Police-initiated diversion for youth to prevent future delinquent behavior: a systematic review

BackgroundOverly punitive responses to youth misconduct may have the unintended consequence ofincreasing the likelihood of future delinquency; yet, overly lenient responses may fail to serveas a corrective for the misbehavior. Police diversion schemes are a collection of strategiespolice can apply as an alternative to court processing of youth. Police-initiated diversionschemes aim to reduce reoffending by steering youth away from deeper penetration into thecriminal justice system and by providing an alternative intervention that can help youthaddress psychosocial development or other needs that contribute to their problem behavior.ObjectivesThe objective of this review was to synthesize the evidence on the effectiveness of pre-courtinterventions involving police warning or counseling and release, and cautioning schemes inreducing delinquent behavior.Search methodsA combination of 26 databases and websites were searched. References of relevant reviewswere also scanned to identify studies. We also consulted with experts in the field. Searcheswere executed by two reviewers and conducted between August 2016 and January 2017.Selection criteriaOnly experimental and quasi-experimental designs were eligible for this review. All quasiexperimentaldesigns must have had a comparison group similar to the police diversionintervention group with respect to demographic characteristics and prior involvement indelinquent behavior (i.e., at similar risk for future delinquent behavior). Additionally, studiesmust have included youth participants between 12 and 17 years of age who either underwenttraditional system processing or were diverted from court processing through a police-leddiversion program. Studies were also eligible if delinquency-related outcomes, includingofficial and non-official (self-report or third-party reporting) measures of delinquency werereported.Data collection and analysisThis study used meta-analysis to synthesize results across studies. This method involvedsystematic coding of study features and conversion of study findings into effect sizesreflecting the direction and magnitude of any police-led diversion effect. There were 19independent evaluations across the 14 primary documents coded for this review. From this,we coded 67 effect sizes of delinquent behavior post diversion across 31 diversion-traditionalprocessing comparisons. We analyzed these comparisons using two approaches. The firstapproach selected a single effect size per comparison based on a decision rule and the secondused all 67 effect sizes, nesting these within comparison condition and evaluation design.ResultsThe general pattern of evidence is positive, suggesting that police-led diversion modestlyreduces future delinquent behavior of low-risk youth relative to traditional processing.Authors’ conclusionsThe findings from this systematic review support the use of police-led diversion for low-riskyouth with limited or no prior involvement with the juvenile justice system. Thus, policedepartments and policy-makers should consider diversionary programs as part of the mix ofsolutions for addressing youth crime

Anthropogenic thermogeological 'anomaly' in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UK

Two subsurface thermal profiles were measured in geothermal ‘closed-loop’ boreholes at Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, UK. They show a clear reversed gradient (temperature decreases with depth) down to at least 55 m, and the subsurface temperatures are generally warmer than those predicted purely from annual average soil temperature data and the known geothermal heat flux. This suggests that historical downward conductive heat ‘leakage’ from the long-established Gateshead urban environment has modified subsurface temperatures to depths of at least 55 m. Although poorly documented in the UK, a similar ‘urban thermogeological heat island’ effect has been noted from Canada, Sweden, Ireland and Japan

Predictive modelling of groundwater abstraction and artificial recharge of cooling water

Well doublet ground source heating and cooling systems are rapidly becoming a popular alternative to conventional heating and cooling systems in the UK, principally because of the substantial reduction in carbon emissions that can be achieved. The sustainability of such systems, and their expected lifetime, is largely governed by the fate of the waste heat following re-injection into the aquifer. Numerical modelling using the reactive transport model SHEMAT (Simulator for HEat and MAss Transport) has been undertaken to determine the feasibility of a groundwater-based cooling scheme to remove heat generated by a UK laboratory. The proposed scheme involves the use of groundwater, pumped from a single abstraction borehole drilled into a sandstone aquifer, to feed a heat exchanger cooling system with re-injection back into the aquifer via three injection boreholes. A series of simulations have been undertaken to determine the optimum configuration of the abstraction and recharge boreholes to minimize the effects on the aquifer. To prolong the thermal breakthrough time at the abstraction well, it is concluded that the abstraction borehole must be located up the hydraulic gradient from the three recharge boreholes