Security Measures

Firearms were associated with 30, 136 deaths in the United States in 2003. Most guns are initially sold to the public through a network of retail dealers. Licensed firearm dealers are an important source of guns for criminals and gun traffickers. Just one percent of licensed dealers were responsible for more than half of all guns traced to crime. Federal law makes it difficult for ATF to inspect and revoke the licenses of problem gun dealers. State licensing systems, however, are a greatly under-explored opportunity for firearm dealer oversight. We identify and categorize these state systems to identify opportunities for interventions to prevent problem dealers from supplying guns to criminals, juveniles, or gun traffickers. Just seventeen states license gun dealers. Twenty-three states permit routine inspections of dealers but only two mandate that those inspections occur on a regular basis. Twenty-six states impose record-keeping requirements for gun sales. Only thirteen states require some form of store security measures to minimize firearm theft. We conclude with recommendations for a comprehensive system of state licensing and oversight of gun dealers. Our findings can be useful for the coalition of more than fifty U.S. mayors that recently announced it would work together to combat illegal gun trafficking.

Patient characteristics associated with the clinical prediction of assaultive behavior in a forensic psychiatric hospital were compared with characteristics associated with actual assaultive behavior. Treating psychiatrists at a New York forensic psychiatric hospital were asked to predict which of a sample of 183 recently admitted male patients were likely to show assaultive behavior during a three-month period. The predictions were compared with incident reports of actual assaultive behavior. Several patient characteristics, including race, legal status, age, education, criminal history, psychiatric symptoms rated independently by raters other than the treating psychiatrists, and ward behavior, were examined for their association with predicted and actual assaultive behavior. Clinicians' rate of correct prediction of assaultive behavior was 71 percent, with a diagnostic sensitivity of 54 percent and a diagnostic specificity of 79 percent. Characteristics associated with the prediction of assaultive behavior were race, transfer from a civil facility because of violence or dangerousness, age, education, arrests for violent offenses, childhood physical abuse, hostility, temper (or nurses' assessment of the patient's irritability), and inability to follow ward routine. Characteristics associated with actual assaultive behavior were transfer from a civil hospital, dual diagnosis of schizophrenia and substance abuse or dependence, childhood physical abuse, age, thought disorder, and temper. Clinicians were significantly more accurate than chance in prospectively predicting which male forensic patients would show assaultive behavior. However, some of the factors associated with clinical prediction, such as race, ability to follow ward routine, and arrest history, were not associated with actual assaultive behavior. In addition, clinicians failed to use dual diagnosis of schizophrenia and substance use disorder as a predictor.

The Republic of China on the island of Taiwan has experienced at least 20 terrorist events since 1979, including 13 aircraft hijackings and five bombings. Factors responsible for the relatively small burden of terrorism on Taiwan in the past include tight military control over political dissent until 1987, a warming relationship with the People's Republic of China in the 1990s, political inclusion of major internal cultural groups, geographic isolation, and a lack of other significant international enemies. Nevertheless, today Taiwan faces a new prospect of terrorism by adversaries of the United States and its allies and by an international paradigm shift in the types of weapons used by terrorists. National emergency management has been enhanced significantly since the Ji Ji earthquake in 1999, including the assignment of lead government agencies to the planning and preparedness for specific types of terrorist events involving nuclear, biological, and/or chemical releases. Other...

It is unclear how international donors' stated commitment to ownership and partnership ‘translates’ in fragile state or ‘post-conflict’ settings. The very notion of ownership is violently contested in Afghanistan and donors have to negotiate with, and choose between, multiple state and non-state interlocutors. The developmentalist principles outlined in the 2005 Paris Declaration may carry little meaning in such contexts and their application can have paradoxical effects that impede the emergence of broad-based ownership. The limitations of, and alternatives to, developmentalist approaches in fragile states, are explored here with reference to donor policies and practices in Afghanistan, focusing on the period following the 2001 Bonn Agreement. This paper examines how aid policies and programmes have become part of a complex bargaining game involving international actors, domestic elites, and societal groups. It argues that international donors' failure to appreciate or engage sensitively and strategically with these bargaining processes, when combined with contradictory intervention objectives, has contributed to the steady unravelling of a fragile war-to-peace transition in Afghanistan.

We extend the design of radially symmetric three-dimensional invisibility cloaks through transformation optics to cloaks with a surface of revolution. We derive the expression of the transformation matrix and show that one of its eigenvalues vanishes on the inner boundary of the cloaks, while the other two remain strictly positive and bounded. The validity of our approach is confirmed by finite edge-elements computations for a non-convex cloak of varying thickness.

RESUMEN Las cuestiones relativas a la peligrosidad criminal, el riesgo de reiteración delictiva, la imposición de medidas de seguridad post-delictuales como la libertad vigilada, son cuestiones de gran actualidad y la valoración del riesgo una cuestión difícil de solucionar. La pretensión de este trabajo es visualizar y abogar por la implantación en nuestro sistema judicial de técnicas actuariales complementarias que nos ayuden a determinar el riesgo que un individuo que ha delinquido, vuelva a hacerlo. Para ello se examinan cuestiones previas relativas a la peligrosidad criminal, para después pasar a analizar como aproximaciones a la prevención de riesgos: el juicio clínico, las herramientas para el juicio clínico estructurado y una exposición de los modelos actuariales más utilizados, prestando especial atención a la violencia sexual. Palabras clave: peligrosidad, medidas de seguridad, valoración del riesgo, juicio clínico, modelos actuariales, violencia sexual.
ABSTRACT Dangerousness, the risk of re-offending and the imposition of post-criminal security measures such as freedom under surveillance are very topical issues, and it is difficult to come up with adequate solutions to the problem of risk assessment. The purpose of this paper is to envision and advocate for their implementation

https://www.boe.es/publicaciones/anuarios_derecho/abrir_pdf.php?id=ANU-P-2016-10027700320_ANUARIO_DE_DERECHO_PENAL_Y_CIENCIAS_PENALES_La_peligrosidad_criminal_y_las_t%E9cnicas_de_prevenci%F3n_de_riesgos._Especial_referencia_a_la_delincuencia_sexual_peligrosa

George Orwell's 'Big Brother' and Michel Foucault's 'panopticon' have dominated discussion of contemporary developments in surveillance. While such metaphors draw our attention to important attributes of surveillance, they also miss some recent dynamics in its operation. The work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari is used to analyse the convergence of once discrete surveillance systems. The resultant 'surveillant assemblage' operates by abstracting human bodies from their territorial settings, and separating them into a series of discrete flows. These flows are then reassembled in different locations as discrete and virtual 'data doubles'. The surveillant assemblage transforms the purposes of surveillance and the hierarchies of surveillance, as well as the institution of privacy.

Since its discovery in Nigeria in 1956 crude oil has been a source of mixed blessing to the country.
It is believed to have generated enormous wealth, but it has also claimed a great many lives. Scholarly attention on the impact of oil on security in Nigeria has largely focused on internal conflicts rather than on how disasters associated with oil pipeline vandalisation have impacted on human security in terms of causing bodily injuries and death, destroying livelihoods and fracturing families. This paper examines how pipeline vandalisation affects human security in these ways. It identifies women and children as those who are hardest hit and questions why the poor are the most vulnerable in oil pipeline disasters in this country. It recommends the adoption of a comprehensive and integrated framework of disaster management that will ensure prompt response to key early warning signs, risk­reduction and appropriate mitigation and management strategies.

The growth in online transactions is accompanied with an increase in the incidences of fraud. In the online marketplace, fraudsters are using sophisticated malware to take over accounts and commit fraud related activities. At the global level, online fraud is rampant with high financial losses for customers and online merchants. In Kenya, the scope of online fraud is still small, however, the increasing adoption of e-commerce is anticipated to increase fraud related incidences. Based on this, this study reviewed literature on challenges associated with internet fraud and best practices that can be adopted by online merchants. It was shown that the challenges are related to the use of improper theft and security measures by online merchants, the increase of mobile devices and lack of customer awareness of security risks in online transactions. To prevent internet fraud, organizational, consumer, and technical measures have to be adopted by online merchants in Kenya.

For a sound and working democratic system, citizen engagement in politics is of utmost importance. Especially in today’s world where international politics are interrupted by populist political elites and authoritarian governments, civic engagement functions as an essential element of check and balance mechanism in the overall political system. As the opportunities for political participation increase, participation means and channels diversify every day.

In this context, political participation research in modern world is very promising in terms of understanding contemporary debates and key concepts of political participation. This book contains eight articles on political participation and current debates from theoretical examinations to specific practices. The articles prepared with different perspectives from different parts of the world make an academic contribution in the light of concepts that have changed meaning and changed globally.