Lock Unlock: The Impact of COVID-19 on Health Security in Pakistani and Indian Prisons

This paper assesses the state of COVID-19 in the Pakistani and Indian prison systems. Using publicly available data, governmental documents, media, and non-profit organization reports, and scholarly literature, we provide an overview of COVID-19 in each country and the current state of each nation’s prison system. We then analyze the impact of the novel coronavirus on the corrections systems and each government’s response to the virus in its prison infrastructure. The pandemic provides both Pakistan and India with the opportunity to change course and move toward a more sustainable prison system that protects human rights while bolstering health security

Assessing the impact of civil gang injunctions on the use of online media by criminal street gangs

Mounting evidence suggests that members of criminal street gangs use internet communications technology to advertise their accomplishments, promote a counter-normative lifestyle, and continue illicit operations. Noting that not all content is equal in its ability to influence target audiences, this study investigates the message sensation value (MSV) of material posted by street gangs with civil gang injunctions. Gangs facing increased social censure and behavioral restrictions associated with the imposition of CGIs may be more inclined to post You Tube videos with high MSV to promote gang lifestyles and brand, as their visibility in the neighborhood may be diminished by law enforcement action. The results show that (1) there is a moderate association between indices measuring MSV and content (lifestyle and branding); (2) gangs that continue to use physical violence to maintain social dominance arc observed to have lower scores on MSV, lifestyle and branding metrics; and, (3) videos filmed in public settings and those produced by gangs that have been under injunction for a longer period are likely to have stronger branding messages, while videos filmed in a safe zone are expected to have lower lifestyle messages. We find no significant difference between video quality between the Bloods and the Crips

The Violence of Political Empowerment: Electoral Success and the Facilitation of Terrorism in the Republic of India

Ideological violence, according to previous research, tends to spike following what may be perceived as an electoral success of an ideologically-affiliated political camp. Despite a growing number of examples across the globe, the extent to which ideological success in electoral processes impacts terrorism within constituencies remains under-researched. This exploratory analysis seeks to examine how majority-minority outcomes in the electoral process influence terrorism in democratic states. This study employs a longitudinal case study approach for the Republic of India, using publicly available data from the Census of India and open-sourced data on terrorist activity. We find that economic stress most strongly impacts the likelihood that supporters of the political majority will engage in terrorist activity, followed by social cohesion, measured through religious homogeneity