Did cybercrime cause the crime drop?

Recent studies have hypothesised that the international crime drop was the result of the rise in cybercrime. We subject this ‘cybercrime hypothesis’ to critical assessment. We find significant evidence and argument indicating that cybercrime could not have caused the crime drop, and so we reject the cybercrime hypothesis

The Great American Crime Decline : Possible Explanations

This chapter examines the most important features of the crime decline in the United States during the 1990s-2010s but also takes a broader look at the violence declines of the last three centuries. The author argues that violent and property crime trends might have diverged in the 1990s, with property crimes increasingly happening in the online sphere and thus traditional property crime statistics not being reflective of the full picture. An important distinction is made between ‘contact crimes’ and crimes that do not require a victim and offender to be present in the same physical space. Contrary to the uncertainties engendered by property crime, the declines in violent (‘contact’) crime are rather general, and have been happening not only across all demographic and geographic categories within the United States but also throughout the developed world. An analysis of research literature on crime trends has identified twenty-four different explanations for the crime drop. Each one of them is briefly outlined and examined in terms of conceptual clarity and empirical support. Nine crime decline explanations are highlighted as the most promising ones. The majority of these promising explanations, being relative newcomers in the crime trends literature, have not been subjected to sufficient empirical scrutiny yet, and thus require further research. One potentially fruitful avenue for future studies is to examine the association of the most promising crime decline explanations with improvements in self-control

Electrical characterization of a graphite-diamond-graphite junction fabricated by MeV carbon implantation

The Deep Ion Beam Lithography technique has been extensively adopted in recent years for the fabrication of graphitic electrodes in bulk diamond with a wide range of technological applications. Particularly, it has been recently shown that a high current can be driven in devices consisting of micrometer-spaced sub-superficial graphitic electrodes. This effect has been exploited to stimulate electroluminescence from color centers placed in the active region of the device. A deep understanding of the conduction mechanisms governing charge transport in micro-regions of defective diamond comprised between graphitic electrodes is necessary in order to fully exploit the functionality of these opto-electronic devices, as well as to assess the ion-beam-micromachining of diamond as a convenient technique for the fabrication of solid-state micro-devices. In this work, a temperature-dependent characterization of the electrical properties of a sub-superficial graphite diamond-graphite junction is presented and discussed. The ohmic behavior observed at low bias voltages is ascribed to a donor level with an activation energy of (0.217 +/- 0.002) eV, a value compatible with previous reports on nitrogen-related defects. A transition to a high-current regime above a critical voltage V-c was also observed, and interpreted in terms of the Space-Charge-Limited Current model. The temperature-dependent measurements allowed to investigate the role of charge trapping in the charge injection mechanism of the junction. By fitting the temperature dependence in the high-current regime it was possible to determine the relevant trap level of the associated Poole-Frenkel mechanism, leading to a value of (0.278 +/- 0.001) eV from the conduction band. The Poole-Frenkel conduction model in high-current regime enabled also a preliminary investigation in the effects of ion implantation on the modification of the dc dielectric constant of diamond. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

A population-based study of homicide deaths in Ontario, Canada using linked death records

Abstract Background Homicide – a lethal expression of violence – has garnered little attention from public health researchers and health policy makers, despite the fact that homicides are a cause of preventable and premature death. Identifying populations at risk and the upstream determinants of homicide are important for addressing inequalities that hinder population health. This population-based study investigates the public health significance of homicides in Ontario, Canada, over the period of 1999–2012. We quantified the relative burden of homicides by comparing the socioeconomic gradient in homicides with the leading causes of death, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and neoplasm, and estimated the potential years of life lost (PYLL) due to homicide. Methods We linked vital statistics from the Office of the Registrar General Deaths register (ORG-D) with Census and administrative data for all Ontario residents. We extracted all homicide, neoplasm, and cardiovascular deaths from 1999 to 2012, using International Classification of Diseases codes. For socioeconomic status (SES), we used two dimensions of the Ontario Marginalization Index (ON-Marg): material deprivation and residential instability. Trends were summarized across deprivation indices using age-specific rates, rate ratios, and PYLL. Results Young males, 15–29 years old, were the main victims of homicide with a rate of 3.85 [IC 95%: 3.56; 4.13] per 100,000 population and experienced an upward trend over the study period. The socioeconomic neighbourhood gradient was substantial and higher than the gradient for both cardiovascular and neoplasms. Finally, the PYLL due to homicide were 63,512 and 24,066 years for males and females, respectively. Conclusions Homicides are an important cause of death among young males, and populations living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Our findings raise concerns about the burden of homicides in the Canadian population and the importance of addressing social determinants to address these premature deaths