bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Computer Simulation of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction
Authors: Worrall Judith
Published: January 2011

Simulation is a computing technique used to study dynamic systems by creating a “picture” of the working system in the computer. Attempts have been made to simulate various aspects of the Criminal Justice System in both the United States and Canada. This article describes the first simulation of any aspect of the Criminal Justice System in Australia. It describes a simulation model of the Adelaide Magistrates' Court and compares the simulation with data from various sources which can be used to describe that system.
Expert Evidence and the Intoxicated Offender
Authors: Skene Loane
Published: January 2011

This paper considers the role of the expert witness in cases where people charged with criminal offences allege that they were grossly intoxicated when the act in question was committed. Expert evidence concerning the effect of intoxication on accused people may be relevant at two stages of the trial: in deciding whether they acted voluntarily and with criminal intent; and in imposing a penalty if the offence is proved. The paper will examine each of these aspects in turn. In each part, the law concerning admissibility of expert evidence of this type will be summarized. Then, in the context of specific cases, the types of questions and answers that are likely to be put, will be described and examined. The aim of this analysis is to draw to the attention of both expert medical witnesses and lawyers, the problems of testimony on the possible effects of intoxication on mental processes and the implications that that may have in imposing criminal responsibility on intoxicated offenders and making appropriate dispositions. The usual outcome of such evidence will be considered and it will be suggested that although expert evidence is far more satisfactory at the sentencing stage of a criminal trial than at the earlier stage when guilt is being determined, there is at both stages a real risk that the expert witness may usurp the role of the arbiter of fact — either the jury or the magistrate or judge. Notwithstanding this risk, however, few accused persons are acquitted because, due to gross intoxication, they cannot be proved to have acted consciously and voluntarily and the sentencing judge or magistrate has the final discretion in making an appropriate disposition. Although the paper is concerned principally with expert evidence on intoxication, the comments apply also to expert evidence on other issues.
Alcohol and drug use patterns of prisoners in perth
Authors: Indermaur David , Upton Kathy
Published: January 2011

Between June and September 1987 926 prisoners received into Perth metropolitan prisons were screened for alcohol and drug problems. A comprehensive interviewer administered questionnaire and other measures such as content analysis of medical and criminal records provided the data base. To enable a thorough analysis, and a comparison across record types, an eight point classification system was used. This system incorporated dimensions of “consumption”, “dependency”, “association with crime” and “self perception” for alcohol and drug use. The results suggest that a third of the sample consume “hazardous” amounts of alcohol. Only 6% of the sample were classified as current drug dependents. The results support previous research which indicates that alcohol abuse amongst offenders is a major problem. The groups that emerge as the main concerns are: Aboriginal alcohol abusers, alcohol abusers not concerned with their alcohol use, drunk drivers and women drug and alcohol abusers. The validity of the screening insruments is examined, a strategy for screening for drug and alcohol problems is susggested and the implications of the results for prevention and treatment interventions is discussed.
The child in the witness box
Authors: Naylor Bronwyn
Published: January 2011

The importance of child evidence in criminal trials, particularly for child sexual assault, is widely recognised. Legal rules and “common knowledge” treat child evidence as inherently unreliable. However, psychological studies show that children can be good witnesses when their special needs are understood. This has clear implications for legal rules and practices.
Infanticide: A litmus test for feminist criminological theory
Authors: Laster Kathy
Published: January 2011

Infanticide is an important and historically prevalent crime. It is also a “female” crime. The challenge for feminist criminological theory is to account for infanticide without falling into the trap of “essentialising” the offence and its perpetrators.

Two current broad feminist theoretical positions (the androgynous approach and the social control perspectives) are applied to infanticide. It is argued that their explanatory usefulness is limited since both in various ways distort the “true” dimensions of the crime. The inability of these current perspectives to account for infanticide raises serious questions about their general applicability for feminist criminological theory.
Social Security Prosecutions and Overpayment Recovery
Authors: Freiberg Arie
Published: January 2011

This Article examines some of the problems arising from the interaction between the criminal, civil and administrative responses to non-compliance with social security legislation, in particular, cases of overpayments of pensions and benefits obtained by fraud. It focuses on the relationship between criminal sancations or orders imposed by the courts and the administrative process of recovering overpayments. It discusses the problem of identifying the appropriate forum and mechanism for the resolution of disputes over the quantum of disputed overpayments. Finally, it suggests some procedural reforms to ensure that persons who are the subject of parallel proceedings have their disputes dealt with in the most expeditious and least prejudicial manner possible.
Aboriginal and non-aboriginal deaths in custody
Authors: Biles David , McDonald David , Fleming Jillian
Published: January 2011

The establishment of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody prompted a number of questions about the incidence of non-Aboriginal as well as Aboriginal deaths in both police custody and prisons. And examination of all such deaths from 1980 to 1988 shows that there were four times as many non-Aboriginal deaths as Aboriginal deaths, but, based on their numbers in the general community, Aborigines were 23 times more likely to die in custody than were non-Aborigines. About two-thirds of the black deaths occurred in police custody and two-thirds of the white deaths occurred in prisons. Suicide or self-inflicted harm was the most common reported cause of death for non-Aborigines, but death by natural causes was more frequently reported among Aborigines. The most serious offence leading either to detention or imprisonment for all the deceased persons revealed only small differences between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal groups, but those who died in prison were generally more serious offenders than those who died in police custody. Proportionately more of the Aboriginal deaths occurred in hospitals than was the case for non-Aborigines. A dramatic and unexpectedly high number of custodial deaths occurred in 1987, and the possible explanations for this are explored. It is suggested that the findings of this study relate to the over-representation of Aborigines in custody, the need for improved health programs for Aborigines, and the need for permanent monitoring on a national basis of all deaths in custody.
Aids education in new south Wales prisons
Authors: Conolly Lisa , Potter Frances
Published: January 2011

Drawing on the results of research evaluating AIDS education in NSW prisons, this article attempts to answer some broader questions facing correctional administrators and AIDS educators in prison. In particular, we examine the incidence of HIV in the NSW prison population, the extent of “high-risk” behaviour, the effect of AIDS education and the notion that prisons are incubators for HIV. We estimated that in early 1989 NSW prisons had an incidence of 1.2% HIV infected, and that 43% of prisoners had engaged in “high-risk” behaviour either inside or outside gaol. The research suggests that the effectiveness of AIDS education programmes has been undermined by a confusion about AIDS policy in prison, and that prisons are not necessarily “incubators” for the virus at the present time. However, the article concludes by saying that clear AIDS education messages with complementary AIDS policy must be implemented in NSW prisons to ensure that the incubator hypothesis does not become a reality in the future.
Stranger Homicides in Victoria, January 1984 — December 1989
Authors: Kapardis Andros
Published: January 2011

This article first considers the term ‘stranger’ in the context of homicide and discusses estimates of the incidence of stranger killings in Australia and overseas. A study comparing aggregate (N=320) and stranger (N= 90) homicide data is reported. It has been found that aggregate homicide data are misleading with regard to patterns of stranger homicides. Stranger killings turn out to be heterogeneous, usually occur in the street, licensed premises or in association with robbery and, finally, they can be differentiated by such variables as sex and age of the suspect and the victim as well as the method of the crime and the number of assailants. On the basis of the findings obtained, a positive definition of ‘stranger’ is offered and found to be useful in identifying different types of stranger killings. The findings are discussed from the perspective of ‘daily routine activities’ and opportunity theory of predatory victimisation.
Analysing Sexual Offence Sentences: An Empirical Approach
Authors: Simester A P , Simester D I
Published: January 2011

The judiciary have frequently refused to compare sentences, stating that the circumstances of the offender and offence vary so greatly that there is no workable basis upon which to do so. This article presents an empirical model that seeks to identify and quantify the relative significance of various mitigating and aggravating factors which affect sexual offence sentences. The results suggest that it is possible to develop such a model. In doing so, they offer evidence as to the current approach to sexual offence sentencing of the New Zealand Court of Appeal.
Concern about and Fear of Crime in an Australian Rural Community
Authors: Gray David E , O'Connor Michael E
Published: January 2011

This article presents the results of a study of concern about crime and fear of crime in an Australian rural community. Previous urban research on this topic, which has established socio-demographic correlates of fear and concern, is reviewed. The limited number of rural studies is discussed and reasons for the significance of “community” in the context of fear and concern in rural research are considered. The results of the study in terms of socio-demographic correlates are consistent with those of previous urban research. Community variables such as community satisfaction, community trust, associational membership, and number of relatives in the area are also significantly linked with concern about crime and fear of crime. The implications of the study's results are discussed.
A Review of the Cannabis Expiation Notice Scheme in South Australia—Research Note
Authors: Sarre Rick
Published: January 2011

The South Australian government in 1987 made widespread changes to the law concerning the possession and use of small amounts of cannabis. The implications of these changes are reviewed in a report of the Office of Crime Statistics entitled ‘Cannabis: The Expiation Notice Approach’.1 It is my intention in this paper to provide an overview of this report for the purpose of introducing readers to its major findings.
Victims of Violence: The View from the Youth Services
Authors: Whiter Rob , Underwood Rod , Omelczuk Susanne
Published: January 2011

The aim of this article is to discuss a series of issues pertaining to the violence experienced by young people in Australian society. Based upon a major survey of youth workers in Western Australia, it documents the extent to which young people who use youth services have been subjected to forms of violence such as incest, assault and harassment. In addition to providing information based upon the survey findings, it critically evaluates the nature of ‘violence’ as this pertains to young people at the social structural, at the situational and at the social group levels. It also explores the link between the activities of the ‘legitimate’ wielders of violence (eg, parents, police), and questions relating to the basic human and civil rights of young people. The article concludes by situating the current violence involving young people within the context of economic crisis, changes in social welfare policy and provision and public concerns with ‘law and order’.
The convict origins debate: Historians and the problem of the ‘Criminal Class’
Authors: Garton Stephen
Published: January 2011

The character of the convicts transported to Australia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries has been a source of considerable debate amongst historians. Were the convicts victims of a harsh social system, victims of poverty, professional criminals or workers driven by want to steal? There have been significant changes in historical perceptions of the convicts and this paper investigates the reasons for these shifts and the assumptions about the causes of criminality that have informed this debate.
Reducing the Crime Problem: A Not So Dismal Criminology
Authors: Braithwaite John
Published: January 2011

A normative criminology is possible which offers guidance on the types of crimes we should struggle to reduce and how. An explanatory criminology is possible that suggests which practical strategies may work in reducing these types of crimes. These possibilities have eluded us, however, because of the excessive emphasis on state policies within prevailing theoretical traditions. A theoretical revolution in criminology is needed to cause us to look in the right places for practical struggles that might bear fruit. Republican criminology is advanced as one theoretical alternative. Republicanism causes us to see that those crime problems which are our most serious are actually problems on which we may be making some progress. A theoretical reorientation might help us grasp the sources of our contemporary successes in crime control so that we might apply ourselves to reinforcing them.
News Paper Reports of Bank Robberies and the Copycat Phenomenon
Authors: Clarke Ronald V , McGrath Gerry
Published: January 2011

In response to concern about newspaper coverage of bank robberies in Australia, this study examines whether newspaper publicity resulting from successful bank robberies leads to copycat increases of bank and other robberies during the following week. It makes use of police records of robberies in New South Wales and newspaper stories for 1987 to 1989 from the two tabloids published daily in Sydney. No evidence of any copycat effect was found. Moreover, there was little evidence that the newspapers concerned were paying undue attention to bank robbery.
Ethnicity, Social Backgroud and Young Offending: A 14-Year Longitudinal Study
Authors: Fergusson D M , Horwood L J , Lynskey M T
Published: January 2011

The relationship between ethnicity and rates of violent, property and other offences based on self-report and parental report data was studied for a birth cohort of Christchurch born children. The results show that on the basis of report data, children of Maori ethnicity had significantly (p<.05) higher rates of offending than children of Pakeha (European) ethnicity with these rates being from 1.45 to 2.25 times higher than for Pakeha children. However, after adjustment for a series of social and contextual factors including maternal age, maternal educational levels, family socio-economic status, family living standards and early childhood environment factors, these associations reduced so that children of Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity had risks of offending which ranged from 1.08 to 1.55 times higher than children of Pakeha ethnicity. In four of the five comparisons made there was no significant relationship between ethnicity and offending after adjustment for these social and contextual factors. The implications of these findings for the interpretation of ethnic differences in rates of offending are examined with particular attention being given to labelling, socio-economic and cultural explanations of these differences.
Young People and the Policing of Community Space
Authors: White Rob
Published: January 2011

This paper explores the issue of the policing of young people in urban public spaces. Building upon previous work which examines how general community space in the urban environment is socially constructed, the paper discusses how aspects of police culture are linked to specific types of policing. It is argued that police practices are directed to protecting private property, maintaining personal security and at regulating the moral character of street life. In the context of a significant shift in the position of young people as consumers, it is suggested that the economic and social marginalisation of different groups of young people has fuelled an increasingly negative relationship between the police and young people. The contest over community space, and official state concerns revolving around “crime” and “propriety”, guarantee that social conflict will be heightened rather than reduced by current forms of police intervention in the lives of young people.
The Lost Key: Secure Accommodation and Juvenile Crime: An English and Welsh Perspective
Authors: Harris Robert , Timms Noel
Published: January 2011

This paper discusses aspects of a study of children in secure accommodation conducted in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. Secure accommodation is analysed as an ambiguous disposal designed to hold both offenders and other youngsters causing concern. Reflecting a western cultural tendency to assume the existence of a technical solution to every problem, professional responses to the uncertainty accompanying ambiguity include the pursuit of more knowledge to identify the “key” to the problems the youngsters present. Some implications of this approach for the youngsters themselves are discussed, and it is suggested that rather than focussing predominantly on system input, reformist endeavour might concentrate on what children have to do to be discharged.
Developing an Offender-Based Tracking System: The Western Australia Inois Project
Authors: Ferrante Anna
Published: January 2011

In 1989 the Crime Research Centre (University of Western Australia) and criminal justice agencies in Western Australia became involved in the INOIS (Integrated Numerical Offender Identification System) project. The principal aim of this project was to introduce a common, unique identifier for offenders so that a longitudinal database could be established that could “track” offenders through the criminal justice system. This paper explains reasons for establishing this kind of database and explores some of the conceptual and technical issues which arise. Central to the development of the database and, therefore, to the INOIS project, was the underlying need to uniquely identify each offender. This paper focuses on how record-linking techniques were used to achieve this. The record-linking component of the INOIS project is discussed at length, and results from trials and from preliminary runs of the linkage system are presented and discussed. Additional research and operational usages of such a system are also identified.
Violence, Meaning and the Law: Responses to Garry David
Authors: Craze Leanne , Moynihan Patricia
Published: January 2011

Garry David, the Victorian gunman who required special legislation to detain him indefinitely because of his ‘dangerousness’ has become a classic Australian case example of ‘law and order’ politics. This paper uses a post-Structuralist approach to argue that the core dynamic in the case is the production of representations of the uncontrollable and incomprehensible. Politicians have been drawn to ever more dramatic display of the need for law and order. Inflated images of violence become the dominant public discourse and are used to legitimate increasingly punitive measures directed against representations of the Other.
Police Community Consultation: An Examination of its Practice in Selected Constabularies in England and New South Wales, Australia*
Authors: Bull David , Stratta Erica
Published: January 2011

The emergence of police community consultative committees in selected
Lethal Violence as a Form of Masculine Conflict Resolution
Authors: Polk Kenneth
Published: January 2011

This investigation adds to previous research aimed at isolating patterns of homicide where males predominate as both offenders and victims. The method is exploratory and qualitative in nature, and draws upon case study data available for 376 homicides for the years 1985–89 from coroner's files in Victoria. Thematic analysis identified a scenario where the violence occurs when individuals who know each other reasonably well find themselves caught in a conflict that cannot be resolved through conventional means, with violence becoming a planned device of conflict resolution. In contrast to other masculine scenarios of homicide, the violence is not a spontaneous outgrowth of a fight, or a killing that takes place in the course of other crime, nor is it an attempt to exert control over the behaviour of a sexual partner. There were 41 cases (roughly 10% of all homicides) which fit the elements of this scenario.
Work Death in Victoria, 1987–1990: An Overview
Authors: Polk Kenneth , Haines Fiona , Perrone Santina
Published: January 2011

This investigation describes the level and nature of work-related traumatic work deaths which occurred in Victoria in 1987–90. There were a total of 353 such deaths reported to the coroner in this period. While a large number of these deaths involved farmers or self-employed workers, a majority were found to involve work in the context of a company. Further, most of these company work deaths involved some amount of negligence on the part of the employer. In all, there were prosecutions in only 34 of the 353 fatalities, all of which resulted in convictions. Despite the fact that at least 25 of these deaths could be seen as resulting from extreme employer negligence, and that at least four of the negligent companies were repeat offenders, there were no prosecutions of either individuals or companies under provisions of the Crimes Act (all convictions were obtained for breaches of occupational health and safety regulations). There is in these data, then, further evidence of a ‘gentle’ posture on the part of regulatory agencies.
Risk Behaviours for Blood-borne Viruses in a Victorian Prison
Authors: Crofts Nick , Thompson Sandra , Wale Elizabeth , Hernberger Franz
Published: January 2011

Hepatitis B and C viruses continue to spread in Victorians at risk of incarceration. We have therefore studied risk behaviours for these infections among 51 prisoners with a history of injecting drug use (IDU) in the central Victorian prison; 33 were also interviewed about their tattooing experience. Half had injected inside prison in the preceding month, an average of 5.5 times, suggesting up to 9,000 injections p.a. in this prison. Almost all shared inadequately disinfected equipment, with no way of knowing how many had used it before. First sharing of injecting equipment had been in prison for a fifth. Almost 90% were HCV infected. Almost all had been tattooed, with 60% having had at least one while in prison, while five reported more than 50 tattoos in prison. Urgent consideration of methods to decrease these risks is necessary, including assessment of the feasibility of controversial strategies such as needle and syringe exchange programs and the provision of sterile tattooing equipment.
John Braithwaite and Crime, Shame and Reintegration: Some Reflections on Theory and Criminology
Authors: Watts Rob
Published: January 2011

John Braithwaite's ‘republican theory of criminology’ (1989) claims to offer a new general theory of crime, an account of ‘the good society’ and a set of policy prescriptions for effective crime control. Along the way he has spelt out a moral theory grounded in communitarianism, and refined his own version of a ‘progressive’ politics. This paper examines two central aspects of Braithwaite's work. Given Braithwaite's claim to say why ‘some kinds of individuals and some kinds of societies exhibit more crime’, the paper suggests his answers to this question and the adequacy of his notion of good social science are severely wanting. Braithwaite's claim to be offering a theory of the moral shares with the Durkheimian tradition he draws on, a refusal of the moral. The contemporary praise accorded Braithwaite's work is a sign both of intellectual desperation and of a pervasive nostalgia for a return to ‘community’ exemplified in the work of communitarians like Macintyre (1981) and Bellah (1985).
User Pays: Why Men Buy Sex
Authors: Jordan Jan
Published: January 2011

Criminological and sociological discourse on the sex industry has focussed primarily on issues concerning women's involvement as prostitutes, while comparatively little attention has been paid to the men who buy their services. This paper begins to explore the motivations and experiences of the clients, based on in-depth, qualitative interviews conducted with a small group of such men in New Zealand. Sex workers' observations of their clients are also included in this account. The overall aim is to enhance our understanding of why men buy sex and how they construct such interactions for themselves, as well as to ponder the question: who gets ‘used’ under ‘user pays’?
Cohabitation, Marriage and Delinquency: The Significance Family Environment
Authors: Sarantakos Sotirios
Published: January 2011

This paper uses Australian data to examine the relationship between parental lifestyles and family environments on the one hand, and occurrence, type and frequency of delinquency on the other. These data, collected by means of interviewing, relate to a part of a longitudinal study including 512 children; 233 were children of cohabiting couples and 279 of married couples. The findings presented in this paper show that (a) there are proportionally more offenders coming from families of cohabiting than of married couples; (b) there are proportionately more offenders who become recidivists coming from families of cohabiting than of married couples; and that (c) the family environments of the majority of offenders are marked by instability, low integration, hostile parental attitudes, domestic violence, parental conflicts and parental indifference.
Power/Knowledge and Public Space: Policing the ‘Aboriginal Towns’
Authors: White Jarrod
Published: January 2011

The over representation of Aboriginal people in the criminal justice system is very well established. Further, the role of the police as an organ playing a key role in this over representation — as distinct from essentially passive respondents to a presumably criminal Aboriginal population — has also been widely accepted within the field of criminology This article is an attempt to form an understanding of the interaction between Aboriginal people and police by analysing the manner in which knowledge of the Aboriginal subject is constructed through material police practices in a particular context — the rural communities of North-West New South Wales. The paper emphasises the relationship between the structural imperatives of policing and the specific conditions of particular policed spaces, and the active role played by Aboriginal people in the creation of policing outcomes.
Sir John Barry and the Melbourne Department of Criminology: Some Other Foundations of Australian Criminology
Authors: Finnane Mark
Published: January 2011

The development of ‘Australian criminology’has been the subject of some comment in the last decade, in common with a recent interest internationally in the formation of the discipline. An influential account by Carson and O'Malley (1989) placed much emphasis on the erosion of criminology's critical potential by a mix of political, intellectual and professional currents in post-war Australia. On the basis of a review of evidence in the papers of Sir John Barry, it is argued here that the establishment of Australia's first academic criminology department, at the University of Melbourne, was characterised by a greater openness to critical and inter-disciplinary inquiry than might be expected. This study suggests the need for a more detailed scrutiny of the formation of the discipline in Australia and elsewhere.
Firearms Theft in New Zealand — Lessons for Crime and Injury Prevention
Authors: Alpers Philip , Walters Reece
Published: January 2011

In New Zealand, 200,000licensed shooters (5.5% of the population) own an estimated 1 million firearms, 9 times more guns per capita than in England and Wales and 20% more than in Australia. Based on a 3 year study of firearm theft in New Zealand, this paper concludes that insecure storage of lawfully held weapons by licensed owners poses a significant public health and safety risk. Furthermore, this paper concludes that the failure of the police to enforce New Zealand gun security laws, and the government's hesitancy to develop firearm education and regulation policies, exacerbates insecure firearm storage, a key factor in firearm-related theft, injury, suicide, violence and criminal activity.
Policies for Incarcerated Mothers and their Families in Australian Corrections
Authors: Farrell Ann
Published: January 2011

The incarceration of a mother usually brings considerable dislocation to the offending woman's children and family. This paper examines current policies for the inmate mother, for her children and for the caregiver(s) of her children on the outside and argues for reform with respect to these policies. To this end, it reports on the Australian component of a comparative policy study, Incarcerated Mothers and Children: Impact of Prison Environments (IMCIPE), which investigated the impact of the prison environment on incarcerated mothers and their young children (including both mothers whose children live with them in custody and mothers who are separated from their children), in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and England. The paper draws on data from policy analyses; interviews with policy-makers, with inmate mothers, and with custodial and non-custodial staff; and observations within six women's prisons and their respective correctional authorities in the three Australian states. The study found that while inmate mothers need support from “significant others” within and outside the prison to cope with the dual roles of prisoner and mother, the custodial environment with its philosophy of incarceration, its mode of containment and the prison rules and regulations runs counter to such needs.
The Prevalence in New Zealand of Violence Against Women by their Current Male Partners
Authors: Morris Allison
Published: January 2011

The Women's Safety Survey, conducted in 1996, asked a sample of 500 New Zealand women (selected from a pool of almost 2000 women) about their experience of any form of violence (psychological, physical or sexual) used against them by their partners. This article reports some of the survey's main findings on the prevalence of men's physical and sexual violence against their current partners and contrasts these findings with selected examples of recent research elsewhere and in New Zealand. The results suggest that New Zealand women, particularly Maori women, experience a comparatively high rate of violence at the hands of their male partners. However, violence by partners is a complex area to research and different surveys have used different methodologies in their attempts to measure its prevalence. The article concludes, therefore, with a discussion of some of the methodological difficulties in carrying out this type of research and suggests that, in interpreting and comparing research findings, methodological differences cannot be discounted.
An Evaluation of the Queensland Security Providers Act: Implications for National Regulation of the Protective Security Industry
Authors: Prenzler Tim , Hayes Hennessey
Published: January 2011

The expansion of protective security services in the last few decades has raised concerns about the privatisation of policing and accountability of ‘non-police’ law enforcement agencies. One response by governments has been to enlarge regulatory controls of the industry. A recent example is the Queensland Security Providers Act 1993.This paper reports on a study designed to obtain insiders' views on the impact of the Act. A survey of security managers revealed scepticism about the success of the legislation in reducing misconduct and improving competency amongst security providers. Respondents felt the licensing system was too narrow and enforcement too weak to upgrade the industry to the desired standard — although there was some support for improved entry-level standards as a result of minimum training requirements. Strong support was expressed for a range of reform measures including comprehensive licensing of all industry sectors linked to a national system, improved training and assessment, frequent criminal history checks on licensees, more vigorous compliance monitoring, and compulsory insurance and monitoring of firms for award payments. A cooperative approach to regulation and national co-ordination of the states and territories is needed to implement these measures in order to improve standards of service delivery in security work and protect the public interest.
Risk and Resilience: Crime and Violence Prevention in Aboriginal Communities
Authors: Homel Ross , Lincoln Robyn , Herd Bruce
Published: January 2011

Developmental prevention involves the manipulation of multiple risk and protective factors early in developmental pathways that lead to offending, often at transition points between life phases. The emphasis is not just on individuals but also their social contexts. Risk and protective factors for crime and violence in Aboriginal communities include such standard factors as child abuse, school failure and supportive family environments, but additional factors arise from unique aspects of Aboriginal history, culture and social structure. This paper draws on existing literature, interviews with urban Aboriginal community workers, and data from the Sibling Study to delineate those interrelated risk factors (forced removals, dependence, institutionalised racism, cultural features and substance use) and the equally interrelated protective factors (cultural resilience, personal controls and family control measures). These are ‘meta factors’ that provide a lens through which the standard lists can be interpreted, and are a starting point for the understanding of indigenous developmental pathways.
Canadian Aboriginal Women and Their ‘Criminality’: The Cycle of Violence in the Context of Difference
Authors: Jackson Margaret A.
Published: January 2011

The overrepresentation of Aboriginal women in Canada's justice 1 system is a longstanding social problem that is reflective of wider social and economic differences for Aboriginal peoples. While other minority and/or marginalized groups in Canada may experience similar intersections of race, gender, and class, a special ‘context of difference’, grounded in the colonial legacy of assimilationist policies, exists for Canadian Aborigines. It is argued that a cycle of violence and criminality for Aboriginal women has emerged from this context of difference. The relationship and tensions that exist between the ‘cycle’ and the ‘context’ are explored in an attempt to determine the nature of both. The implications of the relationship on the legal realities for Aboriginal women are discussed as well as the traditional and contemporary theoretical explanations offered for its existence. The paper concludes by considering possibilites for breaking the cycle.
A Systematic Review of Adenotonsillectomy as a Risk Factor for Childhood Obesity
Authors: Jeyakumar Anita , Fettman Nicholas , Armbrecht Eric S. , Mitchell Ron
Published: January 2011

Objective

Tonsillectomy is the most common major surgical procedure performed in children. There is evidence that tonsillectomy is associated with weight increase and may contribute to pediatric obesity. The study aimed to review the evidence that tonsillectomy with or without adenoidectomy is a risk factor for future obesity.

Data Sources

Systematic literature search was performed using PubMed and Ovid.

Review Methods

Systematic analysis of the literature from 1970 to 2009 on patients who underwent adenotonsillectomy (T&A) with preoperative and postoperative weight‐based measurements.

Results

Nine studies satisfied inclusion criteria. A total of 795 children were included. Preoperative weight ranged from normal to morbid obesity. In total, 656 children had demographic information recorded, and 53.35% of the children were male. Indication for surgery was not recorded in 336 patients. In 47.7% patients, the indication recorded was sleep‐disordered breathing. The first group included 3 studies involving 127 children, and body mass index (BMI) increased by 5.5% to 8.2%. The second group included 3 studies involving 419 patients; the standardized weight scores increased in 46% to 100% of patients. The third group included 3 studies with 249 patients; the corrected weight increased postoperatively in 50% to 75% of patients. Morbidly obese patients (weight 130%‐260% vs peers) remained unchanged postoperatively.

Limitations

Each study was designed with different definitions of overweight and a range of follow‐up periods. Demographic information was limited.

Conclusions

A large population of normal and overweight children undergoing T&A gained a greater than expected amount of weight postoperatively, which suggests an association between T&A and weight gain. A significant need exists for a large study with consistent outcomes measured.
An Animal Model for Endotracheal Tube–Related Laryngeal Injury Using Hypoxic Ventilation
Authors: Gordin Arie , Chadha Neil K. , Campisi Paolo , Luginbuehl Igor , Taylor Glenn , Forte Vito
Published: January 2011

Objectives

To explore whether hypoxic ventilation could allow a practical animal model of laryngotracheal injury secondary to endotracheal intubation.

Study Design

Randomized controlled animal study.

Setting

Animal laboratory in a tertiary pediatric hospital.

Subjects and Methods

Eight Sus scrofa piglets (15‐18 kg) were anesthetized and intubated for 4 hours, with a 6‐mm cuffed endotracheal tube. They were randomly assigned to either constant hypoxic ventilation (oxygen saturation under 70%) or nonhypoxic ventilation. Endotracheal tube cuff pressure was manually controlled and maintained at a constant level. After 4 hours, fluorescein dye was administered intravenously to highlight areas of hypoperfusion within the larynx. The animals were euthanized at the end of the procedure, and the larynx and trachea were harvested for gross and histological examination. The pathologist was blinded to the ventilation group. The severity of laryngeal injury was graded between 0 and 4 by a senior pathologist.

Results

The experiment protocol was successfully completed in all animal subjects. The animals undergoing hypoxic ventilation showed a significantly higher median injury grade than the nonhypoxic animals (2 vs 1, respectively; P =. 003). Damage was significantly worse in the hypoxic group at all anatomical sublevels.

Conclusions

Endotracheal tube–related laryngeal injury was demonstrated after only 4 hours of intubation using this animal model, and hypoxic ventilation increased the severity of injury. This study therefore provides an animal model that may be suitable for future investigation and prevention of intubation injury.
Shifts in family policy in the UK under New Labour
Authors: Daly Mary
Published: January 2011

In the years since it came to power in 1997, New Labour has set about reforming key elements of the British welfare state. In its wide-ranging vision, project even, the family has had a central place. This article probes the meaning and significance of New Labour’s focus on the family and considers whether it represents a change compared with past policies. The impressive range of measures put in place by New Labour suggests considerable change. These measures address, inter alia, children’s early education and care, services to stabilise and improve the quality of family relations especially in low-income sectors of the population, parental employment and greater flexibility in work and family life. But the balance between change and continuity is a relatively fine one. While New Labour’s concerns about family have sui generis aspects, they also draw upon long-standing features of and concerns around the welfare state in the UK. One conclusion, then, is that while there has been innovation, not least in the policy settings and instruments, New Labour’s approach to the family draws upon and reinforces existing philosophies around welfare and the family. However, under New Labour, the family became more rather than less important as a concern of policy. A second conclusion, then, is that New Labour has sought a balance between its selectivist approach and a more universalist concern to elevate family as an agent and source of social stability. A third conclusion and a key element of the argument advanced is that New Labour’s policy has to be understood as part of an ideological project that is both social and economic in nature.
The Journey to Understanding Privilege: A Meta-Narrative Approach
Authors: Middleton Valerie A. , Anderson Sharon K. , Banning James H.
Published: January 2011

Challenging incidents associated with privilege and oppression occur daily. Within the fields of adult education and higher education, researchers and practitioners have examined and critiqued the exploration and understanding of privilege (e.g., White privilege). Studies have explored how adult educators, who acknowledged their own White privilege and the norms of whiteness, are working to change systems of privilege and oppression. This work furthers the current literature. The authors employ a meta-narrative approach analyzing narratives from faculty and professionals in the helping fields. The meta-narrative designation of a ‘‘collective story,’’ utilizing professional voices is a unique contribution in addressing privilege. The narrative tradition offers participant stories to systematically explore the interaction of dominant and nondominant privilege statuses. The findings relate to transformational learning and verify the need to consistently employ self-reflection and discourse toward examining and refining one’s understanding of and interactions with privilege and oppression.
Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase is largely unresponsive to low regulatory levels of hydrogen peroxide in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Authors: Cyrne Luísa , Antunes Fernando , Sousa-Lopes Ana , Diaz-Bérrio João , Marinho H Susana
Published: January 2011

Background

The reversible oxidation of protein SH groups has been considered to be the basis of redox regulation by which changes in hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentrations may control protein function. Several proteins become S-glutathionylated following exposure to H2O2 in a variety of cellular systems. In yeast, when using a high initial H2O2 dose, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was identified as the major target of S-glutathionylation which leads to reversible inactivation of the enzyme. GAPDH inactivation by H2O2 functions to reroute carbohydrate flux to produce NADPH. Here we report the effect of low regulatory H2O2 doses on GAPDH activity and expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Results

A calibrated and controlled method of H2O2 delivery - the steady-state titration - in which cells are exposed to constant, low, and known H2O2 concentrations, was used in this study. This technique, contrary to the common bolus addition, allows determining which H2O2 concentrations trigger specific biological responses. This work shows that both in exponential- and stationary-phase cells, low regulatory H2O2 concentrations induce a large upregulation of catalase, a fingerprint of the cellular oxidative stress response, but GAPDH oxidation and the ensuing activity decrease are only observed at death-inducing high H2O2 doses. GAPDH activity is constant upon incubation with sub-lethal H2O2 doses, but in stationary-phase cells there is a differential response in the expression of the three GAPDH isoenzymes: Tdh1p is strongly upregulated while Tdh2p/Tdh3p are slightly downregulated.

Conclusions

In yeast GAPDH activity is largely unresponsive to low to moderate H2O2 doses. This points to a scenario where (a) cellular redoxins efficiently cope with levels of GAPDH oxidation induced by a vast range of sub-lethal H2O2 concentrations, (b) inactivation of GAPDH cannot be considered a sensitive biomarker of H2O2-induced oxidation in vivo. Since GAPDH inactivation only occurs at cell death-inducing high H2O2 doses, GAPDH-dependent rerouting of carbohydrate flux is probably important merely in pathophysiological situations. This work highlights the importance of studying H2O2-induced oxidative stress using concentrations closer to the physiological for determining the importance of protein oxidation phenomena in the regulation of cellular metabolism.
Addressing the Challenge of Defining Valid Proteomic Biomarkers and Classifiers
Authors: Dakna Mohammed , Harris Keith , Kalousis Alexandros , Carpentier Sebastien , Kolch Walter , Schanstra Joost P , Haubitz Marion , Vlahou Antonia , Mischak Harald , Girolami Mark
Published: January 2011

Background

The purpose of this manuscript is to provide, based on an extensive analysis of a proteomic data set, suggestions for proper statistical analysis for the discovery of sets of clinically relevant biomarkers. As tractable example we define the measurable proteomic differences between apparently healthy adult males and females. We choose urine as body-fluid of interest and CE-MS, a thoroughly validated platform technology, allowing for routine analysis of a large number of samples. The second urine of the morning was collected from apparently healthy male and female volunteers (aged 21-40) in the course of the routine medical check-up before recruitment at the Hannover Medical School.

Results

We found that the Wilcoxon-test is best suited for the definition of potential biomarkers. Adjustment for multiple testing is necessary. Sample size estimation can be performed based on a small number of observations via resampling from pilot data. Machine learning algorithms appear ideally suited to generate classifiers. Assessment of any results in an independent test-set is essential.

Conclusions

Valid proteomic biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis only can be defined by applying proper statistical data mining procedures. In particular, a justification of the sample size should be part of the study design.