Family treatment court (FTC) is an example of an increasing number of problemcentered courts currently operating in the United States. Problem-centered courts such as FTC encompass the ideas of therapeutic jurisprudence but operate within the broader court system. Presented are the results of an FTC case study that seeks to understand the evolution of courtroom norms and practice over time. Observations of courtroom interactions and interviews with courtroom personnel show that initial observations are consistent with the ideals of therapeutic jurisprudence. However, over time, daily demands and pressures on the courtroom undermine the therapeutic approach.

In many Western countries, citizen knowledge of terrorist events is intrinsically shaped by the style of broadcasted messages published by the media. Media discourses regarding terrorist acts raise questions about how such rhetoric elicits fear in people who typically experience such events through news reports. However, we do not fully understand the impact of the media on perceptions of terrorism as clearly as we understand the relationship between the media and fear of crime. This study examines how media sources accessed actively (e.g., through newspapers; Internet) or passively (e.g., through television; radio) influence knowledge and fear of terrorism. We find receiving information about terrorism from multiple media sources increases fear of terrorism, but media sources accessed passively are not as influential as media sources accessed more actively. These results highlight how media consumption from various sources may affect one's fear of terrorism, and further illustrates how the role of perceived knowledge may exacerbate or mitigate fear.Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

This article examines the importance of perceptions of police legitimacy in the decision to report hate crime incidents in Australia. It addresses an identified gap in the literature by analysing the 2011-2012 National Security and Preparedness Survey (NSPS) results to not only explore differences between hate crime and non-hate crime reporting but also how individual characteristics and perceptions of legitimacy influence decisions about reporting crime to police. Using the NSPS survey data, we created three Generalised Linear Latent and Mixed Models (Gllamm), which explore the influence of individual characteristics and potential barriers on the decision to report crime/hate crime incidents to police. Our results suggest that hate crimes are less likely to be reported to police in comparison to non-hate crime incidents, and that more positive perceptions of police legitimacy and police cooperation are associated with the victim's decision to report hate crime victimisation.

The collective efficacy literature suggests that neighborhoods with higher collective efficacy have fewer problems of disorder, increased volunteerism, and higher levels of life satisfaction and wellbeing, along with the increased potential for resilience in the face of a disaster.Although perceptions of collective efficacy typically remain stable over time, rapid or sudden social change, such as experiencing a natural disaster, has the potential to disrupt the neighborhood and the individuals within -including their perceptions of the regulatory mechanisms of collective efficacy. Still, the effect of a major disaster on perceptions of collective efficacy remains relatively unexamined. Longitudinal survey data collected before and after the Queensland flood and cyclone disasters permit a unique investigation of the impact of the disaster on perceptions of social control and social cohesion before and after the disaster. Results show that after this major natural disaster, respondents who were proximately affected reported decreased levels of collective efficacy. Also, persons who experienced the biggest decrease in perceived collective efficacy were those that had lower levels of collective efficacy prior to the disaster. We discuss the mechanisms surrounding disaster preparedness, response, and recovery that may contribute to changing perceptions of collective efficacy.

The collective efficacy literature provides a framework to understand how neighbourhood structure influences violence. Existing findings have been based largely on American cities where disadvantage and ethnic segregation are more concentrated. Thus, they are not always representative of other Western cities where structural disadvantage has a different history as well as less variation across neighbourhoods. This paper explores the comparative effect of collective efficacy in Seattle, USA, and Brisbane, Australia. Findings show that collective efficacy is a significant predictor of violent victimisation in both cities. However, in Brisbane, traditional measures of structural disorganisation are less of an influence on victimisation than in Seattle, and that collective efficacy as a neighbourhood process can exist and vary across neighbourhoods without extreme disorganisation.