Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore Bryan Stevenson’s (2014, 2015) call to action from within two emergent schools of thought in criminology, “cultural criminology,” and “convict criminology”, which share a special concern with the contributions that criminological research makes to a climate of social control and punishment. The author’s central aim is to explore the capacity of what the author argues is a potentially under-leveraged tool of social change – the philosophies underlying and implemented in cultural and convict criminology.

To demonstrate the potential impact of this research, the author draws upon a purposive sample of qualitative studies that exemplify the particular emotive, moral, and aesthetic goals central to Stevenson’s call to action. The impact of the production of images of crime, crime control, and criminals that emerge in the development of the paradigms central to cultural and convict criminology is finally discussed in terms of Stevenson’s four prescriptions for social and criminal justice reform.

The underlying philosophies, theoretical assumptions, and methodological approaches dictated by convict and cultural criminology are uniquely equipped to make visible the forces linked to resistance to penal and social reform.

In synthesizing cultural criminology and the emergent convict criminology as guides to doing empirical research, and identifying each as embodying Stevenson’s call to action, the author hopes – maybe not to extract those easily ignitable, invisible forces away from reform efforts entirely, but at least – to provide those who are interested with a more nuanced map of where they are not likely to live and breathe them. Stimulating and widening the criminological imagination might not satisfy our need to quickly and concretely apply a solution to injustice, but it might be what the problem demands.

Stevenson (2014) argues that the extent of injustice in the US criminal justice system is so pervasive, extraordinary, and long standing, that everyone has a role to play in the course of our everyday lives in turning the tide of indifference and cruelty that feed mass injustice and incarceration. Applying his proposals to the on-the-ground working lives of empirical criminologists holds potential for effecting change from the top-down.

In early 2020, the world faced a rapid life-changing pandemic in the form of the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) crisis. Citywide lockdowns with stay-at-home orders and mass closings quickly became the “new normal.” With these new mandates, routine activity, mental health and financial securities all began to experience major deviations, and it became clear that this could prove to be rather valuable in providing the opportunity for large-scale criminology experiments. This study aims to explore New York City's (NYC) crime patterns during this unique social situation. Specifically, has crime as a whole increased or decreased, and have particular crimes increased or decreased during these stressful fluid times?

The authors briefly review previous crises and worldwide trends but focus on NYC crime as collected by the New York Police Department's statistics unit, “CompStat.” An analysis of 13 crime types from March 30 to July 5 was completed, including percent differences and individual weekly incidence rates in citywide crimes compared to the same time in 2019.

The analysis demonstrated that all crimes analyzed, except for murder and burglary, exhibited a statistically significant difference during COVID-19 conditions compared to the same time the previous year. Grand larceny auto and gun violence crimes significantly increased during COVID-19 weeks, whereas rape, other sex crimes, robbery, felony assault, grand larceny, transit, housing, misdemeanor assault and petit larceny all significantly decreased.

Due to the ongoing nature of the pandemic, this is amongst the first studies to examine trends in NYC crime during pandemic mandates. Expanding our knowledge in these situations can inform natural disaster responses, as well as criminal justice policy and practice to better protect the public in future crises.

Limited evidence exists regarding a group of nurses' physical activity patterns and association with resilience. Less is known about the physical activity health paradox in nurses (the positive health effects of leisure time physical activity vs the negative health effects of occupational physical activity). This study aimed to explore the profiles of intensive care nurses' physical activity behaviours and associations with resilience, following a developed study-specific job demands–recovery framework.

A cross-sectional study was conducted with intensive care unit (ICU) nurses to explore their physical activity profiles and associations with resilience. The Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale 25 (CD-RISC 25) was used to assess resilience, and accelerometry was utilised to record participants' four-day activity (two workdays, two non-workdays). Hierarchical cluster analysis was employed to define groups of nurses by activity behaviours.

Participants (N = 93) were classified as low actives (n = 19), standers (n = 36), sitters (n = 31) and movers (n = 7). During two 12-h shifts, movers had the highest mean level of dynamic standing and the lowest mean level of sitting. During two non-workdays, movers had the highest mean level of walking as well as the lowest mean level of sitting and sleep time.

The uniqueness of this study was that it analysed ICU nurses' physical activity profiles and associations with resilience using identified clusters. However, the small number of participants limited this study's ability to determine significant relationships between resilience and the grouped physical activity profiles.

We discuss the contributions of Jack Katz to the field of criminology with a particular focus on his 1988 book, Seductions of Crime. This book emerged out of a time in American history when criminal justice policy was shaped in part by moral panic over the 1980s’ American crime wave. We argue that SOC’s pragmatic approach to phenomenology owes much to this historical context. The vision outlined in the book represents an ideal foundation on which to build a future criminology in tune with the direction of innovation in the field. In making this case, we review the core contributions of the work from our perspective. We then explore the complicated “politics” of Katz’s argument – defying easy labels of left and right, and discuss the significance of a growing divide between the opinions of lay persons and expert accounts of crime. The modes of inquiry that Katz reawakened with his analysis have many as of yet untapped riches to offer, not only to criminological theory but also to criminal justice reform. In particular, we argue that urgent contemporary trends toward “public criminology,” “convict criminology” both could find, in SOC, an ideal epistemological starting place.

CHANGE, whether we like it or not, is a major element in twentieth century life. Every organisation is likely to be forced into radical change, and a failure to respond adequately to this demand, whether it comes from within the organisation or from outside, is likely to lead to a loss of effectiveness; the organisation will then either fossilise as an obsolete structure, functioning in a barely relevant way, or it will disintegrate completely. In library terms such demands for change might be exemplified by the increasing strictures on local budgets by central government, by technological developments, particularly on‐line computer systems, and by the changing needs and aspirations of contemporary society.

This research aims to identify the use of the public relations (PR) methods implemented by King Rama V and his administration to counter the threat to Siam of imperialism in the late 19th century. It also seeks to demonstrate the interplay of the communication strategies used in international diplomacy to enhance Siam's visibility among major European nations.

This is a historical study using both primary and secondary sources. It is a development of the national PR history methodology using a descriptive, fact-based and event-oriented approach.

The main findings are that (1) a PR strategy drove international diplomacy under the administration of Siam's monarch incorporating strategies such as governmental press relations activities; (2) the strategy in building Siam's image as a civilized country was successfully communicated through the personality of King Rama V during his first trip to Europe; (3) with a close observation of the public and press sentiments, the outcome of the integrated PR and diplomatic campaigns was that Siam defended its sovereignty against British and French imperialists’ pressures and was therefore never colonized.

This research adds to the body of knowledge of global PR history by demonstrating that PR evolved before the 20th century in different countries and cultures with different historical paths and sociocultural, political and economic contexts.

This study from an Asian nation demonstrates that PR was being practiced in the late 19th century outside the Western context, prior to the advent of the term. It is a rare example of PR being developed as a part of an anti-colonization strategy.

Major gaps exist in the documented history of occupational therapy in Ireland. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to filling these gaps by providing an overview of three major transitions in Irish occupational therapy in the century preceding the opening of St. Joseph?s College of Occupational Therapy in 1963. Research on occupational therapy’s past is valuable not only for recording and commemorating key events and individuals but also for allowing reflection on and questioning of contemporary practice and assumptions.

This descriptive paper draws on multiple documentary sources to present an overview of the first 100 years of the use of occupation as therapy/occupational therapy in Ireland from 1863 to 1963.

Three major transitions in occupational therapy in Ireland are presented: from moral treatment and the use of occupation as therapy to medical patronage of occupational therapy, from medical patronage to the early/pre-professional era and finally from the pre-professional era to the era of professionally qualified occupational therapists. To illustrate these transitions, a small number of individuals and their contributions are discussed including Dr Eamon O’Sullivan, Dr Ada English, Donal Kelly, Olga Gale and Ann Beckett.

This paper charts the foundations upon which the currently thriving profession of occupational therapy are built. The Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland recently celebrated their 50th anniversary (AOTI, 2015a), and in 2017, it is 100 years since occupational therapy was formalised in Clifton Springs, New York, USA. Occupational therapy is a relatively young profession, and great opportunities exist to research its history in Ireland to capture the memories and experiences of the pioneers who laid the foundation of the profession as well as to situate the development of the profession in the broader social, cultural and scientific contexts within which it developed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential of Penang in being a dark tourism destination in Malaysia with the influence of urban tourism development.

A systematic review was conducted to serve as a foundation by highlighting the number of dark tourism studies conducted in Southeast Asia (SEA).

The results projected a total of 23 dark tourism studies conducted within the SEA region. These papers revolve around the following key themes that were conducted in these countries: tourists’ behaviour (motivation, satisfaction and experience), nation building and narratives, dark tourism development (management, marketing and implications), theoretical underpinnings and the role of dark tourism. Amongst these, it was found that tourists’ behaviour is the most studied with eight papers while the least is on nation building and theoretical underpinnings of dark tourism with three papers each.

The lack of dark tourism studies in SEA results in insufficient existing literature which justifies the need of exploring Penang as a potential dark tourism destination.

This paper builds on prior dark tourism studies that are significantly related to urban tourism but takes a step further by exploring the Asian settings. Specifically, into Malaysia which is more than just an SEA country, but a multicultural one which is rich and diverse with its culture and heritage that leads to many unique tourists’ destinations. This paper extends the geographical scope of the dark tourism literature as it focuses on Penang in Malaysia.

OUR publication date precludes more than the beginning of our study on the Library Association Conference which, from the point of view of numbers, has been one of the largest. We shall continue in our next issue such comment upon it as the importance of the subjects under discussion would seem to warrant.