News - Village can give national lessons

Filed under: Crime insurance — November 15, 2007 @ 8:39 am

A village with just 17 houses has shown Scotland the way forward for what Neighbourhood Watch can achieve.


Greenhill, near Lockerbie, is where former insurance worker Brian Smith started out as a co-ordinator for the local scheme about 16 years ago.


Now he holds the post as secretary of the Association of Scottish Neighbourhood Watches (AoSNW).


He believes his district of Annandale and Eskdale can provide a template for the rest of the country.


When they set out around 1990, they were one of a tiny number of watch groups in the area.


“We went from a handful of schemes to something like 250,” said Mr Smith.


They operate across the five areas covered by Lockerbie, Annan, Langholm, Moffat and Gretna police stations.


A “cascade” telephone system means that within just 10 phone calls Mr Smith can get the word out to 90 schemes in his Lockerbie zone.

Brian Smith

We draw together the best expertise in Scotland to answer questions and make people feel part of the overall community
Brian Smith
AoSNW Secretary
Some of your views


Although it is a low crime area, there can be problems with people coming off the nearby M74 motorway causing spates of burglaries.


Farm machinery, quad bikes and the likes are also sometimes the target of thefts.


“A lot of it is prevention,” said Mr Smith. “We put out alerts for bogus callers.


“There was an incident in Peebles recently - we got that information and we alerted the whole of Annandale and Eskdale.


“It is not just about crime itself - it is about being concerned for your .”


The AoSNW held its AGM on 8 April and hopes to encourage new groups to start up or existing watch schemes to register with them.

Annandale and Eskdale

Rural Annandale and Eskdale presents its own challenges


Very few demands are made of its member groups.


“All we ask is that when we operate the cascade system they use it and if they see anything they let the police now,” said Mr Smith.


“The whole object of the association is to draw all these threads together - that it is somewhere you can go to for an answer.”


Mr Smith, and others like him, have a wealth of experience to offer to groups across the country.


The national network also offers another vital service to rural watch schemes like the one in Greenhill and other more remote parts of the country.


“We draw together the best expertise in Scotland to answer questions and make people feel part of the overall community instead of feeling - as they are at the moment - isolated,” said Mr Smith.


He added that the feeling of was important to every Neighbourhood Watch scheme across the nation.


Then the rest of Scotland might be able to follow the example set by Annandale and Eskdale and see the number of groups grow to such impressive levels.


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Technology Historian Takes Students To "Eighth Wonder Of The World:" Las Vegas

Filed under: Crime insurance — November 14, 2007 @ 6:17 am

Science Daily &34;Eighth Wonder Of The World:” Las Vegas

Youth’s Attitudes About Women’s Roles Influenced By Many Family Factors

Filed under: Crime insurance — November 13, 2007 @ 5:29 am

Science Daily — By the time they are adults, men and women have distinctive attitudes about the roles women should play in society, but little is known about how these views develop. A Penn State study tracked youth’s attitudes for most of the school age and adolescent years and found varying patterns of change according to gender, birth order, parent’s influences and other factors.

“We charted the course of gender attitudes over time, and studied characteristics of families and family members that helped to shape the way youth’s attitudes changed over time,” says Dr. Ann Crouter, Penn State professor of human and family studies and lead author of the study which is published in the current issue of the journal Child Development.

“Several different patterns of change emerged, suggesting that there is no single course of gender attitude development from middle childhood through adolescence. Instead, change patterns were different for girls versus boys, for firstborns versus secondborns, for youth with a sister versus a brother, and for youth with parents who had more versus less traditional attitudes,” added Crouter, also director, Social Science Research Institute and of the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium, both at Penn State.

Other authors are Shawn D. Whiteman, assistant professor, child development and family studies, Purdue University; and Susan McHale, professor of human development and family studies, and D. Wayne Osgood, professor of crime, law justice and sociology, both at Penn State.

This study was the first longitudinal study to track youth’s gender attitudes over a long period of time, from about ages 7 to 19. The research focused on a sample of 201 two-parent, White, working and middle class families who were first when the firstborn child in the family was about 10 years old and the secondborn child was about 7 and a half years old. Two siblings and their mothers and fathers were interviewed at home every year for 9 years, until firstborns were about 19 and secondborns were about 16.5 years old.

During each home interview, family members rated the traditionality of their gender attitudes, describing how much they agreed with statements like: “Sons in a family should be given more help to go to college than daughters;” or “In general, the father should have greater authority than the mother in making decisions about raising children.”

Most youth became less traditional over time, but the attitudes of firstborn boys with brothers and traditional parent were the most traditional to begin with, and became more traditional over time, the researchers write. Similarly, girls and secondborn boys who had parents with more traditional attitudes and brothers did not become as nontraditional over time as other offspring, suggesting that having traditional parents and a brother is a potent combination that supports the development of traditionality in gender role attitudes.

“Patterns for firstborns and secondborns were somewhat different, with secondborns tending to become less traditional in middle childhood but endorsing more traditional attitudes again beginning at about age 15,” Crouter notes. “We speculated that peers may be an important influence on secondborns.”

In society at large, attitudes about gender roles are gradually becoming less traditional and more egalitarian, but the researchers found that even in the face of this widespread shift, there are individuals who are staunchly conservative about the roles of women and men. The findings suggest that gender attitudes take shape across childhood and adolescence, and that the cues youth take about attitudes come, at least in part, from with parents and siblings.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Penn State.

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NIST Helps Close Electronic Nooks To Computer-Using Crooks

Filed under: Crime insurance — November 6, 2007 @ 10:44 am

Originaly from:

Science Daily — Classic bits of evidence collected by police at a crime scene include the smoking gun, and lipstick on a glass. However, today’s investigators often must search beyond the obvious for the missing piece that will solve the puzzlelike within a computer’s hard drive.

Forensic science specialists invited to the National Institute of Standards and recently completed a guide for law enforcement officers titled Electronic Crime Scene Investigation: A Guide for First Responders. The booklet provides investigators who regularly are the first to arrive at a crime scene (known as “first responders̶ ;) with an overview of what kinds of electronic evidence may be available to them in devices ranging from large computers to pagers.

When people began using computers to directly commit criminal offensessuch as online fraud and hackingspecialized police groups were trained to evaluate a crime scene and preserve electronic evidence. However, the ever increasing involvement of computers in other crimes (for example, a stalker sending harassing e-mails or an illegal business storing data in a spreadsheet program) means that this expertise no longer can be limited to select teams. Therefore, NIST’s Office of Law Enforcement by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justiceproduced the new electronic crime scene guide.

NIJ recently published the NIST guide in both ASCII and Adobe Acrobat downloadable formats at the following web address: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/187736.htm.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by National Institute Of Standards And Technology.

Intruder Alert: Method Provides Double Computer Crime-Solving Evidence

Filed under: Crime insurance — wonyo October 27, 2007 @ 5:20 am

How do yo think, is it true about ?

Science Daily — Like an episode of “CSI: Computers,” a UF researcher has developed a technique that gives digital detectives twice the forensic evidence they now have to catch all kinds of hackers, from curious teenagers to disgruntled employees to agents of foreign governments.

Writing in the current issue of the International Journal of Digital Evidence, UF doctoral student Mark Foster proposes a new and improved method of computer crime solving, called “process forensics.”

“If a guy walks into a bank and robs it, leaving footprints behind or his fingerprints on the counter, the forensic analyst would come in and find those traces of what happened,” said Foster. In the same way, process forensics merges two existing types of digital evidence intrusion-detection and checkpointing technology to give an investigator the most possible information to crack a case, said Foster, a computer science and engineering student conducting the research for his dissertation with UF professor of computer science Joseph Wilson, who co-wrote the paper.

“If you detect the intruder or even if you’re just suspicious that an intruder’s around you start creating checkpoints,” Foster said. “And then later, those checkpoints will serve to give us some forensics.”

Checkpoints are essentially periodic snapshots of a running computer program, or process. Programmers use them as a safety backup if the power goes out while a program is still running, they can return to the most recent checkpoint rather than starting over from the beginning.

Many current programs don’t have built-in checkpointing technology, creating more work for programmers, Foster said. So he developed a technique that automatically creates checkpoints within a program. After working separately on computer security and intrusion-detection software, he realized that combining checkpoints with intrusion detection would create an efficient forensics tool, he said.

“If the photographs are taken at the right times, then we can see how they got in, what was tampered with,” Foster said.

Foster targets intruders who want to break into systems that are host-based or centrally located in one primary computer, which is then linked to numerous satellite workstations.

“You can have a scenario where user Bob he’s malicious, he’s tired of class, and he wants to try to mess with everybody. In a multiuser environment, you’ve got to have boundaries set up and once you have those, somebody wants to come along and get through them.”

One way for an evil-minded hacker to break into a host-based computer system is to sneak in through a “hole,” a flaw in a running program the hacker can exploit to take control of the program, run his own programs or generally gum up the works, Foster said. This type of attack is called a buffer overflow attack, he said.

Current intrusion-detection software helps an investigator find out if someone has broken into a system, identifies the intruder and prevents future attacks. However, the software first has to learn the computer system well enough to detect anything out of the ordinary, such as unexpected changes to files and suspicious programs. Detection also can require more steps, such as additional software, modification of current software or preparing a program ahead of time for monitoring.

Foster’s process-forensics method also includes an intrusion-detection system that improves on current software by streamlining detection and eliminating the training phase.

“This is definitely an area that is up-and-coming in forensics,” said John Leeson, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Central Florida and an editor of the International Journal of Digital Evidence. “I like the fact that he’s taking a proactive approach forensics for years has been a reactive field.

“The idea is that you kind of need to know when something is happening before you start collecting information, or it’ll be a lot of useless information,” Leeson said. “Mark’s proposing a tool that could be activated by an automatic intrusion-detection system. I think that’s going to definitely enhance the value of digital forensics, to be able to deal with incidents as they are occurring.”

Computer forensics is a broad field. “A lot of times it’s recovering deleted files or looking for hidden files,” Foster said. “You have a child stalker who’s on the Internet stalking children, and they track him down, they confiscate his computer, and they say to the forensic guy, ‘What kind of evidence can you get from his computer?’”

Foster said his method targets a different kind of computer abuse intruders who want to hijack a running program.

“This is definitely kind of a different angle than the traditional stuff,” he said.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by University Of Florida. Read more…

News - Making sex pay

Filed under: Crime insurance — wonyo October 24, 2007 @ 5:22 am

Read source of it on the site
Belgian legislators are hoping to bring that to a close with a parliamentary bill that would draw prostitutes into the legal fold and bring the industry under state control, providing sex workers with labour rights and greater health protection.


But for a fee.

The sex workers themselves would be expected to pay up when the tax man calls - boosting state coffers to the tune of an estimated 50 million euros a year.


It represents an attractive option for a country currently struggling to balance its budget deficit - a means of generating money while affording prostitutes better protection.


The fact is, sex is a good source of revenue, as the underworld has long known. The industry is incredibly lucrative, given the consistent nature of demand for the services of the world’s oldest profession.



At the moment it looks like all the government cares about is getting their hands on sex workers’ money


Marion Detlefs
Hydra, Berlin

In Thailand, for example - where both sex workers and some policy advisers have been pushing for legalisation and taxation - the sex industry is thought to account for at least several percent of the nation’s GDP.

In Britain, it is estimated that some 770m ($1.2bn) is spent on prostitution every year, more than on cinemas or many other forms of entertainment.

Those who can tap it, do. The US state of Nevada, where prostitution is legal, hopes to pick up millions of dollars over the next two years from houses of prostitution.

But for most it remains untouchable capital, beyond the reach of politicians needing cash injections for ailing health services, welfare systems and other popular expenditures.

Legalisation is often the only way to tap into this source of wealth while offering prostitutes better working conditions, a route both Germany and the Netherlands have embarked on in recent years.

Prostitutes in Germany, believed to number around 400,000, have for the past year been able to take part in a scheme that offers social benefits like pensions, health insurance and a 40-hour week in sanitary conditions, in exchange for a slice of their earnings.



It’s a slow process, but I do think it’s moving, and that the situation for prostitutes is improving


Marieke van Doorninck
Institute for Prostitution Issues

For their part, Dutch prostitutes have been asked to pay 19% VAT for similar rights since brothels were legalised nearly three years ago.

Advocates of this kind of legislation believe it is the only way to make sure sex workers enjoy adequate health and employment protection.

Opponents say it simply consolidates them in a position from which governments should be battling to remove them.

Teething problems

Finance ministries in both Germany and the Netherlands say it is impossible to calculate just how many prostitutes have registered to pay tax as forms do not ask them to name their profession.

But anecdotal evidence from prostitutes’ organisations suggests that many have, where possible, at least tried to take up the offer.

“It has, however, been very difficult,” says Marion Detlefs of the Hydra prostitute advice centre in Berlin. “When it was set up there was much talk of securing proper contracts, proper health insurance but a lot of this hasn’t materialised because of big holes in the legislation.

“At the moment it looks like all the government cares about is getting their hands on sex workers’ money - women who are already hard-up are giving their earnings away and getting very little return.”

Despite the problems of these fledgling laws, European groups lobbying for better conditions for prostitutes believe they are at least a step in the right direction.

“But it has to be a matter of mutual benefit,” says Marieke van Doorninck of the Institute for Prostitution Issues. “Governments have to offer real labour rights and protection in exchange.”

“It’s a slow process, but I do think it’s moving, and that the situation for prostitutes is improving. People’s attitudes are also starting to soften.”

Ms van Doorninck says that while money provides one impetus for governments to legalise prostitution, the other issue is bringing the industry under state control to regulate its expansion.

In the Netherlands, legalisation has not led to the expansion of the industry, as predicted by some, but in fact to the closure of a number of brothels which are unable to comply with the restrictions and the bureaucracy involved with gaining legal status.

But under the Dutch law, only Dutch citizens and those from the European Union are allowed to work as prostitutes in brothels, which many believe will have pushed illegal migrant sex workers onto the streets.

While their earnings may be safe from the tax man, neither they nor their cash enjoy much protection from underworld bosses.

Should prostitution be legalised and governments use its revenue? Or should more be done to stamp the profession out?

Your reaction

Three words described legalized prostitution –”Opening Pandora’s Box”. I’ve got children who could eventually work in brothels and the streets if they cannot meet their financial needs in the future. Nothing can compare to the evil legalised prostitution will bring to your country and to the world at large. God Bless!)
Jozcat, Phils.



It is estimated that two thirds of those working in the brothels in the Netherlands are from outside the EU


Anna, UK

We are speaking as those from developed countries where the choice of whether to work in the prostitution trade is often a lot easier. Would any mother or father really want their daughter to work in the trade? What about those forced into the trade and trafficked from the developing world? Women from countries in the EU do not want to work as prostitutes so the women have to be imported from countries where the economic situation is so bad the women have no choice. It is estimated that two thirds of those working in the brothels in the Netherlands are from outside the EU. Once again an example of a developed country exploiting the poverty and desperation of those in the developing world. But hey - Belgium will get richer out of the taxes so let’s concentrate on that!
Anna, UK

Having heard too many horror stories about the conditions of prostitute’s lives, I can’t help feeling that legalization and a strong support structure is vital - but perhaps in combination with a clampdown on illegal prostitution (ie pimps and clients, not persecution of prostitutes). Currently the half-tolerated but illegal position of prostitution benefits nobody except unscrupulous criminals.
Paul, Czech Rep

Prostitution is a fact of life and is a service which if regulated would hurt nobody. At the moment, a blind eye is turned on massage parlours and conditions are poor. Admission of prostitution and incorporation of it into the service sector could improve conditions and free resources to move prostitutes from the streets which is a cause of concern for local communities and in view of the safety aspects of the girls.
Phillip, UK

I went to Amsterdam recently on holiday with friends. To my surprise, the Red Light District is so damn well organised. More importantly, people are friendly (as you’d expect) and they all get on. The place is clean, people dont fight, and the girls are making more money than most people. Fact is, if people are willing to work as Prostitutes, let them but tax them and make it legal in certain places. Keep the area under constant monitoring and let the government make more money!!!!


Fais,
England



Like drugs, gambling and pot noodle, prostitution is something that appeals to human instincts


Gavin, Wales

Like drugs, gambling and pot noodle, prostitution is something that appeals to human instincts. It’ll happen regardless of whether it is legal or not. Legalising it should make it safer for all parties and take some of the seediness out of it.
Gavin, Wales

Thou Shalt NOT commit Adultery.
Its SIN to commit Adultery.
God will punish those who commit Adultery and those who legalised Adultery.
Gurkha Rai, Sydney, Australia

Agriculture is the oldest profession, not prostitution!


Alec Weir,
UK

Surely the safety of the girls should be the prevailing factor rather than the cash that could be generated. It is shocking that prostitutes are treated as 2nd class citizens because it upsets the principles of a few middle class bores. Prostitution is not an occupation which is chosen but is thrust upon someone who is vulnerable and has nowhere else to turn. These people need protection from the dangers they are exposed to from their clients and their ‘pimps’. Legalisation can only be a good thing to help get these girls off the streets.
Chris, UK

As long as the woman [or man] voluntarily sells her or himself, then i don’t see why it should prohibited. What one wants to do with one’s own body is not the business of anyone else. However, if it becomes legally permissible, i definitely think that it should be taxed just like any other industry. The same applies to substances such as marijuana - let people decide to abuse their own bodies as they see fit.
Hannah, USA

Yes! Legalise it and collect the revenue. Like the drug issue it will not go away no matter how stigmatised, criminalised or politicised it becomes. Tax an inevitable source of revenue and make conditions safer for all involved.


Nik,
England



They should impose huge fines on prostitutes to stop the crime paying


Giles Johnson, UK

Prostitution is a sickness of society, opposes family values, increases abortion and is often the desperate act of drug addicts to obtain cash. It should never be legalised. If the government wants to tap money from this market then they should impose huge fines on prostitutes, to stop the crime paying.
Giles Johnson, UK

Whatever our opinions of the profession, it will not go away. America tried to do away with alcohol during the prohibition period and it proved to be impossible. So if it can’t be stopped governments might as well make the best of it.

John R, UK

Prostitution is exploitation of women by criminals. Their clients are pathetic. Your description of this activity as a “profession” is a disgrace. I recommend you view the film Lilya-4-ever, a look at the day to day realities of prostitutes.
Emmet Fahy, Ireland

Making prostitution legal would benefit the whole community. You will no longer have red light districts on housing estates as areas could be designated by the police. This should help many areas which are affected by the constant cat and mouse game between the police and prostitutes. The health benefits would lead to a decline in the rate of sexual disease, as by having regular testing the disease should be treated much earlier. The prostitutes themselves would be able to work in a much safer environment leading to less assault and a lower crime rate against them.

Guy Willoughby, UK



‘We must take advantage of it and cash in’


James,
Canada

Stamping our prostitution is like stamping out sex… will never happen. So governments who realise this say to themselves “If we can’t eliminate it, then we must take advantage of it and cash in.” Money is not the root of all evil… weak men are.


James,
Canada

I am originally from New Zealand and prostitution has finally been decriminalised there recently. Prior to this there was quite a percentage of prostitutes paying tax on their earnings anyway and the government seemed to have no qualms using the revenue. Prostitution should be decriminalised.
Elle, UK

All this amounts to is the governments acting as pimps and providing protection for their ’staff’ in return for a slice of their wages.
Simon, Edinburgh, UK



One of the greatest scandals of our age is trafficking women to be abused as sex objects


Anthony,
Germany (UK)

Yes it should be legalised, but not with the aim of simply collecting more tax revenue. One of the greatest scandals of our age is the trafficking of women to be abused as sex objects. Anything that can make it tougher for criminals to enforce their brutal exploitation of these helpless victims has to be welcomed.


Anthony,
Germany (UK)

Well, several hundred years of trying to extinguish prostitution didn’t help. I’m strongly in favour of legalisation as it would help in health and social issues. The additional benefit is that legal brothels would help in preventing trafficking as someone with a legal business would be less willing take a risk with illegal activities.
Vladan Konstantinovic, Serbia & Montenegro

Until three years ago prostitution was illegal, but accepted. The police could keep an eye on the situation (investigate criminals that forced young Eastern European girls into prostitution) and local government could develop a policy concerning prostitution (locate it in certain parts of town etc). Now it is legal, the position of legal prostitutes has improved a little. But the illegal prostitutes are much worse off. They are not visible anymore and more easily the victim of criminal groups that are active in prostitution. The aim of the legalisation was to protect prostitutes. In my opinion it has failed.


Nanne de Jong,
Netherlands

Yes it should be legalised. The government could make a huge amount of money from the industry and it would provide safer surroundings for those who work in the industry.
TDD, UK

It will always exist in every society. Therefore, the mature and responsible course of action is to bring it within the government sphere of influence. This will make it safer for both parties involved and allow the government to take a piece of the pie. The taxes could be used for schools and the NHS.


Nick,
UK


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