Inclusion and exclusion through risk-based justice

As the use of risk-based practices has proliferated in many jurisdictions, justice-involved individuals are often subjected to multiple risk assessments at various moments and with different purposes as they move through the criminal justice system. This article examines the ways in which different risk-based practices are combined and evaluates these combinations in terms of inclusion and exclusion of marginalized offender categories. By understanding risk-based practices in terms of the distribution of resources, the article conceptualizes how the accumulation of bias could exacerbate exclusionary effects and how contradictory risk-informed decisions could undermine inclusionary interventions. Understanding the interplay of different risk-based practices is essential for the practical and ethical judgement of risk-based justice

Socioeconomic marginality in sentencing: The built-in bias in risk assessment tools and the reproduction of social inequality

This article develops a sociological analysis and critique of including socioeconomic factors such as education, employment, income and housing in risk assessment tools that inform sentencing decisions. In widely used risk assessment tools such as the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) (Canada, US), the Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions (COMPAS) (US), the Offender Assessment System (OASys) (UK) and the Recidive InschattingsSchalen (RISc) (the Netherlands), socioeconomic marginality contributes to a higher risk score, which increases the likelihood of a (longer) custodial sentence for underprivileged offenders compared to their more privileged counterparts. While this has been problematized in relation to gender and racial/ethnic bias, the problem of socioeconomic bias in itself has received little attention. Given the already marginalized position of many justice involved individuals and longstanding concerns about such disparities, and the adverse effects of imprisonment on socioeconomic opportunities, it is essential to evaluate the unintended social consequences of assessing socioeconomic marginality as ‘risk factor’. Elaborating on earlier critiques, I conceptualize risk-based sentencing as a meaning-making process through which (access to) resources and recognition are distributed among offender populations. Through tracing in detail two cultural processes – stigmatization and rationalization – I analyse how risk assessment is likely to produce sentencing disparities as well as to reproduce, and possibly exacerbate, social inequalities more generally

Ongelijkheid in Nederland

Introductie themanummer Ongelijkheid in Nederlan

Schulden en criminaliteit

Dit onderzoek heeft als doel om meer inzicht te bieden in de mate waarin en manier waarop schulden en criminaliteit met elkaar verweven zijn. Het onderzoek bestaat uit twee delen: (1) een literatuuronderzoek, en (2) interviews met sleutelfiguren werkzaam bij organisaties in Rotterdam. We besteden bijzondere aandacht aan de verwevenheid van schulden en criminaliteit in relatie tot ondermijning en tot jongeren

Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume

The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (rg =-0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness

SARS-CoV-2 infects the human kidney and drives fibrosis in kidney organoids

This work was supported by grants of the German Research Foundation (DFG: KR 4073/11-1; SFBTRR219, 322900939; and CRU344, 428857858, and CRU5011 InteraKD 445703531), a grant of the European Research Council (ERC-StG 677448), the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF NUM-COVID19, Organo-Strat 01KX2021), the Dutch Kidney Foundation (DKF) TASK FORCE consortium (CP1805), the Else Kroener Fresenius Foundation (2017_A144), and the ERA-CVD MENDAGE consortium (BMBF 01KL1907) all to R.K.; DFG (CRU 344, Z to I.G.C and CRU344 P2 to R.K.S.); and the BMBF eMed Consortium Fibromap (to V.G.P, R.K., R.K.S., and I.G.C.). R.K.S received support from the KWF Kankerbestrijding (11031/2017–1, Bas Mulder Award) and a grant by the ERC (deFiber; ERC-StG 757339). J.J. is supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO Veni grant no: 091 501 61 81 01 36) and the DKF (grant no. 19OK005). B.S. is supported by the DKF (grant: 14A3D104) and the NWO (VIDI grant: 016.156.363). R.P.V.R. and G.J.O. are supported by the NWO VICI (grant: 16.VICI.170.090). P.B. is supported by the BMBF (DEFEAT PANDEMIcs, 01KX2021), the Federal Ministry of Health (German Registry for COVID-19 Autopsies-DeRegCOVID, www.DeRegCOVID.ukaachen.de; ZMVI1-2520COR201), and the German Research Foundation (DFG; SFB/TRR219 Project-IDs 322900939 and 454024652). S.D. received DFG support (DJ100/1-1) as well as support from VGP and TBH (SFB1192). M.d.B,R.R., N.S., and A.A. are supported by an ERC Advanced Investigator grant (H2020-ERC-2017-ADV-788982-COLMIN) to N.S. A.A. is supported by the NWO (VI.Veni.192.094). We thank Saskia de Wildt, Jeanne Pertijs (Radboudumc, Department of Pharmacology), and Robert M. Verdijk (Erasmus Medical Center, Department of Pathology) for providing tissue controls (Erasmus MC Tissue Bank) and Christian Drosten (Charite´ Universitatsmedizin Berlin, Institute of € Virology) and Bart Haagmans (Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam) for providing the SARS-CoV-2 isolate. We thank Kioa L. Wijnsma (Department of Pediatric Nephrology, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Amalia Children’s Hospital, Radboud University Medical Center) for support with statistical analysis regarding the COVID-19 patient cohort.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Novel genetic loci associated with hippocampal volume

The hippocampal formation is a brain structure integrally involved in episodic memory, spatial navigation, cognition and stress responsiveness. Structural abnormalities in hippocampal volume and shape are found in several common neuropsychiatric disorders. To identify the genetic underpinnings of hippocampal structure here we perform a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of 33,536 individuals and discover six independent loci significantly associated with hippocampal volume, four of them novel. Of the novel loci, three lie within genes (ASTN2, DPP4 and MAST4) and one is found 200 kb upstream of SHH. A hippocampal subfield analysis shows that a locus within the MSRB3 gene shows evidence of a localized effect along the dentate gyrus, subiculum, CA1 and fissure. Further, we show that genetic variants associated with decreased hippocampal volume are also associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (rg =-0.155). Our findings suggest novel biological pathways through which human genetic variation influences hippocampal volume and risk for neuropsychiatric illness