Troublesome youth groups, gangs and knife carrying in Scotland

"... the research reported here set out to: Provide an overview of what is known about the nature and extent of youth gang activity and knife carrying in a set of case study locations; Provide an in-depth account of the structures and activities of youth gangs in these settings; Provide an in-depth account of the knife carrying in these settings; Offer a series of recommendations for interventions in these behaviours based on this evidence." - exec. summary

Developing novel research methods to establish and monitor impacts of user engagement in times of austerity: Report on a series of agenda-setting workshops

This report is drawn from a National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) Network for Methodological Innovation project, the key theme,‘Dancing with new partners’ examined methods for engaging non-academic users, especially with people who, in our experience, are often resistant to engagement - and for measuring the impact of research on policy and practice. This Report contains eight ‘think pieces’ (or position papers) which were commissioned for the Launch Conference of the Network. These ‘think pieces’ and their subsequent presentation and discussion among Network members were used to identify three key themes for further discussion. The three themes were explored in subsequent workshops and summaries of the issues explored and the conclusions drawn are outlined below, along with a summary of the closing conference of the Network and abstracts of subsequent papers

Anchored k-medoids : a novel adaptation of k-medoids further refined to measure long-term instability in the exposure to crime

Longitudinal clustering techniques are widely deployed in computational social science to delineate groupings of subjects characterized by meaningful developmental trends. In criminology, such methods have been utilized to examine the extent to which micro places (such as streets) experience macro-level police-recorded crime trends in unison. This has largely been driven by a theoretical interest in the longitudinal stability of crime concentrations, a topic that has become particularly pertinent amidst a widespread decline in recorded crime. Recent studies have tended to rely on a generic implementation k-means to unpick this stability, with little consideration for its theoretical suitability. This study makes two methodological contributions. First, it demonstrates the application of k-medoids to study longitudinal crime concentrations, and second, it develops a novel ‘anchored k-medoids’ (ak-medoids), a bespoke clustering method specifically designed to meet the theoretical requirements of micro-place investigations into long-term stability. Using both simulated data and 15-years of police-recorded crime data from Birmingham, England, we compare the performances of k-medoids against ak-medoids. We find that both methods highlight instability in the exposure to crime over time, but the consistency and contribution of cluster solutions determined by ak-medoids provide insight overlooked by k-medoids, which is sensitive to short-term fluctuations and subject starting points. This has important implications for the theories said to explain longitudinal crime concentrations, and the law enforcement agencies seeking to offer an effective and equitable service to the public

Inequality in exposure to crime, social disorganisation and collective efficacy: Evidence from Greater Manchester, United Kingdom

This paper assesses the relevance of social disorganisation and collective efficacy in accounting for neighbourhood inequalities in the exposure to crime. Specifically, it questions the potential of community and voluntary organisations to enhance informal social control and reduce exposure to crime. It utilises calls-for-service (incident) data for Greater Manchester (UK) and a Bayesian spatio-temporal modelling approach. Contrary to expectations, the research finds that measures of social disorganisation (concentrated disadvantage aside) and collective efficacy hold a limited effect on neighbourhood exposure to crime. We discuss the implications of these findings for criminological inquiry and theoretical development, highlighting the necessity of such endeavour to account for the national political-economy and welfare regime of research settings

Terrestrial fatty acids from feed oil in feed for farmed salmonids are transferred to the liver, gonads, and muscle of wild Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)

Wild fish attracted to salmon farms feed on waste feed that presently contain high levels of fatty acids of terrestrial origin. This study examines whether mature Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) caught at spawning grounds has eaten salmon waste feed. Cod were caught at four spawning grounds around Smøla (Norway), an area with multiple salmon farms, during the spawning season in 2018 (n = 327) and 2019 (n = 488). The fatty acid (FA) profile of their livers, gonads (ovary and testis), and muscles (2019) were determined. Multivariate k-mean cluster analysis of liver FA profiles revealed three main clusters, which could be allocated to trophic niches using known fatty acid trophic markers (FATMs). Of the sampled cod in 2018 and 2019, 13 % and 20 % respectively had high liver concentrations of terrestrial FATMs (18:1n-9, 18:2n-6, and 18:3n-3), indicating waste feed feeding. The remaining cod could be assigned to either the pelagic or benthic food chain. The cod identified as feeding on waste feed had large, fatty livers. The terrestrial FAs were also transferred to the muscle and gonad lipids. It is postulated that the latter may result in gametes with sub-optimal lipid composition, potentially impacting fitness, which warrants further investigation.Terrestrial fatty acids from feed oil in feed for farmed salmonids are transferred to the liver, gonads, and muscle of wild Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua)publishedVersio

Fast Track Children's Hearings Pilot : Final Report of the Evaluation of the Pilot

The Scottish Executive decided that a Fast Track approach to the children's hearings system would be introduced in early 2003 on a pilot basis in selected parts of Scotland. The aim was to improve practice and outcomes with respect to the ways that the hearings system and associated services dealt with young people who persistently offend. Particular objectives were to: • reduce the time taken both overall and at each stage of decision-making • promote more comprehensive assessments which include appraisals of offending risk • ensure that all young people who persistently offend and who require an appropriate programme have access to one • reduce re-offending rates as a result of the concerted efforts made in such cases

Geographically and temporally weighted co-location quotient : an analysis of spatiotemporal crime patterns in Greater Manchester

Incident data, a form of big data frequently used in urban studies, are characterised by point features with high spatial and temporal resolution and categorical values. In contrast to panel data, such spatial data pooled over time reflect multi-directional spatial effects but only unidirectional temporal effects, which are challenging to analyse. This paper presents an innovative approach to address this challenge – a geographically and temporally weighted co-location quotient which includes global and local computation, a method to calculate a spatiotemporal weight matrix and a significance test using Monte Carlo simulation. This new approach is used to identify spatio-temporal crime patterns across Greater Manchester in 2016 from open source recorded crime data. The results show that this approach is suitable for the analysis and visualisation of spatio-temporal dependence and heterogeneity in categorical spatial data pooled over time. It is particularly useful for detecting symmetrical spatio-temporal co-location patterns and mapping local clusters. The method also addresses the unbalanced temporal scale problem caused by unidirectional temporal data representation and explores potential impacts. The empirical evidence of the spatiotemporal crime patterns might usefully be deployed to inform the development of criminological theory by helping to disentangle the relationships between crime and the urban environment