Point patterns occurring on complex structures in space and space-time: An alternative network approach

This paper presents an alternative approach of analyzing possibly multitype point patterns in space and space-time that occur on network structures, and introduces several different graph-related intensity measures. The proposed formalism allows to control for processes on undirected, directional as well as partially directed network structures and is not restricted to linearity or circularity

Police overestimation of criminal career homogeneity

Police presumptions about criminal career trajectories have been little studied. The exploratory study reported here involved 42 police staff of varying rank and experience. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire which asked them to predict the type of offence that an individual with specified prior record was most likely to commit next. Participating police personnel substantially overstated the homogeneity of criminal careers, i.e. the nature of prior offences determined their prediction of their next offence more than available official data would deem reasonable. An incidental finding was that officers who rated the probability of further offending highest were also those who thought criminal careers most specialised. Theimplications for operational police decision making are discussed and held to be profound

Developing Measures of Severity and Frequency of Reconviction

This report examines the scope for focusing on the seriousness and frequency of recidivism and presents methodology for determining how to measure offence seriousness, and how to measure frequency of offending. It also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of combining these two measures into a combined seriousness/frequency score. However, one needs to recognise that the task of providing alternative measures of recidivism is not simply a technical exercise, for there are both philosophical and practical issues to confront. Hence, while the main body of the report focuses largely on the feasibility of producing the alternative measures and provides some solid evidence of developing these approaches (sections 3-5), the philosophical issues – which embrace definitional, conceptual and moral concerns – are not overlooked (see section 2). Furthermore, some of the practical issues of introducing these measures are recognised in the final section (section 6). First, however, what are the stated aims and objectives of the work

Testing time-sensitive influences of weather on street robbery

Although the relationship between weather and crime has been extensively investigated over the past century, little consensus has emerged on the directions of the relationships observed and the mechanisms through which weather might exert its influence. This paper advances an argument that the interpretation of weather, and subsequent activities based on that interpretation, leads to spatio-temporal variations in criminal opportunities, and hence crime. Two hypotheses relating to unseasonal weather and effects of weather on discretionary activities are proposed. Negative binomial regression models are used to test these at the 6-hour shift unit of analysis on street robberies in the Strathclyde region of Scotland. In line with predictions, in this temperate microclimate, more favourable weather in winter (higher temperatures and low wind speeds) was associated with increases in robbery. Partial support was also found for the hypothesis regarding time delineated for discretionary activities. Here, temperature, wind speed and humidity were seen to be significant predictors of robbery during the night shift and weekends. Notably rain was shown to have a negative relationship with robbery at the weekends. This affirms that people are less likely to venture outdoors when it is raining when travel behaviour is optional. Counter to our hypothesised effects, fog was the only variable to significantly interact with public holidays. We conclude by discussing how these analyses might be extended and briefly discuss implications for crime prevention

Police Alcohol-Related Services Study (PASS), Phase II: A Description of the Beliefs, Perceptions and Attitudes of Anchorage Police Department Employees

The principal aim of the Police Alcohol-related Services Study (PASS) was to expand knowledge about the fiscal, organizational, and cultural impact of citizen alcohol use on the Anchorage Police Department (APD). Phase II of the study employed a voluntary, self-administered questionnaire provided to all members of the APD regardless of rank, sworn status, or operational division. The questionnaire was designed to explore respondents' perceptions of their alcohol-related workload; perceptions of community problems; perceived links between alcohol use and selected social problems; attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs about the policing of alcohol-related incidents and the people involved with them; and personal and vicarious experience with alcohol-related incidents. The report describes survey response through comparison of APD employee responses across divisions within the department: operations vs. administration, patrol vs. non-patrol, and sworn vs. non-sworn.Part I. Project Overview & Summary of Findings / Part II. Alcohol-Related Workload: APD Employee Perspectives / Appendice

Addicted to Punishment: The Disproportionality of Drug Laws in Latin America

In Latin America, trafficking cocaine so it can be sold to someone who wants to use it is more serious than raping a woman or deliberately killingyour neighbor. While it may seem incredible, that is the conclusion of arigorous study of the evolution of criminal legislation in the region, which shows that countries' judicial systems mete out harsher penalties for traffickingeven modest amounts of drugs than for acts as heinous as sexua lassault or murder.How have we reached such an unjust and irrational point? In recent decades, especially the 1980s, Latin American countries, influenced by aninternational prohibitionist model, fell -- ironically -- into what we mightmetaphorically call an addiction to punishment.Addiction creates the need to consume more and more drugs, whichhave less and less effect; ultimately, the problematic user simply consumesdrugs to avoid withdrawal. Drug legislation in Latin America seems to have followed a similar path. Countries have an ever-growing need to add crimes and increase the penalties for drug trafficking, supposedly to control an expanding illegal market, while this increasingly punitive approach has less and less effect on decreasing the supply and use of illegal drugs.This report explores whether the recent evolution of criminal legislation in Latin American countries with regard to drug-related conducts respects these minimal guarantees to which criminal law should be subject, and especially whether that criminal legislation can be considered proportionate to the harm caused by prohibited conducts. Ultimately, the question is whether the crimes and punishments outlined in national legislation are proportionate. If the answer is no, the conclusion should be that they may even be unconstitutional within the framework of a constitutional state.To address this question, the report explores the recent development of criminal laws on drug-related crime in seven Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Mexico. These countries were chosen based on two basic criteria. First, they are of academic importance, because they have different drug-related problems, different geographic locations, diverse contexts and different political systems. According to traditional categorization, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia are considered producer countries; Mexico and even Brazil are considered trans-shipment countries. They also represent the different regions of Latin America,from the Southern Cone to the furthest Spanish-speaking country in North America.This report has three main parts. The first provides a conceptual and methodological overview of the elements that form the basis of the analysis.The second describes the principal recent trends in criminal drug legislation in Latin America. The third analyzes the proportionality of drug-related crimes and punishment in the countries, comparing them with penalties for other serious crimes, followed by some conclusions