A methodologically sound systematic review is characterized by transparency, replicability, and a clear inclusion criterion. However, little attention has been paid to reporting the details of interrater reliability (IRR) when multiple coders are used to make decisions at various points in the screening and data extraction stages of a study. Prior research has mentioned the paucity of information on IRR including number of coders involved, at what stages and how IRR tests were conducted, and how disagreements were resolved. This article examines and reflects on the human factors that affect decision-making in systematic reviews via reporting on three IRR tests, conducted at three different points in the screening process, for two distinct reviews. Results of the two studies are discussed in the context of IRR and intrarater reliability in terms of the accuracy, precision, and reliability of coding behavior of multiple coders. Findings indicated that coding behavior changes both between and within individuals over time, emphasizing the importance of conducting regular and systematic IRR and intrarater reliability tests, especially when multiple coders are involved, to ensure consistency and clarity at the screening and coding stages. Implications for good practice while screening/coding for systematic reviews are discussed.
This article is a reflexive analysis of the impact of researcher characteristics such as gender, age, ethnicity and status on doing police research in conflict zones. The reported research explored perceptions of front-line police officers working in left wing extremism-affected areas in India. I suggest five working propositions that emerge from this work . First, power is necessarily negotiated between the interviewer and the interviewee throughout the interview process. Second, while researcher gender and age do influence the research process, it is proposed that status dominates power negotiations in hierarchical organisations. Third, working in conflict zones places many restrictions on the researcher and the research process, which impact research design and outcomes. Fourth, the microgeography of the interview site is relevant to how power negotiations are conducted. Finally, guidelines to resolve ethical dilemmas rarely provide solutions to tricky field research situations.
Recently, against a backdrop of general reductions in acquisitive crime, increases have been observed in the frequency of metal theft offences. This is generally attributed to increases in metal prices in response to global demand exceeding supply. The main objective of this paper was to examine the relationship between the price of copper and levels of copper theft, focusing specifically on copper cable theft from the British railway network. Results indicated a significant positive correlation between lagged increases in copper price and copper cable theft. No support was found for rival hypotheses concerning U.K. unemployment levels and the general popularity of theft as crime type. An ancillary aim was to explore offender modus operandi over time, which is discussed in terms of its implications for preventing copper cable theft. We finish with a discussion of theft of other commodities in pricevolatile markets. Keywords: copper theft; metal theft; price-volatile markets 2 INTRODUCTIONAgainst a backdrop of general reductions in acquisitive crime (see Tseloni et al. in press), metal theft has emerged as one of the fastest growing crime types in the U.K. (Bennett, 2008;Haynes, 2008), with steep increases also being observed in the U.S. (Kooi, in press; Whiteacre at al. 2008). The recurrent explanation is that metals have become attractive targets for theft due to the soaring price of scrap metal. This is generally attributed to global demand for metals exceeding supply. Consequently, it is proposed that price increases have stimulated the creation of illegal markets which provide opportunities to sell stolen metals at financially rewarding prices. Copper in particular has experienced marked price growth and dramatic increases of copper theft have been reported in the U.S. (Kooi, in press) and internationally (Bennett, 2008). Copper is one of the most industrially-used metals and opportunities for copper theft are therefore likely higher than that of other metals (ICSG, 2007). At the time of writing no published research has examined the relationship between metal price and metal theft. This absence likely reflects a lack of (accessible) data on the theft of particular items such as copper-bearing products. Herein, data were made available for the specific problem of copper cable theft from the British railway network. Therefore, in this paper, we concentrate on copper cable theft as the first empirical test of the metal price-theft hypothesis -that increases in the price of copper are associated with increases in the levels of copper cable theft i .Railway networks are characterized as copper-intensive systems. The European Copper Institute estimates that for high-speed train lines around 10 tonnes of copper are required per kilometre of track (ECI, 2008). Copper cabling is typically used for the electrification of trains and for the transmission of signalling information, and can be found in various forms: laid along the trackside -both in operation and occasionally awaiting installation, buried unde...
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