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Summary of Research:
Leading Horses to Water and Making Them Drink. Compulsory Dispute Resolution in the Australian Context
Evidence-Based Adult Corrections Programs: What Works and What Does Not
Report on New Jersey’s GPS Monitoring Of Sex Offenders
Moving Men Into The Mainstream: Best Practices In Prisoner Reentry Assistance
Jail Time = Less Crime
Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, September 2008
Reducing Gun Violence
Legislating a Principled Approach to Sentencing in Relation to Regulatory Offences
Substance Abuse Treatment and Public Safety
This Works: Crime Prevention and the Future of Broken Windows Policing
The General Deterrent Effect Of Longer Sentences
Traffic-law enforcement and risk of death from motor-vehicle crashes: case-crossover study
3M: Waste Minimization
Chronic disease Prevention Alliance of Canada
Combating Gang Violence in Chicago’s Little Village Neighborhood
Broken Windows Turns 25 by Charles Upton Sahm
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Leading Horses to Water and Making Them Drink. Compulsory Dispute Resolution in the Australian Context
Source: www.mediationconference.com.au/2008_Papers/HarmanJoe.doc
Article synopsis:
Reviews Australian family law reforms, particularly the compulsory requirement that domestic disputants attend dispute resolution prior to filing a court application.
Summarizes the motivation for reform and discusses how a legal and adversarial response and determination of parenting disputes is unhelpful to the long term health and success of parenting arrangements.
The ultimate family law reforms were the result of substantial and sustained political review of the Australian family law system from 1998 until 2006. These reviews followed what was perceived as the failure of previous reforms to the Australian Family Law Act to bring about a fundamental change of culture within the Court (then only the Family Court), the Legal Profession and the broader Community.
It is damaging to expose children ongoing conflict so in order to strengthen families of the future separating families must be given the best chance for successful parenting. Successful parenting can only truly occur when separated parents can resolve conflicts in a way that allows them to care for their children positively and cooperatively.
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Evidence-Based Adult Corrections Programs: What Works and What Does Not
Source: Washington State Institute For Public Policy
Link: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/06-01-1201.pdf
Article synopsis:
Prepared for the Washington State Legislature, the research takes an evidence based approach to reviewing programs in adult correctional facilities to determine which help to reduce recidivism (re-offences) among released offenders.
Considers programs ranging from in prison drug treatment programs to work programs and cognitive-behavioral treatment in their ability to reduce adult re-offence rates.
Article shows that there can be both an ability to provide tough sanctions for criminal behavior with a means to rehabilitating criminals prior to judicial or statutory release.
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Report on New Jersey’s GPS Monitoring Of Sex Offenders
Source: Source: Electronic Monitoring Resource Centre
Link: https://emresourcecenter.nlectc.du.edu/emresdoc/Article-2.pdf
Article synopsis:
The Report by the New Jersey State Parole Board reviews the State’s experience with tracking 225 high risk sex offenders with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology.
The report indicates that of the 225 individuals monitored, only one had re-offended, a significantly lower recidivism rate that the nationwide data for high risk sex offenders.
It concludes that GPS technology is an “essential tool” for monitoring released high risk sex-offenders. |
Moving Men Into The Mainstream: Best Practices In Prisoner Reentry Assistance
Source: The Manhattan Institute
Link: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_51.htm
Article synopsis:
This 2008 study looks at some of the strategies that help to make the transition from prisoner to law-abiding community member successful.
The study suggests that a number of factors, including gang activity, limited job prospects and a lack of suitable housing make prisoner re-entry less likely to be successful.
Strategies that work with prisoner reentry include; coordinated and shared risk-taking by government agencies; an emphasis on employment; policies that don’t endanger the community; a role for family, faith and community and early intervention. |
Jail Time= Less Crime
Source: Reader’s Digest Canada
Link: http://www.readersdigest.ca/mag/2007/10/jailtime_lesscrime.php
Article synopsis:
The article looks at the proposition that the increase in prison population has helped reduce the crime rate by ensuring more repeat offenders are in jail.
Cites studies that show the burglary rate dropped by half, robberies by a third and car theft dropped to decade lows during the 1990’s in the United States as prison populations increased.
Cities United States research showing that “having one more criminal behind bars resulted in 15 fewer serious crimes a year.” |
Windsor Review of Legal and Social Issues, September 2008
Book Review, Mental Health Courts: Decriminalizing the Mentally Ill by Richard Schneider, Hy Bloom and Mark Heerema by Ronald Roesch and Kaitlyn McLachlan
Source: 25 Windsor Rev. Legal & Soc. Issues 113
Article synopsis:
Reviews the book Mental Health Courts: Decriminalizing the Mentally Ill which outlines the need for mental health courts, how those courts should be operated and an overview of their efficacy and future.
Since there were insufficient resources made available after the deinstitutionalization of mental health many mental health patients have filtered into the criminal justice system.
Recognizing that the ultimate affect has been a criminalization of mental illness many jurisdictions, primarily in the United States have developed mental health courts to provide an alternative to criminal prosecution by diverting accused with mental health problems to treatment programs.
Mental health courts, although likely to remain a useful and important facet of criminal justice in urban centres, such a system is only a single facet of a much larger and comprehensive system of solutions required to heal the ailing mental health system in Manitoba and Canada.
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Reducing Gun Violence
Source: Crime Control Policy Center, Hudson Institute
Link: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188740.pdf
Article synopsis:
The study reviews the Indianapolis Police Department’s effort to reduce gun crime in their City by looking at two strategies.
One strategy was to have police officers placed in a high crime neighborhood to undertake as many traffic stops as possible to increase visibility and attempt to present a general deterrence. The second strategy placed police officers in a high crime area but they targeted their stops to specific suspicious behavior by individuals.
In both cases crime went down generally in both areas however gun related crime only went down in the area where stops were targeted to suspicious behavior.
The targeted deterrence approach sends a message to those most likely to commit violent gun-related crimes. |
Legislating a Principled Approach to Sentencing in Relation to Regulatory Offences
Source: 12 Can. Crim. L. Rev. 281
Article synopsis:
Recommends that The Offence Act of British Columbia be amended so that it provides a clear legislative approach to sentencing specific to the regulatory context.
Recommendations include requiring the courts to first consider remediation and rehabilitation and then, if necessary, consider general deterrence and punishment. In addition, enabling the courts to participate in achieving regulatory goals by authorizing a wide range of sanctions.
Currently and generally courts impose fines for general deterrence. Increasingly however regulations are non-prescriptive and current enforcement strategies do not recognize the impact non-prescriptive regulations have on offenders.
The proposed amendments, which follow the federal example, would allow the court to craft sentences that allow sentencing to be an important part of the regulatory cycle by holding offenders accountable in a manner that will further the regulatory objectives of the statute that has been violated.
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Substance Abuse Treatment and Public Safety
Source: The Justice Policy Institute
Linkn: http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/08_01_REP_DrugTx_AC-PS.pdf
Article synopsis:
The 2008 study examines the relationship between drug treatment programs for offenders and the reduction in crime rates.
It suggests that the increase of admission to drug treatment programs for addicts results in lower crime rates and that early intervention further reduces the likelihood of crime.
The article concludes that substance abuse treatment is also important in the transition from prison to the community for the reduction of recidivism among offenders. |
This Works: Crime Prevention and the Future of Broken Windows Policing
Source: The Manhattan Institute
Link: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_36.htm
Article synopsis:
This is a presentation given by representatives from law enforcement, academia, the faith based community and business on effective policing and crime prevention.
It focuses around popular crime reduction concepts such as the “Broken Windows Theory” and the “Tipping Point Theory.”
Examples of how focusing on smaller crimes gives rise to reductions in larger crimes is given including how preventing individuals from skipping the payment of a $1.15 subway fare led to a 90 percent reduction in crime on the New York Subway since fare skippers were more likely to commit subway crime.
The presentation indicates there is no one “cookie-cutter” solution but that certain policing concepts generally work to the reduction of crime. |
The General Deterrent Effect Of Longer Sentences
Source: Oxford Journal
Link: http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/1/47
Article synopsis:
One of the founding articles that looked at the relationship between longer judicial sentences and a general deterrent effect on others not to commit crime.
It reviews several studies and concludes generally that, taken as a whole, there is a substantial body of evidence showing a deterrent effect from longer sentences. |
The General Deterrent Effect Of Longer Sentences
Source: Oxford Journal
Link: http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/1/47
Article synopsis:
One of the founding articles that looked at the relationship between longer judicial sentences and a general deterrent effect on others not to commit crime.
It reviews several studies and concludes generally that, taken as a whole, there is a substantial body of evidence showing a deterrent effect from longer sentences.
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Traffic-law enforcement and risk of death from motor-vehicle crashes: case-crossover study
Source: The Lancet
Link: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)13770-1/fulltext#article_upsell
Article synopsis:
This is an Ontario study from 2003 which examined whether traffic sanctions and traffic enforcement altered people’s driving habits and made roads safer.
The study concluded that traffic-law enforcement effectively reduced the frequency of motor-vehicle crashes and that inconsistent enforcement may contribute to thousands of death each year worldwide in countries that have high rates of motor-vehicle use.
The study favors increased use of highway traffic enforcement in provinces as a means of increasing safety.
**To access the full study users need to create a log-in identity but there is no charge for this. |
3M: Waste Minimization
Source: William Lanen, University of Michigan
Article Synopisis:
When manufacturing giant 3M embarked upon its Pollution Prevention Pays (3P) program in 1975, it was a pioneer in the field. Under the leadership of Dr. Joseph Ling, 3M undertook to prevent the creation of waste in any form – packaging, discarded materials, air and water emissions, and wasteful use of energy – by adapting the mindset of Total Quality Management in which all employees were empowered to make suggestions and take responsibility for the organization’s overall goal. While this analysis was written in 1995, it remains a good example of a comprehensive and organic approach to preventing waste and pollution, and is especially helpful in that it was entirely voluntary, and therefore provides us with a view of what industry is capable of doing to reduce its environmental footprint independently of government intervention.
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Chronic disease Prevention Alliance of Canada
Source: http://www.cdpac.ca/content.php?doc=130
Article Synopsis:Primary Prevention of Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada: A Framework for Action
This study represents an integrated system of research, policies, surveillance, and programs for maintaining health and preventing chronic disease.
Requires the involvement of all stakeholders to align their investments, priorities and activities.
National and Provincial strategies must have a primary prevention component.
Particularly addresses national disease strategies of: cancer, stroke, diabetes, heart health, lung health, healthy living and chronic disease.
The four main components for action are: Resources, Capacities, Actions and Impacts
a) Resources:
- key players and leadership must be involved at all levels – National and Provincial
also involves other sectors such as Education, Health care, Workplace, Recreation and the public sector
b) Capacities:
involves many facets of involvement
Planning and Management of organizations, partnerships and relationships needs to be developed
Research and Innovation involves knowledge exchange and capacity building, systematic reviews, practice guidelines and standards of practice.
Goal and Objective setting. The need to reduce risk factors and conditions by reducing social inequities (socio-cultural, socio-economic, geographic)
Advocacy and policy development involves citizen engagement and mobilization in the strategies, as well as government, private sector and school boards.
Program development involves clinical, education and media components.
Communications is needed to change the knowledge and behaviour.
Financial transfers such as grants and other incentives
Human resources involves the trained professionals needed to carry out the plans
Evaluation and learning is the internal analysis involving all stakeholders
Surveillance is the tracking of the health event
Performance monitoring and accountability is quality assurance in the program
c) Action on Risk Factors and other determinants of health
health behaviour is social behaviour
fit your strategies to the population you are addressing
d) Impacts
understanding and listing the risk factors that affect your target
Applying the Framework: six themes of action needed to apply the strategies.
Public Health Strategy for Chronic Disease Prevention
what will enable partner organizations to advance the new system
Establishing Priorities for Action
select strategic priorities and focus work over short and medium term to ensure results
Advocacy
select key winnable priorities to enhance profile of prevention
Communication
strategy to raise profile of prevention
Monitoring Progress
monitor and communicate progress and shortfalls
Interests and Commitments
take stock of interests and commitments of stakeholders, what are they and how are they willing to help
This paper does not deal with specific plans of action or suggestions on how to address the issue of disease prevention, but instead outlines the complicated array of issues that need to be considered to make positive changes in the field of chronic disease prevention. The vast array of issues and stakeholders must be considered to obtain societal and institutional change. |
Combating Gang Violence in Chicago’s Little Village Neighborhood
By: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Source: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority
Link: http://www.icjia.state.il.us/public/pdf/oga/GVRP.pdf
Article synopsis:
This is a review of a 5 year program that ran from 1992 to 1997 that targeted about 200 male gang members ages 14 to 24 involved with two rival Chicago gangs.
These targeted gang members were part of an integrated program that offered counseling, home visits and strict probation services.
The study showed that this integrated approach resulted in significant reductions in violent and drug related criminal activity among the gang members in the program.
Despite its success, the program proved difficult to implement and sustain because of resource pressures and the difficulty in working with high-risk employees who were part of the outreach program. |
Broken Windows Turns 25 by Charles Upton Sahm
Link: http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_2_sndgs07.html
Article synopsis:
Reviews the concrete successes of the “broken windows” approach to crime in New York City and Los Angelos.
Cites the groundbreaking article, “Broken Windows” by George Kelling and James Q. Wilson and evaluates its approach in specific cases.
Under the “broken windows” approach, police are instructed to crack down on minor offences (such as panhandling and graffiti) in order to prevent a progression to more serious offences.
Since young offenders usually start with these types of minor crimes, this approach is an important way to deal with them. |
