Online communities: utilising emerging technologies to improve crime prevention knowledge, practice and dissemination

Foreword: Online communities are increasingly being recognised as a way of sharing ideas and knowledge among different practitioner communities, particularly when practitioners are not able to meet face to face. This paper explores the considerations associated with establishing online communities for crime prevention practitioners, drawing on research from across the community of practice, online community and knowledge management sectors. The paper provides an overview of the administrative considerations of online community development, as well as the key barriers and enablers to practitioner engagement in an online community, and the potential implications for a crime prevention-specific practitioner community. As such, it is a useful tool for those in the crime prevention sector wanting to maximise the influence of an existing online community or to guide those contemplating the implementation of an online community of practice in the future

Evaluation of the ACT Sexual Assault Reform Program (SARP)

In 2005 the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) produced a report, Responding to sexual assault: The challenge of change (DPP & AFP 2005), which made 105 recommendations for reforming the way sexual offence cases are handled by the ACT’s criminal justice system. The Sexual Assault Reform Program (SARP) is one key initiative developed in response to these recommendations. Managed by the ACT Justice and Community Safety Directorate (JACS), SARP’s main objective is to improve aspects of the criminal justice system relating to: processes and support for victims of sexual offences as they progress through the system; attrition in sexual offence matters in the criminal justice system; and coordination and collaboration among the agencies involved. In November 2007 the ACT Attorney-General announced $4 million of funding for several SARP reforms. This funding provided for additional victim support staff; a dedicated additional police officer, prosecutor and legal policy officer; and an upgrade of equipment for the Supreme Court and Magistrates Court, including improvements in technology to assist witnesses in giving evidence, and the establishment of an off-site facility to allow witnesses to give evidence from a location outside of the court. In addition, the reform agenda included a number of legislative amendments that changed how evidence can be given by victims of sexual and family violence offences, children and other vulnerable witnesses. The primary objectives of these legislative changes are to provide an unintimidating, safe environment for vulnerable witnesses (including sexual offence complainants) to give evidence and to obtain prompt statements from witnesses to improve the quality of evidence captured (DPP 2009: 13)

Tackling property damage: a guide for local commerce groups, councils and police

Introduction: Property damage is the intentional ‘destruction or defacement of public, commercial and private property’. This covers a range of different acts, including vandalism (eg smashing windows, knocking over letterboxes) and graffiti. Graffiti is the act of marking property with writing, symbols or graphics and is illegal when committed without the property owner’s consent. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Crime Victimisation Survey 2011–2012, malicious property damage was more common than any other property offence, with 7.5 percent of respondents reporting having been a victim in the previous 12 months. The cost of property damage to private property owners, local and state governments and businesses are significant, with an estimated cost of $1,522 per incident (in 2012 dollars) and a total cost to the Australian community of nearly$2 billion each year. Using the handbook This handbook forms part of a series of guides developed by the Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to support local commerce groups (ie representative groups for business owners and operators), local government and the police to implement evidence-based crime prevention strategies. This handbook has been developed to help guide project managers through the stages of planning, implementing and evaluating a crime prevention project to reduce property damage offences in their local community, particularly in and around commercial precincts. The handbook provides an overview of the three key stages that are involved in delivering a project to reduce property damage: Stage 1: Planning; Stage 2: Implementation; and Stage 3: Review. These steps do not necessarily need to be undertaken in order. Some steps may be undertaken concurrently or it may be necessary to revisit earlier steps. However, it is vital that some steps, such as consulting stakeholders and planning for evaluation, be undertaken early on in the project. Property damage is a very broad offence category. The choice of a particular intervention or interventions will depend largely on the nature of the local problem. Similarly, the successful implementation of a prevention strategy will often be heavily influenced by the characteristics of the local community. This needs to be considered throughout the life of a project

Policy Report on UNHCR’s Community Technology Access Program: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

This report gives an overview of UNHCR’s Community Technology Access (CTA) program, which aims to improve education and livelihood opportunities for displaced populations via technology. The paper analyzes the key findings of a comprehensive external evaluation of the program conducted in 2012. According to the evaluation, the areas of greatest positive impact for people of concern were in the enjoyment of basic rights to freedom of expression and information, in building relationships with the host community, and social networking. However, access to technology alone is not sufficient to achieve the goals of quality education and self-reliance. Therefore, the evaluation recommends developing strategic, contextualized education and livelihood content and tools in order to achieve the desired goals of learning, skills, and access to employment, as well as a reassessment of CTAs’ potential for operational and fiscal autonomy in different countries.Ce rapport donne un aperçu du programme d’Accès Communautaire aux Technologies (CTA) de l’Agence des Nations Unies pour les Réfugiés (UNHCR), qui vise, à travers la technologie, à améliorer l’éducation et les opportunités de moyens de subsistance des populations déplacées. Cet article analyse les principaux résultats d’une évaluation externe complète du programme eff ectuée en 2012. Selon cette évaluation, les impacts positifs les plus importants de ce programme se situaient au niveau de la jouissance des droits fondamentaux à la liberté d’expression et à l’accès à l’information, ainsi qu’au niveau de l’intégration dans la communauté d’accueil et du réseautage social. Toutefois, l’accès à la technologie n’est pas suffi sant seul pour atteindre les objectifs d’éducation et d’autonomie. Cette évaluation recommande donc le développement stratégique et contextuel de contenus et d’outils en matière d’éducation et de moyens de subsistance, dans le but d’atteindre les objectifs d’apprentissage, de compétence, d’accès à l’emploi, et de réévaluer les possibilités d’autonomie opérationnelle et fi nancière des Centre Communautaires d’Accès à la Technologie de divers pays

Nowhere To Go: The Trend To Criminalize The Nation\u27s Homeless

The criminal justice system often uses much force in its response to the homeless population. The homeless are often targeted and have their basic human dignities trampled as law enforcement destroys their property and jails them for activity essential for human existence as those activities are criminalized. With the negative perception held by much of the criminal justice system, no homeless person can receive impartial treatment at the hands of the criminal justice system. This ethnographic study researches the trends in the criminalization of the homeless by interviewing seven respondents for their experiences and observations

The Human Reality: A struggle for recognition and justice

This paper follows a seminar discussion held 18th May 2014 on the topic:  Recognition and Justice. The seminar, with reference to contemporary advocates of recognition and justice (Charles Taylor 1994, Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth 2003), focused on the struggles for recognition: what it means to recognise and be recognised and the limited theoretical approaches to understanding recognition and justice. This latter point is the focus of this post-seminar paper.  With specific reference to the contested meaning of ‘Welcome to Country’ (herein WTC) rituals I explore here the ideas of recognition and justice with respect to the experiences of Aboriginal people in Australia

Postcards of the Past; Past, Present, Identity and Place

The North Head Quarantine station played a significant role in shaping the history of Australia

An Analysis of visual propaganda in Northern Ireland

This thesis investigates the role of graphic design in the dissemination of visual political propaganda in Northern Ireland, particularly during the Northern Ireland conflict. A history of the conflict is presented, and central themes of political propaganda are identified. The role of graphic design in the communication of each of these themes is analyzed

The Perceptions of Students, Teachers, and Parents Regarding the Value of the LIFESKILLS and Lifelong Guidelines Program.

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of children committing extreme acts of violence prompting many schools to adopt and implement character education programs. Character education has been defined as educating students to understand, act upon, and care about universal virtues like respect, truthfulness, responsibility, and caring. There are many character education programs available from which a school\u27s staff can choose. The LIFESKILLS and Lifelong Guidelines program is one that focuses on producing a caring community of responsible citizens for life. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to evaluate the perceptions of students, teachers, and parents regarding the value of a character education program that was implemented in 2003 at a public elementary school located in a small urban area in East Tennessee. In order to gather data, teachers and students participated in one-on-one interviews and parents completed openended surveys. The findings from this study suggested that the LIFESKILLS and Lifelong Guidelines program has had a positive effect on the school participating in the study. Students explained that the program has helped them and that they use the LIFESKILLS and Lifelong Guidelines at home and school. Teachers perceived the program to be a beneficial addition to the school’s curriculum. Parents perceived the program as valuable and reported their children discussing the LIFESKILLS and Lifelong Guidelines at home. The teacher and parent participants gave several 3 suggestions for improving the program including: further staff development, additional information being sent to parents, and meeting the goal of having consistent use and implementation of the program on a school-wide basis

Fructose and its Contribution to Cardiovascular Disease and Metabolic Syndrome

The incidence of obesity, cardiovascular disease, and combination of symptoms classified as “metabolic syndrome” that eventually leads to type 2 diabetes have risen dramatically over the past few decades. The current dietary guidelines that advised patients to avoid dietary fats were originally developed in the 1960’s. This led the way for food manufacturers to remove fats in processed foods and replace them with sugars, particularly fructose. At the time there was no clinical trial data that definitively supported these guidelines. The increased use of fructose as a food additive has dramatically increased the per-capita consumption of this sugar. More recent research has found that the unique structural and metabolic differences of fructose as compared to glucose lead to specific pathophysiologic changes in the body that promote obesity, hypertension, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia and glucose intolerance. Other studies have also found that consumption of certain fats may be beneficial and protective, actually preventing some of the previously mentioned conditions. It is evident that fructose consumption, as compared to glucose or fat consumption, leads to a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome in the population. New dietary guidelines, strategies, and changes to food production are necessary to combat this problem, however the reversal of rules that have been in place for decades will be difficult and take many years. Therefore, to have the most impact, patient education needs to start at the primary care level.https://commons.und.edu/pas-grad-posters/1029/thumbnail.jp