New York 2013 

Today, more than 1 million children are deprived of their liberty worldwide,26 and countless children face violent and degrading treatment throughout the criminal justice process. In light of this dramatic situation, it is imperative to promote strategies that provide an alternative to detention and custodial sentences for children.
This report examines the potential of restorative justice programmes to facilitate conflict resolution and provide appropriate protection to children. This applies to the justice system, whether children are victims, offenders or witnesses, but it also applies in a range of other contexts, including at school, in residential care units, in social welfare settings and in the community. The primary purpose of restorative justice is just that — to restore justice. Within families, schools, communities, organizations, civil society and the State, restorative justice provides peaceful conflict resolution and contributes to cohesive and democratic societies  

http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/publications_final/srsgvac_restorative_justice_for_children_report.pdf

On January 13, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance released the Second Chance Act Technology Career Training grant program solicitation. State and local governments, territories, and federally recognized Native American tribes are eligible to apply. The funds can be used to establish training programs in technology-based fields for adults and juveniles in the 6-18 months prior to their release 

Applications are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on March 17, 2014. To download a PDF of the solicitation, click here

MSc in Countering Organised Crime and Terrorism, the MSc in Crime Science and theMSc in Crime and Forensic Science.

The open evening is an excellent opportunity to meet some of the course tutors and ask questions. They ill discuss in detail the content and logistics of  their courses, as well as how the course fits into your future career plans. They will also discuss the 14 scholarships on offer.

Tuesday 25th February 2014, from 6-8pm

Main Hall, Woburn House, 20 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9HQ

The open evening begins with a talk:

"Tracing the Motivations and Antecedent Behaviors of Lone-Actor Terrorists" by Dr Paul Gill, UCL 

Policing affords many opportunities for individual officers and police services to improve outcomes for community members and reduce the burden of substance misuse on the community. Key points highlighted concerning metropolitan areas include:

• A broad spectrum of services is available (albeit acknowledged to often be under-resourced), providing police with a range of referral points for and information sources about local area issues.
• Service providers and other agencies may also be variously accountable for public safety. Police may develop partnerships with these agencies, ensuring that tight resources can be appropriately directed to meet community needs.

Service providers can help police to better understand the complex life circumstances of individuals affected by alcohol and other drugs. Benefits of information exchanges can be twofold i.e. improved police confidence in handling complex situations; and increased awareness within the service sector of the range of tasks and behaviours police are expected to perform and manage.
Download: Monograph_48.pdf 

http://ndlerf.gov.au/publications/monographs.html

Council of State Governments Justice Center  

House and Senate appropriators released the $1 trillion omnibus federal spending package, which includes a $51.6 billion Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill.

In the bill, CJS Programs would see an increase of $1.4 billion over the pre-sequester level of $50.2 billion enacted for fiscal 2013, according to a summary of the legislation provided by House Appropriations Committee.

Under this bill, the Second Chance Act would be funded at $67.7 million, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA) would receive $8.2 million, and the Justice Reinvestment Initiative would receive $27.5 million, which includes $1 million for the Colson Task Force.


 

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has released the National Armed Robbery Monitoring Program (NARMP) report covering calendar years 2009-10.

The report summarises key findings from information describing the 12,005 victims reported to police in Australia.

Nationally, armed robbery continues to decrease. In 2003, the rate of armed robbery victimisation was 33 persons per 100,000, whereas the rate was calculated at 18 persons per 100,000 in 2010.

In raw figures, victim numbers fell from 8,865 in 2003 to 5,713 in 2010 - a 36 percent decrease. The number of incidents in which these victims were involved has also decreased over time, with a 24 percent decrease from 6,640 robberies in 2006 to a low of 5,022 in 2010.

There are some trends that – although only involving small numbers – warrant monitoring in coming years, including:

• armed robberies in licensed premises, which  increased by 20 percent from 309 in 2004, to 370 in 2010, and
• a rise in the number incidents perpetrated by exclusively female offenders, increasing from 93 in 2004 to 130 in 2010.

The report is available on the AIC website www.aic.gov.au 

UNODC launches new campaign on $250 billion a year counterfeit business

A new campaign from UNODC is being launched today to raise awareness around the role of organized crime in the $250 billion a year counterfeiting business.

The campaign, which looks at the often unforeseen range of products across the globe that are faked by criminals and the dire repercussions of this illicit business, aims to highlight how far-reaching a crime counterfeiting can be: from exploited labour being used to produce counterfeits, through to the harmful and potentially deadly dangers attached to these goods, and the links that this has in funding other organized criminal activities, counterfeiting is a crime that affects us all.

You can help us raise awareness around this illicit activity: watch the new PSA below and share the video with your networks through social media and other platforms. You can also visit www.unodc.org/counterfeit for more on the campaign.

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The Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) includes 22 government regulatory agencies and departments in Australia and New Zealand that work alongside private sector, community and non-government partners to prevent fraud. The ACFT has conducted a range of fraud prevention and awareness-raising activities since 2006. The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is a member of the Taskforce and chair of the research subgroup.

One key activity of the AIC, on behalf of the Taskforce, is to host an annual consumer fraud survey to obtain a snapshot of the public’s exposure to consumer scams and fraud, collect and analyse this information to improve the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of scams.

If you would like to report a scam, discuss your participation or speak to someone about your experiences, the please call the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s SCAMwatch hotline on 1300 795 995 (for TTY services call 1300 303 609) or visit www.scamwatch.gov.au

Consumer fraud

Consumer scams are crimes of dishonesty such as forgery, counterfeiting, on-line deception, and theft that are targeted at people who seek to purchase goods and services. Potential victims can be those who use computers and the Internet, older people, those who use professional advisers, and people who use mobile phones. Often individuals suffer financial loss, although banks and companies also suffer financially where they lose business or are required to compensate people who have lost money.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2012: np) defined a scam as “a fraudulent invitation, request notification or offer designed to obtain someone’s personal information or money or otherwise obtain a financial benefit by deceptive means”. While the terms fraud and scam are often used interchangeably, scams are generally considered to be a fraud category, with fraud referring to matters involving dishonesty and deception. There are a range of consumer fraud activities that may be classified as scams.

Consumer fraud in Australia

Although estimates have been made of the total cost of fraud and also identity-related fraud, we simply do not know how many consumers are victimized through scams and how much money they have lost. Many consumers also don’t report their experiences to the police or authorities, which make calculations based on official crime statistics even less reliable."

http://aic.gov.au/crime_community/surveys/acft.html

"The 6th Milestones of a Global Campaign for Violence Prevention Meeting was held at the Mexican Ministry for External Relations in Mexico City. The meeting was hosted by WHO and the Mexican Ministry of Health, with financial support from the latter and the California Wellness Foundation.

Under the theme "Towards measurable violence prevention targets" almost 300 experts from all over the world discussed progress in WHO´s Global Campaign for Violence Prevention and strategized the way ahead by:

• Presenting new data on homicide and on risk factors for interpersonal violence;
• Presenting new evidence on effective interventions to prevent interpersonal violence in developed and developing countries;
• Outlining what can be done to improve the capacity to measure violence prevention efforts;
• Agreeing on the need to consolidate efforts to strengthen the measurement of violence and violence prevention policies, programmes and laws;
• Calling for the establishment of a technical working group to inform the measurement of violence-related goals in the post-2015 development agenda."

More information about the meeting, including PowerPoint presentations, is available here: www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/6th_milestones_meeting/

/en/index.html

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The Australian Institute of Criminology has released Profiling parental child sex abuse drawing on clinical records of 213 parents who committed sex offences with their children.

Because few sex offenders are caught, and there is a lack of specific data on parental child sex offenders, this paper provides insight into this offender cohort and helps inform clinical interventions.

Child sex abuse estimates in Australia are high with a meta-analysis estimating a 38% rate for female victims and 13% for male, while the ABS has a more conservative estimate of 15% of the general population, with a 20% victimisation rate for females.

It is also estimated that 10-15% of child sex offending is committed by a parent.

Most parental child sex offenders were men in a father–child relationship with their victim.

Through data from former Cedar House program in NSW, 213 parental sex offenders participated in an offenders diversion program and provided a profile of offender characteristics which researchers analysed."

The report is available on the AIC website www.aic.gov.au

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Male victims of non-sexual and non-domestic violence: Service needs and experiences in court Research in Policy and Practice no.126

This new AIC report drew from a study commissioned and funded through Victims of Crime Research Fund administered by Victims Services, NSW Department of Attorney General and Justice.
 
The study sought to address this knowledge gap by exploring the experiences and support needs of male victims of violence (excluding sexual assault and domestic violence) living in NSW.
 
A study of this nature is important because of the paucity of male-focused victimology research undertaken in Australia and internationally.
 
Male victims of non-sexual and non-domestic violence  involved a comprehensive review of the currently available literature and interviews with focus groups, and criminal justice and support service representatives who have contact with male victims of violence as part of their everyday work.
 
The victim population was defined as adult males (aged 18 years and over) who had experienced some form of non-sexual/non-domestic violence (eg aggravated or non-aggravated physical assault, armed robbery or stalking).

The focus of the research project was to explore the:

• availability and appropriateness of support services in NSW for male victims of non-sexual and non-domestic violence;
• perceived barriers for male victims in accessing support services; and
• impact of participating in the court process on these victims.

Research findings suggest violent offences and participating in the trials of perpetrators can have a significant impact on male victims. While many male victims of violence will obtain the support they require from informal sources, some would benefit from engaging with formal services.
 
At time of writing, victim support services in NSW had some capacity to assist male victims of  violence, particularly when they were participating in court proceedings.
 
However, a range of barriers such as feeling ashamed of the victimisation and being seen as ‘weak’ and unmasculine, or just lack of knowledge about the availability and accessibility of support services, influenced whether a male victim engaged with formal support services.
 
This was exacerbated by lack of recognition within the criminal justice that  male victims of non-sexual violence may require assistance or even meet eligibility criteria for support services. It was also suggested that some male victims may choose not to engage with services if they were not seen as appropriate or meeting their needs."

The report is available on the AIC website www.aic.gov.au

How do you launch a new criminal justice reform? How do you measure impact? And is it possible to spread new practices to resistant audiences?

A new collection of essays on criminal justice reform by Greg Berman, Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration (Quid Pro Books) answers these questions and makes the argument that sometimes small changes can add up to big improvements in the criminal justice system.

By telling the story of successful projects like the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn, an experimental courthouse that has been documented to reduce both re-offending and the use of jail, and a range of other criminal justice reforms that are attempting to reduce both crime and incarceration, Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration examines both the positive results and the challenges of changing the criminal justice system.

Hosted by the Weber Human Services and the Utah Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health, this two-day summit addresses the need for organizations to have a solid implementation roadmap to ensure successful and sustainable delivery of their evidence-based practices (EBPs). On the first day, a nationally recognized, practical framework for implementing evidence-based treatments will be discussed, along with specific strategies for selecting and sustaining them within behavioral health settings. The second day will provide an overview of specific EBPs adopted by Weber Human Services and will discuss the challenges and successes associated with implementation. This training is ideal for behavioral health program supervisors, managers, administrators, and CEOs. It may be especially beneficial for individuals responsible for treatment services offered through drug courts and mental health courts.

Date: February 6-7, 2014
Location: Ogden, UT

For more information, click here.