Monograph No. 5: Drug law enforcement: The evidence

This monograph (No. 05) provides an annotated bibliography of all the relevant drug law enforcement literature. The team at Griffith University have collated and summarised the extant research literature and completed two systematic reviews – a narrative review and a meta-analytic review. These have both been published in peer review journals. This monograph provides the reader with a detailed list of all the published law enforcement literature, broken down into categories of: international/national interventions; reactive/aggressive interventions; proactive/partnership interventions; individualised interventions; and combination of reactive/aggressive & proactive/partnership interventions

Bulletin No. 4: Review of drug law enforcement interventions

The systematic review of police-led law enforcement strategies had three goals: 1. to advance our knowledge regarding effective and ineffective law enforcement interventions; 2. to establish effects of interventions that would inform models (such as agent-based modelling and stocks and flows); and 3. to establish potential interventions for demonstration projects in Stage Two. This is the first systematic review of drug law enforcement strategies to be undertaken with a broad mandate, including those strategies implemented at international, national, state and local levels. It has been endorsed as a Campbell Crime and Justice Group Systematic Review (see http://www.aic.gov.au/campbellcj/reviews/published.html)

Intra-individual variability in information processing speed reflects white matter microstructure in multiple sclerosis

AbstractSlowed information processing speed is commonly reported in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS), and is typically investigated using clinical neuropsychological tests, which provide sensitive indices of mean-level information processing speed. However, recent studies have demonstrated that within-person variability or intra-individual variability (IIV) in information processing speed may be a more sensitive indicator of neurologic status than mean-level performance on clinical tests. We evaluated the neural basis of increased IIV in mildly affected relapsing–remitting MS patients by characterizing the relation between IIV (controlling for mean-level performance) and white matter integrity using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Twenty women with relapsing–remitting MS and 20 matched control participants completed the Computerized Test of Information Processing (CTIP), from which both mean response time and IIV were calculated. Other clinical measures of information processing speed were also collected. Relations between IIV on the CTIP and DTI metrics of white matter microstructure were evaluated using tract-based spatial statistics. We observed slower and more variable responses on the CTIP in MS patients relative to controls. Significant relations between white matter microstructure and IIV were observed for MS patients. Increased IIV was associated with reduced integrity in more white matter tracts than was slowed information processing speed as measured by either mean CTIP response time or other neuropsychological test scores. Thus, despite the common use of mean-level performance as an index of cognitive dysfunction in MS, IIV may be more sensitive to the overall burden of white matter disease at the microstructural level. Furthermore, our study highlights the potential value of considering within-person fluctuations, in addition to mean-level performance, for uncovering brain–behavior relationships in neurologic disorders with widespread white matter pathology

Investigation of fMRI activation in the internal capsule

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in white matter has long been considered controversial. Recently, this viewpoint has been challenged by an emerging body of evidence demonstrating white matter activation in the corpus callosum. The current study aimed to determine whether white matter activation could be detected outside of the corpus callosum, in the internal capsule. Data were acquired from a 4 T MRI using a specialized asymmetric spin echo spiral sequence. A motor task was selected to elicit activation in the posterior limb of the internal capsule.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>White matter fMRI activation was examined at the individual and group levels. Analyses revealed that activation was present in the posterior limb of the internal capsule in 80% of participants. These results provide further support for white matter fMRI activation.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The ability to visualize functionally active tracts has strong implications for the basic scientific study of connectivity and the clinical assessment of white matter disease.</p

Enhancing public trust and police legitimacy during road traffic encounters:Results from a randomised controlled trial in Scotland

Objectives This paper reports results from the Scottish Community Engagement Trial (ScotCET), devised to replicate the Queensland Community Trial (QCET). ScotCET was an RCT that tested the effects of ‘procedurally just’ policing on public trust and police legitimacy Methods A block-randomized (matched pairs) design, with pretest and posttest measures, was implemented in the context of road policing in Scotland. Participants were drivers stopped by police in December and January 2013/14 as part of Police Scotland’s ‘Festive Road Safety Campaign’. The experimental intervention comprised a checklist of key messages to include in routine roadside vehicle stops, and a leaflet for officers to give to drivers. Analysis proceeds via random effects regression models predicting latent variable measures of trust, satisfaction and legitimacy Results Contrary to expectations the intervention did not improve trust and legitimacy; rather, trust in the officers who made the stop, and satisfaction with their conduct fell in the test sites, relative to the controls, after implementation of the intervention. The intervention had no significant effect on general trust in the police, or on police legitimacy. Conclusions Results demonstrate the difficulty in translating experimental interventions across policing contexts, and challenge the notion that public perceptions may be improved through a simple, additive approach to the delivery and communication of procedural justice.</p

Body size and tree species composition determine variation in prey consumption in a forest-inhabiting generalist predator

Trophic interactions may strongly depend on body size and environmental variation, but this prediction has been seldom tested in nature. Many spiders are generalist predators that use webs to intercept flying prey. The size and mesh of orb webs increases with spider size, allowing a more efficient predation on larger prey. We studied to this extent the orb-weaving spider Araneus diadematus inhabiting forest fragments differing in edge distance, tree diversity, and tree species. These environmental variables are known to correlate with insect composition, richness, and abundance. We anticipated these forest characteristics to be a principle driver of prey consumption. We additionally hypothesized them to impact spider size at maturity and expect shifts toward larger prey size distributions in larger individuals independently from the environmental context. We quantified spider diet by means of metabarcoding of nearly 1,000 A. diadematus from a total of 53 forest plots. This approach allowed a massive screening of consumption dynamics in nature, though at the cost of identifying the exact prey identity, as well as their abundance and putative intraspecific variation. Our study confirmed A. diadematus as a generalist predator, with more than 300 prey ZOTUs detected in total. At the individual level, we found large spiders to consume fewer different species, but adding larger species to their diet. Tree species composition affected both prey species richness and size in the spider's diet, although tree diversity per se had no influence on the consumed prey. Edges had an indirect effect on the spider diet as spiders closer to the forest edge were larger and therefore consumed larger prey. We conclude that both intraspecific size variation and tree species composition shape the consumed prey of this generalist predator

Editorial: Fifty Campbell systematic reviews relevant to the policy response to COVID-19

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

Widespread range expansions shape latitudinal variation in insect thermal limits

I thank the authors of previous studies on global variation in insect thermal tolerances who have generously provided open access use of their data sets.Peer reviewedPostprin

Obeying the rules of the road: Procedural justice, social identity and normative compliance

Why do people comply with traffic laws and regulations? Road traffic policing tends to be premised on the idea that people comply when they are presented with a credible risk of sanction in the event of non-compliance. Such an instrumental model of compliance contrasts with the normative account offered by procedural justice theory, in which compliance is encouraged by legitimate legal authorities. Comparing these two accounts, we find evidence that both instrumental and normative factors explain variance in motorists’ self-reported propensity to offend. Extending the standard procedural justice account, we also find that it is social identity – not legitimacy – that forms the ‘bridge’ linking procedural fairness and compliance, at least according to a definition of legitimacy that combines felt obligation and moral endorsement. Fair treatment at the hands of police officers seems to enhance identification with the social group the police represent, and in turn, identification seems to motivate adherence to rules (laws) governing social behavior. These findings have implications not only for understandings of legal compliance, but also our understanding of why procedural justice motivates compliance, and the role of procedural justice in promoting social cohesion

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: Opportunities to Reduce Social Disadvantage from COVID-19

This paper identifies and examines a range of policy reform opportunities in Australia arising from COVID-19. The authors demonstrate how COVID-19 presents unique opportunities for rethinking and redesigning long-standing rules and regulations covering how people live and work in Australia, with some opportunities arising coincidentally and others requiring purposeful policy and institutional redesign. They present a broad range of ideas to address entrenched disadvantage in health, labour markets, the tax and transfer system, gender equality, education, housing and criminal justice in Australia, in order to leverage the COVID-19 crisis to build a better society