Estimating the costs of crime in New Zealand in 2003/04

We estimate that the total costs of crime in New Zealand in 2003/04 amounted to $9.1 billion. Of this, the private sector incurred$7 billion in costs and the public sector $2.1 billion. Offences against private property are the most common crimes but offences against the person are the most costly, accounting for 45% of the total estimated costs of crime. Empirically-based measures like those presented here – the total and average costs of crime by category – are a useful aid to policy analysis around criminal justice operations and settings. However, care needs to be taken when interpreting these results because they rely considerably on assumptions, including the assumed volume of actual crime, and the costs that crime imposes on victims. This difficulty in constructing robust estimates also implies that care should be taken not to draw conclusions about whether the Government should be putting more or less resources into any specific categories of crime, based on their relative costs alone.crime; justice; costs; New Zealand

Senator Moscone at San Rafael High School

Picture of Senator Moscone giving address at San Rafael High Schoolhttps://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/senator-moscone/1007/thumbnail.jp

Vertical structure of anthropogenic zonal-mean atmospheric circulation change

The atmospheric circulation changes predicted by climate models are often described using sea level pressure, which generally shows a strengthening of the mid-latitude westerlies. Recent observed variability is dominated by the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) which is equivalent barotropic, so that wind variations of the same sign are seen at all levels. However, in model predictions of the response to anthropogenic forcing, there is a well-known enhanced warming at low levels over the northern polar cap in winter. This means that there is a strong baroclinic component to the response. The projection of the response onto a NAM-like zonal index varies with height. While at the surface most models project positively onto the zonal index, throughout most of the depth of the troposphere many of the models give negative projections. The response to anthropogenic forcing therefore has a distinctive baroclinic signature which is very different to the NA

What does it mean to be a 'picky eater'? A qualitative study of food related identities and practices.

Picky eaters are defined as those who consume an inadequate variety of food through rejection of a substantial amount of food stuffs that are both familiar and unfamiliar. Picky eating is a relatively recent theoretical concept and while there is increasing concern within public health over the lack of diversity in some children's diets, adult picky eaters remain an under researched group. This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study on the routine food choices and practices of 26 families in Sandwell, West Midlands, UK. Photo elicitation and go-along interview data collection methods were used to capture habitual food related behaviours and served to describe the practices of nine individuals who self identified or were described as picky eaters. A thematic analysis revealed that those with the food related identity of picky eater had very restricted diets and experienced strong emotional and physical reactions to certain foods. For some this could be a distressing and alienating experience that hindered their ability to engage in episodes of social eating. Further research is needed to illuminate the specific practices of adult picky eaters, how this impacts on their lives, and how possible interventions might seek to address the challenges they face

Estimation of the pre-burning condition of human remains in forensic contexts

The determination of the original condition of human remains prior to burning is critical since it may facilitate the reconstruction of circumstances surrounding death in forensic cases. Although the use of heat-induced bone changes is not a completely reliable proxy for determining pre-burning conditions, it is not completely devoid of potential, as we can observe a clear difference in the occurrence of such features between the fleshed and dry bones. In order to quantify this difference and determine its true value for forensic research, the frequencies of heat-induced warping and thumbnail fractures were documented on modern cremations of cadavers from recently deceased individuals and from the cremations of skeletons previously inhumed. The effect of age, sex, time span from death to cremation, duration and temperature of combustion on those frequencies was statistically investigated. Results demonstrated that the heat-induced features were significantly more frequent in the sample of cadavers. In addition, warping was determined to be the most useful indicator of the pre-burning condition of human remains. Temperature of combustion was the only variable having a significant effect on the frequency of both features, suggesting that fluctuation of temperature, along with collagen preservation and recrystallization of the inorganic phase, is paramount for their occurrence. Both warping and thumbnail fractures may eventually be used for the estimation of the pre-burning condition of human remains in lack of other indicators, but their reliability is far from absolute. Ideally, such inference must be supported by other data such as skeletal representation, objects or defleshing marks on the bones

Seasonal predictability of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation from a jet stream perspective

The winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has varied on interannual and decadal timescales over the last century, associated with variations in the speed and latitude of the eddy-driven jet stream. This paper uses hindcasts from two operational seasonal forecast systems (the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts's seasonal forecast system, and the U.K. Met Office global seasonal forecast system) and a century-long atmosphere-only experiment (using the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts's Integrated Forecasting System model) to relate seasonal prediction skill in the NAO to these aspects of jet variability. This shows that the NAO skill realized so far arises from interannual variations in the jet, largely associated with its latitude rather than speed. There likely remains further potential for predictability on longer, decadal timescales. In the small sample of models analyzed here, improved representation of the structure of jet variability does not translate to enhanced seasonal forecast skill