Watched over or over-watched? Open street CCTV in Australia

Most developed countries, Australia included, are witnessing increased government and public concerns about crime and security. Amid these anxieties, closed circuit television (CCTV) systems to monitor public spaces are increasingly being touted as a solution to problems of crime and disorder. The city of Perth established Australia’s first open street closed circuit television system in July 1991. Subsequently, there has been significant expansion. At the end of 2002 Australia had 33 “open street” CCTV schemes. Based on site inspections, extensive reviews of documentation and interviews with 22 Australian administrators, this article discusses issues relating to system implementation, management and accountability.We also suggest ways relevant authorities might ensure that current and future schemes are appropriately audited and evaluated. We argue that rigorous independent assessment of both the intended and unintended consequences of open street CCTV is essential to ensure this measure is not deployed inappropriately. Finally, this article suggests any potential crime prevention benefits must be carefully weighed against the potential of CCTV to exacerbate social division and exclusion

Becoming a Prison Officer: An Analysis of the Early Development of Prison Officer Cultures

Despite the fact that over recent years, imprisonment in Scotland has adopted a bold and aspirational policy direction including proposed reforms to the role of the prison officer, there has been little research into prison officers in Scotland, and by extension, the Scottish Prison Service as an organisation. This paper offers a unique empirical insight into prison officer recruits and evolving prison officer cultures, by longitudinally tracking 31 prison officer recruits over training and early working experience. This paper provides an in-depth perspective on prison officer recruits’ views and experiences, and it also makes a contribution to the emerging area of research of the Scottish Prison Service through a focus on organisational change and reform. Finally, it incorporates and further develops a body of literature on penality and the penal state by interrogating the tensions between policy and practice within the context of the Scottish penal system

Effects of closed circuit television surveillance on crime

Closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance cameras serve many functions and are used in both public and private settings. The prevention of personal and property crime is among the primary objectives in public space, which is the main focus of this review. CCTV is viewed as a technique of “formal surveillance” and in this regard it is seen to enhance or take the place of security personnel. Results of this review indicate that CCTV has a modest but significant desirable effect on crime, is most effective in reducing crime in car parks, is most effective when targeted at vehicle crimes (largely a function of the successful car park schemes), and is more effective in reducing crime in the United Kingdom than in other countries. These results lend support for the continued use of CCTV to prevent crime in public space, but suggest that it be more narrowly targeted than its present use would indicate. Future CCTV schemes should employ high-quality evaluation designs with long follow-up periods

School Surveillance, Control, and Resistance in the United Kingdom

This chapter outlines the development of the current socio-political context within which U.K. schools experience surveillance and implement their security and disciplinary procedures. Schools are suggested to have developed their approaches to social control against a background of neoliberalism and audit culture. This involves the marketisation of much of the school system through an ‘academisation’ process; linked to this is an increased surveillance of teachers and students through datafication, CCTV and other digital means. Another form of surveillance- biopolitical control in schools- shows itself through the traditionalisation of gendered school uniform and the increasing pathologisation of the behaviour of ethnic minorities

Initiating change locally in bullying and aggression through the school environment (INCLUSIVE): study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews suggest that interventions that address school organisation are effective in reducing victimisation and bullying. We successfully piloted a school environment intervention modified from international studies to incorporate 'restorative justice' approaches. This trial aims to establish the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the INCLUSIVE intervention in reducing aggression and bullying in English secondary schools. METHODS: DESIGN: cluster randomised trial. PARTICIPANTS: 40 state-supported secondary schools. OUTCOMES assessed among the cohort of students in year 8 (n = approximately 6,000) in intervention year 1. INTERVENTION: INCLUSIVE is a school-led intervention which combines changes to the school environment with the promotion of social and emotional skills and restorative practices through: the formation of a school action group involving students and staff supported by an external facilitator to review local data on needs, determine priorities, and develop and implement an action plan for revising relevant school policies/rules and other actions to improve relationships at school and reduce aggression; staff training in restorative practices; and a new social and emotional skills curriculum. The intervention will be delivered by schools supported in the first two years by educational facilitators independent of the research team, with a third locally facilitated intervention year.Comparator: normal practice. OUTCOMES: primary: 2 primary outcomes at student level assessed at baseline and at 36 months:1. Aggressive behaviours in school: Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime school misbehaviour subscale (ESYTC)2. Bullying and victimisation: Gatehouse Bullying Scale (GBS)Secondary outcomes assessed at baseline, 24 and 36 months will include measures relating to the economic evaluation, psychosocial outcomes in students and staff and school-level truancy and exclusion rates. SAMPLE SIZE: 20 schools per arm will provide 90% power to identify an effect size of 0.25 SD with a 5% significance level.Randomisation: eligible consenting schools will be randomised stratified for single sex versus mixed sex schools, school-level deprivation and measures of school attainment. DISCUSSION: The trial will be run by independent research and intervention teams and supervised by a Trial Steering Committee and a Data Monitoring Committee (DMC). TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN10751359 (Registered 11 March 2014)

(Re)Negotiating police culture through partnership working : trust, compromise and the ‘new’ pragmatism

While a topic of considerable interest in the 1990s and early 2000s, there has been little literature on partnership working in the public sector in recent years. This is surprising given that the practice has been extended through the national roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing in England and Wales in 2008. This paper presents a reassessment of how the police operate in partnership with other agencies. In contrast to the previous literature, our research suggests that police officers involved in partnerships find them effective, crucial to their work and, at times, enjoyable. Rather than conflicting with traditional police culture, partnership work is enhanced by, and enhances, the police orientation towards the pragmatic. We explore the implications of this for our understandings of police culture