By Alexander Maranghides, Eric D. Link, Christopher U. Brown, William Mell, Steven Hawks, Mike Wilson, Will Brewer, Robert Vihnanek, William D. Walton

The Camp Fire ignited on November 8, 2018 in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Butte County, California. The first 24 hours were characterized by a fast-moving fire with initial spread driven by high winds up to 22 m/s (50 mi/h) and long-range spotting up to 6.3 km (3.9 mi) into the community. The fire quickly impacted the communities of Concow, Paradise, and Magalia. The Camp Fire became the most destructive and deadly fire in California history, with over 18,000 destroyed structures, 700 damaged structures, and 85 fatalities. After a preliminary reconnaissance, it was determined that abundant data was available to support an in-depth case study of this devastating wildland-urban interface (WUI) fire to increase our understanding of WUI fire spread, fire behavior, evacuation, and structure response. The methodology guiding the case study and a detailed timeline reconstruction of the fire progression and fire behavior are presented. Over 2200 observations about fire spread and behavior were collected during the case study. Subsequent reports will detail additional aspects of the incident including emergency response and evacuation, and defensive actions and structure response. This study has identified that Butte County and the Town of Paradise were well prepared to respond to a WUI fire, that the Camp Fire grew and spread rapidly and that multiple factors contributed to the rapid growth and spread of the Camp Fire. Additionally, this study identified the importance of the wildland fire ignition location relative to the community, that multiple parcel-level fire spread pathways caused structure ignitions, and that WUI fire spread impacted the affected communities in multiple ways beyond the destruction of residential and commercial properties.

Technical Note (NIST TN) - 2135. 2021. 425p.

By The Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County After Action Review of the Woolsey Fire evaluates the incident’s response, identifies areas for improvement, and offers recommendations for future preparedness, focusing on agency coordination, communication, evacuation, and recovery efforts.

• The Woolsey Fire After Action Review (AAR) provides a comprehensive analysis of the event, highlighting both successes and areas for improvement.
• The AAR process involved data collection, interviews, and cross-checking to ensure a detailed account of the incident.
• Key sections of the report include an executive summary, timeline of events, findings, and recommendations.
• Recommendations are divided into near-term and longer-term policy actions, focusing on response, communication, evacuation, and recovery.
• Appendices provide historical context and background information on involved agencies and regional fire history.
• The report emphasizes planning for future disasters in areas prone to wildfires and earthquakes.
• Training and coordination among agencies, such as the County Sheriff’s Department and Public Works, are highlighted as crucial for effective disaster response.
• Historical fire data shows a repetitive fire cycle in the region, underlining the importance of preparedness and mitigation efforts.

LLos Angeles County. 2019. 203p.

CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION, US. Department of Justice

• Tulsa Race Massacre: Violent attack on Black community of Greenwood, Oklahoma, May 31-June 1, 1921.
• Massive Destruction: 10,000 white Tulsans destroyed homes, businesses; hundreds of Black residents killed.
• Law Enforcement’s Role: Deputized white residents participated in violence, looting, and arson.
• Failure of Justice: Authorities failed to help survivors; legal attempts for reparations were unsuccessful.
• Historical Reckoning: DOJ review acknowledges massacre’s impact, despite expired statutes of limitations.
• Legal Analysis: Modern laws could have prosecuted hate crimes, but were unavailable in 1921.
• Insurance Denials: Black residents denied compensation due to “riot clause” in policies.
• Federal Investigation: DOJ’s Cold Case Unit reviewed the events under the Emmett Till Act.
• Government’s Role: White officials obstructed rebuilding efforts, imposed restrictive fire codes.
• Survivors’ Plight: Left without resources, faced systemic racism and state-sanctioned brutality.
• Historical Documentation: Review includes survivor accounts, primary materials, and past investigations.
• Confrontation Trigger: Arrest of Dick Rowland and sensationalized newspaper article incited violence.
• Continued Efforts: Work to ensure future generations understand the massacre’s magnitude continues.

CIVIL RIGHTS DIVISION, US. Department of Justice. 2025. 126p

By Parliament of Australia. Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee

This examination of right-wing extremists in Australia looks at the movements, motivations and international links of local groups, particularly in online spaces. The report makes recommendations focusing on social media platform regulation, law enforcement access to encrypted communications and the creation of a national hate crimes database.

The inquiry, prompted by growing concern regarding right-wing extremism globally and its impact on Australian society, sought digito define, understand and limit the harm of right-wing extremist movements. Along with the historical and ideological background, it considers modern pathways to radicalisation with a focus on the significant role of online platforms. The report considers existing measures in place to counter violent extremism and makes six recommendations to curtail the spread and limit the harm of extremist groups.

Recommendations

The Australian Government should regularly assess the effectiveness of deradicalisation and countering violent extremism programs, incorporating insights from experts, practitioners, and research organisations, both domestically and internationally.

Develop a national framework to guide engagement with young people, aiming to help them identify and reject harmful ideologies while fostering positive social connections.

Research how extremist actors, particularly those targeting young people, use online platforms, including social media and gaming platforms, to spread propaganda and recruit members.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner should collaborate with stakeholders to develop guidelines for transparent and independent measures to ensure social media platforms are effectively removing harmful extremist content.

Consider legislation allowing law enforcement and intelligence agencies, with a warrant obtained through proper judicial process, to access encrypted communications when there is a credible national security threat.

Establish a national hate crimes database to aid in the development of effective prevention and support programs.

Canberra: Parliament of Australia. The Senate, Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee 2024. 223p.

By Namkee G. Choi, C. Nathan Marti, Bryan Y. Choi

Background: Cannabidiol (CBD) use has been increasing for its putative therapeutic potential for various health conditions. Research using a nationally representative sample is needed to examine characteristics of CBD users. Methods: Data came from the adult sample (N=47,100) of the 2022 U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health. We fitted generalized linear models to examine the sociodemographic, health, other substance use, and cannabis risk perception as correlates of CBD-only use and CBD-cannabis co-use, compared to cannabis-only use. Results: In 2022, 20.6 % and 23.0 % of U.S. adults reported using CBD and cannabis, respectively, in the preceding 12 months, and 63 % of CBD users also used cannabis. CBD use was significantly higher among women (CBD-only vs. cannabis-only use: IRR=1.43, 95 % CI=1.31–1.57), but significantly lower among Black and Hispanic individuals compared to non-Hispanic White individuals (CBD-only vs. cannabis-only use: IRR=0.71, 95 % CI=0.60–0.85 for Black individuals; IRR=0.79, 95 % CI=0.65–0.96 for Hispanic individuals). Older ages, higher SES, chronic medical conditions, mental illness, and high cannabis risk perception were also associated with higher likelihood of CBD-only use versus cannabis-only use. CBD-cannabis co-users were at most risk in terms of chronic illness, mental illness, cannabis use disorder, and other substance use problems. Conclusions: The high prevalence of self-reported CBD use among those with physical and mental health problems warrants public health warnings about potential side effects and drug interactions. The high CBD-cannabis co-use rate also calls for more research on potential benefits and negative effects of the co-use.

Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports Volume 13, December 2024, 100289

By Melissa Mendez

This paper, based on a qualitative study with incarcerated male young offenders in Trinidad and Tobago, explores participants’ conceptualizations of the impact of family background on adolescent offending. The paper challenges the civilized vs deviant dichotomy often proffered when discussing the presence (and absence) of fathers and offers a nuanced account of what makes a ‘good family’ and a ‘good father’ according to young offenders. Findings demonstrate participants’ preference for the nuclear family, irrespective of whether they were raised within supportive familial networks. These findings raise questions about the continued strength of historically resilient matrifocal support systems in the Caribbean.

The British Journal of Criminology, 2024, 18 p.

By The International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC)

In July 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) received a formal notification by the Plurinational State of Bolivia requesting the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence (ECDD) to conduct a critical review of the coca leaf, and to provide recommendations on its status within the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

This critical review comes nearly 75 years after the United Nations (UN) called for the abolition of traditional uses of the plant. This is despite the fact that coca has been used for millennia by Indigenous Peoples in the Andean-Amazonian region for traditional, religious, ancestral and medicinal purposes. At an event held at the occasion of the 67th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), Bolivia’s Vice-President, David Choquehuanca, described the critical review as ‘an important step in righting the historical wrong of the 1961 Convention that destined the coca leaf for extermination and a move towards reconciling the drug control treaty system with the rights of Indigenous Peoples’.

This advocacy note provides background information on the scheduling of the coca leaf in the international drug control treaties, outlines the coca review process, and makes the human rights case for the removal of the leaf from the treaty schedules. Removing the coca leaf from the schedules would mean that it could be used in its natural form, as it would no longer be under international control as a narcotic drug itself. The review, however, will not consider the status of cocaine, which would remain scheduled, and as such the cultivation of the coca plant for the purpose of illegal cocaine production would remain prohibited due to certain treaty articles. The note concludes with a series of recommendations for the WHO and policy makers regarding key steps that may be undertaken in support of the review process.

London: IDPC, 2024. 18p.

By Jane Arnold Lincove, Catherine Mata & Kalena Cortes

This research analyzes the implementation of a school suspension ban in Maryland to investigate whether a top-down state-initiated ban on suspensions in early primary grades can influence school behavior regarding school discipline. Beginning in the fall of 2017, the State of Maryland banned the use of out-of-school suspensions for grades PK-2, unless a student posed an "imminent threat" to staff or students. This research investigates (1) what was the effect of the ban on discipline outcomes for students in both treated grades and upper elementary grades not subject to the ban? (2) did schools bypass the ban by coding more events as threatening or increasing the use of in-school suspensions? and (3) were there differential effects for students in groups that are historically suspended more often? Using a comparative interrupted time series strategy, we find that the ban is associated with a substantial reduction in, but not a total elimination of, out-of-school suspensions for targeted grades without substitution of in-school suspensions. Disproportionalities by race and other characteristics remain after the ban. Grades not subject to the ban experienced few effects, suggesting the ban did not trigger a schoolwide response that reduced exclusionary discipline.

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2024. 65p.

By Margaret Love

This report deals with a form of relief from the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction that is less far-reaching than expungement or other forms of record clearing, but is potentially available to more people at an earlier point in time. These so-called “certificates of relief” do not limit public access to a person’s record, but they may be effective in reducing many conviction-related disadvantages in the workplace, including by providing employers and others with protection against the risk of being sued for negligence. At least as long as expungement and sealing remain unavailable to many people with a felony conviction record, or are available only after lengthy waiting periods, certificates of relief can provide an important addition to a state’s reentry scheme, and serve as a bridge to more thorough forms of record relief like expungement. We believe that, rather than competing as alternative forms of relief, certificates and expungement can operate as complementary parts of a structured system of serially available criminal record relief. Yet it appears that certificates have been largely ignored in many states by courts that are empowered to dispense them, as well as by the advocacy community whose clients might benefit from them. State court systems have failed to collect, track, or aggregate basic data like the number of certificate applications, grants, and denials, a failure that makes it almost impossible to evaluate a certificate’s effectiveness in a given state. At the same time, in a promising development, certificates are being used by prison and parole agencies to facilitate reentry for those exiting prison or completing supervision. Given the perceived limits of record clearing as a comprehensive reentry strategy, social science researchers have become interested in studying the effect of laws that aim to increase the positive information about individuals with a criminal record to counter the negative effect of the record itself. This report is intended to support these research efforts by describing the state of the law relating to certificates of relief in the 21 states that now offer them. A follow-up study will look at the state of executive pardoning

Washington, DC: Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC), 2024. 42p.

By K. Viswanath, Tiffany E. Taylor, and Holly G. Rhodes, Editors; Committee on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science; Board on Science Education; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Our current information ecosystem makes it easier for misinformation about science to spread and harder for people to figure out what is scientifically accurate. Proactive solutions are needed to address misinformation about science, an issue of public concern given its potential to cause harm at individual, community, and societal levels. Improving access to high-quality scientific information can fill information voids that exist for topics of interest to people, reducing the likelihood of exposure to and uptake of misinformation about science. Misinformation is commonly perceived as a matter of bad actors maliciously misleading the public, but misinformation about science arises both intentionally and inadvertently and from a wide range of sources.

NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS. 2024. 409p.

United States. Department Of Defense;

From the document: "This report covers unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) reports from May 1, 2023 to June 1, 2024 and all UAP reports from any previous time periods that were not included in an earlier report. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) received 757 UAP reports during this period; 485 of these reports featured UAP incidents that occurred during the reporting period. The remaining 272 reports featured UAP incidents that occurred between 2021 and 2022 but were not reported to AARO until this reporting period and consequently were not included in previous annual UAP reports. AARO resolved 118 cases during the reporting period, all of which resolved to prosaic objects such as various types of balloons, birds, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). As of May 31, 2024, AARO has an additional 174 cases queued for closure, pending a final review and Director's approval. As of the publishing date of this report, all 174 cases have been finalized as resolved to prosaic objects including balloons, birds, UAS, satellites, and aircraft. Many other cases remain unresolved and AARO continues collection and analysis on that body of cases. It is important to underscore that, to date, AARO has discovered no evidence of extraterrestrial beings, activity, or technology. None of the reports AARO received during the reporting period indicated that observers suffered any adverse health effects."

United States. All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office. 14 NOV, 2024. 18p.

By Christoph Feldhaus, Lukas Reinhardt, Matthias Sutter:

In a democracy, it is essential that citizens accept rules and laws, regardless of which party is in power. We study why citizens in polarized societies resist rules implemented by political opponents. This may be due to the rules' specific content, but also because of a general preference against being restricted by political opponents. We develop a method to measure the latter channel. In our experiment with almost 1,300 supporters and opponents of Donald Trump, we show that polarization undermines rule-following behavior significantly, independent of the rules' content. Subjects perceive the intentions behind (identical) rules as much more malevolent if they were imposed by a political opponent rather than a political ally.

Bonn:  IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, 2024. 36p.

By Sigurd S. Arntzen, Jon H. Fiva, Rune J. Sørensen

This paper assesses the effectiveness of democratic systems in preventing individuals with criminal backgrounds from holding political office. Unlike many countries, Norway has no legal restrictions against felons running for office. We analyze local election candidates from 2003 to 2019, paired with administrative records of criminal offenses. We demonstrate that individuals with criminal records are systematically penalized at every stage of their political careers. Candidates are less likely to have criminal records than the general population, with elected officials less likely to have criminal backgrounds than their unelected peers, and mayors being the most lawful. Through a series of counterfactual exercises, we demonstrate that the most significant reduction in criminal involvement occurs at the nomination stage, especially within established local party organizations.

CESifo, Munich, 2024, 49 p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; Board on Science Education; Susan Debad, Rapporteur

The complex challenges facing society today call for new ways of doing research that bring researchers, policy makers, community leaders and members, industry stakeholders, and others together to identify evidence needs, contribute different kinds of knowledge and expertise, and use evidence to accomplish shared goals. Although momentum is building toward a research enterprise that more routinely enables and rewards this type of collaboration, the development of institutional capacities to support diverse forms of engaged research have not kept pace with the need for them.

The National Academias Press, 2001, 148 pages

Edited by Virginia Mantouvalou and Jonathan Wolff

In developing her conception of structural injustice, Iris Marion Young made a strict distinction between large-scale collective injustice that results from the normal functions of a society, and the more familiar concepts of individual wrong and deliberate state repression. Her ideas have attracted considerable attention in political philosophy, but legal theorists have been slower to consider the relation between structural injustice and legal analysis. While some forms of vulnerability to structural injustice can be the unintended consequences of legal rules, the law also has potential instruments to alleviate some forms of structural injustice. Structural Injustice and the Law presents theoretical approaches and concrete examples to show how the concept of structural injustice can aid legal analysis, and how legal reform can, in practice, reduce or even eliminate some forms of structural injustice. A group of outstanding law and political philosophy scholars discuss a comprehensive range of interdisciplinary topics, including the notion of domination, equality and human rights law, legal status, sweatshop labour, labour law, criminal justice, domestic homicide reviews, begging, homelessness, regulatory public bodies and the films of Ken Loach. Drawn together, they build an invaluable resource for legal theorists exploring how to make use of the concept of structural injustice, and for political philosophers looking for a nuanced account of the law’s role both in creating and mitigating structural injustice.

London: UCL Press, 2024. 334p.

Edited by Matthias J. Becker, Hagen Troschke, Matthew Bolton, and Alexis Chapelan

This open access book is the first comprehensive guide to identifying antisemitism online today, in both its explicit and implicit (or coded) forms. Developed through years of on-the-ground analysis of over 100,000 authentic comments posted by social media users in the UK, France, Germany and beyond, the book introduces and explains the central historical, conceptual and linguistic-semiotic elements of 46 antisemitic concepts, stereotypes and speech acts. The guide was assembled by researchers working on the Decoding Antisemitism project at the Centre for Research on Antisemitism at Technische Universität Berlin, building on existing basic definitions of antisemitism, and drawing on expertise in various fields. Using authentic examples taken from social media over the past four years, it sets out a pioneering step-by-step approach to identifying and categorising antisemitic content, providing guidance on how to recognise a statement as antisemitic or not. This book will be an invaluable tool through which researchers, students, practitioners and social media moderators can learn to recognise contemporary antisemitism online – and the structural aspects of hate speech more generally – in all its breadth and diversity.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2024. 541p.

Edited by Matthias J. Becker, Laura Ascone, Karolina Placzynta and Chloé Vincent

The normalisation of hate speech, including antisemitic rhetoric, poses a significant threat to social cohesion and democracy. While global efforts have been made to counter contemporary antisemitism, there is an urgent need to understand its online manifestations. Hate speech spreads easily across the internet, facilitated by anonymity and reinforced by algorithms that favour engaging--even if offensive--content. It often takes coded forms, making detection challenging. Antisemitism in Online Communication addresses these issues by analysing explicit and implicit antisemitic statements in mainstream online discourse. Drawing from disciplines such as corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, semiotics, history, and philosophy, this edited collection examines over 100,000 user comments from three language communities. Contributors explore various facets of online antisemitism, including its intersectionality with misogyny and its dissemination through memes and social networks. Through case studies, they examine the reproduction, support, and rejection of antisemitic tropes, alongside quantitative assessments of comment structures in online discussions. Additionally, the volume delves into the capabilities of content moderation tools and deep-learning models for automated hate speech detection. This multidisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive understanding of contemporary antisemitism in digital spaces, recognising the importance of addressing its insidious spread from multiple angles.

Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 2024.262p.

By George Washington University, Program on Extremism    

This document serves as a compendium tracing the evolution of Hamas's presence and influence in the United States from its establishment in the 1980s to its current activities on college campuses. It begins by detailing how Hamas, as a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, set up infrastructure in the US through organizations like the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) and the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) to fundraise and spread its ideology. Over time, US-based Hamas-linked activists adapted their strategies to avoid legal scrutiny, creating new entities like American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and collaborating with groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to embed themselves in campus activism. The document also highlights how Hamas-linked networks exploit academic freedom to promote extremism under the guise of advocacy, aligning with Iranian-backed groups and leveraging rebranded narratives of "resistance" to maintain influence and avoid direct association with terrorism. This timeline illustrates the continuous evolution of Hamas’s methods, from its covert operations in the 1980s to its open advocacy on campuses today.     

Washington, DC: Program on Extremism at George Washington University 2024. 23p.

By Justin D. Strong, Keramet Reiter,  Gabriela Gonzalez, Rebecca Tublitz, Dallas Augustine, Melissa Barragan, Kelsie ChesnutI, Pasha Dashtgard, Natalie Pifer, Thomas R. Blair  

We examine how solitary confinement correlates with self-reported adverse physical health outcomes, and how such outcomes extend the understanding of the health disparities associated with incarceration. Using a mixed methods approach, we find that solitary confinement is associated not just with mental, but also with physical health problems. Given the disproportionate use of solitary among incarcerated people of color, these symptoms are most likely to affect those populations. Drawing from a random sample of prisoners (n = 106) in long-term solitary confinement in the Washington State Department of Corrections in 2017, we conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) assessments; and systematic reviews of medical and disciplinary files for these subjects. We also conducted a paper survey of the entire long-term solitary confinement population (n = 225 respondents) and analyzed administrative data for the entire population of prisoners in the state in 2017 (n = 17,943). Results reflect qualitative content and descriptive statistical analysis. BPRS scores reflect clinically significant somatic concerns in 15% of the sample. Objective specification of medical conditions is generally elusive, but that, itself, is a highly informative finding. Using subjective reports, we specify and analyze a range of physical symptoms experienced in solitary confinement: (1) skin irritations and weight fluctuation associated with the restrictive conditions of solitary confinement; (2) un-treated and mistreated chronic conditions associated with the restrictive policies of solitary confinement; (3) musculoskeletal pain exacerbated by both restrictive conditions and policies. Administrative data analyses reveal disproportionate rates of racial/ethnic minorities in solitary confinement. This analysis raises the stakes for future studies to evaluate comparative prevalence of objective medical diagnoses and potential causal mechanisms for the physical symptoms specified here, and for understanding differential use of solitary confinement and its medically harmful sequelae.

PLoS ONE 15(10): e0238510.

By Sophie Gillfeather-Spetere, Amy Watson

Designed for use by policymakers, practitioners, and advocates, this guide synthesizes findings from 20+ reports to outline key actions for consistent and effective policy responses supporting children and young people experiencing violence. It includes four principles that outline ways of working to underpin reform and eight priority areas for action. The report finds that policies and service systems are failing to meet the needs of children and young people, particularly those with a disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, those from culturally and linguistically diverse families, and LGBTQ+. The guide calls for significant policy and practice reforms that center children's and young people’s voices, acknowledge the profound and diverse impact of violence on their lives, and move away from a reactive system to one that prioritizes primary prevention.

 Four principles to underpin reform

1. There is no single experience of being a child or young person. When working to support the safety and wellbeing of children and young people we must use an intersectional approach.

2. Policy and service systems need to be rights-focused to avoid causing further harm.

3. Policy and system change needs to be supported by an authorising environment with supportive leadership, adequate resourcing, child-focused and DFSV-informed policies and procedures, and education and training.

4. The strengths, resilience, and resistance of children and young people should be recognized and incorporated into trauma-informed, strengths-based system responses.

Eight priority areas for action

1. Recognize the profound and diverse impacts of domestic, family, and sexual violence on children and young people.

2. Centre the voices, strengths, and needs of children and young people.

3. Prioritise primary prevention centring children and young people’s wellbeing and safety.

4. Acknowledge and act on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledge of what is best for their children.

5. Design and deliver holistic child-centred systems, policies, and supports.

6. Collaborate across systems to respond holistically to children and young people’s needs.

7. Invest in skill development in trauma- and domestic, family, and sexual violence-informed care across systems and services.

8. Share knowledge across services working with disability; domestic, family, and sexual violence; and children and young people.

Sydney: ANROWS- Australia's National Research Organisation for Women's Safety,  2024. 84p.