Body-worn cameras (BWCs) have become increasingly common in U.S. police departments, but we know little about their use in the field, including the factors related to whether and why police activate them. A new study examined the prevalence and correlates of BWC activation in Phoenix, Arizona. The study found that departmental policy may be the...
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Buffalo Shooter’s Prior Threat, Hospital Stay Under Scrutiny
The white gunman accused of committing a racist massacre at a Buffalo supermarket made threatening comments that brought police to his high school last spring, but he was never charged with a crime and had no further contact with law enforcement after his release from a hospital, officials said. The revelation raised questions about whether his encounter...
Buffalo Shooting Latest Example of Targeted Racial Violence
Black people going about their daily lives — then dying in a hail of bullets fired by a white man who targeted them because of their skin color. Substitute a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, with a church in South Carolina, and Malcolm Graham knows the pain and grief the families of those killed Saturday are feeling. He...
New White Paper on Prosecution of Child Sexual Abuse: Challenges in Achieving Justice
Prosecution of child sexual abuse (CSA) serves an important purpose beyond providing a penalty to a guilty party: It can offer an avenue to justice for survivors of abuse and their families, protect potential future victims, and send a message to the community that sexual abuse of children is taken seriously and that justice for...
Utopia-Likeness That Utilises the Energy of True Utopias Activates Regional Development
Utopia literally means an imaginary ideal place that in principle can never be realised. However, in practical regional development, utopia-likeness is needed, because it promotes, involves and inspires social reforms, says Mikko Karhu, Licentiate of Administrative Sciences, who is defending his doctoral dissertation at the University of Vaasa on 22 April. Mikko Karhu’s doctoral dissertation...
‘Threatening’ Faces and Beefy Bodies Do Not Bias Criminal Suspect Identification, Study Finds
We’re all familiar with the classic “look” of a movie bad guy: peering through narrowing eyes with a sinister sneer (like countless James Bond villains, including Christopher Walken’s memorable Max Zorin in A View to a Kill) or pumped up to cartoon-like dimensions (like the Soviet boxer Drago who growls “I must break you” to Rocky...
Both Downtown and Suburbs Appeal to Small, High-Growth Firms
The movement of high-growth firms that directly contribute to the regional economy may be more complex than previously thought, new research suggests. A case study in Franklin County, Ohio – home to Columbus – found that when growing firms moved within the county, almost equal numbers of them moved downtown or to the suburbs. Most...
Plastic Bag Bans May Unintentionally Drive Other Bag Sales
When cities or counties institute plastic bag bans or fees, the idea is to reduce the amount of plastic headed to the landfill. But a new analysis by a University of Georgia researcher finds these policies, while created with good intentions, may cause more plastic bags to be purchased in the communities where they are...
Traffic Stops and Race: Police Conduct May Bend to Local Biases
Traffic stops, which happen approximately 50,000 times each day in the United States, are the most common interaction between law enforcement and the public, according to data from the Stanford Open Policing Project. These stops can result in nothing more than a friendly warning or can escalate into an arrest using force. All other factors being...
Empathy Softens Teachers’ Biases, Reduces Racial Gap in Student Suspensions
Interventions that seek to evoke empathy in teachers can sideline biases and narrow the racial gap in suspensions of middle school students, suggests new research from the University of California, Berkeley. In one of the most rigorous efforts to date to combat race-based inequity in school suspensions, UC Berkeley social psychologist Jason Okonofua and fellow...