As chaos reigns in the Trump White House with the resignation of President Trump’s Chief of Staff, North Korea has for the second time within a month tested a missile that can strike US territory.
Professor Andrew O’Neil
While the July 4 test demonstrated a missile capable of hitting Alaska, reliable reports indicate yesterday’s test affirmed a strike radius that can hit the west coast of the United States.
The significance of this can’t be underestimated.
This latest ICBM test places increasingly intense pressure on the US to carry out decisive action to degrade or destroy Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction.
Senior American military officials, including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Joe Dunford, have been candid in recent weeks about the potential inevitability of military action against North Korea.
If North Korea follows up the latest missile tests with a nuclear test – which is entirely plausible given its past behaviour – the Trump administration will almost certainly have to act with a demonstration of military force.
Anything less will risk damaging Washington’s credibility in the eyes of allies and enemies alike. The acute dilemma for Trump and his advisers is that even a limited military strike against North Korea risks a response that would trigger escalation to all-out war.
But Trump himself may be tempted to risk war with North Korea given the alternative scenario of America’s reputation and credibility taking a major hit.
In his private moments, Trump may also consider military action against North Korea a welcome distraction from the domestic political woes that are slowly but surely consuming his presidency.
Griffith students oozed professional confidence when describing their internship experiences at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC).
The latest group of current students to complete a 12-week full-time internship with the Games organising body presented their reflections at a seminar on Griffith’s Gold Coast campus last week.
Human Resource Management student Georgia Arnold looked confidently to the future on the back of her time as a HR Operations intern. “The internship experience bridged the gap between my studies and the workplace,” she said. “I now have the graduate skills and attributes needed for graduate positions.”
Plan for the future
Rachael Saw, who is studying Human Resource Management and Marketing, echoed her intern colleague’s sentiments. “Before my internship I thought wherever you went, that’s the path you follow. Now I realise it’s so important to have a plan for my future.”
Narayan Neupane, a Master of Information Technology student, described new insights in technology systems and network architecture through his Technology internship with GOLDOC. “With the guidance I gained, I was able to correct the path of my career,” he said.
Accommodation intern, Alison Thorpe, gained a new insight into the event management industry. Her internship required the Entrepreneurship and Event Management student to source and contract accommodation for Games sponsors, media and workforce. “Every week I had a light bulb moment. The internship opened my eyes about how large organisations work,” she said.
See a setback as an opportunity
GOLDOC intern supervisor Mat Rogers congratulated the student group, particularly how they negotiated the challenges faced in a busy work environment. “Overcoming challenges helps you to grow. Setbacks give you a great opportunity for a comeback. Failure is a great teacher. You can regroup, reassess and get moving again,” the former Wallaby and Gold Coast Titan said.
“What I’ve learned from my time at GOLDOC has enhanced every other part of my life.
“Griffith University has done a great job creating the internship program.”
Griffith University’s partnership with Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is continuing to deliver outcomes for students through unique internships with GOLDOC. Students from disciplines including business, sport management, engineering, communications, marketing and information technology have completed or are undertaking meaningful internships with the potential to generate career opportunities. The internship initiative is an integral part of the partnership which also incorporates sporting and academic scholarships, staff secondments and research opportunities.
Three further cohorts of current Griffith students will complete GC2018 Games Internships, worth 40 credit points, between now and the end of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. The final group, starting on January 22, will be involved for the duration of the Games.
Are you part of the next generation of game-changing, responsible business leaders?
Griffith Business School, in partnership with The Courier Mail’s Queensland Business Monthly, is today launching the QBM Griffith MBA Responsible Leadership scholarships.
Aligning with the program’s core values of sustainable business practices, responsible leadership and an Asia-Pacific perspective, it awards the winner a full Griffith MBA scholarship valued at approximately $51,000.
Entrants are encouraged to demonstrate that they measure success in sense, rather than dollars.
“We look for someone who can clearly articulate how the scholarship will enable them to influence the organisations where they work for the better, and thus their communities too,” said Griffith MBA Director, Associate Professor Chris Fleming.
Griffith MBA Director Chris Fleming
“Last year, our first year of running this scholarship, we had an amazing array of outstanding candidates – it made our job very hard!”
Assoc Prof Fleming added that he hoped the scholarship would provide the opportunity for someone to undertake an MBA, who otherwise might have missed out.
“The number of students whose employer will pay for this is decreasing.
“It’s great that, in partnership with Queensland Business Monthly, we can help one thought leader on this path.”
Natalie Gregg, Queensland Business Monthly’s editor, said a significant number of their readers are senior corporates whose careers havebeen accelerated after completing an MBA.
“As such, QBM is delighted to partner with Griffith Business School’s Responsible Leadership MBA program, which is creatingQueensland’s future generations of business leaders.
“The partnership is natural fit for QBM because the magazine features the movers and shakers and rising stars in Queensland’s business sector.
“This scholarship program will undoubtedly enhance the quality and strength of the state’s business sector into the future and we are pleased to be able to play our part in contributing to that narrative.”
Architect James Pearce was the inaugural winner of the QBM Griffith MBA Responsible Leadership scholarship.
“Completing the MBA had been in the back of my mind for a while,” he told Griffith News last year.
“I was looking for the next evolution in my career. The knowledge I would gain from an MBA seemed to sit perfectly with where I was looking to head.”
The scholarship selection process runs over three stages.
Following the initial competition entry, short-listed applicants will be required to attend a master class on the Griffith MBA core values. This will provide the content to assist applicants in writing a reflective essay.
Finalists will then be chosen by a panel of judges to submit a video pitch before the winner is announced in the October edition of QBM and celebrated at the GBS Gala Dinner on November 3.
A runner up will receive a Griffith MBA half scholarship, and four other finalists receive a scholarship to the value of one Griffith MBA course.
“The Griffith MBA aims to develop globally responsible leaders who are future-focused,” said Professor David Grant, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business).
“The program equips them with the skills, knowledge and attributes necessary to meet the challenges of the dynamic business environment in which they and their organisations operate, while being mindful of the environment around them.
“This scholarship offers a fantastic career development opportunity to someone from the next generation of business leaders.”
You can find out more about the QBM Griffith MBA Responsible Leadership scholarshipshere.
A Griffith University research team are finalists in the 2017 Australian MuseumEurekaPrizes for their work aimed at improving Great Barrier Reef water quality.
As finalists in theNSW Office of Environment and HeritageEurekaPrizefor Environmental Research category, the team will attend the Award Dinner in Sydney in late August.
Along with climate change, poor water quality from catchment runoff is a key threat to the Great Barrier Reef.
Associate Professor Brooks said catchment models had been central to focusing management efforts but models were only as good as the data they were built on.
Griffith undertook a comprehensive research program, funded through the Australian Government’s Reef Rescue program, within the Normanby Basin in Cape York, the fourth largest catchment draining to the Reef.
The program set out to build a catchment model from the ground up, including understanding the fate of sediment from the catchment right to the reef lagoon.
Associate Professor Brooks said this was the first example of such a model being built for a Great Barrier Reef catchment.
The study combined a range of innovative field and remote sensing techniques to quantify sediment sources and sinks across this 24,500 square kilometre catchment. The catchment is slightly smaller than Belgium and much of it is only accessible by helicopter.
“Our research in Cape York using multiple lines of field and remote sensing evidence completely changed our understanding of where the sediment was coming from,” he said.
“We now know that aggregations of gully erosion — or gully hotspots – concentrated in a few per cent of a catchment’s land area, can be the source of 40% of its sediment output.”
“Now we can much more effectively target our rehabilitation resources and get on with the urgent task of improving Reef water quality.
“Consequently our understanding of how management actions need to be targeted has also been completely reversed. Our research also showed how such gullies can be remediated, and what is required in terms of resources and effort to achieve the required sediment and nutrient reduction targets for the Great Barrier Reef.”
For more on Associate Professor Brook’s important research, watch his remarkable story here.
The inaugural Aon Women’s University Sevens Series (Aon Uni 7s) was officially launched at Macquarie University in Sydney today (Thursday), hailing the evolution of Women’s Rugby Sevens in Australia with the five-week tournament to kick off onAugust 25.
Off the back of Australia’s gold medal success at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, women and young girls have been flocking to Rugby Sevens right across the country to join one of the fastest growing women’s sports worldwide.
Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver and members of Australia’s gold medal winning side, alongside the next generation of Aussie Sevens players launched the competition with their respective University teams in Sydney today.
The Australian Women’s Sevens squad has been distributed among the eight teams, alongside the next generation of rugby talent who are embracing the possibility of realising their Olympic dream.
A first for Australian sport
In an Australian sporting first, the squads themselves will be made up of these Aussie 7s representatives, complemented with elite rugby players from each region and elite sporting students from each respective university.
Members of Australia’s Gold Medal winning Commonwealth Youth Games side from the weekend will also be plying their trade in the competition as the next Generation of stars put their hands up for professional contracts with the Australian Sevens Squad.
The eight-team competition kicks off onFriday, 25 August,and includes Griffith University, Macquarie University, University of Queensland, Bond University, University of Canberra, University of New England, University of Tasmania and the University of Adelaide.
The tournament will be played over five weeks along the east coast from August until September with the ARU looking to expand the number of rounds and teams involved for future tournaments.
Games to be streamed live
Fans will also be able to watch all the Rugby Sevens action LIVE onrugby.com.auwith every match to be streamed throughrugby.com.au’s platforms, to see who is crowned the inaugural Aon Uni 7s champion.
Rounds two, three and four of the tournament will also link up with the National Rugby Championship with Macquarie University hosting the Western Sydney Rams in the Sydney derby onSunday, 10 September, at 3pm AEST, Brisbane City playing the Canberra Vikings onSunday, 17 September, at 1pm AESTand Queensland Country taking on Melbourne Rising at Bond University at3pm AESTonSaturday, 30 September.
Lauren Brown, Shannon Parry and Taylor-Adeline Mapusua who will line out for Griffith University in the Women’s Aon Uni 7s Series.
ARU CEO, Bill Pulver said: “Today begins a new era of Women’s Rugby Sevens with the launch of the Aon Women’s University Sevens Series.
“This competition will provide fantastic content for Rugby fans, old and new, as well as creating a clear pathway for elite talent to compete in Rugby Sevens on a national stage and earn a potential professional contract in the Australian Women’s Sevens team.
“Following on from Australia’s gold medal success, our challenge has been to create opportunities for young girls and women to play our game and this competition, which we hope to expand in the coming years, goes a long way in doing that.
“The players taking part from the various universities in coming years could form part of the Australian team to represent our country at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and that is an exciting prospect for players and fans alike.
Captivating the sporting public
“The partnership Australian Rugby has established with Australian University Sport is unique and a first for Australian sport and we look forward to expanding this relationship as the competition grows in the coming years.”
Aon Risk Solutions Australia CEO, Lambros Lambrou said: “The launch of the Aon University 7s Series is part of our ongoing commitment to drive both diversity and an inclusive culture that empowers women to achieve their goals on and off the rugby pitch.
“We’re excited to be part of a growing movement that champions clear pathways for both women and younger girls to develop and nurture their passion for rugby.
“With this in mind, we hope this competition will further captivate the sporting public in Australia and bring the next generation of rising stars to the fore.”
Australian University Sport CEO Don Knapp said: “The Series is part of a nationwide shift to create elite sporting pathways for female student-athletes.
“This program is a great example of multiple partners working together to achieve shared, organisational aims; the pathway this program creates for elite female athletes in rugby 7s is indeed exciting.”
2017 Aon Women’s University Sevens Series Draw
Round 1,Friday 25 August-Saturday 26 August, University of Tasmania Stadium, Launceston
Round 2,Saturday 9 September-Sunday 10 September, Macquarie University Sporting Fields, Sydney
Round 3,Saturday 16 September-Sunday 17 September, University of Queensland Fields, Brisbane
Round 4,Friday 29 September-Saturday 30 September, Bond University Rugby Field, Gold Coast
By Tonya Evara, marketing student at Griffith Business School
So, you’ve graduated. Congratulations! You’ve just returned fromyour solo Contiki trip around Europe and you’re wondering: now what? Perhaps thehangover has worn off and you’ve been scouringSeekfor months, living off Mi Goreng noodles? Or maybe you’re in the final few semesters of universityand prayingfor the light at the end of the tunnel?
Well, I’ve got both good and bad news for you. The good news is: Generation Y is the most educated generation in Australian history. According to theAustralian Bureau of Statistics(ABS), in 1976 only 5% of young adults had a bachelor degree or higher qualification compared to more than a quarter (26%) in 2011.
The bad news: all of these gradates means you’ll be graduating into a highly competitive job market. A report from Graduate Careers Australiain 2015 shows that 68.8% of recent grads were able to secure a full-time job within four months of graduating.
Keeping up with Australia’s changing workforce
So what else is contributing to this change in Australia’s labor force? A primary factor is the evolution of the Australian economy over the last threedecades.Take the manufacturing and construction industries for example:once the bread and butter of the Australian job market, these industries haverecently lost more thanone million jobs.In comparison, new jobs are being created at a rapid rate: primarilyin service industries such asknowledge, health and community services. This can be partly attributed to Australia’s ageing population.
Globalisation, innovation and automation has not only changed the types of jobs we have and what industries we work in. It’s also changedhowwe work. Generation Y will likely change careers up tofive timesin a lifetime. This is a stark change fromour parents and grandparents who likely chose one career path and stuck to it.
Work skills shuffle: What do employers want?
The disruption in the changing workforce has prompted researchers to try and understand the impact it has on employers’ expectations for candidates. Studies fromGriffith Business Schooland theFoundation for Young Australians(FYA)havecollected and analysedonline job advertisements to uncover what employers want. There were two significant themes that emerged out of the research:
Soft(enterprise/business related)skills take precedence over hard skills(technical knowledge andqualifications)when recruiting new candidates.
Many graduates in Australia are lacking these soft skills, or are unable to demonstrate them effectively.
Soft skills arepersonality-drivenqualitiesthat relate to your attitudes and abilities. These include things like: creativity, communication skills, problem solving, time management and critical thinking.
The soft skills employers want. Image by Tonya Evara (author).
Soft skills are not easily taught, and you can’t just rely on your degree todemonstrate them to future employers. So what’s a grad to do?Follow these tips to boost your soft skills and help you land that job after graduation:
Get to work:Employers are much more likely to hire applicants whohave previous work experience, especially full-time work. Work placements and summer internships arealso a great alternative. Most universities have Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) programs built into their curricula. These programs are an excellent way to further professional developmentin a working world environment.The key to this is havingrelevantwork experience, sotry and ditch the casualgig at McDonald’s if you can. Next semester, instead of a throwawayelective, enroll in an internship.
Extracurriculars:If you don’t have much previous work history, extracurricular activities can be a great way to beef up a resume and show some personality. Take advantages of the many associations, clubsand societies you have available at university; sign up and get involved. There’s something for everyone – from volunteering at a local animal shelterto joining a weightlifting club (I may be a bit biased with this one).These show your potential employer that you’re a well-rounded human being,and can help demonstrate initiative, positive attitude and organisational skills.
Market yourself:Some might considerLinkedInto bethe equivalent of an awkward networking event. It’s a little weird, a little confusing and you’d probably prefer to be at home in your pyjamasscrolling through Instagram. However,employers say that a well thought out and established profile can work wonders for a candidate to stand out from the pack. Use it to keep in touch with past employers who can endorse your professional skills, which in turn helps you make new connections. Unlikeyour Snapchat storyit may actually get you a job; a recent study byJobvitesays over 93% of hiring managers’ use it to recruit and screen new staff.
Write, edit, and write some more:I know what you’re thinking: surely allthat academic writing over the last few years of university should be enough to showcase yourwriting talents right? Wrong. Considerstarting a professional blog. Thisestablishes an online presence – something for recruiters and employers to check out that isn’t your resume or LinkedIn. It also humanises you and shows that you’reawake and interested (and maybe even articulate). The biggest benefit is theeffect it will have on your creative writing and ability to express yourself. Get those creative juices flowing!
Presentation:Good presentation is everything. And I’m not just talking about your haircut.Employers say that many candidates lackthe ability to design and pitch a good presentation -an important skill used in almost every profession. Usefree websites likeCanvaorDesign Boldthat make it simple to create professional graphics. Or, become a design specialist by completing ashort courseonline. Once you’ve got the visuals, you have to sell it with your verbal communication. Joining a public speaking group likeToastmasterscan be a great wayto become a more confident and persuasive speaker. Or, just practise with a family member or friend whoyou trust not to laugh too much. You only have one shot at a first impression, so learn how to make yours count.
By following these tips you’ll cultivate and develop your soft skills while you study – soyou can hit the ground running after graduation. Don’t wait, start now and start your career.
If you’re a student, recent graduate,recruiter oremployer – I want to hear from you! You can email me on [email protected]. Also, if fitness and nutrition is your thing, follow me onInstagram@dreadliftz.
Queensland Biotechnology startup, Vaxxas has formed a new partnership with Queensland Micro and Nanotechnology Centre (QMNC) at Griffith University to help boost nanotechnology commercialisation.
Vaxxas hold patents over one of the world most exciting biotechnology products, theNanopatchâ„¢, which is a safer, more reliable and durable delivery system for vaccines than needles. QMNC is one of Queensland’s most advanced laboratories, previously focussing on new technologies in energy storage and distribution.
The agreement with Griffith sees a Vaxxas micro-manufacturing specialist employed full-time within the manufacturing laboratory at the Nathan campus, building precision-machined parts and equipment for Vaxxas.
The exchange of resources, rather than money, is not new within the industry, though at a University it usually involves research, rather than technical expertise.
The deal was brokered by the University’s commercialisation office, Griffith Enterprise and is part of a broader advanced manufacturing drive Griffith has been developing over the last five years.
Director of QMNC, Professor Nam-Trung Nguyen, has welcomed the agreement.
“We have been working with Vaxxas since 2013, so this agreement is largely about formalising an aspect of our relationship,” Professor Nguyen said.
“QMNC is committed to maximising the value to society of our research by getting it into the market as quickly and efficiently as possible, with as close to a complete solution as science can offer.
“Vaxxas is an important Queensland startup that is looking to take a technology concept from the laboratory to a commercial product on the global market. Being able to support this endeavour and potentially collaborate on research and development activities will be an enormous help for QMNC and Griffith to achieve its ambitions,” he said.
The Nanopatchâ„¢ is a vaccine delivery technology consisting of thousands of vaccine-coated microprojections that perforate the outer layers of the skin. The tips of microprojections are coated with a vaccine material that releases directly to the key immune cells immediately below the skin surface.
Results in model systems have demonstrated that delivery of vaccine to the skin by the Nanopatchâ„¢ can result in increased effectiveness of immune response, which may reduce the dose required. Vaxxas recently completed a successful first-in-human vaccination study.
QMNC has a track record of excellence in the design and manufacturing of microelectronics in energy storage and distribution. This agreement enables them to acquire expertise in the high growth area of manufacturing of health technologies.
The agreement between Griffith and Vaxxas is ongoing and could build greater partnerships in the future.
Australiamust do more to stop child trafficking in developing nations says Kate van Doore, leading international child rights lawyer and Griffith Law School academic.
Ms van Doore, who will give evidence at the Parliamentary Inquiry into Establishing a Modern Slavery Act in Australia in Melbourne next week, has been working to abolish orphanage tourism and funding which she says encourages child exploitation.
“Many Australians visit orphanages in developing countries like Cambodia where many children are not orphans at all. In fact it enables form of modern slavery where children are kept in poor conditions in orphanages to profit from well-meaning donors and volunteers,’’ she said.
Ms van Doore coined the term ‘paper orphaning’ as the active recruitment of children into orphanages or residential care institutions in developing nations for the purpose of ongoing exploitation through orphanage tourism and funding.
Orphanage tourism includes volunteering at, or visiting, orphanages in developing countries. This is an increasingly popular tourist attraction for many Australians visiting Indonesia, Cambodia, Nepal and Uganda, as well as many other developing nations.
There are between two and eight million children living in institutions globally and it estimated that 80 per cent of these children have one or both biological parents they could live with if supported.
“The business of orphanages has become very lucrative in the past decade, particularly because of the demand of people from countries like Australia wanting to help and volunteer with orphans.
“Orphanage tourism and funding creates a demand for children to be available in orphanages to volunteer with, which ultimately drives recruiters to traffick children into orphanages,’’ Ms van Doore said.
Ms van Doore has called for recognition that current aid structures and volunteers from Australia encourage child trafficking and that Australian aid funding should not be utilised to support orphanages.
“Aid funding should focus on family preservation and community-based services instead,’’ she said.
“We no longer have orphanages in Australia for very good reasons, as we’ve seen in the recent Royal Commission.
“Australian businesses and NGOs should not support orphanages in developing nations and recognise the impact on the trafficking of children internationally.”
Ms van Doore will join spokespeople from Save the Children, ReThink Orphanages, Forget Me Not, Cambodian Children’s Trust, ACCI and Lumos speaking on this issue at the Inquiry on Wednesday, August 2 at the Victorian Parliament from 12.30pm.
Ms van Doore is a co-founder of Forget Me Not Australia, an international nongovernmental organisation focused on child protection and family reunification for children residing outside of parental care, a member of the Better Volunteering, Better Care Global Working Group and a founding member of ReThink Orphanages.
One of Australia’s foremost researchers into Parkinson’s disease, Professor George Mellick from the Griffith Institute for Drug Discovery (GRIDD), returns home to North Queensland next week to encourage locals into future scientific study.
And it should come as no surprise that the former Mareeba boy will reinforce a strong belief that many jobs in the future will require employees to have related skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), during the inaugural ‘Future-proof your career, The Griffith STEM Roadshow’ in Cairns.
“I love Cairns and the Tablelands. It is always home to me, and I want our current crop of FNQ school leavers to have every opportunity to be the thought leaders and problem solvers of the future, confirmed Professor Mellick.
“A degree in STEM is a great start to an innovative career. We have the world’s best research and some of Australia’s top university teachers at Griffith University. It’s great to bring this to the attention of people in the North.”
As head of the Queensland Parkinson’s Project, Professor Mellick has been tireless in his pursuit of a cure for a disease that affects more than 80,000 Australians at a cost of more than $10 billion annually.
His research team relies heavily on gaining blood and tissue samples from a register of more than 4,000 participants living with the disease, in order to extract DNA for the insightful and ongoing study of genetics.
The project’s Bio Bank stores, combined with the resources of GRIDD’s Neuro Bank and NatureBank are pivotal towards a potential cure for Parkinson’s.
As the Deputy Director of GRIDD and a key member of Griffith University’s teaching staff, Professor Mellick understands the value of having such assets and facilities available, to further enhance the overall learning of future students.
“It’s wonderful that my research is using the NatureBank samples derived from Queensland’s unique biodiversity (much from the rainforest and reef in FNQ) to discover new medicines that can help us understand Parkinson’s,” added Professor Mellick.
“I’m also delighted that our Queensland Parkinson’s Project has enrolled many participants from the Cairns region and the Tablelands — this is a great connection between my current work and where I was born and bred.”
During ‘Future-proof your career, The Griffith STEM Roadshow’, research and teaching staff of Griffith University will be available to discuss the multitude of degree program study options available, and highlight some of the many achievements and milestones of Griffith Science students. Following the Cairns event to be held at Rydges Esplanade Resort on Wednesday 1 August, the STEM Roadshow will make its way to The Travelodge, Rockhampton on Wednesday 16 August before travelling to Mackay’s Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday 17 August.
The Roadshow is a free event running from 5pm and people must pre-register online at https://www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-sciences/outreach/sciences-roadshow
New undergraduate degree programs at Griffith Sciences in 2018
Bachelor of Computer Science
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), majoring in Electronics and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles engineering
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), majoring in Civil and Architectural engineering
Bachelor of Engineering Technology in Electronic and Computer Engineering
New undergraduate double degrees
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)/ Bachelor of Computer Science
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) majoring in Mechanical Engineering/ Bachelor of Industrial Design
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)/ Bachelor of Aviation
Bachelor of Environmental Sciences/ Bachelor of Business
People are more worried about being attacked in places they think lack a sense of community rather those perceived as having high levels of social cohesion, a Griffith University study has found.
The pilot study published online inApplied Geography, led by PhD candidate Michael Chataway from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, used mobile technology to measure people’s fear of crime in their immediate environments.
Tertiary students living at the Gold Coast were surveyed over three months, using a smartphone app within 10 distinct locations.
The app used GPS sensors built into participants’ smartphones to trigger a series of surveys on perceptions of crime, based on movements within local areas.
The participants were surveyed in relation to three perceptual indicators of personal victimisation: being attacked in an area, being robbed or mugged and being harassed or threatened.​​
Researchers found participants were less worried about personal crime in areas where they thought people in and around the immediate area would intervene if a crime were to occur, than in areas characterised by high amounts of graffiti, vandalism and open drug taking.
“Contrary to accepted notions of crime fear, these results suggest that indicators of incivility do not appear to significantly influence worry about different types of personal crime as much as perceptions of social cohesion,’’ Mr Chataway said.
“Perceptions of crime have an important influence on policy decisions in relation to community safety and law enforcement strategies that are used to prevent crime and fear.”
“For example, place-based information collected from residents about their perceptions of crime can provide critical information about the state of crime fear within communities and provide more opportunities for managing it more effectively.”
But he said despite recent advancements in geographic technologies, there has been little improvement in the way fear of crime is measured among individuals’ movements within the physical environment.
“This is one of few studies to use mobile technology to gather data on fear of crime and risk perception.”
Mr. Chataway said the study showed that mobile technology could help criminologists develop more targeted interventions to reduce the prevalence of fear and crime –as well as better understand how fear of crime and risk perception may be affected by physical and social characteristics of a particular place or location.
“Criminologists should move away from traditional measures of fear of crime collected using paper-pencil surveys to establish a better insight into the spatial and temporal factors that may affect fear of crime.”
