Youth Justice: Our Kids are Worth a Second Chance

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 228-230
Author(s):  
Julie Edwards

Youth justice is at a crossroads in Australia. In every state and territory across the nation, governments are grappling with youth justice issues as they seek to reduce crime, improve community safety and respond to public concern that is being fanned by sensationalised media coverage.

Author(s):  
Allan Mazur

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science. Please check back later for the full article. Global warming was not on public or media agendas prior to 1998. In summer of that year, during an unusual heat wave, The New York Times and other major U.S. news organizations saliently reported warnings by NASA scientist James Hansen that the earth is warming. This alarm quickly spread to secondary media and to the news media of other nations. According to the “Quantity of Coverage Theory,” public concerns and governmental actions about a problem rise and fall with the extent of media coverage of that problem, a generalization that is applicable here. Over the next few years, global warming became part of a suite of worldwide issues (particularly the ozone hole, biodiversity, and destruction of rain forests) conceptualized as the “endangered earth,” more or less climaxing on Earth Day 1990. Media coverage and public concerns waned after 1990, thereafter following an erratic course until 2006, when they reached unprecedented heights internationally, largely but not entirely associated with former Vice President Al Gore’s promotion of human-caused climate change as “an inconvenient truth.” By this time, the issue had become highly polarized, with denial or discounting of the risk a hallmark of the political right, especially among American Republicans. International media coverage and public concern fell after 2010, but at this writing in 2015, these are again on the rise. The ups and downs of media attention and public concern are unrelated to real changes in the temperature of the atmosphere.


1988 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-197
Author(s):  
Celestine A. Lacey ◽  
Charles Egan ◽  
Wayne Pearson ◽  
Peter K. Fay

Residents in Stillwater County, MT, used a weed bounty program as an educational tool to promote awareness, detection, and control of spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosaLam. # CENMA) on range and noncropland. Many people became involved with the weed control effort, weed awareness was increased, spotted knapweed was controlled, and the program was cost effective. The success of a weed bounty program is influenced by 1) the enthusiasm and innovations of the county extension agent, weed supervisor, or other key individual or group in the community; 2) the choice of the weeds selected; and 3) good media coverage of the bounty program. With proper planning and organization, weed bounty programs effectively promote awareness and action in other areas of public concern.


2020 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 638-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
OMAR WASOW

How do stigmatized minorities advance agendas when confronted with hostile majorities? Elite theories of influence posit marginal groups exert little power. I propose the concept of agenda seeding to describe how activists use methods like disruption to capture the attention of media and overcome political asymmetries. Further, I hypothesize protest tactics influence how news organizations frame demands. Evaluating black-led protests between 1960 and 1972, I find nonviolent activism, particularly when met with state or vigilante repression, drove media coverage, framing, congressional speech, and public opinion on civil rights. Counties proximate to nonviolent protests saw presidential Democratic vote share increase 1.6–2.5%. Protester-initiated violence, by contrast, helped move news agendas, frames, elite discourse, and public concern toward “social control.” In 1968, using rainfall as an instrument, I find violent protests likely caused a 1.5–7.9% shift among whites toward Republicans and tipped the election. Elites may dominate political communication but hold no monopoly.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Loredana Covolo ◽  
Elia Croce ◽  
Marco Moneda ◽  
Elena Zanardini ◽  
Umberto Gelatti ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Giddings ◽  
J. Fawell

Significant media coverage regarding new chemicals being found in water supplies has given rise to public concerns about the safety of their drinking water. Emerging contaminants in drinking water supplies, which include pharmaceuticals, personal care products and endocrine disruptor compounds, have been regularly detected at trace levels in drinking water sources in many countries. Regulators around the world are grappling with questions from the public relating to possible health outcomes from long-term exposure to these contaminants in their drinking water. The presentation will discuss the challenges in addressing public concern about these contaminants and how communicating scientific uncertainties requires a balanced and clear series of messages.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1530
Author(s):  
Jessica Loyer ◽  
Alexandra L. Whittaker ◽  
Emily A. Buddle ◽  
Rachel A. Ankeny

While religious slaughter is not a new practice in Australia, it has recently attracted public concern regarding questions of animal welfare following unfavourable media coverage. However, the details of religious slaughter practices, including related animal welfare provisions, appear to be poorly understood by the Australian public, and no existing literature concisely synthesises current regulations, practices, and issues. This paper addresses this gap by examining the processes associated with various types of religious slaughter and associated animal welfare issues, by reviewing the relevant legislation and examining public views, while highlighting areas for further research, particularly in Australia. The paper finds shortcomings in relation to transparency and understanding of current practices and regulation and suggests a need for more clear and consistent legislative provisions, as well as increased independence from industry in the setting of the standards, enforcement and administration of religious slaughter. A starting point for legal reform would be the relocation of important provisions pertaining to religious slaughter from delegated codes to the responsible act or regulation, ensuring proper parliamentary oversight. In addition, more active public engagement must occur, particularly with regard to what constitutes legal practices and animal welfare standards in the Australian context to overcome ongoing conflict between those who oppose religious slaughter and the Muslim and Jewish communities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Regiane A. Garcia ◽  
Kristi Heather Kenyon ◽  
Claire E. Brolan ◽  
Juliana Coughlin ◽  
Daniel D. Guedes

Abstract Background The increase in problematic substance use is a major problem in Canada and elsewhere, placing a heavy burden on health and justice system resources given a spike in drug-related offences. Thus, achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 3.5 to ‘Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse’ is important for Canada’s overall realization of the SDGs, including SDG 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing). Since 2008, Vancouver’s Downtown Community Court (DCC) has pioneered an innovative partnership among the justice, health and social service systems to address individuals’ needs and circumstances leading to criminal behaviour. While researchers have examined the DCC’s impact on reducing recidivism, with Canada’s SDG health commitments in mind, we set out to examine the ways health and the social determinants of health (SDH) are engaged and framed externally with regard to DCC functioning, as well as internally by DCC actors. We employed a multi-pronged approach analyzing (1) publicly available DCC documents, (2) print media coverage, and (3) health-related discourse and references in DCC hearings. Results The documentary analysis showed that health and the SDH are framed by the DCC as instrumental for reducing drug-related offences and improving public safety. The observation data indicate that judges use health and SDH in providing context, understanding triggers for offences and offering rationale for sentencing and management plans that connect individuals to healthcare, social and cultural services. Conclusions Our study contributes new insights on the effectiveness of the DCC as a means to integrate justice, health and social services for improved health and community safety. The development of such community court interventions, and their impact on health and the SDH, should be reported on by Canada and other countries as a key contribution to SDG 3 achievement, as well as the fulfillment of other targets under the SDG framework that contain the SDH. Consideration should be given by Canada as to how to capture and integrate the important data generated by the DCC and other problem-solving courts into SDG reporting metrics. Certainly, the DCC advances the SDGs’ underlying Leave No One Behind principle in a high-income country context.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 (1) ◽  
pp. 300049
Author(s):  
Laura Hartline Weems ◽  
Pat Peavler

In-situ burning (ISB) of spilled petroleum has been conducted since the late 1950s. Most burns were performed from ground level on upland areas, inland waters, or test basins and the frequency of use has been relatively low. Response to the Deepwater Horizon incident reminded the spill response community of this strategy by illustrating the utility of ISB for spills offshore. Over 400 individual burns were conducted during the summer of 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon response resulted in an unprecedented and extensive use of offshore ISB, and media coverage repeatedly demonstrated successful ISB operations. Ensuring responder and community safety and health is a critical aspect for conducting controlled burns of petroleum during an oil spill response. ISB presents unique issues associated with conducting controlled burns whether on land, near shore or offshore requiring relevant guidance for Safety Officers and industrial hygienists (IH). Response personnel conducting ISB must be trained specifically for burn operations. Health concerns related to conducting and monitoring the burns must be evaluated. With the large number of controlled burns conducted in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the Deepwater Horizon response, extensive experience has been obtained which can be used to update guidance and standards documents for conducting safe burn operations. This poster, targeted for the global response community, regulators and industry, covers the health and safety concerns that need to be addressed before, during and after ISB operations by Safety Officers and industrial hygienists. Specifically, the poster will be in two parts, highlighting the research to date. Part one will be a summary of the literature research and an evaluation of safety baseline information for ISB. The second part will demonstrate how to use the information from the first part and develop an ISB site safety plan by conducting a job hazard analysis and risk assessment. The end result will be a better understanding of potential ISB hazards, their associated risks, and the range of control methods available to the response community to mitigate those risks. The goal is ultimately to develop for Safety Officers and industrial hygienists a comprehensive consensus guidance document that aids in their ability to make sound risk based decisions during an emergency.


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