Learning from Ontario’s municipal drug strategies: an implementation framework for reducing harm through coordinated prevention, enforcement, treatment, and housing

Since 2001, when Vancouver completed its integrated drug strategy, other Canadian municipalities have begun to explore their role in addressing addictions issues. This article reviews reports from ten municipal drug strategies written in the Canadian province of Ontario to develop recommendations for practitioners wishing to implement their own drug strategy. Note that this paper’s focus is on implementation, and it does not seek to evaluate the underlying clinical practices involved in such strategies. All published reports from 10 municipal drug strategies in Ontario released between 2005 and 2015 were read and analyzed using thematic analysis. Similarities are found between the different strategies approaches to data gathering, the vision statements, the mission statements, and the principles of service. Each municipality was also found to focus on four pillars: prevention, treatment, enforcement, and harm reduction. Some municipalities added an additional pillar: integration, sustaining relationships, or housing. These pillars were used to frame the strategies recommendations. Ten questions for municipalities to consider in their own drug strategy consultations are recommended

The Geography of Crime: Placing Geographers in the Space of Criminologists

The Geography of Crime consists of five articles. The first article, Exploring opportunities for geographers to explain the spatial distribution of crime, serves as a key conceptual link between each of the other four articles. This paper provides a broad introduction to the dissertation showing what gaps in the crime literature exist, especially those ripe for analysis by geographers. Three primary directions emerged as a focus of this dissertation: overarching theoretical contributions, specialized geographic quantitative techniques, and qualitative approaches centred on the concept of place. The second article, Connecting social disorganization theory to broken windows and routine activities proposes a framework for addressing how Broken Windows Theory (BWT), Social Disorganization Theory (SDT), and Routine Activity Theory (RAT) conceptually relate to one another. The paper results in a concept map integrating these three theoretical approaches to addressing the spatial distribution of crime. The third article, Spatial regression of juvenile delinquency: Revisiting Shaw and McKay explores how modern statistical techniques impact the results obtained by Shaw and McKay (1969) in the founding of SDT. The paper validates Shaw and McKay’s core findings demonstrating why SDT has become and still is, an important theoretical perspective explaining neighbourhood crime. The fourth article, The social disorganization of intimate partner violence delves into theoretical considerations asking how can SDT help to explain intimate partner violence (IPV). This paper proposes how SDT can work as a theoretical framework to explain the spatial distribution of IPV. The fifth article, Distinct places to address intimate partner violence asks how Brantford social service providers use the concept of place to address IPV. This paper shows place, as uniquely defined by geographers, reveals some innovative ways Brantford social service agencies are addressing IPV

The United States Marine Corps way of war

Abstract: This thesis examines the evolution of institutionalized doctrine, strategy and tactics relating to, but not limited only to maneuver warfare as adopted by the United States Marine Corps during the post-Vietnam period in the United States. The United States Marine Corps also ingrained aspects of Asian warfare as offered by Sun Tzu; as well a return to its historical DNA in fighting “Small Wars”. The time frame studied spans the 1970’s through to 2010, using traditional as well as first person accounts by the prime movers of this perceived paradigm shift from attritional warfare to a maneuverist approach to warfighting. This evolutionary period of development for the U.S. Marine Corps was mistakenly referred to as a Revolution in Military Affairs by members of the Congressional Military Reform Caucus. It has also been mis-portrayed as a highly disruptive forced evolution. These two outliers were not the case. The following areas that were affected by this institutionalization of maneuverism were the Marine Corps’ educational system, the actual battle space prosecution of warfare; be it humanitarian assistance, regular set piece warfare or irregular guerrilla type warfare, and the role that the leadership cadre of the Marine Corps played in this evolutionary transition to maneuverism for the United States Marine Corps. Since Gulf War I the United States Marine Corps has utilized a non-attritionist demeanor on the battlefield whenever possible

The social disorganization of intimate partner violence

Recently, scholars have begun to recognize new theoretical connections between geography and intimate partner violence (IPV). One such theory is social disorganization theory (SDT). According to SDT, crime in communities can primarily be explained as a consequence of economic disadvantage, insufficient informal social control, lack of collective efficacy, and family breakdown. SDT is typically used in the context of property crime and public violence. This article reviews this evolving literature, proposing a unique and comprehensive concept map offering insights into how neighbourhood dynamics influence IPV

A “Criminal Immigrant” Mindset and Punitiveness: The Canadian Case

Unnever and Cullen (2010) argue that there is a “culturally universal” relationship between racial/ethnic/immigrant animus and general punitiveness.  Because this thesis seems ill-fitting to Canada’s multicultural society, we re-examine the connection in Canada between punitiveness and intolerance associated with new immigrants. We do this by expanding their multivariate analyses of the Canadian case to consider additional data sources spanning the first decade of this century, and by testing directly their thesis that the relationship is mediated by citizens imputing criminal activity to negatively-viewed outgroups.  We show that the relationship between immigrant intolerance and punitiveness reported in their original research for the year 2000 remains strong in 2004, 2008 and 2011 and resists explanation in terms of potentially relevant third variables. Our supplementary study examining the capacity of a criminal immigrant mindset variable to mediate this association shows that mediation is partial only. We conclude (1) that outgroup animus and general punitiveness are indeed related in the Canadian case, (2) that there is modest support for the Unnever/Cullen account of that relationship, but (3) that most of the original relationship remains unexplained

When is a Myth Itself a Myth? Immigrant Criminality and the Canadian Public

Survey-based evidence gathered over the past several decades suggests that substantial minorities of the Canadian public associate immigrants with crime and crime with immigrants. In this note, we ask whether the myth of immigrant criminality imputed to the public is not itself a myth. We question whether the connection is a salient and enduring part of the public’s mindset or whether it is largely an artifact of the closed-ended items employed to explore the topic. We argue that responses to closed-ended questions on this topic are affected by a “halo effect” response bias – a tendency to associated positive attributes with positively evaluated targets and negative attributes to negatively evaluated targets. In support, we show (1) that responses to open-ended questions tell a very different story, (2) that attitudes toward immigrants strongly predict the likelihood of making the immigrant-crime connection when closed-ended items are used, and (3) that priming a possible immigrant-criminal linkage in a survey enhances this likelihood for subsequent items

The Thermostat is Rising Again: Canadian's Belief in Anthropogenic Climate Change

AbstractCanadian public opinion surveys from five Canadian polling firms in 29 separate surveys from 2007 to 2021 are used to measure changes in belief in anthropogenic climate change in Canada. By applying Stimson’s (1991) Dyad Ratio Algorithm to the surveys an index is created which shows a single trend line tracking belief in climate change over time. Belief in climate change declined from 2007 to 2011, then gradually increased to 2021. The research note concludes by suggesting there is an opportunity in Canada for action to address climate change which will continue to solve the problem even when public interest once again declines.ResuméVingt-huit sondages de l’opinion publique canadienne emmenée par cinq maisons de sondages canadiens de 2007 à 2019 sont utilisés pour mesurer le changement de la croyance au changement climatique anthropique au Canada. En appliquant l'Algorithme du rapport dyadique de Stimson (1991) aux sondages, on crée un index montrant une unique ligne de tendance suivant l'évolution de la croyance au changement climatique au fil du temps. De 2007 à 2011, la croyance au changement climatique a diminué, suivie d’une augmentation graduelle jusqu’en 2018. La conclusion de l'article de recherche suggère qu’il y a des opportunités au Canada pour agir contre le changement climatique et qu'ils continueront à résoudre le problème même si l'opinion publique s'en désintéresse.Key Words: Canada, public opinion and public policy, belief in climate changeMots-clés : Canada, opinion publique et les politiques publique, croyance dans le changement climatiqu

ING116070: a study of the pharmacokinetics and antiviral activity of dolutegravir in cerebrospinal fluid in HIV-1-infected, antiretroviral therapy-naive subjects.

BackgroundDolutegravir (DTG), a once-daily, human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) integrase inhibitor, was evaluated for distribution and antiviral activity in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).MethodsING116070 is an ongoing, single-arm, open-label, multicenter study in antiretroviral therapy-naive, HIV-1-infected adults. Subjects received DTG (50 mg) plus abacavir/lamivudine (600/300 mg) once daily. The CSF and plasma (total and unbound) DTG concentrations were measured at weeks 2 and 16. The HIV-1 RNA levels were measured in CSF at baseline and weeks 2 and 16 and in plasma at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 8, 12, and 16.ResultsThirteen white men enrolled in the study; 2 withdrew prematurely, 1 because of a non-drug-related serious adverse event (pharyngitis) and 1 because of lack of treatment efficacy. The median DTG concentrations in CSF were 18 ng/mL (range, 4-23 ng/mL) at week 2 and 13 ng/mL (4-18 ng/mL) at week 16. Ratios of DTG CSF to total plasma concentration were similar to the unbound fraction of DTG in plasma. Median changes from baseline in CSF (n = 11) and plasma (n = 12) HIV-1 RNA were -3.42 and -3.04 log10 copies/mL, respectively. Nine of 11 subjects (82%) had plasma and CSF HIV-1 RNA levels <50 copies/mL and 10 of 11 (91%) had CSF HIV-1 RNA levels <2 copies/mL at week 16.ConclusionsThe DTG concentrations in CSF were similar to unbound plasma concentrations and exceeded the in vitro 50% inhibitory concentration for wild-type HIV (0.2 ng/mL), suggesting that DTG achieves therapeutic concentrations in the central nervous system. The HIV-1 RNA reductions were similar in CSF and plasma. Clinical Trials Registration. NCT01499199