Stephen Schneider and Christine Hurst
This paper aims to explore some of the problems that arise in the execution of a joint force operation (JFO) involving various law enforcement agencies. Particular emphasis is…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore some of the problems that arise in the execution of a joint force operation (JFO) involving various law enforcement agencies. Particular emphasis is placed on examining factors that impede inter‐agency cooperation and coordination in the context of a JFO targeting serious and major crimes.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is informed by primary research that assessed the level of satisfaction of enforcement agencies involved in a Canadian‐based multi‐agency task force mandated to combat organized crime. Research for this study entailed a questionnaire survey of, and semi‐structured interviews with, operational and supervisory personnel assigned to the JFO, as well senior management within agencies participating in the JFO.
Findings
The research uncovered significant differences in the level of satisfaction with the execution of the JFO concept between members from the lead (federal) enforcement agency and those of other participating (municipal and provincial) agencies. The majority of survey participants overwhelmingly believe that the integrated, multi‐agency approach is an essential ingredient in the effectiveness of this JFO. However, among respondents from participating agencies there was a high rate of dissatisfaction with intelligence dissemination and sharing by the JFO, communication between the JFO and member agencies, and the contribution the JFO makes to the priorities and outputs of participating agencies in their own jurisdictions.
Practical implications
These problems strike at the very heart of a multi‐agency approach to major crimes enforcement and can be generalized to other jurisdictions and countries. Indeed, impediments to the timely sharing of criminal intelligence continue to constitute one of the most significant obstacles to inter‐agency cooperation and coordination, and, by extension, the optimal enforcement of organized crime and terrorism. The problems addressed in this study should be of concern to any manager of a multi‐agency task force, and similar research is recommended to unearth problems that may undermine inter‐agency cooperation and plague the effectiveness of a JFO.
Originality/value
Despite the increased prevalence and importance of multi‐agency operations in combating major and serious crimes, little research has been conducted into the issues and problems that obstruct inter‐agency cooperation within this context. This paper represents one attempt to fill this void.
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Christine Madsen and Megan Hurst
The purpose of this paper is to draw a picture of the current landscape of library assessment based on the data gathered in interviews. The authors will focus specifically on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to draw a picture of the current landscape of library assessment based on the data gathered in interviews. The authors will focus specifically on the continuum between micro and strategic assessment and share the lessons learned from diverse institutions and geographies about how to build a culture of assessment.
Design/methodology/approach
Between 2015 and 2017, the researchers have interviewed more than 75 library directors and leaders, library assessment practitioners, and academic experts on four continents about library assessment and its current state in their institutions.
Findings
The results reveal a varied landscape, with libraries in widely varying stages of assessment performance and readiness.
Originality/value
This paper presents the results of a large-scale study over more than two years. More than 75 people have been interviewed in five countries. The scale and scope of the work is both significant and unique.
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Details have now been released of the six research efforts, developing new technologies for digital libraries, which are being funded for four years by the US government. The…
Abstract
Details have now been released of the six research efforts, developing new technologies for digital libraries, which are being funded for four years by the US government. The Digital Library Project's focus is ‘dramatically to advance the means to collect, store, and organise information in digital forms, and make it available for searching, retrieval and processing via communication networks — all in user‐friendly ways.’
Countertrading for many countries acts as a viable alternative when overseas purchasing requirements stretch foreign currency too far, though it is also used as a means of…
Abstract
Countertrading for many countries acts as a viable alternative when overseas purchasing requirements stretch foreign currency too far, though it is also used as a means of employment protection. The principle can be further divided into the process of barter, switch trading, buy‐back, evidence accounts and counterpurchase, the latter being the most widely utilised form. The communist bloc utilises forms of countertrade for both political and economic reasons relating to its ideologically superior status and shortage of convertible currency, but the practice is also found to a limited degree in Western Europe, the Mediterranean and Near East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and New Zealand. Countertrade is not for the amateur: it is vital to know all aspects of the deal, including exactly what goods are involved, how and when to be supplied, quality and quantity control procedures, what come‐back is available if goods do not meet standards previously agreed, prices, and market restrictions.
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The times have come down to us as the “Good Old Days”, of Edwardian elegance and grace, peace and plenty, which conceal the poverty, squalor and disease. There seemed less…
Abstract
The times have come down to us as the “Good Old Days”, of Edwardian elegance and grace, peace and plenty, which conceal the poverty, squalor and disease. There seemed less resentment from those who suffered the rigours of the times than from those of today who only know of them by repute. Life was indeed cruel to the submerged tenth of society and the homeless waifs and strays were all too real and true.
Disabled women are reported to be between twice and five times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-disabled women or disabled men; when these are hate crimes they…
Abstract
Background
Disabled women are reported to be between twice and five times more likely to experience sexual violence than non-disabled women or disabled men; when these are hate crimes they compound harms for both victims and communities.
Purpose
This user-led research explores how disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors most effectively resist the harm and injustice they experience after experiencing disablist hate crime involving rape.
Design/methodology/approach
Feminist standpoint methods are employed with reciprocity as central. This small-scale peer research was undertaken with University ethics and supervision over a five year period. Subjects (n=522) consisted of disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors in North of England.
Findings
The intersectional nature of violence against disabled women unsettles constructed macro binaries of public/private space violence and the location of disabled women as inherently vulnerable. Findings demonstrate how seizing collective identity can usefully resist re-victimization, tackle the harms after disablist hate crime involving rape and resist the homogenization of both women and disabled people.
Practical implications
The chapter outlines inequalities in disabled people’s human rights and recommends service and policy improvements, as well as informing methods for conducting ethical research.
Originality/value
This is perhaps the first user-led, social model based feminist standpoint research to explore the collective resistance to harm after experiencing disablist hate crime involving rape. It crossed impairment boundaries and included community living, segregated institutions and women who rely on perpetrators for personal assistance. It offers new evidence of how disabled and Deaf victims and Survivors can collectively unsettle the harms of disablist hate crime and rape and achieve justice and safety on a micro level.
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The terms are not synonymous; their differences are mainly of function and areas of administration. Community Health is used in national health service law; environmental health…
Abstract
The terms are not synonymous; their differences are mainly of function and areas of administration. Community Health is used in national health service law; environmental health to describe the residuum of health functions remaining with local authorities after the first NHS/Local Government reorganization of 1974. Previously, they were all embraced in the term public health, known for a century or more, with little attention to divisions and in the field of administration, all local authority between county and district councils. In the dichotomy created by the reorganization, the personal health services, including the ambulance service, may have dove‐tailed into the national health service, but for the remaining functions, there was a situation of unreality, which has persisted. It is difficult to know where community health and environmental health begin and end. From the outside, the unreality may be more apparent than real. The Royal Commission on the NHS in their Report of last year state that leaving environmental health services with local authorities “does not seem to have caused any problems”—and this, despite the disparity in status of the area health authority and the bottom tier, local councils.
Daphna Birenbaum‐Carmeli, Yoram S. Carmeli and Rina Cohen
Provides a comparison of the press coverage of the introduction of IVF in different contexts, giving a vantage point for examining the variability and the context‐dependence of…
Abstract
Provides a comparison of the press coverage of the introduction of IVF in different contexts, giving a vantage point for examining the variability and the context‐dependence of the issue. Sheds some light on the cultural‐political‐social problems that the new technology entails. Contrasts the differences between Canada and Israel, showing that both countries endorse modern technology in the field of medidine: in both countries, IVF was imported about the same time and both used the US and Britain as a frame of reference and model rather than local developments. Shows the cultural differences of how each culture embraced the new technology.
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This essay engages with scholarship on history as a discipline, curriculum documents and academic and public commentary on the teaching of history in Australian, British and…
Abstract
Purpose
This essay engages with scholarship on history as a discipline, curriculum documents and academic and public commentary on the teaching of history in Australian, British and Canadian secondary contexts to better understand the influence of the tension between political pressure and disciplinary practice that drives the history wars in settler-colonial nations, how this plays out in secondary history classrooms and the ramifications this may have on students' democratic dispositions.
Design/methodology/approach
This article aims to compare secondary history curricula and pedagogies in Australia, Britain and Canada to better articulate and conceptualise the influence of the “history wars” over the teaching of national histories upon the intended and enacted curriculum and how this contributes to the formation of democratic dispositions within students. A conceptual model, drawing on the curriculum assessment of Porter (2006) and Gross and Terra's definition of “difficult pasts” has been developed and used as the basis for this comparison. This model highlights the competing influences of political pressure upon curriculum creation and disciplinary change shaping pedagogy, and the impact these forces may have upon students' experience.
Findings
The debate around what content students learn, and why, is fraught because it is a conversation about what each nation values and how they construct their own national identity(ies). This is particularly timely when the democratic self-identification of many nations is being challenged. The seditious conspiracy to storm the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, Orban's “illiberal democracy” in Hungary and the neo-Nazis in Melbourne, Australia are examples of the rise of anti-democratic sentiment globally. Thus, new consideration of how we teach national histories and the impact this has on the formation of democratic dispositions and skills is pressing.
Originality/value
The new articulation of a conceptual model for the impact of the history wars on education is an innovative synthesis of wide-ranging research on: the impacts of neoliberalism and cultural restorationism upon the development of intended curriculum; discipline-informed inquiry pedagogies used to enact the curriculum; and the teaching of national narratives as a political act. This comprehensive comparison of the ways in which history education in settler-colonial nations has developed over time provides new insight into the common elements of national history education, and the role this education can play in developing democratic dispositions.