Investigating the heterogeneity of violent crimes: A descriptive analysis of offence characteristics

<p>Informed by theories on offending behaviour, violent offender rehabilitation programmes aim to provide treatment to a group of individuals who have committed a diverse range of offences, from assault to aggravated robbery to murder. Yet despite progress with specific offence types (e.g., homicide, robbery, assault), there is no research describing the offence chain characteristics of such a heterogeneous sample of violent offences. This exploratory study uses the structured approach of the Pathways Model of Assault (PMA; Chambers, 2006) to code and catalogue similarities and differences in the offence characteristics of an archival heterogeneous sample of violent offences. Cluster analysis was also utilised to investigate whether it was possible to construct a parsimonious series of pathways to represent the offence process for this diverse sample. The resultant model, the Pathways Model of Violent Offences (PMVO) was constructed and 12 pathways were revealed. The results suggest that upon initial investigation, there appear to be common, shared characteristics among a heterogeneous sample of violent offences.</p>

Investigating the heterogeneity of violent crimes: A descriptive analysis of offence characteristics

<p>Informed by theories on offending behaviour, violent offender rehabilitation programmes aim to provide treatment to a group of individuals who have committed a diverse range of offences, from assault to aggravated robbery to murder. Yet despite progress with specific offence types (e.g., homicide, robbery, assault), there is no research describing the offence chain characteristics of such a heterogeneous sample of violent offences. This exploratory study uses the structured approach of the Pathways Model of Assault (PMA; Chambers, 2006) to code and catalogue similarities and differences in the offence characteristics of an archival heterogeneous sample of violent offences. Cluster analysis was also utilised to investigate whether it was possible to construct a parsimonious series of pathways to represent the offence process for this diverse sample. The resultant model, the Pathways Model of Violent Offences (PMVO) was constructed and 12 pathways were revealed. The results suggest that upon initial investigation, there appear to be common, shared characteristics among a heterogeneous sample of violent offences.</p>

Development of Violence Across the Lifespan: A Preliminary Model

<p>Violence has serious implications for both the victim and the wider community. The current adult rehabilitation programmes accept violent offenders ranged from 20 years and older. This age range could have serious rehabilitation consequences, as a twenty year olds violence and violence related goals may differ substantially to a 70 year old. For this reason an understanding of the development of violence and violence related goals can aide rehabilitation and punitive policies. A review of recent research highlights there are many methodological and empirical gaps in the development of violence whereby the current research aimed to assuage this issue. The current research used grounded theory to develop a model on the development of violence over the life-course. For this research twelve men currently incarcerated at Rimutaka Prison in a violence rehabilitation unit were interviewed. This method developed two models. The “Influences on violence development” model outlines how environment and personal choices had an impact on the development of violence. The “development of violence” model outlines the increasing severity and frequency of violence over time, and the increasing complexity of violence related goals. This model is nested within the influences on violence development model. Comparing the current models to Loeber et al's (1993) pathways model, and Sampson and Laub's life-course perspective on offending, has found support for both models. Thus this model's theoretical value lies within its ability to draw together other areas of research and provide a holistic understanding of both how and why violence develops. One implication of these models is the understanding of the varying influences of environment on violence, upon both different individuals and different ages. This implies that rehabilitation should perhaps follow a more individual based focus. There are many limitations to the research, the most salient one being lack of saturation in the model and low sample size.</p>

Development of Violence Across the Lifespan: A Preliminary Model

<p>Violence has serious implications for both the victim and the wider community. The current adult rehabilitation programmes accept violent offenders ranged from 20 years and older. This age range could have serious rehabilitation consequences, as a twenty year olds violence and violence related goals may differ substantially to a 70 year old. For this reason an understanding of the development of violence and violence related goals can aide rehabilitation and punitive policies. A review of recent research highlights there are many methodological and empirical gaps in the development of violence whereby the current research aimed to assuage this issue. The current research used grounded theory to develop a model on the development of violence over the life-course. For this research twelve men currently incarcerated at Rimutaka Prison in a violence rehabilitation unit were interviewed. This method developed two models. The “Influences on violence development” model outlines how environment and personal choices had an impact on the development of violence. The “development of violence” model outlines the increasing severity and frequency of violence over time, and the increasing complexity of violence related goals. This model is nested within the influences on violence development model. Comparing the current models to Loeber et al's (1993) pathways model, and Sampson and Laub's life-course perspective on offending, has found support for both models. Thus this model's theoretical value lies within its ability to draw together other areas of research and provide a holistic understanding of both how and why violence develops. One implication of these models is the understanding of the varying influences of environment on violence, upon both different individuals and different ages. This implies that rehabilitation should perhaps follow a more individual based focus. There are many limitations to the research, the most salient one being lack of saturation in the model and low sample size.</p>

Mutational Characterization of Cutaneous Melanoma Supports Divergent Pathways Model for Melanoma Development

According to the divergent pathway model, cutaneous melanoma comprises a nevogenic group with a propensity to melanocyte proliferation and another one associated with cumulative solar damage (CSD). While characterized clinically and epidemiologically, the differences in the molecular profiles between the groups have remained primarily uninvestigated. This study has used a custom gene panel and bioinformatics tools to investigate the potential molecular differences in a thoroughly characterized cohort of 119 melanoma patients belonging to nevogenic and CSD groups. We found that the nevogenic melanomas had a restricted set of mutations, with the prominently mutated gene being BRAF. The CSD melanomas, in contrast, showed mutations in a diverse group of genes that included NF1, ROS1, GNA11, and RAC1. We thus provide evidence that nevogenic and CSD melanomas constitute different biological entities and highlight the need to explore new targeted therapies.