Barak Ariel

Bio: Barak Ariel is an academic researcher from University of Cambridge. The author has contributed to research in topics: Poison control & Harm. The author has an hindex of 27, co-authored 86 publications receiving 2624 citations. Previous affiliations of Barak Ariel include University of Electronic Science and Technology of China & Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract: Police use-of-force continues to be a major source of international concern, inviting interest from academics and practitioners alike Whether justified or unnecessary/excessive, the exercise of power by the police can potentially tarnish their relationship with the community Police misconduct can translate into complaints against the police, which carry large economic and social costs The question we try to answer is: do body-worn-cameras reduce the prevalence of use-of-force and/or citizens’ complaints against the police? We empirically tested the use of body-worn-cameras by measuring the effect of videotaping police–public encounters on incidents of police use-of-force and complaints, in randomized-controlled settings Over 12 months, we randomly-assigned officers to “experimental-shifts” during which they were equipped with body-worn HD cameras that recorded all contacts with the public and to “control-shifts” without the cameras (n = 988) We nominally defined use-of-force, both unnecessary/excessive and reasonable, as a non-desirable response in police–public encounters We estimate the causal effect of the use of body-worn-videos on the two outcome variables using both between-group differences using a Poisson regression model as well as before-after estimates using interrupted time-series analyses We found that the likelihood of force being used in control conditions were roughly twice those in experimental conditions Similarly, a pre/post analysis of use-of-force and complaints data also support this result: the number of complaints filed against officers dropped from 07 complaints per 1,000 contacts to 007 per 1,000 contacts We discuss the findings in terms of theory, research methods, policy and future avenues of research on body-worn-videos

Wearing body cameras increases assaults against officers and does not reduce police use of force: Results from a global multi-site experiment:

Abstract: This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Sage via https://doi.org/10.1177/1477370816643734.

Restorative Justice Conferencing (RJC) Using Face‐to‐Face Meetings of Offenders and Victims: Effects on Offender Recidivism and Victim Satisfaction. A Systematic Review

Abstract: This Campbell systematic review examines the effectiveness of face‐to‐face restorative justice conferences (‘RJCs’) on repeat offending and victim satisfaction. The systematic review includes 10 studies. The average effect of the ten studies indicated that face‐to‐face RJCs resulted in offenders committing significantly less crime than their counterparts randomly assigned to standard criminal justice alone. The effect of RJCs on violent crime is larger than its effects on property crime. For victims, again comparing those whose cases were assigned to RJCs with those assigned to standard criminal justice, those taking part in face‐to‐face RJCs express higher levels of satisfaction with the handling of their cases, are more likely to receive an apology from offenders and rate these apologies as sincere, be less inclined to want to seek revenge, and suffer less from post traumatic stress symptoms. Synopsis/Abstract OBJECTIVE This systematic review examines the effects of the subset of restorative justice programs that has been tested most extensively: a face‐to‐face Restorative Justice Conference (RJC) “that brings together offenders, their victims, and their respective kin and communities, in order to decide what the offender should do to repair the harm that a crime has caused” (Sherman and Strang, 2012: 216). The Review investigates the effects of RJCs on offenders' subsequent convictions (or in one case arrests) for crime, and on several measures of victim impact. The review considers only randomized controlled trials in which victim and offenders consented to meet prior to random assignment, the analysis of which was based on the results of an “intention‐to‐treat” analysis. A total of ten experiments with recidivism outcomes were found that met the eligibility criteria, all of which also had at least one victim impact measure. CONCLUSIONS Our synthesis of these experiments shows that, on average, RJCs cause a modest but highly cost‐effective reduction in repeat offending, with substantial benefits for victims. A cost‐effectiveness estimate for the seven United Kingdom (UK) experiments found a ratio of 8 times more benefit in costs of crimes prevented than the cost of delivering RJCs. Executive Summary BACKGROUND “Restorative justice” is a concept denoting a wide range of justice practices with common values, but widely varying procedures (Braithwaite, 2002). These values encourage offenders to take responsibility for their actions and to repair the harms they have caused, usually (although not always) in communication with their personal victims. This review focuses on the subset of restorative justice procedures that has been tested most carefully and extensively: face‐to‐face restorative justice conferencing (RJC). In these conferences, victims and offenders involved in a crime meet in the presence of a trained facilitator with their families and friends or others affected by the crime, to discuss and resolve the offense and its consequences. OBJECTIVES The reviewers sought to assess the effect of face‐to‐face restorative justice conferencing on repeat offending and on available measures of victim impact. SEARCH STRATEGY To identify studies eligible for inclusion in the review, 15 electronic databases were searched, including: Criminal Justice Abstracts, Dissertation Abstracts, NCJRS, PsychInfo, and Sociological Abstracts. Reviews of the effects of restorative justice on repeat offending and victims' satisfaction with the handling of their cases were examined for references. Experts in the field were contacted. SELECTION CRITERIA The review includes only studies that employed a randomized design to test the effects of conferencing between at least one personal victim and one or more of their offenders on repeat offending or on victim impact, with the random assignment following both offenders' and victims' consent to participate in an RJC if selected to do so. Ten eligible studies on three continents were identified, with a total of 1,879 offenders and 734 interviewed victims. The training for the RJC facilitators was provided by the same trainer in all ten trials, but that was not a criterion for selection. Cases were referred to the eligible experiments at various stages of the criminal justice process, including diversion from prosecution, post‐conviction RCJs prior to sentencing, and post‐sentencing RJCs in prison and probation. The eligible tests included both violent and property crime, as well as youth and adult crime, with RJCs offered as an alternative or as a supplement to prosecution in court. These variations provide a basis for moderator analyses as well as main effects on subsequent convictions (or in one case, arrests). DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS The reviewers report the results of the ten eligible experiments identified. These experiments all reported post treatment data only of repeat crime measures at two years after random assignment (the only measurement period of offending common to the ten eligible trials). Measures for victim impact were also post‐treatment, as measured by personal interviews with subsets of all victims who consented to random assignment. All data analyses included in this review examined the effects of Intention‐To‐Treat (ITT), with wide variations in the percentage of both RJC and control cases receiving treatment as assigned. Many offenders assigned to prosecution, for example, failed to appear in court, just as many offenders assigned to an RJC failed to complete one. The analysis employs the ITT method to provide estimates of effectiveness under real‐world conditions, at the expense of likely under‐estimates of the efficacy of RJCs when actually delivered. All studies reported effects on individual offenders and victims, while in all cases random assignment was done at the case level. In most trials the ratio of cases to offenders or victims was 1:1, while in others (the two Canberra experiments) that ratio ranged up to 1:1.25. RESULTS The evidence of a relationship between conferencing and subsequent convictions or arrests over two years post‐random assignment is clear and compelling, with nine out of 10 results in the predicted direction and a standardized mean difference for the ten experiments combined (Cohen's d = ‐.155; p = .001). The impact of RJCs on 2‐year convictions was reported to be cost‐effective in the 7 UK experiments, with up to 14 times as much benefit in costs of the crimes prevented (in London), and 8 times overall, as the cost of delivering RJCs. The effect of conferencing on victims' satisfaction with the handling of their cases is uniformly positive (d = .327; p

Deterrence and moral persuasion effects on corporate tax compliance: findings from a randomized controlled trial*

Abstract: Previous studies on tax compliance have focused primarily on the tax-reporting behavior of individuals. This study reports results from a randomized field test of the effects of deterrence and moral persuasion on the tax-reporting behavior of 4,395 corporations in Israel. Two experimental groups received tax letters, one conveying a deterrent message and the other a moral persuasion message. Three types of measures are used to evaluate compliance based on the magnitude of the difference-in-differences of means in 1) gross sales values reported to the authority, 2) tax dollars paid to the authority, and 3) tax deductions. Overall, both deterrence and moral persuasion approaches do not produce statistically significant greater compliance compared with control conditions. These results do not support the ability of a policy of sending tax letters to increase substantively the reporting of true tax liability or tax payments by corporations. However, these results also show that moral persuasion can be counterproductive: Corporations in this experimental group show an increase rather than a decrease in tax deductions, which translates into loss of state revenues. The implications for theory, research, and tax policy are discussed.

“Contagious Accountability”: A Global Multisite Randomized Controlled Trial on the Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police

Abstract: The use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by the police is rising. One proposed effect of BWCs is reducing complaints against police, which assumes that BWCs reduce officer noncompliance with procedures,...

Thinking fast and slow.

Abstract: In 1974 an article appeared in Science magazine with the dry-sounding title “Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases” by a pair of psychologists who were not well known outside their discipline of decision theory. In it Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman introduced the world to Prospect Theory, which mapped out how humans actually behave when faced with decisions about gains and losses, in contrast to how economists assumed that people behave. Prospect Theory turned Economics on its head by demonstrating through a series of ingenious experiments that people are much more concerned with losses than they are with gains, and that framing a choice from one perspective or the other will result in decisions that are exactly the opposite of each other, even if the outcomes are monetarily the same. Prospect Theory led cognitive psychology in a new direction that began to uncover other human biases in thinking that are probably not learned but are part of our brain’s wiring.

What About Us

Abstract: Established in 2006, TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited operates as the nodal point for Tata businesses in West Africa. TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited has a strong presence in Nigeria with investments exceeding USD 10 million. The company was established in Lagos, Nigeria as a subsidiary of TATA Africa Holdings (SA) (Pty) Limited, South Africa and serves as the hub of Tata’s operations in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.

Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Abstract: NUDGE: IMPROVING DECISIONS ABOUT HEALTH, WEALTH, AND HAPPINESS by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Penguin Books, 2009, 312 pp, ISBN 978-0-14-311526-7This book is best described formally as a general explanation of and advocacy for libertarian paternalism, a term coined by the authors in earlier publications. Informally, it is about how leaders, systems, organizations, and governments can nudge people to do the things the nudgers want and need done for the betterment of the nudgees, or of society. It is paternalism in the sense that "it is legitimate for choice architects to try to influence people's behavior in order to make their lives longer, healthier, and better", (p. 5) It is libertarian in that "people should be free to do what they like - and to opt out of undesirable arrangements if they want to do so", (p. 5) The built-in possibility of opting out or making a different choice preserves freedom of choice even though people's behavior has been influenced by the nature of the presentation of the information or by the structure of the decisionmaking system. I had never heard of libertarian paternalism before reading this book, and I now find it fascinating.Written for a general audience, this book contains mostly social and behavioral science theory and models, but there is considerable discussion of structure and process that has roots in mathematical and quantitative modeling. One of the main applications of this social system is economic choice in investing, selecting and purchasing products and services, systems of taxes, banking (mortgages, borrowing, savings), and retirement systems. Other quantitative social choice systems discussed include environmental effects, health care plans, gambling, and organ donations. Softer issues that are also subject to a nudge-based approach are marriage, education, eating, drinking, smoking, influence, spread of information, and politics. There is something in this book for everyone.The basis for this libertarian paternalism concept is in the social theory called "science of choice", the study of the design and implementation of influence systems on various kinds of people. The terms Econs and Humans, are used to refer to people with either considerable or little rational decision-making talent, respectively. The various libertarian paternalism concepts and systems presented are tested and compared in light of these two types of people. Two foundational issues that this book has in common with another book, Network of Echoes: Imitation, Innovation and Invisible Leaders, that was also reviewed for this issue of the Journal are that 1 ) there are two modes of thinking (or components of the brain) - an automatic (intuitive) process and a reflective (rational) process and 2) the need for conformity and the desire for imitation are powerful forces in human behavior. …

Experimental And Quasi Experimental Designs For Research

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