Search results

Weapon use is recognised as a key crime concern in England and Wales but has received relatively little focused research. The purpose of this paper is to examine weapon use by sexual offenders to develop new insights relevant for a police audience. Specifically, to examine the prevalence of weapons within sexual offenders and explore the differences between weapon and non-weapon enabled offenders on a range of characteristics.

A sample of 1,618 single, stranger, solved, serious sexual assaults were provided by the Serious Crime Analysis Section of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. In all, 20 per cent of offenders were weapon enabled.

There were almost no demographic differences between weapon enabled and non-weapon enabled offenders. In terms of the offence itself, there were many significant differences between the groups in terms of precautions used, victim involvement, injury, attack behaviours, victim approach and attack location. Further multivariate analysis revealed aspects of the offence that were associated with weapon use; these are broadly discussed within themes of violence and evidence of planning.

The authors argue that an examination of weapon use is valuable in illustrating how offenders differ in their offence and provide insights for the investigation of such crime.

This pilot study investigated three historical risk factors for pathological arson identified in Jackson's Only Viable Option theory (Jackson, 1994), which views the act as an adaptive response to circumstances that are difficult to tolerate and which the individual does not have the necessary skills to resolve by appropriate means. Twenty men with mild learning disabilities were recruited from inpatient forensic services. It was hypothesised that there would be a greater incidence of risk factors among individuals with an index offence of arson than those without, and that risk factors would significantly predict an index offence of arson. Significant differences were found between the groups for perceived inability to effect social change and childhood experiences of fire, but not for the family problems under investigation. However, the sample size was too small to draw reliable conclusions on the predictive ability of the risk factors. The findings suggest that perceived inability to effect social change and childhood experiences of fire are risk factors characteristic of men with learning disabilities who have set fires, lending support to elements of Jackson's theory and providing opportunities to develop evidence‐based practice. However, the underlying causes of these risk‐factor characteristics remain unclear. It is hoped that the present study will help inform the choice of risk factors under investigation and improve the design of a larger study.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and demonstrate “best practices” for creating quantitative behavioural investigative advice (i.e. statements to assist police with psychological and behavioural aspects of investigations) where complex statistical modelling is not available.

Using a sample of 361 serial stranger sexual offenses and a cross-validation approach, the paper demonstrates prediction of offender characteristics using base rates and using Bayes’ Theorem. The paper predicts four dichotomous offender characteristic variables, first using simple base rates, then using Bayes’ Theorem with 16 categorical crime scene variable predictors.

Both methods consistently predict better than chance. By incorporating more information, analyses based on Bayes’ Theorem (74.6 per cent accurate) predict with 11.1 per cent more accuracy overall than analyses based on base rates (63.5 per cent accurate), and provide improved advising estimates in line with best practices.

The study demonstrates how useful predictions of offender characteristics can be acquired from crime information without large (i.e. >500 cases) data sets or “trained” statistical models. Advising statements are constructed for discussion, and results are discussed in terms of the pragmatic usefulness of the methods for police investigations.

Refugees integrate less successfully than other immigrants. Pre-migration stress, mental disorder and lack of human capital are the most popular explanations, but these propositions have received little empirical testing. The current study of Sri Lankan Tamils in Toronto, Canada, examines the respective contributions of pre-migration adversity, human capital, mental health and social resources in predicting integration. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Participants are a probability sample of 1,603 Sri Lankan Tamils living in Toronto, Canada. The team, with a community advisory council, developed structured interviews containing information about pre- and post-migration stressors, coping strategies, and family, community, and institutional support. The questionnaire included the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview module for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Interviews were translated, back-translated and administered by bilingual interviewers.

Two dimensions of integration emerged from a factor analysis of integration-related items: economic and psychosocial. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that PTSD militated against refugee economic integration, whereas pre-migration adversity (but not PTSD) compromised psychosocial integration. On both measures, increasing length of residence in Canada, and gender (male) were predictors of good integration, whereas age at arrival had an inverse relationship with integration. Religiosity had a positive effect on psychosocial integration but a negative effect on economic. Favourable perceptions of the health care system predicted economic integration and non-family support predicted psychosocial integration.

Results underline the importance of studying integration as a multifaceted phenomenon, help explain why refugees integrate less successfully than other immigrants, and highlight the importance of including mental health and mental health-related issues in integration discourse.

The immediate financial and operational impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education have resulted in short-term responses focused on reducing costs. This has included decreasing the size of the permanent workforce, pausing senior executive pay and replacing face-to-face with online teaching. The impact of these changes on employees who provide education, research and student support has been significant. To enable higher education to respond effectively to future complexity requires a more strategic approach designed to build employees commitment. The extent of change requires a move away from the current control-oriented, individualist and hierarchical administrative management approach that characterises higher education, towards a more collaborative leadership approach. Based on a case study of Australian higher education, the chapter unpacks how, in combination, the elements of an ecological view of leadership, actioned through multiple double-loop feedback based on the six tenets of a distributed leadership approach, can underpin a collaborative leadership approach designed to build employee commitment.

The academic sphere has in recent years become almost saturated in leadership-related processes, structures and positions. This is often explained through recourse to arguments concerning the pathologies of managerialism and the decline of academic autonomy. And yet one area where leadership-related thinking and development structures have not generally permeated is in relation to core research activities. As a result, thinking about research leadership, especially in relation to self-leadership and the governance of large inter-disciplinary ‘team science’ projects, is emerging as an important debate within academe. This chapter seeks to develop this debate by exploring what research leadership is and why it matters.

Every seaport with foreign‐going shiping trade has always had its “foreign” quarters; every large city hat had its Oriental traders and services, eg., Chinese laundries, Indian restaurants, Italian restaurants, greengrocers, ice cream and biscuit manufacturers; all of which has meant that foreign foods were not unknown to food inspectors and the general public in its discerning quest for exotic food dishes. It was then largely a matter of stores specially stocking these foods for their few users. Now it is no longer the coming and going of the foreign seaman, the isolated laundry, restaurant, but large tightly knit communities of what have come to be known as the “ethnic minorities”, from the large scale immigration of coloured peoples from the old Empire countries, who have brought their families, industry and above all their food and eating habits with them. Feeding the ethnic minorities has become a large and expanding area within the food industry. There are cities in which large areas have been virtually taken over by the immigrant.

The purpose of this research is to explore the use of media as the basis for a social issues approach to promoting moral literacy and effective teaching in educational leadership programs.

Through a review of relevant literature, mass media sources, and observations, the authors use Starratt's framework of moral responsibility to identify ethical practice in response to dilemmas brought on by local, regional, national and international crises and conflicts. Regional, national and international crises and conflicts are regularly reported on the Internet, as well as in the local, regional, national and international media (e.g., Time, Macleans, Michigan Citizen, The Washington Post, Education Week, The Boston Globe, National Geographic).

The use of mass media venues, when compounded with moral grounding better equips educational leaders to act with ethical orientations. Professional organizations should encourage and support leaders who engage in public citizenship activities – answering critical questions, brokering views, encouraging discussion, and serving as resources.

Issues concerning the ethical usage of mass media are complex, often unique, and ought to be an integral component of teaching in formal educational leadership experience. Consequently, the authors advocate the use of the media in university teaching as the basis for a social issues approach to promote morally literate graduates in university educational leadership programs. Actual examples of reactions about the use of media from a class of graduate students enrolled in an ethics class and educational leadership are included.

Novel Feature Protects Airframe and Undercarriage Fairey Hydraulics, a member of the Fairey Holdings Group, has been selected by Westland Helicopters to design and manufacture the tricycle undercariage oleo legs for the new Lynx 3, military and W30–300 civil and military helicopters. In the event of unusually heavy landings, a special feature built into military versions, provides protection to both the aircraft structure and the undercarriage itself.

The purpose of this investigation was to look at three organisations (a naval shore establishment, a police academy, and a small, family‐owned engineering firm) and see to what extent they had developed a culture that was both ethically and socially responsive.

The investigation was carried out by speaking to key players, observing their organisations and by detailed analysis of the documents which related to this study.

The findings revealed that the Navy has a set of values (HHCIL) which overlap with the more general values of the Department of Defence (imPLICIT). The Western Australian Police Service has an approach to developing an ethical corporate culture which includes the establishment of a dedicated unit, and running discussion groups and seminars. The family‐owned and operated engineering business relies more heavily on an indirect approach based on following traditional family values.

Pursuing the topic of what makes a just war, particularly in today's political climate, was one possibility for further research. There were limitations to the study; these were mainly due to issues of confidentiality and in broaching sensitive topics to both Navy and Police senior officers.

Three conditions were essential for developing an ethical corporate culture: CEOs were ultimately responsible for the ethicality of their organisations; formal training programs were necessary to impart the required knowledge; and formal mechanisms were essential to facilitate the reporting of any behaviour of organisational members that was deemed to be wrong, unethical or illegal.