Addison, Texas’ Post

Every person has the right to live a life with dignity. No one has the right to strip that away. I just spent 150 minutes on an aeroplane commuting home. A plane of humans each with a story to tell, a plane that had perpetrators, a plane that had victims & survivors and a plane that had people touched by death as a result of family domestic violence or gender based violence. In that 150 minutes, according to this article, Victoria Police would have received 25 calls. 8 arrests are likely to have also been made. I’m a very analytical person and reading statistics like this angers me when I put it into the context of my commute home today. We need to do better, we need to say NO to violence, we need to support the bredth services that are the lifeline for many. In 2015, the first Royal Commsiion into Domestic Violence took place. In January 2023, the Victorian Government announced the implementation of the final recommendations, meeting their commitment to implement all 227 recommendations. Yet today, we are facing these statistics.

As a crime expert, I have noticed a concerning rise in crimes in our society. There are several reasons for this increase, including economic difficulties, lack of opportunities, and societal issues such as drug addiction and mental health problems. These crimes are being committed in various ways, including theft, violence, and cybercrime. To combat this rise in crime, it is important for us to engage with the community and work together to find solutions. This can include increasing police presence in high-crime areas, implementing programs to support at-risk individuals, and addressing underlying issues such as poverty and inequality. One key aspect of preventing crime is empowering our youth and educating them about the importance of security. By providing them with the knowledge and resources to make informed decisions, we can help prevent them from becoming involved in criminal activities. Investing in programs that promote positive behaviors and teach conflict resolution skills can go a long way in reducing crime rates and creating a safer community for all. Together, we can make a difference and work towards a more secure and peaceful society. #crimeprevention #communityengagement #youthempowerment

⚠️ The harmful practice of solitary confinement is particularly devastating for individuals living with mental illness. ⚠️ A new report from CLASI highlights the urgent need for reform in Delaware’s correctional facilities. While progress has been made, more needs to be done to ensure humane treatment, including ending “backdoor” methods of solitary confinement, increasing mental health services, and enhancing transparency within the Department of Correction. State Rep. Eric Morrison is committed to introducing legislation in the 153rd General Assembly to ban solitary confinement and improve access to health services for incarcerated people. Together, we can push for a more humane justice system. Sign on to support the movement to ban solitary confinement in DE: https://buff.ly/4dZMkio #UnlockTheBox #PrisonReform #MentalHealthAwareness #EndSolitary

From 2019, law enforcement officers have suffered a suicide rate 25% higher than the general population. Shockingly, the rate is 3 times higher than that of officers who die from duty-related shootings or vehicle pursuits. It's a crucial reminder that we need to prioritize the mental health of our police brethren. Let's take a moment to reflect and consider how we can better support those who serve and protect our communities. #mentalhealthawareness #police #lawenforcement https://lnkd.in/eibbfAGS

The big number: 15% That's the drop in the number of killings in America’s ten largest cities last year compared to 2022, according to local government data. The sharp fall in murder rates, which included a 20% drop in Philadelphia and Houston and a 16% decrease in Los Angeles, came after a pandemic-era spike. Murders rose in two of the top 10 cities. Dallas reported a 15% increase, while homicides in Austin edged up by 3%. The overall trend shows that the factors that contributed to an increase in violent confrontations in the early days of the pandemic are receding, police officials and criminologists say. Shootings are falling as gang-violence prevention programs get back up and running. Domestic killings have declined as families are no longer cooped up together at home. Police are more active after a pullback in enforcement during the racial-justice protests over the murder of George Floyd, according to local officials. In 2022, murders in the U.S. dropped 6% after rising 4% in 2021 and spiking by nearly 30% in 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The agency isn’t expected to release national crime figures for 2023 until later this year. Even with declining numbers, Americans remain jittery about crime. A Gallup poll from November found that 63% of the U.S. residents saw crime as a serious problem, up from 54% in 2022 and the highest in at least two decades. Some criminologists say that the drop in killings is tied most closely to the dissipating effects of the pandemic. During the pandemic, Americans were disconnected from schools, churches, counseling and gang-intervention programs, which resulted in more deadly conflicts, said John Roman, a senior fellow in the Economics, Justice & Society department at NORC at the University of Chicago. “It teaches us that there are things that work, that police and teachers and social workers and behavioral health workers, they help to keep people from being victimized and committing crimes,” Roman said. “When they weren’t there, everything shot up and they came back and everything started to decline.” Roman said that the country is headed for prepandemic levels of violent crime but he worries that it will be difficult to go lower because of the increase in guns in civilian hands. Americans bought more than 70 million guns over the past four years. “The guns weigh heavily on the crime story,” he said.

The BBC News reports that 'The criminal justice system is failing stalking victims, a review by London's victims' commissioner has found' A #stalking review was commissioned by Claire Waxman OBE Victims of Crime Commissioner for London specifically to investigate the Metropolitan Police's response to stalking in London. Ms Waxman said 45% of stalking victims withdrew from the justice process and a further 41% saw no further police action on their complaints, according to her findings. In this recent peer-reviewed article, 'Exploring Limerence, Concealed Obsession, Fixation, and Rumination', our colleagues examine how #limerence affects individuals and the factors that exacerbate this cognitive state. By studying cognitive disorders outlined in the DSM-5, such as obsessive-compulsive disorders, autism spectrum disorders, and erotomania, and correlating them with studies conceptualizing limerence as obsessive behavior, this review sheds light on an area with scant literature. At present, there is extraordinarily #limited literature focusing on this state of unrequited and intense human emotion towards another person. This review argues that behaviours exhibited in a state of limerence can serve as the building blocks upon which more #harmful, externally focused #stalking behaviours could develop. The objective is not to label individuals experiencing limerence as deviant but, rather, to better understand how #fixation and #obsessive desire can be maintained in the absence of approach behaviours. 📖 Cite this article: Bradbury, P., Short, E., & Bleakley, P. "Exploring Limerence, Concealed Obsession, Fixation, and Rumination: An Extensive Review of Human Behavior." Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology (2024).  DOI: https://lnkd.in/d-_XgQ2S Connect with us and stay informed by #following us on LinkedIn! Thank you for your support! 🙏 Read the BBC report: https://lnkd.in/eq8BFcSF Middlesex University London Metropolitan University University of New Haven PALADIN-NATIONAL STALKING ADVOCACY SERVICE C.I.C. Suzy Lamplugh Trust Victim Support Victim Support Scotland Victim Support Europe Action Against Stalking Fora: Network for Change Alice Ruggles Trust PROTECTION AGAINST STALKING The Dash Charity National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Metropolitan Police National Police Chiefs' Council Paula Bradbury Emma Short Paul Bleakley James Kelly Aurelia Foster

Clearly, ‘youth’ crime is a complex social problem. For example, we could spend a couple of PhD theses discussing how using the category “youth” is a part of producing the problem. Or how sifting social complexity through a psycho-individualistic frame actually aids and abets the problem. But all of this raises the real question what is the problem? Or at least, what are the mechanisms in play? But that calls for escaping the kinds of business as usual dualisms, based on dominant cultural frames, that I think our thinking often becomes ensnared. For example, we need to “treat” or “punish” younger people, without considering what these seemingly opposing stances share or what makes them distinctive. Our mate Foucault, for example, suggests that ‘crime’ can be understood as a convenient and disarming retranslation of social resistance. Much easier to rally to the flag of social revolution than a wave of criminality. So First let’s escape the dominant cultural norm by reflexively, critically and humbly unpacking the ‘problem’ then let’s find the best ‘solution’ together. But one thing for sure. What kind of society believes that it’s somehow ok to turn a humanitarian crises into political advantage? What kind of society thinks that it’s ok to not ‘solve’ a social problem by imprisoning children and younger people?

OPINION | If We Can Find Millions to Build Fences Around a Youth Jail, We Can Invest in Helping Youth Thrive -- full op-ed by Sarah Cusworth, Ph.D., & Dr. Ben Danielson linked below "Recent headlines about youth running away from a juvenile detention facility, and the fence currently under construction in response, have added fuel to an ongoing debate about our state’s juvenile rehabilitation system — how it’s working, if it’s working, and what to do to improve it. As that dialogue plays out, some may be tempted to adopt measures that isolate and punish young people. But now is a time to engage in careful and responsible policymaking. Research shows that investments in earlier intervention, not expensive investment in capital projects, will make our communities safer and allow young people to provide meaningful accountability to victims and seek a fresh start for their own lives." /// #Voices #Youth #Jail #WashingtonState #Seattle #SouthSeattle #SouthEnd

Without listening, really listening, we simply cannot achieve the safety all young Londoners both want and desperately need. Redthread therefore commends The London Assembly Police and Crime Committee for putting young people’s voices at the heart of its new ‘Preventing violence and protecting young people’ report and its recommendations to the Mayor of London. Last year, our specialist youth workers, based in A&Es across eight hospitals in the capital, supported 1,200 young Londoners (aged 11-25) who had been victims of violence or exploitation. We see daily the importance of tackling the root causes of violence, investing in prevention and ensuring that policing fully understands and implements its vital role in safeguarding vulnerable children and young people instead of criminalising them. Lucie Russell, Redthread CEO, said: “We are very pleased to see that the committee recognises the importance of continued support for our trauma-informed, hospital-based youth work in violence prevention. We are also pleased to see the value placed in the report on cross sector collaboration in reducing violence and its impacts. This requires both a collective commitment and approach, from the police to health services, from schools to the voluntary sector, from local authorities and London's Violence Reduction Unit to the Mayor of London. We welcome the report’s findings and recommendations, and look forward to enacting our key role in implementing these recommendations, in order to create a safer London for all children and young people and wider communities.” Read our full response here: https://lnkd.in/eV-WvzMs

Strengthening multi-agency case management with a more rigorous focus on monitoring and intervening early with recidivist family violence perpetrators is worth the investment.