searchfortruth.info > Blog > Page 13

Public and Private Applications of Video Surveillance and Biometric Technologies

by

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS AND EXPANDINGUSE

In 1997, the California Research Bureau (CRB) examined the potential of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) technology to improve public safety through remote surveillance.

Businesses such as banks were early adopters of CCTV for crime detection and prevention purposes. Our review found that an increasing number of cities, schools and residential districts were deploying CCTV systems. Shortly thereafter, many schools installed CCTV systems in response to violent outbreaks such as at Columbine High School. Now new CCTV technological features, and an urgent need for enhanced public security following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, are leading to a rapidly expanding use of CCTV and a related technology, biometrics. There appears to be considerable public support for this expansion. A Business Weeksurvey conducted a week after the September 11 terrorist attack found that 63 percent of the adults surveyed were in favor of expanded camera surveillance on streets and in public places, and 86 percent were in favor of using facial recognition...

Read More!

Victim Precipitated Criminal Homicide

by

In many crimes, especially in criminal homicide, the victim is often a major contributor to the criminal act. Except in cases in which the victim is an innocent bystander and is killed in lieu of an intended victim, or in cases in which a pure accident is involved, the victim may be one of the major precipitating causes of his own demise. Various theories of social interaction, particularly in social psychology, have established the framework for the present discussion. In criminological literature, however, probably von Hentig in The Criminal and His Victim, has provided the most useful theoretical basis for analysis of the victim-offender relationship. In Chapter XII, entitled "The Contribution of the Victim to the Genesis of Crime," the author discusses this "duet frame of crime" and suggests that homicide is particularly amenable to analysis.' In Penal Philosophy, Tarde frequently attacks the "legislative mistake" of concentrating too much on premeditation and paying too little attention to motives,

Read More!

Analyzing an Offender’s Journey to Crime: A Criminal Movement Model (CriMM)

by

Abstract

In the current study we develop a Criminal Movement Model (CriMM) to investigate the relationship between simulated travel routes of offenders along the physical road network and the actual locations of their crimes in the same geographic space. With knowledge of offenders’ home locations and the locations of major attractors, we are able to model the routes that offenders are likely to take when travelling from their home to an attractor by employing variations of Dijkstra’s shortest path algorithm. With these routes plotted, we then compare them to the locations of crimes committed by the same offenders. This model was applied to five attractor locations within the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Information about offenders in these cities was obtained from five years worth of real police data. After performing a small-scale analysis for each offender to investigate how far off their...

Read More!

Prison Suicide: An Overview and Guide to Prevention

by

INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Writing about “difficult prisoners” in his autobiography Fifty Years of Prison Service, Zebulon R. Brockway appeared perturbed by the prospect of managing suicidal inmates and by the resulting publicity in the event of their deaths. As superintendent of Elmira Reformatory (often described as the original model from which progressive penology evolved) from 1876 to 1900, Warden Brockway described his experience with three prison suicides: One, a prisoner on parole in New York City who violated his obligations, was taken for kindly investigation to the secretary of the Prison Association, at the rooms then situated in the third story of the Bible House. While awaiting the secretary’s convenience the young man suddenly dashed through an open window to his death on the pavement below. The newspapers made a sensational account of it and inquired why, if the reformatory was as it should be, a paroled man should voluntarily go to his death rather than be returned to treatment there.

Read More!

Possession of an Unregistered Firearm 26 U.S.C. § 5861

by

6.26.5861 Possession of an Unregistered Firearm (26 U.S.C. § 5861)

Count (No.) of the indictment charges (name of defendant) with possession of an unregistered firearm, namely (describe the firearm; e.g., a shotgun having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length), which is a violation of federal law. In order to find (name) guilty of the offense charged in the indictment, you must find that the government proved each of the following four elements beyond a reasonable doubt.

First: That (name) knowingly possessed a firearm;

Second: That this firearm was a (describe the firearm; e.g., a shotgun having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length);

Third: That (name) knew of the characteristics of the firearm, (that is, that it was (describe the firearm; e.g., a shotgun having a barrel of less than 18 inches in length));

Fourth: That this firearm was (could readily have been put) in operating condition; and

Fifth: That this

Read More!

ON THE CORNER: Day Labor in the United States

by

Executive Summary

This report profiles, for the first time, the national phenomenon of day labor in the United States. Men and women looking for employment in open-air markets by the side of the road, at busy intersections, in front of home improvement stores and in other public spaces are ubiquitous in cities across the nation. The circumstances that give rise to this labor market are complex and poorly understood. In this report, we analyze data from the National Day Labor Survey, the first systematic and scientific study of the day-labor sector and its workforce in the United States. This portrait of day labor in the United States is based on a national survey of 2,660 day laborers. These workers were randomly selected at 264 hiring sites in 139 municipalities in 20 states and the District of Columbia. The sheer number of these sites, combined with their presence in every region in the country, reflects the enormous breadth of this labor

Read More!

Damages for the Unwanted Child: Time for a Rethink?

by

If a healthy child born as a result of clinical negligence is a “blessing” which should not resound in child maintenance damages, can one create an exception for the birth of a disabled child? If so, should the law then permit a further exception for the disabled parent of a healthy child? And, even if the healthy child is not the proper subject-matter of damages, is this the same as saying that those who actively sought to avoid parenthood suffer no loss at all? Over the last six years, such questions have arisen in the English courts following the House of Lords ruling in McFarlane v Tayside Health Board1 in 1999 that parents of an unplanned but healthy child were no longer entitled to recover damages reflecting the costs of bits maintenance. That McFarlane did not straightforwardly apply to cases where either the child or the parent is disabled, not only led to the...

Read More!

Tackling Youth Knife Crime

by

introduction

We are determined to get knives off our streets. One incident is one too many. The Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) was developed by the Home Office, working closely with other government departments and key stakeholders including local government, police forces, community groups and practitioners in affected local areas. TKAP will sustain and build on existing cross government and community work; this includes the lessons learned and success achieved by the Tackling Gangs Action Programme and Youth Crime Action Plan (YCAP) to reduce the number of teenagers killed or seriously wounded and increase public confidence that our streets are safe. The first phase of TKAP was launched by the Prime Minister and Home Secretary on 5 June 2008. In the first nine months we focused nearly £7 million of resources on rapid, concentrated work to tackle teenage knife crime in 14 areas of the country. In March 2009 TKAP was extended for a further year,

Read More!

Economic Analysis of the TV Advertising Market

by

This report, commissioned by Ofcom from PwC, combines the latest econometric modelling techniques with industry thinking and expertise to build an economic model of the UK television advertising market. The results update and supplement the work of David Hendry on TV advertising elasticities carried out in 1992. Given the fundamental changes to the TV advertising market since Hendry’s work, this updated model will be of critical importance to future analysis in the TV advertising market. Ofcom is responsible for regulating broadcasting and related services. In order to inform our work in the broadcasting sector, and to develop a strong evidence base for further analysis, Ofcom commissioned PwC to build an econometric model of the UK television advertising market. This model was used to:
• Determine the elasticities for TV advertising on ‘traditional’ channels (channels 3, 4, and 5) and multichannel channels; and
• Produce forecasts of TV net advertising revenue (NAR) to 2014 for traditional and multichannel channels. ...

Read More!

Trustee Liability for Breach of the Duty of Loyalty: Good Faith Inquiry and Appreciation Damages

by

In remedying breaches of its vaunted duty of loyalty,' the law of trusts in New York is fettered by rules that emphasize restitutionary principles. Created by a stubborn adherence to absolute liability, this emphasis persists because it was written into the Restatement of Trusts. Although absolute liability and restitution of gain may still serve valid purposes,' justice requires an inquiry into the character of the breach as well as full compensation of the beneficiary when a trustee makes a sale tainted with a conflict of interest.The trustee owes a duty of loyalty to the beneficiary." The selfdealing trustee 8 who neglects to obtain prior court approval is buttably presumed to be disloyal ' the no further inquiry rule bars consideration of good faith and fairness." Such absolute liability is intended to negate the temptation of self-interest." Because of the no further inquiry rule, however, honest and dishonest trustees are subject to the same measures of damages. These measures do not permit the beneficiary

Read More!

True and False Personality

by

(The Theosophist, March 1880) The title prefixed to the following observations may well have suggested a more metaphysical treatment of the subject than can be attempted on the present occasion. The doctrine of the trinity, or trichotomy of man, which distinguishes soul from spirit, comes to us with such octrine venerable, and even sacred authority that we may well be content, for the moment, with confirmations that should. be intelligible to all, forbearing the abstruser questions which have divided minds of the highest philosophical capacity. We will not now inquire whether the difference is one of tates or of entities; whether the phenomenal or mind consciousness is merely the external condition of one indivisible Ego, or has its origin and nature in an altogether different principle; the Spirit, or immortal part of us being of Divine birth, while the senses and understanding, with the consciousness Ahankara thereto appertaining, are from an Anima Mundi, or what in the Sankhya philosophy is called Prakriti.

Read More!

Transition from Mental Hospital to Community

by

Abstract

Making the transition from the hospital to a community setting can be extremely challenging for patients with acute mental health conditions. Transitional services have been created to help patients overcome difficulties associated with this transition. Nurses frequently play an integral role in the success of these services. By providing patients with individualized support during such transitions, nurses act as clinical liaisons and directly contribute to an increase in positive patient and system-level outcomes. This article describes a transitional service called the Bridge Program, designed to help adolescents make a successful transition from the hospital to the community. An overview of the Bridge Program is provided, and the results of an evaluation of this program are presented. Results suggest that the Bridge Program contributes to a decrease in the length of hospital stays and improves continuity of care for patients and their families.

See Also: Hospital-to-community transitions. A bridge program for adolescent mental health patients.

Read More!

A Tradecraft Primer: Structured Analytic Techniques for Improving Intelligence Analysis

by

THE “MIND-SET” CHALLENGE

Using the analytic techniques contained in this primer will assist analysts in dealing with the perennial problems of intelligence: the complexity of international developments, incomplete and ambiguous information, and the inherent limitations of the human mind. Understanding the intentions and capabilities of adversaries and other foreign actors is challenging, especially when either or both are concealed. Moreover, transnational threats today pose even greater complexity, in that they involve multiple actors including nonstate entities that can adapt and transform themselves faster than those who seek to monitor and contain them. Finally, globalization has increased the diversity of outcomes when complex, interactive systems such as financial flows, regional economies or the international system as a whole are in flux. The first hurdle for analysts is identifying the relevant and diagnostic information from the increasing volume is acquired through open source and clandestine means. Analysts must also pierce the shroud of secrecy and sometimes mdeception that state and nonstate actors use to mislead. A systematic approach that considers a range of alternative

Read More!

Tortious Interference: The Limits of Common Law Liability for Newsgathering

by

Media lawyers have recently been confronted with a relatively new source of litigation: the tort of intentional interference with contractual relations, which arises out of confidentiality agreements. In this Article, the authors identify the elements of tortious interference with contracts and examine the key issues presented when this tort is applied to newsgathering. The authors then consider a potential defense based on the First Amendment. In light of the public and constitutional interests at stake, the authors conclude that the breach of a confidentiality agreement should not sustain a tortious interference claim when the press is involved in newsgathering activity.

INTRODUCTION

The revelation that CBS had decided not to air an interview with a former tobacco executive on the news magazine program 60 Minutes sent media lawyers across the country scrambling to understand the tort of intentional interference with contractual relations, a little-litigated tort in the media context. This Article addresses some of the many questions raised by the CBS announcement .

Read More!

Theatre Research International, Summer 1995 Introduction: Theatricality: A Key Concept In Theatre And Cultural Studies

by

Abstract:

The meaning of 'theatricality' was an issue at the Theatre Historiography Symposium held at Helsinki in 1993. The word 'theatre' has not only been used in a metaphorical sense but has also been used as a cultural model in different disciplines. Four papers presented at the Helsinki Symposium examines the meaning, function and use of the word 'theatre' in different discourses. The publication of these papers aims to spur a vigorous discussion on theatricality and to intensify the study of theatre history in relation to other disciplines.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1995 Oxford University Press

At the Theatre Historiography Symposium, held during the 1993 Helsinki IFTR/FIRT Conference, a specific term came into circulation which infiltrated and permeated the discussion to such an extent that it appeared to adopt the position and function of a key term in theatre historiography: 'theatricality'. This was no great surprise, however. For the symposium set out to consider two basic issues:

Read More!

The Restatement of the Law of Trusts

by

As a preface to a discussion of any of the tentative drafts of the restatement of law it is interesting to recall the situation which created the need for the American Law Institute, and the objects which its founders hoped to attain. Logic is a method of classification, and the logical machinery of the law is a classification of the opinions of appellate courts under titles or concepts. As rapidly as the increasingly numerous opinions appear, they are put under the protection of one of these abstractions, and, once there, automatically become part of the field of "law" for which the abstraction stands as a symbol. The more ingeniously the legal analogies and concepts are used, the more dissimilar become the cases grouped under any one classification, until at times these terms become almost meaningless. Yet prior to the American Law Institute no systematic reclassification had ever been attempted. The magnitude of the task was terrifying. The conservative

Read More!