This study aimed to provide insights into the manner in which the representation of social media usage in relation to cyber-related crimes within selected South African newspapers can potentially shape the ideas and perceptions that society may have towards social networking channels. Drawing on the literature from fields such as developmental studies, new media studies, identity formation and cyber-criminality, an analysis of the Price Water House Coopers Global Economic Survey (2011) was used to provide some insight into the issue of cyber-crime within South Africa. The survey which was conducted by Price Water House Coopers revealed that South Africa is ranked second in the world with the highest rate of reported fraud cases. According to them this rate is comparatively higher than the escalating percentage of cases reported in the United States and other nations. In order to correlate and illustrate some of the findings of the survey and that which was found through primary research, an in-depth content analysis applying limited designations analysis and detailed assertions analysis techniques (Du Plooy, 2007) has been performed on selected content from local print and online publications such as The Herald, Algoa Sun, The Weekend Post, The Sunday Times and News24, from the time period of January 2009 until January 2012. Herewith, a total of 125 articles were analysed in order to determine the tone and thematic nature of the communication within the respective platforms. Furthermore, the mass media has been argued as being the main platform of communication within society. Whereby, different communication techniques are used to communicate with different target audiences. On a theoretical level, the study explored whether or not social media perpetuates the prejudices of the modernisation theory or serves to challenge such prejudices. Furthermore, the study explored whether social media may potentially have an impact on the reported cyber-related crimes. Associated theory such as the representation theory, globalization, the privacy trust model, social contract theory, media richness theory, participatory theory, convergence, the digital divide, media-centricity, dependency and identity formation has been explored. It was found that social networking sites Facebook and Mxit have been represented as the most common platforms of cyber-related crime and women and teenagers are the most popular victims. The likelihood of individuals being exposed to cyber-crime within social networks is high due to the fact in order to develop online relationships, personal information needs to be shared. The Privacy Trust model was identified as being an important factor which shaped the findings of this study. This is due to the fact that a certain level of trust is held by social network subscribers to the Internet hosts who they entered into a social contract with and with their friends.

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There are two main objectives of this thesis. First, to review the social science evidence on the extent to which different police practices have been proven to reduce crime, or not reduce crime, as well as those cases where the evidence is not clear. This thesis synthesizes crime reduction strategies to short-list those practices that are proven to reduce crime. Second, it uses the evidence collected to facilitate an exploratory case study with three key informants from the Ottawa Police Service (OPS). The case study examines the current use and perceived future role of the police in evidence-based crime prevention efforts. Overall, the research study seeks to answer the following four research questions: 1. What sources of literature provide well-researched and reliable data on effectiveness of policing in crime reduction? 2. In this literature, what policing strategies/practices are shown to reduce crime, not reduce crime or are promising in reducing crime? 3. To what extent is the OPS using evidence-based knowledge to guide their policing strategy/practices? 4. To what extent is the OPS open to using evidence-based knowledge to guide their policing strategy/practices in the future?

There is mounting evidence that psychological reactions to criminal victimization can be far more severe, much longerlasting, and recovery less complete than had been originally thought. The plight of crime victims is often compounded by a suspectibility to a 1 'second wound', or aggravation of their distress, arising from the neglect or mistreatment by those whom victims rely on for support. There is, at the same time, evidence that both the criminal justice system and the mental health profession have often been ill-equipped to adequately tend to the needs of this population. Despite a growing research interest in victimization (e.g., social psychology, counselling psychology, psychiatry, criminology), there is a lack of integration of victimization-related research both across and within these disciplines. As a result, those counselling crime victims and their families find insufficient guidance in the literature for intervening with this population. In the aftermath of their misfortune, victims need to regain what was abruptly taken from them (i.e., a sense of safety, trust, agency, self-esteem, intimacy, a sense of the world as meaningful). To facilitate post-trauma counselling, an assessment of crime victims' coping needs is presented in the context of an interventive framework. The framework distinguishes victims' identified needs according to (1) victims' intermediate vs. long-term coping needs, (2) what victims need from others vs. what they can do for themselves, and (3) what victims need from whom. These distinctions serve to operationalize crime victims' adjustment processes. Furthermore, these distinctions require an integration of an otherwise diverse victimization literature. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Since 1963, the Narcotic Addiction Foundation of British Columbia has been administering Methadone, a synthetic drug, on a prolonged basis to a selected group of heroin addicts. For the purposes here, those addicts receiving Methadone on a continuous day to day basis for an indefinite period of time will be called prolongeds. Those addicts receiving Methadone in decreasing dosage over a twelve day withdrawal period will be referred to as regulars. Ingeborg Paulus, Research Associate at the Foundation, assessed the effectiveness of Methadone by comparing a group of addicts given the drug on a prolonged basis to a group of addicts undergoing regular twelve day withdrawal. The findings of her study showed that prolongeds committed fewer crimes than the regulars. The addicts in the prolonged group were significantly older than those in the regular group. Paulus found that age was the most important factor in the addicts' decreased use of narcotics. This tendency to use less drugs as the addict becomes older is known as the "maturing-out" process. Therefore, a decrease in crime by the prolonged group may not be solely attributable to Methadone, but to the age of the addict. The purpose of the present study is to test the causal relationship between the prolonged administration of Methadone to heroin addicts and their criminal behaviour. To carry out this study, the following two hypotheses were developed: (1) Heroin addicts commit fewer crimes when maintained on prolonged Methadone, and (2) Heroin addicts maintained on prolonged Methadone commit fewer crimes than heroin addicts who are given regular withdrawal. The research method used involved a retrospective, follow-up study utilizing all of the addicts in Paulus' sample who were between the ages of twenty-five and forty years. This was done in an effort to make the two groups more comparable in their age distribution. To test hypothesis one, a 'before and after' design was proposed that will allow investigation of the addict's criminal activity prior to and after his exposure to prolonged Methadone. To test the second hypothesis, the criminal behaviour of the prolongeds will be compared to the criminal behaviour of the regulars. Additional analysis are suggested to assist in assessing the comparability of the two groups. After considering the numerous and unexpected problems a researcher faces, it is concluded that, while it may be feasible to conduct this study using the sample available, one cannot depend on the reliability or validity of the findings to test the hypotheses conclusively. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Eighty male undergraduate students were randomly assigned to one of five groups in an analogue investigation of crime-intoxication on the physiological detection of deception. Sixty-four of the subjects committed a mock crime and half of these were legally intoxicated during the crime. Sixteen subjects committed no crime and served as innocent controls. Results only partially replicated those of Bradley and Ainsworth (1984). Whereas they found crime-intoxication diminished the effectiveness of both the control question test (CQT) and the guilty knowledge test (GKT), the present study found crime-intoxication diminished the accuracy of the CQT only for certain subjects; those who reported high subjective arousal during the crime. Results showed no alcohol effect on the GKT. In light of their results Bradley and Ainsworth suggested that alcohol may act through emotional or memory processes important to polygraphic examination. In a fully factorial design, the present study investigated the effects of threat during the crime and memory for crime details on polygraph outcome. As well, the effect of alcohol on these "emotion" and memory variables was examined. Memory was found to be an important variable in GKT accuracy but not important to CQT accuracy. Threat, as operationalized for the present investigation, had no effect on either the CQT or the GKT but a component of the threat variable, subjective arousal, was found to affect GKT accuracy but not that of the CQT. Raskin's (1979) two-response model of detection of deception is used to explain the results of this study although the relationship of subjective arousal to polygraph outcome is unclear and requires examination in future studies. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências Jurídicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito, Florianópolis, 2016. / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-20T04:07:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 341131.pdf: 2457057 bytes, checksum: 9b7998fa2fe46a688ff033bf16d9573a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016 / Em um dos polos jurídico-culturais mais citados pelos representantes da doutrina penal brasileira ? a Itália ?, o tratamento jurídico do dissenso político tornou-se, entre os séculos XIX e XX, uma pauta que suscitou diversas polêmicas entre os penalistas. Isso porque, ao mesmo tempo em que estavam inseridos em um cenário político conturbado, onde o Direito Penal era chamado a proteger o Estado recém-unificado, esses sujeitos eram também detentores de uma sensibilidade e de um protagonismo cívico que os impelia à salvaguarda dos direitos individuais. A eles, o crime político aparecia como um dos exemplos mais acabados do duelo (tão típico do Direito Penal moderno) entre ordem e liberdade, fazendo emergir uma multiplicidade de representações em seus escritos científicos. Seguindo os rastros dessa discussão, esta dissertação trata das representações da criminalidade política na ciência penal brasileira da Primeira República, valendo-se, para tanto, dos manuais, códigos comentados ou anotados, tratados e coletâneas de artigos de maior circulação à época, reunidos sob a denominação de ?doutrina penal?. Mais que o mapeamento do posicionamento de cada autor, busca-se traçar um padrão quanto as suas funcionalidades ideológico-culturais: aproximavam-se mais da defesa do Estado ou do direito individual de resistência? Ao longo do trabalho, pretende-se observar como algumas peculiaridades da formação política e da cultura jurídica da Primeira República direcionaram nossas representações doutrinárias da criminalidade política por rumos muito distintos ? embora não menos interessantes ? daqueles traçados pelos autores italianos. Essas divergências serão aproveitadas como dados relevantes para se lançar, em resposta à pergunta sobre as funcionalidades ideológicoculturais, uma interpretação que conduz à visualização de uma espécie de ?consenso tácito? em torno da proteção do Estado na obrade boa parte dos autores analisados.<br> / Abstract : In one of the most referred legal-culture centers by the Brazilian criminal doctrine representatives Italy , the legal treatment of political dissent became, between nineteenth and twentieth centuries, an agenda that raised many controversies among criminalists. That is because while they were inserted in a troubled political scene, where Criminal Law was called upon to protect the newly unified State, these individuals were also holders of civic prominence and sensitivity, which impelled them to safeguard individual rights. For them, political crime appeared as one of the most finished examples of the duel (so typical of modern Criminal Law) between order and freedom, giving rise to a multiplicity of representations in their scientific writings. Following the trails of this discussion, this dissertation deals with the political crime representations in Brazilian criminal doctrine of the so called First Republic , that will be sought in manuals, commented or annotated codes, treaties and articles collections of wide circulation at the time, gathered under the name of "Criminal Science". More than mapping the position of each author, the thesis seeks to trace a pattern of its ideological and cultural features: were they more likely to defend the State or to the individual right of resistance? Throughout the work, it will be possible to observe how some peculiarities of the Brazilian s First Republic political formation and legal culture guided our doctrinal representations of political crime in very different directions however, not less interesting of those drawn by Italian authors. These differences will be used as relevant data to launch, as an answer to the question about the ideological and cultural features, an interpretation that leads to the view of a kind of "tacit consensus" around the State defense in the works of most of the analyzed authors.

This project has been proposed by the UCT Knowledge Partnership Project. This institution is aimed at providing assistance to under-privileged communities in the Western Cape. A pre-school fence material which is low cost is to be investigated. The following criterions were set to be met for the material: -The material is to have no fuel usage value such as wood, which can be burnt for space heating -The material is to have no scrap metal value such as steel and wire fencing material as this easily gets stolen. -The material is not to block visibility which harbors criminal activity in the area. Fences such as concrete slabs and brick block visibility. The materials considered in this project are: -Various plastic polymer materials -Plastic Lumber composite material -Recycled Plastic -Rubber reinforced concrete Plastic lumber and recycled plastic HDPE were considered for use in the fence material. After considering the available fence components and loading on the fence, 100 x 100 mm cross section plastic lumber and recycled plastic section were chosen to be used. The fence design was based on existing patents which were modified. A design showing the meter of the fence was designed and is shown in the document.

Researchers have long recognized the so-called “gender gap” in crime perpetration. The majority of crimes are committed by males, particularly with regard to more serious and violent crimes. However, little research examines these trends in rural areas. Less is known about social factors influencing rural crime, although some research suggests the gender gap is true across cultures and locations. The current study investigated male and female crime perpetration in Tennessee, emphasizing differences in rural versus nonrural counties. Data were obtained from the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System from 2016. Using the 2013 Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC), counties were categorized based on geographic size and proximity to metropolitan areas. Tennessee’s 95 counties were categorized as Rural (i.e., nonmetropolitan counties and completely rural areas with a population < 2,500; RUCC codes 4-9; n = 53), or Nonrural (i.e., metropolitan counties; RUCC codes 1-3; n = 42). Percentages of incidents committed by female versus male perpetrators, normalized for population estimates of each gender, were utilized. A 2 x 2 factorial ANOVA was used to examine the effects of sex and rurality on crime perpetration. The interaction term was not significant for total offenses or varied types of offenses. Offense types that implicate the presence of intimidation, violence, and fear (e.g., murder, assault, sexual offenses) had significant main effects for gender but not rurality. In contrast, fraud and theft offenses had significant main effects for both gender and rurality, with males and nonrural regions accounting for higher percentages of incidents. These findings contribute to the limited research on rural versus urban crime. Further research on social factors that influence male and female crime is needed specific to rural areas. Additional implications and future directions of research will be explored.

This dissertation is composed of three essays on labor economics. First, I examine the effect of the rapid rise in binge watching on reported crime. I use conditionally exogenous variation in the runtime of newly released Netflix Originals to identify the effect of binge watching on reported crime. I find that binge watching reduces crime contemporaneously and in the first three days that the new content is available. I find no evidence that binge watching reduces total crime reported over a nearly two week period after new content becomes available. Second, I replicate a well-known paper by Card and Dahl (2011) which examines the effect of emotional cues on violent crime. I confirm their baseline result while using their original study design from 1995–2006. I expand on their analysis by expanding the time series of their original data and using new data. I find their baseline result is not robust using out-of-sample data from 2007–2019. Third, I estimate the effect of cell phones on traffic accidents by using the expansion of the Lifeline Assistance Program as an exogenous shock to the stock of cell phones, I use a difference-in-differences quasi-experimental design to find that cell phones causally increase traffic fatalities when those cell phones are made available in states with no restrictions to cell phone use while driving and states that ban texting while driving and require hands-free calling. In addition, I find that additional cell phones have no effect when states have only one restriction on cell phone use while driving—implying that the optimal policy to reduce traffic fatalities is to ban texting while driving.