A meta-analysis of trends in general, sexual, and violent recidivism among youth with histories of sex offending.

Recent research suggests that sexual recidivism rates have been declining, which contrasts with observations regarding general recidivism rates as well as perceptions of sexual reoffending risk. If sexual recidivism rates are in decline, it raises fundamental policy questions about the youth justice system's tendency to operate on the assumption that juvenile sexual offending is a risk marker for sexual reoffending in adulthood. A systematic review and a quantitative meta-analysis were conducted to determine the general, violent, and sexual recidivism rates of adolescent perpetrators of sexual offenses with data stemming from studies published worldwide between 1940 and 2019. A total of 158 empirical studies including 30,396 adolescent perpetrators of sexual offenses were retrieved to examine estimates of general, violent, and sexual recidivism. The study findings highlight that the risk of general recidivism (weighted pooled mean = .44) is substantially higher than violent (weighted pooled mean = .18) and sexual recidivism (weighted pooled mean = .08). The study did not observe convincing evidence that sexual recidivism rates for adolescent perpetrators are declining, but rather that these rates have been consistently low over the years. There was strong evidence that multiple study characteristics moderate the recidivism rates observed. Given the low weighted pooled sexual recidivism rate reported in the study, the use of adult-like strategies to increase public safety and prevent sexual recidivism seems misguided, not only because sexual recidivism is unlikely, but also because such strategies are not developed to address general criminogenic needs that may explain general recidivism rates observed.

Facing cyberthreats in a crisis and post-crisis era: Rethinking security services response strategy.

The recent years have witnessed two major events that have deeply impacted cybersecurity threats. First, the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased our dependence upon technology. From individuals to corporations and governments, the overwhelming majority of our activities moved online. As the proportion of human activities performed online is reaching new peaks, cybersecurity becomes a problem of national security. Second, the Russia-Ukraine war is giving us a glimpse of what cyberthreats may look like in future cyberconflicts. From data integrity to identity thievery, and from industrial espionage to hostile manoeuvres from foreign powers, cyberthreats have never been that numerous and diverse. Due to the increase of the magnitude, of the diversity, and of the complexity of cyberthreats, the current security strategies used to face cybercriminality won't be sufficient in the post-crisis era. Therefore, governments need to rethink globally their national security services response strategy. This paper analyses how this new context has impacted cybersecurity for individuals, corporations, and governments, and emphasis the need to reposition the economical identity of the individuals at the center of security response. We propose strategies to optimize law enforcement response from police to counterintelligence, notably through formation, prevention, and interaction with cybercriminality. We then discuss the possibilities to optimize the articulation of the different levels of security response and expertise, by emphasizing the need for coordination between security services, and by proposing strategies to include non-institutional players.

Betting Against the Odds: The Mysterious Case of the Clinical Override in Risk Assessment of Adult Convicted Offenders.

Various tools were designed to guide practitioners in the risk assessment of offenders, including the Level of Service and Case Management Inventory (LS/CMI). This instrument is based on risk assessment principles prioritizing the actuarial approach to clinical judgment. However, the tool's architects allowed subjective judgment from the practitioners-referred to as clinical override-to modify an offender's risk category under certain circumstances. Few studies, however, have examined these circumstances. Therefore, the current study used decision tree analyses among a quasi-population of Quebec offenders (n = 15,744) to identify whether there are offenders more likely to be subjected to this discretion based on their characteristics. The results suggest that, although the override is rare, it occurred under few specific combinations of circumstances. More precisely, these findings propose that the utilization of the clinical override stems from a perceived discrepancy between risk prediction and management.