Journal of Community Safety and Well-Being

Casualties of a false narrative that the system is okay

2022-12-16T09:22:23-08:00

The Relationship between the legal status of drug possession and the criminalization of marginalized drug users: A literature review

2022-12-16T09:22:31-08:00

The longstanding association between addiction, crime, and mortality has become increasingly severe in Canada, affecting larger numbers of individuals and communities. Diverse and irreconcilable courses of action have been proposed involving the decriminalization of drug possession, expanded resources to promote recovery from addiction, or both. The current review used the PICOTS method to identify peer-reviewed publications that reported outcomes of reducing the criminal consequences of drug possession and the specific relationship between law reform and the well-being of people who are at greatest risk for poisoning. We separately included notable reports and grey literature discussing outcomes associated with the Portuguese National Drug Strategy. Over 2,500 articles were retrieved from three databases, with six meeting all inclusion/exclusion criteria. An additional five manuscripts were retrieved specific to Portugal. The evidence reviewed indicates that drug decriminalization alone is associated with potential harms to drug users and their communities, and that potential benefits may be realized when law reform is closely coordinated with the provision of evidence-based resources that promote recovery from addiction. The evidence summarized in this review supports careful consideration of the factors necessary to promote social reintegration among people who are at highest risk for drug-related harms, including repeated criminal offending and death.

An evaluation of SimVoice mental health de-escalation training

2022-12-16T09:22:48-08:00

Systemic changes, such as the deinstitutionalization of mental health care, have increased the likelihood that people with acute mental health symptoms encounter the police. Given this, greater attention is being paid to mental health training for police officers in Canada. The current study presents a preliminary evaluation of SimVoice, a training tool that was designed to enhance the realism of de-escalation training for officers who may encounter individuals experiencing auditory hallucinations. Survey responses from trainees and trainers who took part in SimVoice training suggest the training is viewed very positively. Trainers felt that SimVoice was easy to use and contributed to realistic training, and they unanimously indicated they will continue using SimVoice as a training tool. Trainers and trainees both felt that the training was useful for developing general and specific knowledge and skills that would help officers more effectively manage encounters with people in crisis. Survey respondents also identified limitations when using SimVoice, along with suggestions for improving its use in training.

Exploring the genesis and praxis of restorative justice in Nova Scotia, Canada

2022-12-16T09:23:04-08:00

Nova Scotia has seen the most systematic growth of restorative justice (RJ) in Canada. Initially moving from a pilot RJ phase to province-wide implementation for young offenders, a similar model was used to implement RJ for adult offenders. Nova Scotia has received national and international attention for its innovations in RJ. Extensive articles and reports have been published about the RJ movement in Nova Scotia, focusing mainly on the impact of RJ practices. Few peer-reviewed journal articles document the factors that contributed to the actual growth of RJ in Nova Scotia. To address this research gap, this study employed 8 in-depth key informant interviews and a survey. Two distinct stages—Catalytic and Innovative—emerged as salient factors shaping the growth of RJ in Nova Scotia. This study also reveals contemporary discourses and issues prevalent among RJ visionaries and practitioners in Nova Scotia, such as relational theory of justice, the moratorium against the use RJ for gender-based violence, and the role of government. This research offers a comprehensive debate on the concept of a moratorium against gender-based violence and the role of government. The paper concludes by addressing limitations and areas for future research.

Firefighters: Hostility and world assumptions

2022-12-16T09:23:22-08:00

The present project was intended to provide an initial exploratory investigation into the relationship between hostility and world assumptions for a firefighting sample. Specifically, we hypothesized that increased hostility would be associated with more negative assumptions with respect to world benevolence, world justness, and self-worth, and that these variables would also be related to years of service and self-reported mental health. The current study was part of a larger study with firefighters from British Columbia, Canada, and included 186 paid-professional firefighters who completed a series of questionnaires. We demonstrated that, for our firefighting sample, hostility was related to both world benevolence and self-worth across multiple measures, even while controlling for the individual characteristic neuroticism. We did not find any significant relationship with years of service, but world benevolence and self-worth were also important in the prediction of mental health outcomes. These findings may have clinical or occupational intervention implications in therapeutic relationships with firefighters, in that the present project demonstrated a first indication that reduced hostility in combination with increased positivity in world assumptions may help achieve good mental health.

Community-based policing to control COVID-19 outbreak at communal clusters: A Vietnam perspective

2022-12-16T09:23:13-08:00

The COVID-19 outbreak and its practical impacts are changing policing and police responses. Alongside the relentless efforts of the health sector, the role of police forces has been the subject of debate between the global South and North. As the first study in Vietnam, this paper explains how Vietnam’s police applied community-based policing to prevent and detect the interlaced occurrences among old and new patients at the communal cluster. Multiple sources were used to collect secondary data on police responses in the first lockdowns between February and March 2020. Online interviews with police leaders and six frontline officers were conducted to collect primary data. The findings show that, in each case, Vietnamese police implemented dynamic operations as much as possible in an effort to elicit voluntary collaborations to detect and contain COVID-19. Police used “onion-layer” and “door-to-door” approaches to coordinate and cooperate with their partners in the health sector. In addition, delivering persuasive propaganda was highly prioritized to incite local people to take up preventive measures rather than enforce them. The paper concludes with four specific recommendations and further discussions aimed at improving community-based policing’s effectiveness in future exceptional circumstances.

Understanding the impact of bail refusal on the Australian public health system

2022-12-16T09:22:39-08:00

Australia’s incarceration rates are the highest they have been in a century. Bail and remand contribute much to this trend, and yet the reasons why police refuse bail to vulnerable people are currently unclear. What is clear, though, is that a disproportionate number of vulnerable people are being refused bail, resulting in periods of remand incarceration which end up either longer than the prison sentence given by a magistrate, or undue if the alleged offender is found not guilty. This tendency is particularly observable for the most vulnerable: Aboriginal people, children, people with a mental health condition, the homeless, and women. The authors investigated how magistrates grant or refuse bail as part of the court process, then looked at two tipping points bracketing the bail continuum: 1) policing interactions leading to court appearance, and 2) the impact of bail refusal on public health and community safety and well-being in general. In the present article, they examined how authorized police officers consider refusing or granting bail. This new project aims to investigate the police bail decision-making process and generate new knowledge about the impact of bail refusal on vulnerable people. Through an iterative process with national practitioners and international experts, the authors aimed to identify factors to consider when bail involves vulnerable people. Expected outcomes included the development of mechanisms to benefit the full remit of criminal justice, reduce costs, and improve fairness, accountability, and procedural justice.

Human safety and security for sustainable and inclusive settlements

2022-12-16T09:22:56-08:00

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by all member states of the United Nations (UN) in 2015. One year later, Habitat III, the first UN global summit to adopt the sustainable development agenda, took place in Quito, Ecuador. Habitat III served as a forum for discussing the planning and management of human settlements for promoting sustainability. Global stakeholders are increasingly acknowledging that Agenda 2030 must embrace people-centred approaches to address the interconnectivity of today’s challenges in order to deliver its transformative promise to human settlements. To this end, human safety and security, which is concerned with whether people live in conflict or peace, provides an effective programming framework for promoting inclusive and sustainable human settlements. This paper explores the nexus between human security and the sustainable development of human settlements. Drawing on a broad range of literature, the paper begins by considering the conceptual basis of sustainable development through the lens of inclusivity. This is followed by a detailed explanation of why human security is central to promoting the sustainability of settlements. The paper also offers some insight into measuring and modelling human security for the purpose of sustainable settlement programming. The paper concludes by offering some thoughts about why statutory public safety stakeholders should work with communities and civil society in order to secure and sustain positive gains for human settlements.

Thank you to our reviewers

2022-12-16T09:22:15-08:00