Where and when: a profile of armed robbery by location

In this paper, four armed robbery profiles have been constructed, based on information contained in qualitative police narratives supplied as part of the AIC’s National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program. Summary In 2010, approximately 5,000 individuals and organisations reported being the victim of armed robbery. After assault and sexual assault, armed robbery is the third most common violent crime reported; a trend that has remained consistent over the last 10 years (AIC 2013). However, armed robbery is unique when compared with other types of violence due to its overlap with property crime. Specifically, while armed robbery involves the use or threat of force or violence, the primary purpose is to deprive the individual or organisation of their property (Pink 2011). A such, an incident of armed robbery can have both immediate and long-term psychological and economic ramifications for the victim. Therefore, the prevention of armed robbery remains a key focus of business groups,as well as law enforcement agencies. In order to develop effective crime prevention strategies, it is necessary to acknowledge the heterogeneous nature of armed robbery. Incidents of armed robbery can vary depending on whether the victim was a person or an organisation, whether the offender was armed with a knife, firearm or other weapon, or whether the offence occurred on the street or in a commercial premise (Borzycki & Fuller 2014; Mouzos & Borzycki 2003). Therefore, understanding the qualitative differences between incidents is vital in order to avoid implementing ineffective and generic approaches to armed robbery prevention. Previous profiles of armed robbery have almost exclusively focused on the of fender. Research conducted in Australia and overseas has examined the characteristics and motivations of offenders in order to explain the variations in robbery (see Gabor et al. 1987; Matthews 2002; Mouzos & Borzycki 2003; Nugent et al. 1989; Walsh 1986). However, while such an approach has merits as an investigative tool, it is limited in its presentation of armed robbery more generally. Specifically, these profiles fail to appropriately capture the influence of the environment and the victim on the offender. It would therefore be useful, when looking to prospectively prevent crime, to broaden this focus and incorporate not just the offender but also vulnerabilities associated with particular victims and/or locations

Understanding the local government role in crime prevention

This research offers one of the first detailed insights into the valuable contribution made by local government within the multi-layered crime prevention strategies and initiatives which keep Australian communities safe. Foreword In Australia, crime prevention is primarily the responsibility of state and territory governments. What is less well understood is the significant role of local government in developing and delivering crime prevention at the community level, although councils have long been involved in helping to create safer communities. This research offers one of the first detailed insights into the valuable contribution made by local government within the multi-layered crime prevention strategies and initiatives which keep Australian communities safe. The Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee of the Parliament of Victoria carried out this research as part of an investigation into locally-based approaches to community safety and crime prevention in 2011. The results of a comprehensive survey of the crime prevention activities of local government authorities across Victoria are examined. This study reveals the issues local government prioritises, the responses they deploy and the challenges that they face, such as gaps in capacity and the need to manage complex relationships between participants who work on local community safety. Findings reveal a system that, while highly variable in sophistication and reach, provides an important platform for improving local community safety. The study also identifies important gaps and opportunities to improve collaboration between government and the private and NGO sectors

Armed robbery in Australia 2009–10: National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program report

This report summarises key findings from information describing the 12,005 victims of armed robbery reported to police in Australia during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years Abstract: The Australian Institute of Criminology’s National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program (NARMP) has been recording and reporting on trends in armed robbery since 2003. It is the only national dataset detailing armed robbery in Australia. This report is the first released after NARMP moved to biennial reporting and it summarises key findings from information describing the 12,005 victims reported to police in Australia during the 2009 and 2010 calendar years

Counting the costs of crime in Australia: a 2011 estimate

This report estimates the costs of crime for the calendar year 2011. Executive summary This report seeks to estimate how much crime costs the Australian economy by calculating the number of crimes that come to the attention of the authorities and, using crime victimisation survey data, the number of crimes that are not recorded officially. A dollar figure is then calculated for each estimated crime event and an indication given of the total cost of each specific crime type in terms of actual loss, intangible losses, loss of output caused through the criminal conduct and other related costs such as medical expenses, where relevant. Added to these costs are the costs of preventing and responding to crime in the community including the costs of maintaining the criminal justice system agencies of police, prosecution, courts and correctional agencies, as well as a proportion of the costs of Australian and state and territory government agencies that have crime-related functions. Finally, a deduction is made for the value of property recovered in the case of property crime, as well as the amount of funds recovered from criminals under federal, state and territory proceeds of crime legislation. More detailed information about how each of these estimates was derived is provided in the main body of the report. Official attention paid to specific crime types, particularly drug-related crime and organised crime, affects both the reporting rate and also the cost of policing and correctional responses. In this sense, individual crime type costs and prevention and response costs are not mutually exclusive. Arguably, as individual crime types attract more attention, reporting rates increase and prevention and control of the crimes in question are seen as being deserving of increased resource

'I just want to feel like I'm part of everyone else': How schools unintentionally contribute to the isolation of students who identify as LGBT+

This study explores the experiences of students who identify as LGBT+ in six secondary schools in the south of England. Drawing mainly on data from five student focus groups, one student interview and nine teacher interviews, supplemented by a survey of staff and a review of school policy documents, this study examines how schools unwittingly increase LGBT+ students' sense of isolation. Using a framework that identifies different forms of isolation, this study found that use of gendered spaces, the creation of 'safe' spaces such as support groups and the school curriculum can exacerbate students' feelings of isolation, despite the good intentions of schools. Understanding how schools (unwittingly) contribute to LGBT+ students' sense of isolation potentially provides a means to identify more specific ways schools could address this issue

Exploring the secondary school experience of LGBT+ youth: an examination of school culture and school climate as understood by teachers and experienced by LGBT+ students

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine teacher and LGBT+ student attitudes around school climate and school culture. Participants were 153 teachers and staff from six UK secondary schools who completed electronic surveys, nine of whom were interviewed, and students who participated in focus groups at each school. Results suggest a disconnect between teacher and student viewpoints regarding both school climate and school culture around LGBT+-related matters. Many teachers seemed unaware of the overt discrimination that many LGBT+ students received from their peers and that these students were mostly unhappy with the lack of curricular integration of LGBT+ topics. Findings suggest most staff are taking a reactive rather than proactive stance to LGBT+-related issues, and their ignorance of student concerns means little is likely to change. These findings reflect a heteronormative and cisgendered culture, where those in charge are not questioning cultural norms and the status quo. The study argues for a re-examination of how teachers and other staff interpret lived LGBT+ student experiences in these and other secondary contexts

‘I just want to feel like I’m part of everyone else.’ How schools unintentionally contribute to the isolation of students who identify as LGBT+

This study explores the experiences of students who identify as LGBT+ in six secondary schools in the south of England. Drawing mainly on data from six student focus groups (involving 38 students), as well as nine teacher interviews, a survey of 153 staff and analysis of school policy docu¬ments, this study examines the ways in which schools unwittingly increase LGBT+ students’ sense of isolation. This matters because of the established empirical connection between isolation and poor short- and long-term mental health issues, and the associated negative impacts on young people’s life chance. Using a framework that identifies different forms of isolation, this study found that that gendered spaces can be problematic and isolating for students. Also, ‘safe’ spaces such as support groups, although established with the best intentions, are not considered universally ‘safe’ as, depending on the school and contrary to the literature, they may invite unwant¬ed peer victimisation. Schools differ in whether they have clear poli¬cies related to gendered spaces, but when they do exist, staff are not always aware of such policies. Furthermore, LGBT+ matters are seldom integrated in school curriculums, and when they are, this is often done in a problematic or superficial way, further exacerbating students’ feelings of isolation. Understanding how schools (unwittingly) contribute to LGBT+ students’ sense of isolation potentially provides a means to identify more specific ways schools could address this issue

Binding of the Bacillus subtilis LexA protein to the SOS operator

The Bacillus subtilis LexA protein represses the SOS response to DNA damage by binding as a dimer to the consensus operator sequence 5′-CGAACN(4)GTTCG-3′. To characterize the requirements for LexA binding to SOS operators, we determined the operator bases needed for site-specific binding as well as the LexA amino acids required for operator recognition. Using mobility shift assays to determine equilibrium constants for B.subtilis LexA binding to recA operator mutants, we found that several single base substitutions within the 14 bp recA operator sequence destabilized binding enough to abolish site-specific binding. Our results show that the AT base pairs at the third and fourth positions from the 5′ end of a 7 bp half-site are essential and that the preferred binding site for a LexA dimer is 5′-CGAACATATGTTCG-3′. Binding studies with LexA mutants, in which the solvent accessible amino acid residues in the putative DNA binding domain were mutated, indicate that Arg-49 and His-46 are essential for binding and that Lys-53 and Ala-48 are also involved in operator recognition. Guided by our mutational analyses as well as hydroxyl radical footprinting studies of the dinC and recA operators we docked a computer model of B.subtilis LexA on the preferred operator sequence in silico. Our model suggests that binding by a LexA dimer involves bending of the DNA helix within the internal 4 bp of the operator

Examining the relationship between local extinction risk and position in range

Over half of globally threatened animal species have experienced rapid geographic range loss. Identifying the parts of species’ distributions most vulnerable to extinction would benefit conservation planning. However, previous studies give little consensus on whether ranges decline to the core or edge. Here we build on previous work by using empirical data to examine the position of recent local extinctions within species’ geographic ranges, addressing range position as a continuum and exploring the influence of environmental factors. We aggregated point locality data for 125 species of galliform birds across the Palearctic and Indo-Malaya into equal area half degree grid cells and used a multi-species dynamic Bayesian occupancy model to estimate the rates of local extinctions. Our model provides a novel approach to identify loss of populations from within species ranges. We investigated the relationship between extinction rates and distance from range edge, examining whether patterns were consistent across biogeographic realm and different categories of land-use. In the Palearctic, local extinctions occurred closer to the range edge in both unconverted and human-dominated landscapes. In Indo-Malaya, no pattern was found for unconverted landscapes but in human dominated landscapes extinctions tended to occur closer to the core than the edge. Our results suggest that local and regional factors over-ride any general spatial patterns of recent local extinction within species’ ranges and highlight the difficulty of predicting the parts of a species’ distribution most vulnerable to threat

Rarity Value and Species Extinction: The Anthropogenic Allee Effect

Standard economic theory predicts that exploitation alone is unlikely to result in species extinction because of the escalating costs of finding the last individuals of a declining species. We argue that the human predisposition to place exaggerated value on rarity fuels disproportionate exploitation of rare species, rendering them even rarer and thus more desirable, ultimately leading them into an extinction vortex. Here we present a simple mathematical model and various empirical examples to show how the value attributed to rarity in some human activities could precipitate the extinction of rare species—a concept that we term the anthropogenic Allee effect. The alarming finding that human perception of rarity can precipitate species extinction has serious implications for the conservation of species that are rare or that may become so, be they charismatic and emblematic or simply likely to become fashionable for certain activities