Crime rates, male youth unemployment and real income in Australia: evidence from Granger causality tests

This article applies Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between seven different categories of property crime and violent crime against the person, male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings in Australia from 1964 to 2001 within a cointegration and vector error correction framework. It is found that fraud, homicide and motor vehicle theft are cointegrated with male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings. However, there is no evidence of a long-run relationship between either break and enter, robbery, serious assault or stealing with male youth unemployment and real male average weekly earnings.

The role of empathy in anger arousal in violent offenders and university students

A lack of empathic responsiveness toward others has been consistently identified as an important antecedent to aggressive behavior and violent crime, with many rehabilitation programs for violent offenders incorporating treatment modules that are specifically designed to increase offender empathy. This study examined the extent to which cognitive (perspective taking) and affective (empathic concern, personal distress) empathy predicted anger in a clinical (male prisoners convicted of a violent offense) and a nonclinical (student) sample. Perspective taking emerged as the strongest predictor of self-reported anger in response to an interpersonal provocation, as well as being most consistently related to scores on measures of general trait anger and methods of anger control. While the relationship between perspective taking and anger was apparent for offenders as well as students, the results did not support the idea that an inability to perspective take is a particular characteristic of violent offenders.

Violent offending, masculinity and age: exploring the role of developmental processes in adulthood

While the link between violent crime and masculinity is often implicitly assumed, to date, research has not specifically investigated beliefs about violence and masculinity at different stages of the adult life-course. This thesis explored the role of maturational processes in the way beliefs about masculinity and violence may differ in early and middle adulthood. Results of a quantitative study did not uncover statistically significant differences between younger and older adult violent offenders on a measure of criminal thinking. However, results of an interpretative phenomenological analysis indicated that beliefs about masculinity may differentially influence violent crime at different stages of adulthood. The results of these two studies provide a foundation for arguing that beliefs about violence and masculinity change throughout the life-course, and that masculinity in particular may be important treatment target in contemporary rehabilitation programs.

Benzodiazepine use of community-based violent offenders : a preliminary investigation

Objective: To explore the relationship between benzodiazepine use and violent crime in a sample of community-based offenders. Methods: Participants were recruited via drug diversion and treatment programs in Melbourne, Australia. Data regarding benzodiazepine and other substance use, mental health, personality characteristics, and crime involvement were collected through semistructured interviews conducted in 2011. Participants (n = 82, 79.3% male) were 21–56 years old, predominantly Australian-born (89%), with 14.6% identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders. Eligibility criteria were having been charged with a criminal offence in the previous six months and at least monthly benzodiazepine use. Group differences between violent (n = 11) and nonviolent offenders were assessed via independent samples t-tests (two-tailed) and nonparametric tests. Results: Individuals charged with violent index offences were significantly more likely to use higher average doses of alprazolam (p = 0.040) and exhibit benzodiazepine dependence (p = 0.037) as well as report high levels of sensation seeking, prior violence, and the diagnoses of depression and personality disorder than individuals charged with nonviolent index offences. Conclusions: The findings suggest the existence of a complex dynamic between mental health and violent offending that may be influenced by benzodiazepine use, in particular alprazolam. A core implication of these preliminary findings includes attending to the interpersonal skills and adaptive coping resources of violent offenders.

Improving risk assessment in schizophrenia: epidemiological investigation of criminal history factors

Background : Violence risk assessment in schizophrenia relies heavily on criminal history factors.

Aims : To investigate which criminal history factors are most strongly associated with violent crime in schizophrenia.

Method : A total of 13 806 individuals (8891 men and 4915 women) with two or more hospital admissions for schizophrenia were followed up for violent convictions. Multivariate hazard ratios for 15 criminal history factors included in different risk assessment tools were calculated. The incremental predictive validity of these factors was estimated using tests of discrimination, calibration and reclassification.

Results : Over a mean follow-up of 12.0 years, 17.3% of men (n = 1535) and 5.7% of women (n = 281) were convicted of a violent offence. Criminal history factors most strongly associated with subsequent violence for both men and women were a previous conviction for a violent offence; for assault, illegal threats and/or intimidation; and imprisonment. However, only a previous conviction for a violent offence was associated with incremental predictive validity in both genders following adjustment for young age and comorbid substance use disorder.

Conclusions : Clinical and actuarial approaches to assess violence risk can be improved if included risk factors are tested using multiple measures of performance.

Toward a clinically meaningful taxonomy of violent offenders: the role of anger and thinking styles

 This thesis identified a clinically meaningful three-group classification system of violent offenders utilising patterns of anger and crime-supporting beliefs using a sample of 305 male violent prisoners. The three types demonstrated differential outcomes following completion of a violence intervention program, highlighting the need for interventions more tailored toward treatment needs.

Exploring judicial opinion on the relationship between anabolic-androgenic steroid use and violent offending

Research suggests that there is a link between the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and violence, though this link may be moderated by other substance use such as alcohol. Violent acts in the nighttime economy in recent times has led to governments adopting a law enforcement approach. This study sought to investigate whether the judicial system considers that there is a link between AAS use and violence. Sentencing decisions in Victoria, Australia, were identified using three publically available case law databases. Of the six cases identified, three cases had some mention of a potential link between AAS use and violent offending; however, it appears that evidence of AAS use had neither an aggravating nor mitigating effect on sentencing. In all six cases, a history of other substance use had more of an impacting upon sentencing. Harm reduction approaches should be adopted to reduce violence related to any substance use, including AAS.

Women’s health Goulburn North East community crime prevention plan – regional preventing violence against women and children strategy: summative evaluation report from the external evaluator, February 2016

This report presents the external evaluation of the Hume Regional Preventing Violence Against Women Strategy. This is one of 12 projects funded by the Department of Justice and Regulation in Victoria under its initiative to support primary prevention and early intervention-focused partnership projects that seek to prevent violence before it occurs or address the key contributing factors of violence against women and their children. The focus is on changing behaviours and attitudes that allow violence against women and children to continue. The lead agency in the project was Women’s Health Goulburn North East (WHGNE).The Hume regional strategy The focus of the project was to develop and implement a coordinated regional strategy that addresses the determinants of violence against women and builds the capacity of communities to take action to prevent such violence. At the outset it was envisaged that a key component of the strategy would be to undertake preventive activities that respond to identified gaps in the region.The first version of the strategy was completed in September 2013 and formally launched in November 2013. In October 2013, Courageous Conversations was identified as the brand to be used for activities in the strategy, including a charter and other resources. As the project evolved, the strategy was revised to reflect differing levels of engagement and progress with the different parts of the work and to identity explicitly the activities associated with the brand. A revised version of the regional strategy was produced in September 2014, with four aims:• promoting equal and respectful relationships between men and women;• working across local government, workplaces and sporting settings to coordinate a region-wide approach to preventing violence against women;• bringing about structural and systemic organisational change to promote gender equitable and non-violent cultures;• build the capacity of leaders in preventing violence against women.Different components of the activities carried out under the strategy included: partnership and capacity building; building gender equity in organisations; gender equity and masculinities training; bystander training; knowledge dissemination and the Courageous Conversations website.

Understanding criminal behaviour: identifying psychological differences between domestically violent offenders and non-offenders

Numerous theories have been formulated in an attempt to explain the psychological differences between violent offenders and non-offenders. Constructs that have emerged as salient in such scholarship include anger expression, social problem solving, locus of control, attitudes toward women, impulsivity and temper. Although a considerable amount of sound research has been conducted into 'violent offending' per se, in general terms, research into family and domestic violence is yet to be as methodologically and theoretically rigorous. In an attempt to link these areas of work, and to identify the risk factors (or 'criminogenic needs') of specific sub-groups of male offenders, this research compared: (I) property offenders, (2) those who had been· 'violent against strangers', (3) those who had been 'violent against intimates' and (4) non-offenders. In an effort to address one of the shortcomings of prior research, potentially confounding variables such as age, education level cultural identity, and socio-economic status were controlled for in an effort to arrive at more meaningful representations of each offender group's specific psychological deficits and abundances. A number of differences were highlighted between the groups, but few of these remained after demographic
covariates were controlled for. This paper details the nature of these differences, while also proposing that future studies adopt a similar methodology.

Fictions for representing and generating semiotic consciousness: the crime story and educational inquiry

This essay appraises the work of fiction in representing and generating semiotic consciousness in education by examining three intertextual continuities between crime fiction and stories of educational inquiry. First, many reports of educational research resemble detective stories in their quests to determine the (or a) “truth” about something that is problematic or puzzling and this essay describes some of the ways in which the characteristic investigatory methods of fictional detectives resemble forms of educational inquiry. Second, the characteristic ways in which detective stories generate interpretations are compared with the textual strategies deployed in producing meanings and narratives in educational inquiry. Third, recent transformations of both detective fiction and educational inquiry are shown to be comparable — and intertextually linked — manifestations of cultural and semiotic shifts associated with postmodernity. I conclude by suggesting that authors of “anti-detective” crime fiction might provide more appropriate models of educational inquiry than do fictional detectives.

Crime stories: posnerian pragmatism, Rawlsian pure procedural justice, and the fictional problem

There are many different ways in which law and truth may be said to be related. It is perhaps in the criminal trial that connections between them are of most significance. An orthodox way of describing a criminal trial is that the criminal procedure is seeking to establish the truth concerning some past event, and that success of the procedure is measured by how close its outcome converges with that truth. Criminal justice presents the community with challenging dilemmas in this regard, such as those arising from the notion of double jeopardy. This paper discusses the Rawlsian notions of 'imperfect', 'perfect' and 'pure' procedural justice, and suggests against Rawls that it is pure procedural justice that best represents what we want from a criminal justice system. Good procedure makes good criminal law. A comparison is made with the writings of Habermas and Posner, and given that pure procedural justice eschews transcendental truths, some brief comments are made on the convergence of that position with the realm of the fictional.

A note on psychoanalysis and the crime of torture

Torture and the legitimate powers of the state - why are psychoanalysts involved - torture can be seen as an information gathering device - psychoanalysis may play a role in the creation of information gathering coercion techniques.

Information security, cyber crime, and infrastructure protection : information security management within Australian healthcare organisations

Information security is now recognised as critical factor within the healthcare industry. With the gradual move from paper -based to electronic information there is an even greater need for protection. However, financial and operational constraints often exist which influence the practicality of developing a secure system. A new baseline security standard, the Health Information Security Management Implementation Guide, has been drafted which applies specifically to the unique information security requirements of the healthcare industry. The aim of this paper is to look at the effectiveness of the health information security standard and the development of information security within the Australian healthcare industry.

Multiple barriers to obtaining child support : experiences of women leaving violent partners

This article reports on a study which explores how policies and practices shape the experiences of single parents when seeking and using child support from violent ex-partners. The findings of this and similar research studies on violence, child support and poverty indicate that the receipt of child support is a multi-step process plagued with multiple barriers.