The economic and social costs of crime

Every day decisions are made by policy makers and managers in the Criminal Justice System which reflect implicit judgements about the relative seriousness of different crimes, or about the benefits of pursuing one approach to reducing crime rather than another. This study represents a first step towards making such judgements more explicit and in making sure they better reflect the available evidence on the impacts on society of different types of crime. Cost of crime estimates can play an important role in helping the government to achieve the greatest impact on crime for the money spent. They can be used in both appraisal and evaluation of crime reduction policies, such as those in the Government’s evidence-based Crime Reduction Programme. They can help us to prioritise, focusing scarce resources on policies that have the biggest impact on harm caused by crime, rather than simply the number of crimes. Moreover, one of the two aims of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) is “to reduce crime and the fear of crime and their social and economic costs”. This study reports on progress towards a cost of crime measure that can be used to assess performance against this aim. Figures used here represent the best available evidence, but nevertheless needs to be much improved. The aim of this report is to stimulate debate and improvements in the evidence

The economic and social costs of crime

Every day decisions are made by policy makers and managers in the Criminal Justice System which reflect implicit judgements about the relative seriousness of different crimes, or about the benefits of pursuing one approach to reducing crime rather than another. This study represents a first step towards making such judgements more explicit and in making sure they better reflect the available evidence on the impacts on society of different types of crime. Cost of crime estimates can play an important role in helping the government to achieve the greatest impact on crime for the money spent. They can be used in both appraisal and evaluation of crime reduction policies, such as those in the Government’s evidence-based Crime Reduction Programme. They can help us to prioritise, focusing scarce resources on policies that have the biggest impact on harm caused by crime, rather than simply the number of crimes. Moreover, one of the two aims of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) is “to reduce crime and the fear of crime and their social and economic costs”. This study reports on progress towards a cost of crime measure that can be used to assess performance against this aim. Figures used here represent the best available evidence, but nevertheless needs to be much improved. The aim of this report is to stimulate debate and improvements in the evidence

Bimolecular reactions of CH2CN2+ with Ar, N2 and CO: reactivity and dynamics

The reactivity, energetics and dynamics of bimolecular reactions between CH2CN2+ and three neutral species (Ar, N2 and CO) have been studied using a position sensitive coincidence methodology at centre-of-mass collision energies of 4.3 – 5.0 eV. This is the first study of bimolecular reactions involving CH2CN2+, a species relevant to the ionospheres of planets and satellites, including Titan. All of the collision systems investigated display two collision-induced dissociation (CID) channels, resulting in the formation of C+ + CH2N+ and H+ + HC2N+. Evidence for channels involving further dissociation of the CID product HC2N+, forming H + CCN+, were detected in the N2 and CO systems. Proton-transfer from the dication to the neutral occurs in all three of the systems via a direct mechanism. Additionally, there are product channels resulting from single electron transfer following collisions of CH2CN2+ with both N2 and CO, but interestingly no electron transfer following collisions with Ar. Electronic structure calculations of the lowest energy electronic states of CH2CN2+ reveal six local geometric minima: both doublet and quartet spin states for cyclic, linear (CH2CN), and linear isocyanide (CH2NC) molecular geometries. The lowest energy electronic state was determined to be the doublet state of the cyclic dication. The ready generation of C+ ions by collision-induced dissociation suggests that the cyclic or linear isocyanide dication geometries are present in the [CH2CN]2+ beam

Advances in quantum machine learning

Here we discuss advances in the field of quantum machine learning. The following document offers a hybrid discussion; both reviewing the field as it is currently, and suggesting directions for further research. We include both algorithms and experimental implementations in the discussion. The field's outlook is generally positive, showing significant promise. However, we believe there are appreciable hurdles to overcome before one can claim that it is a primary application of quantum computation.Comment: 38 pages, 17 Figure

The Quest for an Independent Scotland: The Impact of Culture, Economics, and International Relations Theory on Votes of Self-Determination

In the contemporary world, the true locus of sovereignty is up for debate. The drive for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom, within the larger context of the European Union illustrates trends within this relocation of sovereignty. Traditional research focused primarily on the cultural and identity issues at play, as well as economic issues. This work broadens the scope by placing the independence struggle within a complex international context. The shift from a purely realist state system interpretation to that of a refereed Pacific Union illustrates when nationalist and separatist movements can find conditions that allow for a viable secessionist movement. This sheds light on why Scotland has chosen to formally pursue independence in the last decade. Additionally, this work takes into account the theoretical implications of a hard Brexit, soft Brexit, and no Brexit on the future timing of secessionist referenda in Scotland

Bimolecular reactions of S2+ with Ar, H2 and N2: reactivity and dynamics

The reactivity, energetics and dynamics of bimolecular reactions between S2+ and three neutral species (Ar, H2 and N2) have been studied using a position-sensitive coincidence methodology at centre-of-mass collision energies below 6 eV. This is the first study of bimolecular reactions involving S2+, a species detected in planetary ionospheres, the interstellar medium, and in anthropogenic manufacturing processes. The reactant dication beam employed consists predominantly of S2+ in the ground 3P state, but some excited states are also present. Most of the observed reactions involve the ground state of S2+, but the dissociative electron transfer reactions appear to exclusively involve excited states of this atomic dication. We observe exclusively single electron-transfer between S2+ and Ar, a process which exhibits strong forward scatting typical of the Landau-Zener style dynamics observed for other dicationic electron transfer reactions. Following collisions between S2+ + H2, non-dissociative and dissociative single electron-transfer reactions were detected. The dynamics here show evidence for the formation of a long-lived collision complex, [SH2]2+, in the dissociative single electron-transfer channel. The formation of SH+ was not observed. In contrast, the collisions of S2+ + N2 result in the formation of SN+ + N+ in addition to the products of single electron-transfer reactions

Differences in vision performance in different scenarios and implications for design.

To design accessibly, designers need good, relevant population data on visual abilities. However, currently available data often focuses on clinical vision measures that are not entirely relevant to everyday product use. This paper presents data from a pilot survey of 362 participants in the UK, covering a range of vision measures of particular relevance to product design. The results from the different measures are compared, and recommendations are given for relative text sizes to use in different situations. The results indicate that text needs to be 17-18% larger for comfortable rather than perceived threshold viewing, and a further 20% larger when users are expected to wear their everyday vision setup rather than specific reading aids.The survey was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the i~design 3 grant (Award Number: RG45089). The survey itself was conducted by the National Centre for Social Research under the direction of the research team. As well as the authors of this paper, several others made substantial contributions to the design and analysis of this survey, including Felicia Huppert, Pat Langdon, Kai Ruggeri, Eddy Elton, Jose Liht and John Ryan. Further analysis was funded by EPSRC through the KT-EQUAL project (grant number EP/G030898/2).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2016.02.00