On the complexity of collaborative cyber crime investigations

This article considers the challenges faced by digital evidence specialists when collaborating with other specialists and agencies in other jurisdictions when investigating cyber crime. The opportunities, operational environment and modus operandi of a cyber criminal are considered, with a view to developing the skills and procedural support that investigators might usefully consider in order to respond more effectively to the investigation of cyber crimes across State boundaries

Mentoring programs for Indigenous youth at risk

IntroductionThis Resource Sheet examines evidence for the effectiveness of mentoring programs in helping to set Indigenous young people at risk of engaging in antisocial and risky behaviours on healthier life pathways.Mentoring is a relationship intervention strategy that research is showing can have powerful and lasting positive impacts on behavioural, academic and vocational outcomes for at-risk youth. Costello and Thomson describe youth mentoring as follows:Youth mentoring is, according to the Australian Youth Mentoring Network, defined as ‘a structured and trusting relationship that brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support and encouragement’. The goal of youth mentoring is to enhance social engagement and thereby minimise negative behaviours through growth in social and developmental behaviours.There are two types of mentoring style found in the literature—natural and planned. Among Indigenous Australians, the natural or informal form of mentoring is often spontaneous through the Elders’ traditional role of sharing the wisdom, the knowledge and the spirit, which can draw Aboriginal people back to traditional ways. Elders play an extremely important role in Aboriginal families as role models, care providers and educators.This Resource Sheet focuses on the planned or formal form of mentoring, which often includes Elders as part of these programs. It does not, however, cover the following formal forms of mentoring:a detailed analysis of mentoring, which occurs within sporting and other programs. (This is covered, where relevant, in a forthcoming Resource Sheet titled Supporting healthy communities through sports and recreation programs.) mentoring embedded within broader youth diversionary or justice programs mentoring within cadetship or other vocational education programs. There is a strong body of literature on the types of youth mentoring programs and the dynamics of successful programs and mentoring relationships. This Resource Sheet draws on evidence from 45 studies. Over half were Australian studies, with additional evidence from research in other colonised nations such as New Zealand, Canada and the United States. Two-thirds of the studies were Indigenous-specific. A range of methodologies was used including evaluations, critical descriptions of programs, meta-analyses and research syntheses

The sustainable delivery of sexual violence prevention education in schools

Sexual violence is a crime that cannot be ignored: it causes our communities significant consequences including heavy economic costs, and evidence of its effects can be seen in our criminal justice system, public health system, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), and education system, particularly in our schools. Many agencies throughout New Zealand work to end sexual violence. Auckland-based Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Mauri (RPE) is one such agency, and is committed to preventing sexual violence by providing a range of programmes and initiatives, information, education, and advocacy to a broad range of audiences. Up until early 2014 RPE employed one or two full-time positions dedicated to co-ordinating and training a large pool (up to 15) of educators on casual contracts to deliver their main school-based programmes, BodySafe – approximately 450 modules per year, delivered to some 20 high schools. Each year several of the contract educators, many of whom were tertiary students, found secure full time employment elsewhere. To retain sufficient contract educators to deliver its BodySafe contract meant that RPE had to recruit, induct and train new educators two to three times every year. This model was expensive, resource intense, and ultimately untenable. The Executive Director and core staff at RPE wanted to develop a more efficient and stable model of delivery that fitted its scarce resources. To enable RPE to know what the most efficient model was nationally and internationally, with Ministry of Justice funding, RPE commissioned Massey University to undertake this report reviewing national and international research on sexual violence prevention education (SVPE)

The sustainable delivery of sexual violence prevention education in schools

Sexual violence is a crime that cannot be ignored: it causes our communities significant consequences including heavy economic costs, and evidence of its effects can be seen in our criminal justice system, public health system, Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), and education system, particularly in our schools. Many agencies throughout New Zealand work to end sexual violence. Auckland-based Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Mauri (RPE) is one such agency, and is committed to preventing sexual violence by providing a range of programmes and initiatives, information, education, and advocacy to a broad range of audiences. Up until early 2014 RPE employed one or two full-time positions dedicated to co-ordinating and training a large pool (up to 15) of educators on casual contracts to deliver their main school-based programmes, BodySafe – approximately 450 modules per year, delivered to some 20 high schools. Each year several of the contract educators, many of whom were tertiary students, found secure full time employment elsewhere. To retain sufficient contract educators to deliver its BodySafe contract meant that RPE had to recruit, induct and train new educators two to three times every year. This model was expensive, resource intense, and ultimately untenable. The Executive Director and core staff at RPE wanted to develop a more efficient and stable model of delivery that fitted its scarce resources. To enable RPE to know what the most efficient model was nationally and internationally, with Ministry of Justice funding, RPE commissioned Massey University to undertake this report reviewing national and international research on sexual violence prevention education (SVPE). [Background from Executive Summary.]Rape Prevention Education: Whakatu Maur

Open Science, Open Data, and Open Scholarship: European Policies to Make Science Fit for the Twenty-First Century

Open science will make science more efficient, reliable, and responsive to societal challenges. The European Commission has sought to advance open science policy from its inception in a holistic and integrated way, covering all aspects of the research cycle from scientific discovery and review to sharing knowledge, publishing, and outreach. We present the steps taken with a forward-looking perspective on the challenges laying ahead, in particular the necessary change of the rewards and incentives system for researchers (for which various actors are co-responsible and which goes beyond the mandate of the European Commission). Finally, we discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) within an open science perspective

How Public Policy Can Support Collective Impact

The problems we face are not simple, predictable, or linear. They do not fit neatly into electoral cycles or grant timelines. They are complex and involve many fluctuating actors, conditions, and norms. Yet many people in the social and public sectors feel constrained by a traditional approach to solve these problems through a single strong program, a single funding stream, or a single organization. They often understand the implications of complexity but feel bound by rules that oversimplify the range of possible responses.In a time of scarce resources and intractable problems, however, no one in the social sector, including policymakers, can afford to believe in singular solutions. Instead, we must all embrace the notion that addressing complex problems requires a collective impact approach that involves many actors from different sectors committing to a common agenda to solve a specific problem at scale. Many communities have adopted this approach, outlined in Table 1, and achieved success in tackling such complex challenges. If implemented more fully, the collective impact approach could increase the effective use of public resource

Learning Together: Localism, Collaboration and Reflexivity in the Development of Prison and University Learning Communities

This paper engages with challenges of localism, collaboration and reflexivity in thinking about the conceptualisation and development of partnership learning communities between higher education and criminal justice institutions. Grounded in experiences of partnership working in the UK and Australia, our arguments are twofold: first, drawing on missions, policy and practice challenges, that there is a case to be made for partnership-working between higher education and criminal justice institutions; and second that, although there is a need to think about collaborative international structures, there is also a need to reflect critically on how different socio-political and cultural realities (both within and beyond national borders) might shape the particular nature of partnership working. Therefore, while warmly welcoming international collaboration in this field, we urge caution in importing or exporting different models of partnership working. We make the case, instead, for open-textured theoretical and empirical reflexivity

Is the responsibilization of the cyber security risk reasonable and judicious?

Cyber criminals appear to be plying their trade without much hindrance. Home computer users are particularly vulnerable to attack by an increasingly sophisticated and globally dispersed hacker group. The smartphone era has exacerbated the situation, offering hackers even more attack surfaces to exploit. It might not be entirely coincidental that cyber crime has mushroomed in parallel with governments pursuing a neoliberalist agenda. This agenda has a strong drive towards individualizing risk i.e. advising citizens how to take care of themselves, and then leaving them to face the consequences if they choose not to follow the advice. In effect, citizens are “responsibilized .” Whereas responsibilization is effective for some risks, the responsibilization of cyber security is, we believe, contributing to the global success of cyber attacks. There is, consequently, a case to be made for governments taking a more active role than the mere provision of advice, which is the case in many countries. We conclude with a concrete proposal for a risk regulation regime that would more effectively mitigate and ameliorate cyber risk

CLEAR D: Evaluation of a Primary School (KS2) Drugs Education Programme

CLEAR D is a partnership between police, health, and social services which delivers a drugs education programme to 10 year olds. This evaluation sought to test its effectiveness and suggest improvements that may help future operation and funding. The evaluation reports (based on data covering three years of pupil opinion, and on comparative data from a school elsewhere not involved with a similar programme) that it has a positive effect over time. However, transition to secondary school is a key danger point which requires a continuation of drugs eduation