Rachel Craven and Matthew Tonkin
The purpose of this paper is to compare learning-disabled (LD) and non-LD offenders in terms of their relating styles and to examine the relationship between relating styles and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to compare learning-disabled (LD) and non-LD offenders in terms of their relating styles and to examine the relationship between relating styles and offence types.
Design/methodology/approach
Two groups of male offenders completed the Person’s Relating to Others Questionnaire – Version 3 (PROQ3) and were compared using an independent groups design. An adapted version of the PROQ3 was given to the first group, which consisted of 18 LD offenders detained within a mental health hospital. The second group consisted of 30 offenders detained within a Category B prison in the UK. Offenders were assigned to one of four offence categories (violence, homicide, sexual and robbery) and compared in terms of their PROQ3 scores.
Findings
The findings suggest that the sample of LD offenders had increased relating deficits compared to the non-LD offenders. The LD offenders achieved higher scores on four of the eight PROQ3 subscales; Upper Neutral (UN), Upper Close (UC), Neutral Close (NC), Lower Distant, and the total score. Significant differences were found on the UN, NC, Neutral Distant (ND), Upper Distant (UD) subscales and the total score for the robbery offenders compared to the other offence categories. Violent offenders achieved higher scores on the UC and Lower Distant subscales.
Practical implications
The need for research to focus on evaluating the treatment needs of lower functioning offenders in order to aid the development of LD-specific interventions. The need to evaluate the appropriateness of adapting mainstream offence focussed programmes for the LD population, given that there are potentially different treatment needs between these two distinct groups.
Originality/value
The results indicate that cognitive functioning is associated with higher levels of interpersonal deficit, suggesting increased treatment needs for the LD offender population. The study also highlighted that different treatment needs exist between the LD and non-LD offenders.
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Jan-Martin Winter and Gina Rossi
Traditional crime linkage studies on serial sexual assaults have relied predominantly on a binary crime linkage approach that has yielded successful results in terms of linkage…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditional crime linkage studies on serial sexual assaults have relied predominantly on a binary crime linkage approach that has yielded successful results in terms of linkage accuracy. Such an approach is a coarse reflection of reality by focussing mainly on the outcome of an offence, neglecting the forceful differences due to the intricate offender-victim interaction. Only few researchers have examined sexual assaults through the lens of a sequence analysis framework. This paper aims to present the first empirical test of offence sequence-based crime linkage, moving beyond exploratory analyses.
Design/methodology/approach
Offence accounts from 90 serial sexual assault and rape victims from the UK were analysed and sequentially coded. Sequence analysis allowed to compare all offences combinations regarding their underlying sequence of events. The resulting comparison was transformed and plotted in two-dimensional space by multidimensional scaling analysis for a visual inspection of linkage potential. The transformed proximities of all offences were used as predictors in a receiver operating characteristic analysis to actually test their discriminatory accuracy for crime linkage purpose.
Findings
Sequence analysis shows significant discriminatory accuracy for crime linkage purpose. However, the method does perform less well than previous binary crime linkage studies.
Research limitations/implications
Several limitations due to the nature of the data will be discussed.
Practical implications
The practical limitations are as follows: the study is a potential practical value for crime analysts; it is a complimentary methodology for statistical crime linkage packages; it requires automated coding to be useful; and it is very dependent on crime recoding standards.
Originality/value
The exploratory part of this study has been published in a book chapter in 2015. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the succinct test of crime linkage accuracy is the first of its kind.
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This paper aims to report findings about how prisoners experience and cope with COVID-19 restrictions, which can contribute to an understanding of how pandemic responses, and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to report findings about how prisoners experience and cope with COVID-19 restrictions, which can contribute to an understanding of how pandemic responses, and specifically the COVID-19 response, affect prisoners.
Design/methodology/approach
Data was collected through ethnographic fieldwork involving days of observations (N = 24) and the conduction of semi-structured interviews with prisoners (N = 30) in closed prisons and detentions in Denmark between May and December 2021. The transcribed interviews and field notes were processed and coded by using the software programme NVivo.
Findings
The data analysis reveals that the pains of imprisonment have been exacerbated to people incarcerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. To relieve pains of imprisonment, prisoners turn to censoriousness as an informal coping strategy, where they complain about inconsistency and injustice in the prison’s COVID-19 prevention strategy to reveal the prison system itself as a rule-breaking institution. The prisoners criticise the prison management for using COVID-19 as an excuse, treating prisoners unjustly or not upholding the COVID-19 rules and human rights. Furthermore, principles of justice and equality are also alleged by some prisoners who contemplate the difficulty in treating all prisoners the same.
Research limitations/implications
More research will be needed to create a full picture of how prisoners cope with pandemic responses. Further research could include interviews with people working inside prisons.
Originality/value
In a Scandinavian context, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first of its kind to apply an ethnographic approach in exploring prison life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Emma Angus, Mike Thelwall and David Stuart
The purpose of this research is to investigate general patterns of tag usage and determines the usefulness of the tags used within university image groups to the wider Flickr…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate general patterns of tag usage and determines the usefulness of the tags used within university image groups to the wider Flickr community. There has been a significant rise in the use of Web 2.0 social network web sites and online applications in recent years. One of the most popular is Flickr, an online image management application.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses a webometric data collection, classification and informetric analysis.
Findings
The results show that members of university image groups tend to tag in a manner that is of use to users of the system as a whole rather than merely for the tag creator.
Originality/value
This paper gives a valuable insight into the tagging practices of image groups in Flickr.
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Brian Matthews, Catherine Jones, Bartłomiej Puzoń, Jim Moon, Douglas Tudhope, Koraljka Golub and Marianne Lykke Nielsen
Traditional subject indexing and classification are considered infeasible in many digital collections. This paper seeks to investigate ways of enhancing social tagging via…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditional subject indexing and classification are considered infeasible in many digital collections. This paper seeks to investigate ways of enhancing social tagging via knowledge organization systems, with a view to improving the quality of tags for increased information discovery and retrieval performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Enhanced tagging interfaces were developed for exemplar online repositories, and trials were undertaken with author and reader groups to evaluate the effectiveness of tagging augmented with control vocabulary for subject indexing of papers in online repositories.
Findings
The results showed that using a knowledge organisation system to augment tagging does appear to increase the effectiveness of non‐specialist users (that is, without information science training) in subject indexing.
Research limitations/implications
While limited by the size and scope of the trials undertaken, these results do point to the usefulness of a mixed approach in supporting the subject indexing of online resources.
Originality/value
The value of this work is as a guide to future developments in the practical support for resource indexing in online repositories.
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The fraud diamond theory, the COSO framework on internal control and theories of ethical leadership and ethical decision making are applied.
Abstract
Theoretical basis
The fraud diamond theory, the COSO framework on internal control and theories of ethical leadership and ethical decision making are applied.
Research methodology
The details of this case were compiled using publicly available information, including court records and news reports. No modifications were made to the names of individuals or places mentioned in the case. All resources have been properly cited.
Case overview/synopsis
Employee embezzlement is a common issue in limited resource organizations when adequate controls are not in place to prevent or detect fraud. In such organizations, personal financial hardships can drive individuals to commit crimes that are out of character. This case is a story of a respectable small-town couple implicated in a near million dollar embezzlement scheme. Students are asked to consider what went wrong and propose solutions for the prevention of similar crimes. Lessons learned from this case emphasize the importance of ethical leadership, creating a strong ethical environment and how small unethical acts can escalate over time.
Complexity academic level
Instructors can utilize this case to teach the topics of ethical leadership and decision making, fraud prevention and detection and internal controls. The themes of this case fit well into any business ethics, accounting or auditing course at the undergraduate or graduate level. The case has been implemented in courses for full-time and part-time MBAs, and master’s programs in finance, human resources and accounting.