(Looking) Back to the Future: using space-time patterns to better predict the location of street crime

Crime analysts attempt to identify regularities in police recorded crime data with a central view of disrupting the patterns found. One common method for doing so is hotspot mapping, focusing attention on spatial clustering as a route to crime reduction (Chainey & Ratcliffe, 2005; Clarke & Eck, 2003). Despite the widespread use of this analytical technique, evaluation tools to assess its ability to accurately predict spatial patterns have only recently become available to practitioners (Chainey, Tompson, & Uhlig, 2008). Crucially, none has examined this issue from a spatio-temporal standpoint. Given that the organisational nature of policing agencies is shift based, it is common-sensical to understand crime problems at this temporal sensitivity, so there is an opportunity for resources to be deployed swiftly in a manner that optimises prevention and detection. This paper tests whether hotspot forecasts can be enhanced when time-of-day information is incorporated into the analysis. Using street crime data, and employing an evaluative tool called the Predictive Accuracy Index (PAI), we found that the predictive accuracy can be enhanced for particular temporal shifts, and this is primarily influenced by the degree of spatial clustering present. Interestingly, when hotspots shrank (in comparison with the all-day hotspots), they became more concentrated, and subsequently more predictable. This is meaningful in practice; for if crime is more predictable during specific timeframes, then response resources can be used intelligently to reduce victimisation

Conceal or Reveal? The Role of Law in Black Collar Crime

This article reconsiders the way in which the State deals with the suppression or concealment of crimes, particularly child sexual abuse, by members of institutions such as churches. There are legal mechanisms available to bring such prosecutions and yet they are not being utilized. This article critically analyses the exemption from prosecution for concealing a serious indictable offence, by members of the clergy under section 316 (4) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW); and that section s relationship to the religious confession privilege under section 217 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW). The article deconstructs the three major justifications underpinning the legislative provisions. These justifications overlap, but can be isolated under the following headings: history, freedom of religion, and spiritual considerations. I argue that interpretation of section 316 (4) of the Crimes Act 1900 should, at a minimum, be confined to the scope of the religious confession privilege in section 217 of the Evidence Act 1995. Further, I argue that the justifications underpinning the legislative scheme and the assumptions they are based on are untenable in a secular society

Chandra X-ray observation of the HII region Gum 31 in the Carina Nebula complex

(abridged) We used the Chandra observatory to perform a deep (70 ksec) X-ray observation of the Gum 31 region and detected 679 X-ray point sources. This extends and complements the X-ray survey of the central Carina nebula regions performed in the Chandra Carina Complex Project. Using deep near-infrared images from our recent VISTA survey of the Carina nebula complex, our Spitzer point-source catalog, and optical archive data, we identify counterparts for 75% of these X-ray sources. Their spatial distribution shows two major concentrations, the central cluster NGC 3324 and a partly embedded cluster in the southern rim of the HII region, but majority of X-ray sources constitute a rather homogeneously distributed population of young stars. Our color-magnitude diagram analysis suggests ages of ~1-2 Myr for the two clusters, whereas the distributed population shows a wider age range up to ~10 Myr. We also identify previously unknown companions to two of the three O-type members of NGC 3324 and detect diffuse X-ray emission in the region. Our results suggests that the observed region contains about 4000 young stars in total. The distributed population is probably part of the widely distributed population of ~ 1-10 Myr old stars, that was identified in the CCCP area. This implies that the global stellar configuration of the Carina nebula complex is a very extended stellar association, in which the (optically prominent) clusters contain only a minority of the stellar population.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. A high quality preprint is available at http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/people/preibisch/publications.htm

Chandra X-ray observation of the young stellar cluster NGC 3293 in the Carina Nebula Complex

We characterize the stellar population of the poorly explored young stellar cluster NGC 3293 at the northwestern periphery of the Carina Nebula Complex, in order to evaluate the cluster age and the mass function, and to test claims of an abnormal IMF and a deficit of M <= 2.5 M_sun stars. We performed a deep (70 ksec) X-ray observation of NGC 3293 with Chandra and detected 1026 individual X-ray point sources. We identify counterparts for 74% of the X-ray sources in deep near-infrared images. Our data clearly show that NGC 3293 hosts a large population of solar-mass stars, refuting claims of a lack of M <= 2.5 M_sun stars. The analysis of the color magnitude diagram suggests an age of ~8-10 Myr for the low-mass population of the cluster. There are at least 511 X-ray detected stars with color magnitude positions that are consistent with young stellar members within 7 arcmin of the cluster center. The number ratio of X-ray detected stars in the 1-2 M_sun range versus the M >= 5 M_sun stars (known from optical spectroscopy) is consistent with the expectation from a normal field initial mass function. Most of the early B-type stars and 20% of the later B-type stars are detected as X-ray sources. Our data shows that NGC 3293 is one of the most populous stellar clusters in the entire Carina Nebula Complex. The cluster probably harbored several O-type stars, whose supernova explosions may have had an important impact on the early evolution of the Carina Nebula Complex.Comment: accepted for Astronomy & Astrophysic

The Process is the Punishment: The Case of Bail in New South Wales

In the context of bail, punitive crime policies in NSW have led to a gradual erosion of the presumption in favour of bail, the conflation of bail conditions and penalty and a steady increase in the number of persons being held on remand. Continuing this punitive turn in crime police, the Bail Act 1978 was recently amended in respect of s22A. It is this amendment and the resultantant changes to the configuration of bail that is the subject of this article

Parsec-scale X-ray Flows in High-mass Star-forming Regions

The Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing remarkable new views of massive star-forming regions, revealing all stages in the life cycle of high-mass stars and their effects on their surroundings. We present a Chandra tour of several high-mass star-forming regions, highlighting physical processes that characterize the life of a cluster of high-mass stars, from deeply-embedded cores too young to have established an HII region to superbubbles so large that they shape our views of galaxies. Along the way we see that X-ray observations reveal hundreds of stellar sources powering great HII region complexes, suffused by both hard and soft diffuse X-ray structures caused by fast O-star winds thermalized in wind-wind collisions or by termination shocks against the surrounding media. Finally, we examine the effects of the deaths of high-mass stars that remained close to their birthplaces, exploding as supernovae within the superbubbles that these clusters created. We present new X-ray results on W51 IRS2E and 30 Doradus and we introduce new data on Trumpler 14 in Carina and the W3 HII region complexes W3 Main and W3(OH).Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 227,"Massive Star Birth - A Crossroads of Astrophysics," eds. R. Cesaroni, E. Churchwell, M. Felli, and C.M. Walmsle

Mitigating Charge Transfer Inefficiency in the Chandra X-ray Observatory's ACIS Instrument

The ACIS front-illuminated CCDs onboard the Chandra X-ray Observatory were damaged in the extreme environment of the Earth's radiation belts, resulting in enhanced charge transfer inefficiency (CTI). This produces a row dependence in gain, event grade, and energy resolution. We model the CTI as a function of input photon energy, including the effects of de-trapping (charge trailing), shielding within an event (charge in the leading pixels of the 3X3 event island protect the rest of the island by filling traps), and non-uniform spatial distribution of traps. This technique cannot fully recover the degraded energy resolution, but it reduces the position dependence of gain and grade distributions. By correcting the grade distributions as well as the event amplitudes, we can improve the instrument's quantum efficiency. We outline our model for CTI correction and discuss how the corrector can improve astrophysical results derived from ACIS data.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letters; see http://www.astro.psu.edu/users/townsley/cti

Onward in higher education: Business faculty perspectives on authentic assessment

This mixed-method study explored business faculty’s perspectives on drawbacks and benefits associated with authentic assessment at 10 R1 Midwestern universities. In search of solutions, faculty were also asked to provide recommendations in implementing authentic assessment. Quantitative and qualitative findings suggest most business faculty are in favor of assessment strategies that promote higher order thinking and real-world practices. However, ongoing faculty professional development opportunities and reconsidering the assessment culture of higher education are needed to make this important shift towards authentic assessment