Making an example of rioters

This article appeared on the OUP Blog Website on 25 August 2011. The final version can be accessed at the link below.In the wake of the recent riots, much attention has been given to the causes of the riots but an issue now at the forefront of press and public concern is the level of punishment being meted out to those convicted of riot-related offences. Reports of first offenders being convicted and imprisoned for thefts of items of small value have raised questions about the purposes of sentencing, the problems of giving exemplary sentences and of inconsistency, as well as the issue of political pressure on sentencers. The government has been emphasising the need for harsh punishment for riot-related offences and this has been reflected in some very severe sentences for offenders with no previous convictions, including young offenders, and where offenders have pleaded guilty

Fixed penalties for careless driving: the delusion of deterrence?

Government proposals to raise the level of fixed penalty notices for motoring offences by £30 and to add less serious instances of careless driving offences to those eligible for an FPN might seem small and relatively insignificant changes. Not so. They raise issues about public perceptions of punishment and wrongfulness, as well as concerns regarding accountability. In addition, there are dubious assumptions underpinning the proposals: that higher fines will deter and that the remedial training course - on offer instead of an FPN + 3 penalty points for a careless driving offence – can deliver effective rehabilitation. This paper will explore these issues

How effective is non-custodial sentencing in achieving compliance with road traffic law?

This paper was presented at the Achieving Compliance with Road Traffic Law: What can enforcement, prosecution and sentencing contribute? Conference hosted at Brunel University on the 13th June 2012.As we are all aware, the vast majority of road traffic offences – if known and processed - result in one particular type of non-custodial sentence, the fine, but there is also an increasing emphasis on community sentences which involve drug and alcohol treatment requirements for certain road traffic offences. Within that context we have been asked to review what we know about the effectiveness of non-custodial sanctions generally but specifically in relation to road traffic offences. This has proved to be a surprisingly difficult task for various reasons

Response to the Home Office Consultation (2006) on 'Making Sentencing Clearer'

This is the response of Dr Easton and Professor Piper to the Consulation Paper, 'Making Sentencing Clearer' published by the Home Office in 2006. The deadline for responses was 9 January 2007 and a summary of responses will be published on the Home Office web-site in April 2007. Easton and Piper argued in favour of encouraging the greater use of community sentences and fines but opposed several proposals on human rights grounds. They also argued that the current 'tough' sentencing messages may negate the positive aspects of the proposed changes

Can’t get No Satisfaction?: How do social and spatial factors in early childhood affect adult well-being?

In recent years, research on inequalities in health from birth has provided increasing evidence to support the lifecourse perspective on health inequalities. Studies from the field of health geography have also highlighted the role of birthplace in adult health outcomes. In this paper, these two threads are combined by taking an ecological approach to how both social and spatial factors in the first few years of life affect adult well-being. The outcome indicator in this case is satisfaction with life at the age of 30

The mortality risk of jobseeker’s allowance claimants: an analysis using British national benefits data

The aim of this research was to explore the combined effects of social and spatial factors on the mortality risk of British Jobseeker’s Allowance1 (JSA) claimants across time. This involved an analysis of longitudinal National Benefits Data held by the Department of Work & Pensions2 since 1999, which is not publicly available, and the quality of which was previously unknown. The likelihood of dying during the eight-year research period to 2007 was modelled for over seven million JSA claimants in Britain using logistic regression. A model including a range of individual characteristics and data about claim patterns was fitted to each British region/country in order to estimate the probability of dying during the study period for different claimants. Marked geographical variation was found in the risk of mortality as well as significant associations with individual factors such as age, gender, being partnered and having a child. There was interaction between the number of spells on JSA, the length of claim, and how spread these spells were over time

Functional and metagenomic analysis of the human tongue dorsum using phage display

It is well established that mixed microbial communities contain organisms which have not been studied by conventional culture-based methods. In the human oral cavity this number is estimated at around 50%. Commensal bacteria develop and maintain an intimate relationship with human cells without triggering proinflammatory mechanisms and this study aims to explore this by searching for bacterial proteins which facilitate binding to the human tongue dorsum and wider oral cavity. Metagenomic DNA from the human tongue dorsum of 9 volunteers was extracted and a phage display library created, to our knowledge the first to incorporate metagenomic DNA. Phage display is an elegant molecular technique involving fusion of fragmented DNA to a phagemid coat protein, such that inserted DNA is encoded by the phage and displayed on the phage surface. The affinity selection technique panning, then exploited the natural affinity and specificity of the fusion proteins to identify bacterial binding proteins using, in this case, three ligands: IgA, Fibronectin and BSA. IgA is of special interest to this group as it interacts with bacterial proteins and is poised to respond to bacterial numbers in human secretions such as saliva. Proteins from panning were analysed in silico, however, the majority were discarded due to the presence of stop codons in the protein sequences. Remaining phagemid displaying fusion proteins of interest were assessed for function and binding assays carried out to confirm binding specificity. Due to the biased nature of phage display library production, a 16S rRNA gene analysis was also carried out in order to assess metagenomic DNA diversity prior to library construction. Because phage display was used successfully by colleagues with the genomes of single organisms, it was believed that including metagenomic DNA in a phage display library would cast a wide net over the tongue dorsum allowing capture of many more binding proteins occurring in this environment from a wide range of bacteria

Detecting and Resolving Air Traffic Conflicts Using a Point of Closest Approach Method

A geometrical point of closest approach method is used to solve air traffic conflict detection/resolution problems with a single conflict vehicle that is unaware or unable to aid in resolving the conflict. Nonlinear, three degree of freedom equations of motion for a point-mass vehicle are derived and formulated to allow commanded trajectories to steer the vehicle to a desired location. A dynamic model is developed to propagate the vehicle in three dimensions. A closed-loop model implementing a negative feedback controller using a Proportional-Integral-Derivative control scheme is used to drive the vehicle to match the commanded trajectories. A conflict detection/resolution algorithm implementing a point of closest approach method is developed to determine the point at which the simulated, target vehicle will be just on the edge of a safe sphere surrounding the conflict aircraft to simulate the Federal Aviation Administration’s requirements for proper spacing between aircraft. A velocity vector is created to steer the target vehicle to this point to avoid any conflict. MathWorks’ Simulink computational environment is used to simulate the target vehicle and conflict vehicle. Various trajectories for the target vehicle and the conflict vehicle are tested to evaluate the performance of the algorithm. The algorithm performed satisfactorily in detecting and steering the vehicle away from a conflict, always improving the relative spacing between the two vehicles. However, the algorithm was lacking in capability to precisely satisfy the separation requirement. In all cases the target vehicle mildly penetrated the safe region. Future research directions are discussed with the goal of improving the conflict detection/resolution algorithm performance so that the separation requirement can be reliably met

Program for computing partial pressures from residual gas analyzer data

A computer program for determining the partial pressures of various gases from residual-gas-analyzer data is given. The analysis of the ion currents of 18 m/e spectrometer peaks allows the determination of 12 gases simultaneously. Comparison is made to ion-gage readings along with certain other control information. The output data are presented in both tabular and graphical form