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1 – 10 of 715Nicole Adler, Alfred Shalom Hakkert, Jonathan Kornbluth and Mali Sher
The purpose of this paper is to study the traffic‐police enforcement process and develop models to improve enforcement effectiveness given substantial budgetary and resource…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the traffic‐police enforcement process and develop models to improve enforcement effectiveness given substantial budgetary and resource constraints.
Design/methodology/approach
The formulation crosses the concepts of lean manufacturing and linear programming. Traffic police officers, automated machines and the back‐office are modeled in a similar manner to that of a manufacturing plant, working together to achieve ticket production as a function of quantity and quality, based on a preferential ranking of offence types.
Findings
Using data from the Israeli traffic police over a six‐year period, the case study shows that given available resources, it is possible to retain ticket quantity whilst significantly improving ticket quality as defined in the road safety literature. The case study shows a 24 per cent increase in quality ticket processing whilst taking into account the court summons constraint and maintaining throughput levels. This draws from changes in the method of ticket‐production, production of warnings rather than tickets in certain cases and the application of new technologies.
Research limitations/implications
The results are limited by the current lack of data and require a cost‐benefit analysis in order to further develop certain parameters.
Practical implications
The application of the approach improves the holistic planning of traffic enforcement activities as well as providing specific details, such as the number and distribution of ticket production.
Originality/value
This research merges three disciplines; operations research, road safety and operations management, generating a methodology for the planning and control of traffic police ticket issuance, which has not been analyzed in the literature to date.
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Lyndel Bates, Marina Alexander and Julianne Webster
This paper aims to explore the link between dangerous driving and other criminal behaviour.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore the link between dangerous driving and other criminal behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five-step process for scoping reviews to identify, summarise and classify identified literature was used. Within the 30-year timeframe (1990–2019), 12 studies met the inclusion criteria.
Findings
This review indicates that individuals who commit certain driving offences are more likely to also have a general criminal history. In particular, driving under the influence, driving unlicensed and high-range speeding offences were associated with other forms of criminal behaviour. Seven of the studies mentioned common criminological theories; however, they were not integrated well in the analysis. No studies used explanatory psychosocial theories that investigate social and contextual factors.
Research limitations/implications
Future research in this area would benefit from exploring individual and social influences that contribute to criminal behaviour in both contexts.
Practical implications
There is the potential to develop an information-led policing approach to improve safety on the roads and reduce wider offending behaviour. However, it is critical that road policing officers continue to focus on ensuring the road system is as safe as possible for users.
Originality/value
Criminal behaviour on the roads is often seen as a separate from other types of offending. This paper explores if, and how, these two types of offending are linked.
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Ioan Durnescu and Andrada Istrate
In the current chapter, we discuss the shape and contours of the field of probation in Romania as they appear in scientific literature and mass media, focusing on the concerns…
Abstract
In the current chapter, we discuss the shape and contours of the field of probation in Romania as they appear in scientific literature and mass media, focusing on the concerns academics and professionals have voiced about Romanian probation. We analyse the timeframe from 2014 to 2021, after the introduction of the country’s New Penal Code (NPC). We structure our argument as follows. The chapter begins with a short incursion into the historiography of probation as a field in Romania. The focus, however, is on the adoption of a NPC in 2014, as this was a significant moment that led to changes for both probation workers and probationers. While we present the first 25 years since probation was instituted in Romania in 1997 as a period of experiments, trials and errors, we aim to highlight the development and consolidation that occurred in the period after 2014 (see Durnescu 2008, 2015; Preda, 2015a, 2017; Sandu, 2016). The NPC was intended to bring forward a reconfiguration of the probation system in Romania (Preda, 2015b). Beyond the promise of the NPC, the 2014–2021 period is one where probation edges into the public sphere via extensive media coverage, including the considerable number of probationers or a string of protests by probation counsellors who felt overworked and overwhelmed. We continue the chapter by analysing the composition and the dynamics of the probation population, always looking beyond the mere numbers to other analytic markers (i.e. numbers of obligations and lengths of the probation period). We conclude the chapter by arguing that our discussion of the ‘weight’ of supervision adds to the current understanding of mass supervision by looking at the aggregated impact that different social, political, penal and cultural factors have on probation practice. In other words, large caseloads, limited human resources, precarious material conditions and negative organisational cultures are likely to generate supervision experiences that can be better interpreted by looking and thinking beyond numbers.
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Details two training programs for Highways Agency traffic officers, which were recognized in the latest UK National Training Awards.
Abstract
Purpose
Details two training programs for Highways Agency traffic officers, which were recognized in the latest UK National Training Awards.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes the origins and outcomes of a training program that gives new traffic officers from diverse backgrounds the general skills needed to manage incidents on the motorway, and a second training program giving traffic officers specific skills to manage a new traffic system on a stretch of motorway in the West Midlands, where vehicles travel on the hard shoulder at busy periods.
Findings
Highlights Highways Agency claims that traffic officers have helped to bring about a 12 percent reduction in incident‐related congestion, a 1.9‐minute response‐time improvement, a three‐minute improvement in carriageway‐clearance times and 44 percent more police time freed for tackling criminality.
Practical implications
Reveals that traffic officers are not burdened with dealing with criminality, so they have time to deal with routine incidents and essential traffic management at more serious events, alongside the emergency services.
Originality/value
Describes how properly trained traffic officers are helping to cut delays on England's congested motorway network.
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The growing range of EEC Directives and Regulations for food products, some of which have never been subject to statutory control in this country, with compositional standards…
Abstract
The growing range of EEC Directives and Regulations for food products, some of which have never been subject to statutory control in this country, with compositional standards, and in particular, prescribed methods of analysis — something which has not featured in the food legislative policies here — must be causing enforcement authorities and food processors to think seriously, if as yet not furiously. Some of the prescribed methods of analysis are likely to be less adaptable to modern processing methods of foods and as Directives seem to be requiring more routine testing, there is the matter of cost. Directive requirements are to some extent negotiable — the EEC Commission allow for regional differences, e.g., in milk and bread — but it has to be remembered that EEC Regulations bind Member‐states from the date of notification by the Commission, over‐riding the national law. Although not so frequently used for food legislation, they constitute one of the losses of sovereign power, paraded by the anti‐market lobby. Regulations contain usual clauses that they “shall enter into force on the day following publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities” and that they “shall be binding in their entirety and directly applicable in all Member States”.
The paper aims to examine health and safety of employees on the road.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to examine health and safety of employees on the road.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper discusses the safety of employees on the road.
Findings
Employees have a duty to drive safely but employers also have clear duties – not only to ensure that they do not put their people under pressure, but also to take all reasonable steps to reduce the chances of an accident occurring.
Originality/value
The paper provides useful advice on the safety of employees on the road.
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Søren Holst, Dorte Lystrup and John L. Taylor
The purpose of this paper is to gather epidemiologicalinformation concerning firesetters with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Denmark to identify the assessment and treatment…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gather epidemiologicalinformation concerning firesetters with intellectual disabilities (ID) in Denmark to identify the assessment and treatment needs of this population and inform further research in this area.
Design/methodology/approach
The records held by the Danish Ministry of Justice concerning all firesetters with ID convicted of deliberate firesetting were reviewed for the period January 2001 to December 2010 inclusive. File information was extracted for 83 offenders concerning: demographic and personal characteristics; mental health characteristics; offending behaviour; offence-specific factors; and motives for offending. A sub-group of seven offenders were interviewed to explore some of the themes that emerged from the file review.
Findings
The majority of study participants were male and were classified as having mild ID and around 50 per cent had additional mental health problems. Many came from disturbed and deprived backgrounds. Two-thirds had set more than one fire and over 60 per cent had convictions for offences other than firesetting. Alcohol was involved in the firesetting behaviour in a significant proportion of cases (25 per cent). The motives for setting fires were – in descending order – communication (of anger, frustration and distress), fire fascination and vandalism. Interviews with participants indicated the important communicative function of firesetting, the difficulties people had in talking about and acknowledging their firesetting behaviour, and lack of access to targeted interventions.
Research limitations/implications
Interventions for Danish firesetters with ID, as for firesetters with ID elsewhere, need to target the communicative function of this behaviour, along with offenders’ lack of insight and initial reluctance to accept responsibility for their behaviour and associated risks. Adjunctive treatment is required to address the psychiatric comorbidity experienced by many of these offenders, along with the alcohol use/misuse that is associated with many of these offences.
Originality/value
This is the first study concerning nature and needs of firesetters with ID in Denmark.
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The social cost to industry
The recent announcement by the government of the introduction of local policing teams to deliver community safety and crime reduction begs the question of how these could be…
Abstract
The recent announcement by the government of the introduction of local policing teams to deliver community safety and crime reduction begs the question of how these could be organised. This article considers a theoretical integrated mode of delivery. It also considers the role of the police constable within this structure.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore three main areas in relation to the interface between challenging behaviour and offending.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore three main areas in relation to the interface between challenging behaviour and offending.
Design/methodology/approach
The first aim is to explore the labelling of behaviours as challenging or offending behaviour in the light of legal definitions, staff knowledge and beliefs and the mental capacity and mental health acts. The second is to explore challenging behaviour as a risk factor for offending in people with Intellectual Disability (ID).The third aim is to discuss the challenging behaviour as a barrier to discharge from secure services.
Findings
There is limited research suggesting that challenging behaviour such as physical aggression can lead to longer stay in forensic services, and this warrants further research.
Originality/value
This paper aims to promote discussion about the interface of offending and challenging behaviour in people with IDs and to promote best practice.
Details