools should be used with caution.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2024. 88p.

By Diogo G. C. Britto Roberto Hsu Rocha Paolo Pinotti Breno Sampaio

We investigate the effect of having a child on parents’ criminal behavior using rich administrative data from Brazil. Fathers’ criminal activity sharply increases by up to 10% during the pregnancy period, and by up to 30% two years after birth, while mothers experience only a transitory decline in criminal activity around childbirth. The effect on fathers lasts for at least six years and can explain at least 5% of the overall male crime rate. Domestic violence within the family also increases after childbirth, reflecting both increases in actual violence and women’s propensity to report. The generalized increase in fathers’ crime stands in sharp contrast with previous evidence from developed countries, where childbirth is associated with significant and enduring declines in criminal behavior by both parents. Our findings can be explained by the costs of parenthood and the pervasiveness of poverty among newly formed Brazilian families. Consistent with this explanation, we provide novel evidence that access to maternity benefits largely offsets the increase in crime by fathers after childbirth 

IZA DP No. 16910 

Bonn, Germany:  IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2024. 54p.

By Elizabeth D. Kilmer, Rachel Kowert

The game industry has struggled to effectively mitigate various forms of disruptive behavior in games. Peer-to-peer social disruptions are of particular concern, such as sharing hate speech, harassing other players, and the propagation of extremist rhetoric. Most players have witnessed the expression of hate speech, and witnessed or been a direct target of harassment with a significant proportion experiencing sustained harassment over time. The prevalence and intensity of these experiences are magnified among marginalized communities, such as women and people of color. Extremist rhetoric is also commonplace, with extremist ideologies such as misogyny, racism, Islamism, white supremacy, and white nationalism being reported as relatively commonplace occurrences.

Kirkland, WA: Take This, 2024. 20p.

By Michael German and Emmanuel Mauleón

On April 27, 2019, a white supremacist armed with a high-powered rifle walked into a San Diego synagogue and shot four people, one fatally, before fleeing and finally surrendering to police. A letter the gunman allegedly posted online shortly before the shooting claimed credit for a previous arson attack on an Escondido mosque, spewed racist “white genocide” conspiracy theories, cited earlier white supremacist attacks against a synagogue in Pittsburgh and mosques in New Zealand, and urged like-minded white Christians to commit further acts of violence.

 Was this crime an act of terrorism, a hate crime, or just another homicide? Under current Justice Department policies, how far-right violence targeting people based on race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability gets categorized is often arbitrary. But it has significant consequences for how federal officials label these crimes in public statements, how they prioritize and track them, and whether they will investigate and prosecute them. As a result, the Justice Department doesn’t know how many people far-right militants attack each year in the United States, which leaves intelligence analysts and policy makers in the dark about the impact this violence inflicts on our society and how to best address it. More importantly, the failure to properly label and respond to far-right violence deprives victimized communities of basic human dignity and equal protection of the law.

New York: Brennan Center for Justice. 2019, 51pg

By The National Security Transparency Advisory Group (NS-TAG)

  The National Security Transparency Advisory Group (NS-TAG) was created in 2019 as an independent and external body. Our role is to advise the Deputy Minister of Public Safety Canada, and the rest of the national security and intelligence community, on steps to infuse transparency into Canada’s national security policies, programs, and activities in a manner that will increase democratic accountability and public awareness. Throughout our consultations in the past three years, we frequently heard about the trust gap between the country’s national security institutions and Canadians, and in particular with racialized Canadians. This matters: it is essential, in a healthy liberal democracy, for everyone to trust government and its agencies designed to keep us safe. In this context, we decided to focus our third report on the issue of relations between national security and intelligence institutions and racialized communities. We believe that a broad approach to transparency is essential in general – and in particular in national security and intelligence institutions’ relations with racialized communities. At times, these relations have been marred by mistrust and suspicion, and by errors of judgement by these institutions, which impacted communities have perceived as discriminatory. We make a number of recommendations in this report on how national security and intelligence institutions can be more transparent in their engagement with racialized    communities. Engagement can help government understand specific needs, identify local voices, open and build dialogue with them, and build trust and a shared understanding of common challenges. Engagement also provides a bridging function: engagement programs work on behalf of multiple parts of the government, exchanging information with external stakeholders and bringing it back inside the government to – ideally – feed into policy and operational processes. Engagement with racialized communities needs to involve a two-way conversation. As we heard in our consultations, too often engagement involves, in practice, government officials offloading a prepared message and failing to listen to the concerns of stakeholders. Constructive engagement should instead be based on dialogue; government officials should be attuned to the questions and concerns of stakeholders, listen to them, and be prepared and willing to respond. More and better engagement with racialized communities is essential. But for such engagement to be feasible, our outreach sessions made clear that deeper structural challenges in national security and intelligence institutions must be addressed. As such, our report also offers recommendations on these broader issues, notably on how to enhance diversity and inclusion and how to make complaints mechanisms more accessible to racialized and other vulnerable groups. As digitization accelerates, the data-driven dimensions of national security continue to expand at exponential rates. As a result, the national security apparatus is becoming more dependent on algorithmic methodologies and digital tools to gather and process massive data holdings, a reality that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated. It is clear, however, that systemic biases in Artificial Intelligence (AI) design can have perverse impacts on vulnerable individuals or groups of individuals, notably racialized communities. These biases reflect not only specific flaws in AI programs and organizations using them, but also underlying societal cleavages and inequalities which are then reinforced and potentially deepened. AI that poses a threat to racialized communities further erodes trust in national security and intelligence agencies and prohibits effective relationship building. There is growing agreement that many aspects of openness, oversight, and engagement play a vital role in ensuring accountability and effectiveness in current and future AI deployments.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2022. 84pg

By Richard Chalk

This policy brief explores new and innovative communications approaches to reduce the threat from all forms of violent extremism in Europe today based on a precise analysis of the strategic problem and corresponding strategic communications solutions deployable in response. In the context of an ever-evolving violent extremist landscape, including new and emerging forms of violent extremism, unfolding events in Israel and Gaza, and an accelerating digital environment this policy brief looks at how governments can take a more strategic approach to preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE). Based on a strategic analysis of current events and an informed analysis of previous policy responses, this policy brief offers a new and practical approach to the use of strategic communications aimed at safeguarding all communities from all forms of extremist and violent threats, to turn back the tide of extremist influence for good.

The Hague: International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT). 2024, 17pg

By Christine Army and Karim H. Vellani

  Violent crimes represent a small but significant portion of the reported crime in the United States. Categorically, violent crimes occur at a much lower frequency as compared to property crimes and disorder crimes. However, violent crimes can cause significant harm. While a robust body of knowledge regarding the effectiveness of crime prevention measures for property and disorder crimes exists, far less evidence exists regarding the effectiveness of security measures used to prevent violent crime. In other words, criminals engaged in disorder crimes (e.g., vandalism) and property crimes (e.g., theft) are more likely to be deterred via common security measures, while those engaged in violent crimes (e.g., robbery) are less likely to be deterred. Criminologists have long theorized that violent crimes are difficult to prevent (Taylor et al 2010; Douglas 2013) due to the spontaneous and irrational (Felson 1993) nature of violent incidents and due to the impulsive and expressive (Taylor et al 2010) nature of violent criminals. The majority of homicides in 2017 were found to be cau  

Threat Analysis, 2021. 13p.

By Dafna Tener

Background: Sibling sexual abuse remains underexplored, presenting intricate challenges for professionals. The limited existing research fails to capture its extensive impact on individuals and families across childhood and adulthood.Objective: This paper aims to comprehensively explore sibling sexual abuse, delving into its meanings, consequences, and implications for treatment and policy. Seven key insights were drawn from studies conducted between 2013 and 2020.Methods: Seven qualitative research projects on sibling sexual abuse conducted by the author and colleagues were reviewed. The studies utilized various data collection methods, including interviews and focus groups. The aim was to illuminate the issue's complexity from the perspectives of siblings, parents, and professionals.Results: The insights addressed crucial aspects, including the need for research-practice relationships, understanding the subjective experiences of sibling sexual abuse according to siblings and parents during childhood as well as adult survivors, the importance of disclosure, intervention complexities, and impact on professionals' lives.Conclusions: Sibling sexual abuse necessitates heightened attention in research and practice, urging deeper understanding, practical tools, and tailored policy approaches. Acknowledging these complexities is crucial to enhancing the lives of those affected. Professionals must navigate blurred boundaries between normative and abusive behaviors and grasp the profound impact on their work. Prioritizing nuanced multi-layer research could significantly improve the lives impacted by this phenomenon.

Unpublished paper 2024. 27p

By Adura Sogbesan a, Danielle Lenz a, Jamey J. Lister a d, Leslie H. Lundahl a, Mark K. Greenwald a b, Eric A. Woodcock

Background

Factors that predict attempts to discontinue drug use are clinically relevant and may inform treatment. This study investigated drug use-related consequences as a predictor of drug quit attempts and treatment seeking among two cohorts of persons who use drugs.

Methods

Drug use and clinical characteristics were assessed among persons who use cocaine (N=176; urine-verified; ‘Cocaine Cohort’) and among those who use heroin (N=166; urine-verified; ‘Heroin Cohort’). Mediation analyses assessed relationships among age at initial drug use, adverse drug-specific use-related consequences, and drug-specific quit attempts, separately for each cohort. Forward conditional logistic regression models evaluated drug use and clinical symptom scores as predictors of drug-specific treatment seeking.

Results

Controlling for age, mediation models showed that drug use consequences fully mediated the relationship between age at initial drug use and number of drug-specific quit attempts for the ‘Cocaine Cohort’ and ‘Heroin Cohort’ (R2=0.30, p<.001; R2=0.17, p<.001; respectively). Reporting more consequences predicted more quit attempts in each cohort, accounting for duration of use (ps<.001). Reporting more consequences also predicted greater likelihood of seeking drug use treatment (ps<.001) and was associated with more severe clinical symptoms in each cohort (ps<.05).

Conclusions

Using a parallel analysis design, we showed that reporting more drug-specific use-related consequences predicted more drug-specific quit attempts and greater likelihood to seek treatment in two cohorts: persons who use cocaine and those who use heroin. Our findings suggest that experiencing more drug use consequences predicts more attempts to seek drug abstinence and that assessment of consequences may be informative for treatment.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports

Available online 6 April 2024, 100229

By the Ransomware Task Force Combating Ransomware 

  In 2020, thousands of businesses, hospitals, school districts, city governments, and other institutions in the U.S. and around the world were paralyzed as their digital networks were held hostage by malicious actors seeking payouts. The immediate physical and business risks posed by ransomware are compounded by the broader societal impact of the billions of dollars steered into criminal enterprises, funds that may be used for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, human trafficking, and other virulent global criminal activity. Despite the gravity of their crimes, the majority of ransomware criminals operate with near-impunity, based out of jurisdictions that are unable or unwilling to bring them to justice. This problem is exacerbated by financial systems that enable attackers to receive funds without being traced. Additionally, the barriers to entry into this lucrative criminal enterprise have become shockingly low. The “ransomware as a service” (RaaS) model, allows criminals without technical sophistication to conduct ransomware attacks. At the same time, technically knowledgeable criminals are conducting increasingly sophisticated attacks. Significant effort has been made to understand and address the ransomware threat, yet attackers continue to succeed on a broad and troubling scale. To shift these dynamics, the international community needs a comprehensive approach that influences the behavior of actors on all sides of the ecosystem, including deterring and disrupting attackers, shoring up preparation and response of potential victims, and engaging regulators, law enforcement, and national security experts. We also need international cooperation and adoption of processes, standards, and expectations. This report outlines a comprehensive framework of actions (48 in total) that government and industry leaders can pursue to significantly disrupt the ransomware business model and mitigate the impact of these attacks in the immediate and longer terms. These recommendations were collaboratively developed by the Ransomware Task Force (RTF) — a broad coalition of volunteer experts from industry, government, law enforcement, civil society, cybersecurity insurers, and international organizations — to provide a strategic framework for a systemic, global approach to mitigating the ransomware problem. While we have identified some recommendations as priorities, we strongly recommend viewing the entire set of recommendations together, as they are designed to complement, and build on each other. The strategic framework is organized around four primary goals: to deter ransomware attacks through a nationally and internationally coordinated, comprehensive strategy; to disrupt the business model and reduce criminal profits; to help organizations prepare for ransomware attacks; and to respond to ransomware attacks more effectively.

Palo Alto, CA: Institute for Security and Technology 2001. 81p.

By Nicholas Corsaro; Robin S. Engel; Ryan T. Motz; John P. Wright; M. Murat Ozer

This report aims to fill a void in scholarly research examining the potential impact of relaxed firearm carrying permit on police-citizen encounters and crime in general. The research study assessed whether, and to what extent, concealed and open carry legislation facilitates changes in behaviors related to crime and police-citizen encounters. The research also explored how officers perceive concealed and open carry legislation impacts on their daily experiences with citizen encounters. The research study examined three of the largest metropolitan geographic areas across two states that passed constitutional carry legislation in 2019: Lexington, Kentucky, and Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma. The research methodology included a survey that was electronically administered to all sworn officers in the three participating agencies, and each of those agencies provided two things: criminal offense reports, and arrest reports including various charges. Those data were used to conduct interrupted time series analyses as a quasi-experimental design, on criminal activity. Key findings demonstrated varying attitudes across the multiple gun violence research questions in the surveys, although overall responses indicated that officers were concerned about gun violence, supportive of pro-firearm legislation as a general deterrent effect on crime, and believed that citizens should have some certification and training before carrying in public. Key findings also showed no evidence of a significant direct association between changes in serious Part I violent offences, which include rapes and aggravated assaults, and the passing of concealed and open carry legislation.

Cincinnati:  School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, 2024. 102p.

By The Global Detention Project

Hong Kong has long played a critical role in addressing migration and refugee challenges in Southeast Asia, dating back to the 1970s when it served as a primary destination for thousands of Vietnamese “boat people.” Since China assumed control of the Hong Kong “Special Administrative Region” in 1997, its immigration policies have been shaped by often competing trends, including a need for migrant labour and tensions over increasing migration flows from mainland China and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. Although the use of immigration detention has remained comparably low since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, detention remains a key immigration enforcement measure even as many of Hong Kong’s detention centres have been criticised for their poor conditions and complaints of mistreatment.

KEY FINDINGS

• Although immigration detention numbers have fallen since the COVID-19 health crisis, in the years preceding the pandemic the use of detention remained steadily high, with generally more than 10,000 orders annually.

• Hong Kong SAR operates four main dedicated detention facilities: Castle Peak Bay Detention Centre, Ma Tau Kok Detention Centre, Nei Kwu Correctional Institution, and Tai Tam Gap Correctional Institution. Immigration detainees can also be kept in prisons, police stations, hospital custodial wards, and juvenile centres.

• Migrants detained in Nei Kwu and Tai Tam Gap correctional facilities are under the authority of the Correctional Services Department and are governed under the Prison Rules.

• There is no maximum length of administrative migration-related detention; criminal prosecution of certain immigration offences can lead to prison sentences of up to three years.

• Vulnerable groups, including children and victims of trafficking, are not protected from detention. 

• Although the Refugee Convention is not applied in Hong Kong SAR, non-nationals can apply for non-refoulement protection—but only after they have overstayed their visa, creating a situation of “enforced illegality.”

• In 2020, the government introduced important amendments to the Immigration Ordinance, including affirming administrative detention powers, authorising the use of weapons by immigration officers, and accelerating the removal of failed non-refoulement claimants even in cases where the applicant appeals the decision.

• Detainees, NGOs, and politicians have criticised detention centres for inadequate conditions and alleged mistreatment of detainees.

• Hong Kong has a detention monitoring procedure, the Justice of the Peace (JP) system, allowing individuals appointed as JPs to visit detention facilities. However, the system has been criticised for leading to punishment of detainees who criticise detention conditions to JPs.

• In 2022, the government introduced changes to its immigration policy, including increasing the maximum length of solitary confinement to from 7 to 28 days and allowing immigration officers to conduct intimate body cavity searches at Castle Peak Bay.

• Key human rights treaties have not been signed by China and extended to Hong Kong–including the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Detention Project, 2024. 48p.

By Samuel Jan Brakel, Douglas E. Tucker

The neuropsychiatric contribution to capital sentencing proceedings has grown substantially in recent decades as the consideration of neurological and psychiatric factors in criminal behavior has been increasingly accepted as relevant to the quest for justice. This review article will focus on the legal theories underlying neuropsychiatric input into capital sentencing decisions, as well as some of the investigative techniques and resulting data which may be offered by forensic neuropsychiatrists in this context. The death penalty is unique in its severity and irreversibility, as the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have noted repeatedly. “Death is different,” and the recognition of this has generated a set of court decisions and statutes pertinent specifically to capital proceedings, both procedural and substantive.

Behavioral Sciences & the Law, Volume 42, Issue 1

Pages: 1-64

January/February 2024

By Michael French, Gulcin Gumus

Although they comprise a relatively small subset of all traffic deaths, hit-and-run fatalities are both contemptible and preventable. We analyze longitudinal data from 1982-2008 to examine the effects of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) laws on hit-and-run traffic fatalities. Our results suggest that lower BAC limits may have an unintended consequence of increasing hit-and-run fatalities, while a similar effect is absent for non-hit-and-run fatalities. Specifically, we find that adoption of a .08 BAC limit is associated with an 8.3% increase in hit-and-run fatalities. This unintended effect is more pronounced in urban areas and during weekends, which are typical settings for hit-and-run incidents.

  Bonn, Germany: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2024.