The framing of contemporary violence policy in England and Wales: an examination of the contributing roles of alcohol and illegal drugs

Background: In 2018, the UK Government published its Serious Violence Strategy setting out the Government’s commitment to adopting a public health approach to ‘serious violence’ in England and Wales and encouraging a multi-agency, whole system public health approach to violence prevention. There has been very little research attention and commentary on the roles of alcohol and illegal drugs in the construction of ‘serious violence’ within the Strategy. . Method: Drawing on thematic analysis of key policy documents, the ways in which drugs and alcohol have been conceptualised in recent violence policy in the English and Welsh context are explored through the analytical framework of ‘framing’. Results: The overwhelming emphasis on violence associated with the drugs market has skewed attention towards exceptional and sensationalist forms of ‘serious’ violence and diverted it from more common and widespread forms of ‘everyday’ violence including domestic and alcohol-related violence. Omitting these from the policy purview has implications for those affected and how resources are allocated. Conclusion: To advance inclusive and holistic violence prevention, a wider framing of violence is required and both illegal drugs and alcohol need to be embedded for meaningful working across populations and organisational boundaries

The 2011 English ‘Riots’: Prosecutorial Zeal and Judicial Abandon

Much attention has focussed on the severity of the sentences imposed following the 2011 ‘summer rioting’ in England. The Court of Appeal confirmed that participation in a collective outbreak of disorder takes offending outside the sentencing guidelines. The position for sentencing riot-related offending in future is unclear, however, as the Court gave no indication of how to calibrate this departure, and the Sentencing Council has made offending during public disorder an aggravating factor only in its burglary guideline. This article explores new empirical evidence regarding the sentences imposed in Manchester, together with national Ministry of Justice data, to demonstrate for the first time how this ‘uplift’ effect was a feature throughout the criminal process, from arrest to sentence

Concentration of atomic hydrogen diffused into silicon in the temperature range 900–1300 °C

Boron-doped Czochralski silicon samples with [B]~1017 cm−3 have been heated at various temperatures in the range 800–1300 °C in an atmosphere of hydrogen and then quenched. The concentration of [H-B] pairs was measured by infrared localized vibrational mode spectroscopy. It was concluded that the solubility of atomic hydrogen is greater than [Hs] = 5.6 × 1018 exp( − 0.95 eV/kT)cm−3 at the temperatures investigated

Theory of Umklapp-assisted recombination of bound excitons in Si:P

We present the calculations for the oscillator strength of the recombination of excitons bound to phosphorous donors in silicon. We show that the direct recombination of the bound exciton cannot account for the experimentally measured oscillator strength of the no-phonon line. Instead, the recombination process is assisted by an umklapp process of the donor electron state. We make use of the empirical pseudopotential method to evaluate the Umklapp-assisted recombination matrix element in second-order perturbation theory. Our result is in excellent agreement with the experiment. We also present two methods to improve the optical resolution of the optical detection of the spin state of a single nucleus in silicon.Comment: 9 pages, 6 EPS figures, Revtex

The role of deprivation and alcohol availability in shaping trends in violent crime

It is well known that both deprivation and alcohol availability are associated with violent crime. However, less is known about whether the former moderates the latter. Pioneering the linkage of novel alcohol availability measures derived from consumer data with police data and an index of deprivation, we examine inequalities in violent crime across small-level geography (LSOAs) for the whole of England. Our findings confirmed a recent upward trend in recorded violent crime in England between 2011 and 2018 and substantial between-area variability in recorded violent crime, as well as an increase in violent crime inequality across LSOAs during the period of analysis. Violent crime was higher in areas with increased deprivation and alcohol availability, especially in the form of on-licensed premises. On-licence availability, in the form of pubs, bars and nightclubs, explained variability in recorded violent crime more so when compared with off-licence availability. A positive interaction effect between alcohol availability (in the form of on-licensed premises) and deprivation showed how deprivation amplified the impact of alcohol availability, with more deprived areas having a stronger impact of on-licence availability on violent crime. Deprivation is thus an important contextual factor when considering rates and the social ecology of violence. Our findings suggest a need to respond to the disproportionate impact of violence on areas with higher levels of deprivation and availability of on-licensed premises

Contextual culpability: How drinking and social context impact sentencing of violence

The controversial effect of intoxication on sentencing outcomes has received renewed attention with a series of new empirical studies. However, these studies have relied on survey data that conflate alcohol and drug intoxication and miss pertinent contextual features of the offence. This article explores how alcohol intoxication, and its social context, impact sentence outcomes for violent offences. To do so, the probability of custodial sentence severity is modelled using multilevel Cox regression using data from online sentence transcripts. Findings contribute insights into how punishment is shaped by not only the presence of alcohol intoxication in offending but also in which contexts by highlighting the significant punitive effects of reference to concomitant drug use, the defendant drinking together with the victim and if the offence occurred in a private setting. This helps clarify complex considerations taken into account by sentencers when processing cases and the need for clearer guidance

The impact of COVID-19 and associated public health restrictions on trends in police-recorded violence in an English police force area

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, and associated public health measures, had a marked impact on a number of health and wellbeing outcomes, including alcohol use and violence. Current literature presents a mixed view of the impact of the pandemic on violence trends. The current study utilises police offence data from a region of northern England to examine the impact of lockdowns, and subsequent relaxation of restrictions, on trends in violent offences. Methods: Time series analyses using seasonal auto-regressive integrated moving average (SARIMA) modelling was used to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 public health measures on weekly offence trends from April 1 2018 to March 20 2021. Additionally, pre-pandemic data were used to forecast expected trends had the pandemic not occurred. These expected trends were then compared to actual data to determine if the average levels of violence were outside the forecasted expectations. Overall violence and six subtypes (violence with and without injury, sexual offences including rape, domestic violence, and alcohol-related violent offences) were examined. Results: Overall, the observed trend in police recorded violent offences demonstrated fluctuating patterns in line with commencement and easing of public health restrictions. That is, offence numbers declined during lockdowns and increased after relaxation of restrictions. However, the majority of observed values fell within the expected range. This broad pattern was also found for subtypes of violent offences. Conclusions: While violent crime trends demonstrated fluctuations with lockdowns, and subsequent easing of restrictions, these changes were not demonstrably larger than expected trends within this English region, suggesting that a sustained amplification in violence was not observed within this data. However, it is important to acknowledge the high levels of violence reported in this region across the study period, which should be used as a key driver for investing in long-term approaches to violence prevention. Given the extent of unreported violence generally, and that victims/survivors may come into contact with other support services (without reporting to the police), it is vital that policy and practice decisions take a holistic approach, considering a broad range of data sources

Schottky-based band lineups for refractory semiconductors

An overview is presented of band alignments for small-lattice parameter, refractory semiconductors. The band alignments are estimated empirically through the use of available Schottky barrier height data, and are compared to theoretically predicted values. Results for tetrahedrally bonded semiconductors with lattice constant values in the range from C through ZnSe are presented. Based on the estimated band alignments and the recently demonstrated p-type dopability of GaN, we propose three novel heterojunction schemes which seek to address inherent difficulties in doping or electrical contact to wide-gap semiconductors such as ZnO, ZnSe, and ZnS

A human mitochondrial poly(A) polymerase mutation reveals the complexities of post-transcriptional mitochondrial gene expression

The p.N478D missense mutation in human mitochondrial poly(A) polymerase (mtPAP) has previously been implicated in a form of spastic ataxia with optic atrophy. In this study, we have investigated fibroblast cell lines established from family members. The homozygous mutation resulted in the loss of polyadenylation of all mitochondrial transcripts assessed; however, oligoadenylation was retained. Interestingly, this had differential effects on transcript stability that were dependent on the particular species of transcript. These changes were accompanied by a severe loss of oxidative phosphorylation complexes I and IV, and perturbation of de novo mitochondrial protein synthesis. Decreases in transcript polyadenylation and in respiratory chain complexes were effectively rescued by overexpression of wild-type mtPAP. Both mutated and wild-type mtPAP localized to the mitochondrial RNA-processing granules thereby eliminating mislocalization as a cause of defective polyadenylation. In vitro polyadenylation assays revealed severely compromised activity by the mutated protein, which generated only short oligo(A) extensions on RNA substrates, irrespective of RNA secondary structure. The addition of LRPPRC/SLIRP, a mitochondrial RNA-binding complex, enhanced activity of the wild-type mtPAP resulting in increased overall tail length. The LRPPRC/SLIRP effect although present was less marked with mutated mtPAP, independent of RNA secondary structure. We conclude that (i) the polymerase activity of mtPAP can be modulated by the presence of LRPPRC/SLIRP, (ii) N478D mtPAP mutation decreases polymerase activity and (iii) the alteration in poly(A) length is sufficient to cause dysregulation of post-transcriptional expression and the pathogenic lack of respiratory chain complexe

The EG95 Antigen of Echinococcus spp. Contains Positively Selected Amino Acids, which May Influence Host Specificity and Vaccine Efficacy

Echinococcosis is a worldwide zoonotic parasitic disease of humans and various herbivorous domestic animals (intermediate hosts) transmitted by the contact with wild and domestic carnivores (definitive hosts), mainly foxes and dogs. Recently, a vaccine was developed showing high levels of protection against one parasite haplotype (G1) of Echinococcus granulosus, and its potential efficacy against distinct parasite variants or species is still unclear. Interestingly, the EG95 vaccine antigen is a secreted glycosylphosphatydilinositol (GPI)-anchored protein containing a fibronectin type III domain, which is ubiquitous in modular proteins involved in cell adhesion. EG95 is highly expressed in oncospheres, the parasite life cycle stage which actively invades the intermediate hosts. After amplifying and sequencing the complete CDS of 57 Echinococcus isolates belonging to 7 distinct species, we uncovered a large amount of genetic variability, which may influence protein folding. Two positively selected sites are outside the vaccine epitopes, but are predicted to alter protein conformation. Moreover, phylogenetic analyses indicate that EG95 isoform evolution is convergent with regard to the number of beta-sheets and alpha-helices. We conclude that having a variety of EG95 isoforms is adaptive for Echinococcus parasites, in terms of their ability to invade different hosts, and we propose that a mixture of isoforms could possibly maximize vaccine efficacy