Situational Prevention of Organized Timber Theft and Related Corruption

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge/Willan Publishing in A New Response to Youth Crime in 2011, available online: http://www.routledge.com/9781843927549.” Copyright © 2011 – Willan Publishing (Routledge)Organized theft of timber is a large and significant worldwide enterprise. Corruption in every step of the timber harvesting and selling process involves substantial criminal cooperation, with bribes paid at every stage of the way. The authors review several situational crime prevention measures that could be brought into play. The timber theft example has general significance, offering ideas for preventing criminal enterprise from expanding and for containing public corruption of other processes

La théorie des opportunités et l’erreur de généralisation

Crime relationships are often inconsistent at different levels of aggregation for good theoretical reasons. That is why we should avoid committing the fallacy of composition, namely, drawing inferences between individuals and aggregates or from one level of aggregation to another. The routine activity approach becomes part of the solution

Expressive and Instrumental Offending: Reconciling the Paradox of Specialisation and Versatility

Although previous research into specialisation has been dominated by the debate over the existence of specialisation versus versatility, it is suggested that research needs to move beyond the restrictions of this dispute. The current study explores the criminal careers of 200 offenders based on their criminal records, obtained from a police database in the North West of England, aiming to understand the patterns and nature of specialisation by determining the presence of differentiation within their general offending behaviours and examining whether the framework of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles can account for any specialised tendencies that emerge. Fifty-eight offences were subjected to Smallest Space Analysis. Results revealed that a model of criminal differentiation could be identified and that any specialisation is represented in terms of Expressive and Instrumental offending styles

Sexually dimorphic tibia shape is linked to natural osteoarthritis in STR/Ort mice

Human osteoarthritis (OA) is detected only at late stages. Male STR/Ort mice develop knee OA spontaneously with known longitudinal trajectory, offering scope to identify OA predisposing factors. We exploit the lack of overt OA in female STR/Ort and in both sexes of parental, control CBA mice to explore whether early divergence in tibial bone mass or shape are linked to emergent OA

The changing pattern of domestic cannabis cultivation in the UK and its impact on the cannabis market

With improvements in both technology and information cannabis is being increasingly grown indoors for domestic use, rather than being imported. This study examines 50 cannabis farms detected by an English police force, and examines the characteristics of the 61 suspects associated with them. The study highlights a UK pattern in domestic cultivation, that is moving away from large scale commercial cultivation, at times co-ordinated by South East Asian organised crime groups, to increased cultivation within residential premises by British citizens. Offenders range from those who have no prior criminal history to those who are serious and persistent offenders. The ramifications for law enforcement agencies and policy formers are discussed

The efficacy of a lateral wedge insole for painful medial knee osteoarthritis after prescreening : a randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: Lateral wedge shoe insoles decrease medial knee loading, but trials have shown no effect on pain in medial knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, insoles' loading effects are inconsistent, and they can increase patellofemoral loading. We hypothesized that insoles would reduce pain in preselected patients. METHODS: In persons with painful medial knee OA, we excluded those with patellofemoral OA and those with pain <4/10. We further excluded participants who, in a gait laboratory using lateral wedges, did not show at least a 2% reduction in knee adduction moment (KAM) compared with their shoes and a neutral insole. We then randomized subjects to lateral wedge vs. neutral insole for 8 week periods separated by an 8 week washout. Primary outcome was knee pain over the past week (0-10) and secondary outcomes nominated activity pain and KOOS pain. We carried out mixed model analyses adjusted for baseline pain. RESULTS: Of 83 participants, 21 (25%) were excluded because of insufficient reduction in KAM. Of 62 included, mean age was 64.2 years (SD 9.1); 37.1% were women. Lateral wedge insoles produced a greater reduction in knee pain than neutral insoles (difference 0.7 on 0-10 scale; 95%CI 0.1, 1.2; p = 0.02). Secondary outcomes showed mixed findings. CONCLUSIONS: In persons prescreened to eliminate those with patellofemoral OA and biomechanical non-responders, lateral wedge insoles reduced knee pain, but the effect of treatment was small and is likely of clinical significance in only a minority of patients. Targeting patients may identify those who respond to this treatment

Evaluating elbow osteoarthritis within the prehistoric Tiwanaku state using generalized estimating equations (GEE).

OBJECTIVES:Studies of osteoarthritis (OA) in human skeletal remains can come with scalar problems. If OA measurement is noted as present or absent in one joint, like the elbow, results may not identify specific articular pathology data and the sample size may be insufficient to address research questions. If calculated on a per data point basis (i.e., each articular surface within a joint), results may prove too data heavy to comprehensively understand arthritic changes, or one individual with multiple positive scores may skew results and violate the data independence required for statistical tests. The objective of this article is to show that the statistical methodology Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) can solve scalar issues in bioarchaeological studies. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Using GEE, a population-averaged statistical model, 1,195 adults from the core and one colony of the prehistoric Tiwanaku state (AD 500-1,100) were evaluated bilaterally for OA on the seven articular surfaces of the elbow joint. RESULTS:GEE linked the articular surfaces within each individual specimen, permitting the largest possible unbiased dataset, and showed significant differences between core and colony Tiwanaku peoples in the overall elbow joint, while also pinpointing specific articular surfaces with OA. Data groupings by sex and age at death also demonstrated significant variation. A pattern of elbow rotation noted for core Tiwanaku people may indicate a specific pattern of movement. DISCUSSION:GEE is effective and should be encouraged in bioarchaeological studies as a way to address scalar issues and to retain all pathology information