Can the general fraud offence 'get the law right'? Some perspectives on the 'problem' of financial crime

The Fraud Bill, which received Royal Assent on 8 November 2006, created an offence of fraud in English criminal law which marks a departure of utmost significance from the approach adopted hitherto, whereby a number of related offences cover behaviour deemed to amount to fraud. To mark the passage of the Fraud Act 2006 into law, this article examines the references which were made during its consideration in Parliament to fraud as activity which is serious and which is often erroneously portrayed as 'victimless' crime. In joining these key criminal policy-making debates with academic study of white-collar crime, it will be suggested that as yet too little attention is being paid to 'ambiguous' popular perceptions of financial crimes for there to be confidence that the fraud offence will, in the words of the current Solicitor-General, 'get the law right'

Word length distributions in modern Welsh prose texts.

This paper examines the distribution of word lengths in 12 prose texts written in modern Welsh (a P-Celtic language). The texts belong to the genres of new articles and Bible translation. For all texts, the observed frequencies can best be fitted by the 1-displaced Singh-Poisson distribution. This differs from published results on a Q-Celtic language (Scottish Gaelic) and suggests a P-celtic/Q-Celtic difference in word-length distribution. Further work is required to investigate other genres of Welsh as well as the other P- and Q-celtic languages

Density trace made with computer printout

Special drum for a computer-controlled printer improves density trace of scientific data. The drum provides uniformly shaped characters and evenly spaced variations of print density that precisely reflect data magnitude. This device plots temperature profiles, geographic contours, pressure gradients, electric potential gradients, and magnetic field configurations

The Effectiveness in Measuring Character Development Outcomes in Singapore Schools Through the Character Development Award

In 2006, Singapore’s Ministry of Education started recognising schools for their effort in using effective character development programmes in producing holistic students who are both competent in their academic studies and possess good moral character. Although the history of character education in schools started in 1959, it is only in the recent years that formal awards with a set of evaluation criteria are used to recognise schools for their high quality character development programmes. Literature review shows that measuring the effectiveness of character development outcomes is a constant issue among critics of character education to validate the claim. The latest empirical research findings have given a strong indication that the outcomes of character development can be measured as long as the constructs of character are properly defined. The objective of the research is to examine if the current awarding process and criteria used for schools are accurately measuring the character development outcomes of schools. The quantitative research instrument used is the Collective Responsibility for Excellence and Ethics version 2.7 Short designed by Khemelkov and Davidson (2008a). The instrument is designed to capture the inputs and outputs of the key stakeholders of students, teachers and parents in the school community towards character development. A total of 1266 students, 210 staff and 396 parents were involved in the research across five schools with different awards. The findings highlighted the need for a constant review of the evaluation criteria used by awarding body to evaluate schools that are involved in character education. It is also imperative for schools that are involved in character education to have well defined constructs for character. These constructs will determine the outcomes to be measured, and hence, the character development programmes’ effectiveness. Through the findings, the study also made recommendations for policy makers and educators on areas that require careful consideration when implementing character development programmes

Richmond National Battlefield Park

This post is part of a series featuring behind-the-scenes dispatches from our Pohanka Interns on the front lines of history this summer as interpreters, archivists, and preservationists. See here for the introduction to the series. Richmond National Battlefield Park consists of thirteen sites around Richmond that document the battles for control of the Confederate capital. Several of the park sites feature earthworks; at Fort Harrison the earthen wall of the fort towers twenty feet over the ditch below, by the Totopotomoy Creek the earthworks have been eroded to barely a few inches in height. But the most infamous earthworks are on the Cold Harbor battlefield. [excerpt

An account of the making of the Human Rights Amendment Act 2001

In this paper I want to address the relationship between policy and law through a discussion of the 2001 Amendment to the New Zealand Human Rights Act 1993. Discussions of justice often focus on analysis of court decisions or legislation. Legal policy is not often analysed or the process by which legal policy is formed and incorporated into the law. This paper is an attempt to try and fill that gap through a description of the process to enact the 2001 Human Rights Amendment Act. The narrative is based on my experience so it is acknowledged at the outset that others involved in the process may hold different views

Henry Ford vs. assembly line balancing

Ford’s Assembly Line at Highland Park is one of the most influential conceptualizations of a production system. New data reveal Ford’s operations were adaptable to strongly increasing and highly variable demand. These analyses show Ford’s assembly line was used differently than modern ones and their production systems were more flexible than previously recognized. Assembly line balancing theory largely ignores earlier practice. It will be shown that Ford used multiple lines flexibly to cope with large monthly variations in sales. Although a line may be optimized to yield lowest cost production, systems composed of several parallel lines may yield low cost production along with output and product flexibility. Recent research on multiple parallel lines has focussed on cost effectiveness without appreciating the flexibility such systems may allow. Given the current strategic importance of flexibility it should be included in such analyses as an explicit objective

Monro-Kellie 2.0: The dynamic vascular and venous pathophysiological components of intracranial pressure

For 200 years, the ‘closed box’ analogy of intracranial pressure (ICP) has underpinned neurosurgery and neuro-critical care. Cushing conceptualised the Monro-Kellie doctrine stating that a change in blood, brain or CSF volume resulted in reciprocal changes in one or both of the other two. When not possible, attempts to increase a volume further increase ICP. On this doctrine’s “truth or relative untruth” depends many of the critical procedures in the surgery of the central nervous system. However, each volume component may not deserve the equal weighting this static concept implies. The slow production of CSF (0.35 ml/min) is dwarfed by the dynamic blood in and outflow (∼700 ml/min). Neuro-critical care practice focusing on arterial and ICP regulation has been questioned. Failure of venous efferent flow to precisely match arterial afferent flow will yield immediate and dramatic changes in intracranial blood volume and pressure. Interpreting ICP without interrogating its core drivers may be misleading. Multiple clinical conditions and the cerebral effects of altitude and microgravity relate to imbalances in this dynamic rather than ICP per se. This article reviews the Monro-Kellie doctrine, categorises venous outflow limitation conditions, relates physiological mechanisms to clinical conditions and suggests specific management options

An evolutionary perspective on zinc uptake by human fungal pathogens

DW is supported by a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship jointly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society (Grant Number 102549/Z/13/Z).Peer reviewedPublisher PD