Matthew Manning
@cityu.edu.hk
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences
City University of Hong Kong
RESEARCH INTERESTS
criminology; crime science; economic analysis; money laundering; future crime; fraud
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Gabriel Wong, Matthew Manning, T. Wing Lo, and Shane D. Johnson
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
We use bootstrap data envelopment analysis, adjusting for endogeneity, to examine police efficiency in detecting crime in Hong Kong. We address the following: (i) is there a correlation between the detection of crime and triad influence? (ii) does the level of triad influence affect the efficiency in translating inputs (police strength) into outputs (crime detection)? and (iii) how can the allocation of policing resources be adjusted to improve crime detection? We find that nighty-eight percent of Hong Kong police districts in our sample were found to be inefficient in the detection of crime. Variation was found across districts regarding the detection of violent, property and other crimes. Most inefficiencies and potential improvements in the detection of crime were found in the categories violent and other crimes. We demonstrate how less efficient police districts can modify police resourcing decisions to better detect certain crime types while maintaining current levels of resourcing. Finally, we highlight how the method we outline improves efficiency estimation by adjusting for endogeneity and measuring the conditional efficiency of each district (i.e. the efficiency of crime detection taking the instrumental variables (e.g. influence of triads) into consideration). The use of frontier models to assist in evaluating policing performance can lead to improved efficiency, transparency, and accountability in law enforcement, ultimately resulting in better public safety outcomes and publicly funded resource allocation.
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, and Melody Ip
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractIn response to an increase in the number of burglaries in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) from 2014 to 2020, the ACT government funded the development of a home-based Burglary prevention program. The aim of the program is to improve household security particularly for those properties at heightened risk of victimisation and re-victimisation. The program consisted of security assessments of properties and, based on assessments, installation of security devices for eligible program clients. Results from the evaluation reveal that the program produces positive benefits overall in terms of enhanced security, reduced risk of re-victimisation, improvement in perceived sense of personal security, and positive economic return on investment.
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, Christopher Mahony, and Anushka Vidanage
Frontiers Media SA
Jessica C. M. Li, Frederic Reamer, Matthew Manning, and Cindy Xinshan Jia
Informa UK Limited
This special issue of the China Journal of Social Work presents three articles that expand our theoretical, empirical and reflective understandings of social work education, research and practice in the digital age. Reflecting the country’s commitment to promoting the development of its digital economy, China’s 14th Five-year Plan on Digital Economy Development details the roadmap for national development strategies to achieve this goal. Its main strategies include pushing for the use of blockchains and advanced technologies like 6 G. A circular issued by the General Office of the State Council on 12 January 2022, states that “By 2025, the digital economy should be in full expansion mode, with the added value of core industries in the digital economy accounting for 10% of GDP” (State Council, PRC 2022). Besides the economic/business sector, the general public is also regarded as a beneficiary of the improved efficiency brought about by providing digital social services. Actually, people in China are already deeply engaged in digital life. For instance, as of July 2022, the number of Internet users reached 6,988,549 in Hong Kong with a 92% penetration rate, 632,175 in Macau with a 95.2% penetration rate, and 1,010,740,000 in the Chinese Mainland with a 69.8% penetration rate. As for the number of Facebook users, Hong Kong has 6,528,700 with an 85.9% penetration rate, Macau has 449,700 with a 67.7% penetration rate, and the Chinese Mainland has 4,506,000 with a 0.3% penetration rate (Internet World Stats 2023). Thus, the growth of the digital population in China has increased prominently, especially when these figures are compared with the 2019 statistics (number of Internet users: 829,000,000 with a 58.4% penetration rate, number of Facebook subscribers: 1,800,000 with a 0.1% penetration rate) (Internet World Stats 2023). Furthermore, the number of 5 G base stations in China reached 1.43 million, with over 500 million 5 G users as of early March 2022 (Wu 2022). At present, social work research, education and practice have kept pace with the digitalisation of the everyday life of Chinese citizens. In this regard, we are fortunate to have access to three inspiring papers that examine and discuss the application of AI chatbots to advance social work training, conduct e-research and compare the services for enhancing the ICT competencies of ageing populations in China and Finland. Using an illustrative case study design, the first paper by Chan and Li describes the process of developing a Chinese LGPT chatbot (Yuan 1.0) to roleplay as clients chat with human social workers. This paper also discusses the possibility of using AI chatbots upon completing social work training in a Chinese context. In this illustration, a full transcript of human – bot conversation was shown to readers, and the authors concluded that human users can take part in designing the chatbot’s personality by presetting the age, problems, personality and brief history. In doing so, the chatbot can chat with human users anytime and anywhere through different platforms (e.g. webpage and WeChat), offering much convenience to users. Furthermore, CHINA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL WORK 2023, VOL. 16, NO. 2, 117–120 https://doi.org/10.1080/17525098.2023.2266185
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, Christopher Mahony, and Anushka Vidanage
Frontiers Media SA
Can the impact of justice processes be enhanced with the inclusion of a heterogeneous component into an existing cost–benefit analysis (CBA) APP that demonstrates how benefactors and beneficiaries are affected? Such a component requires: (i) moving beyond the traditional cost benefit conceptual framework of utilising averages; (ii) identification of social group or population-specific variation; (iii) identification of how justice processes differ across groups/populations; (iv) distribution of costs and benefits according to the identified variations; and (v) utilisation of empirically informed statistical techniques to gain new insights from data and maximise impact to beneficiaries. In this paper, we outline a method for capturing heterogeneity. We test our method and the CBA online APP we developed using primary data collected from a developmental crime prevention intervention in Australia. We identify how subgroups in the intervention display different behavioural adjustments across the reference period revealing the heterogeneous distribution of costs and benefits. Finally, we discuss the next version of the CBA APP, which incorporates an AI-driven component that reintegrates individual CBA projects using machine learning and other modern data science techniques. We argue that the APP, enhances CBA, development outcomes, and policy making efficiency for optimal prioritization of criminal justice resources. Further, the APP advances policy accessibility of enhanced, social group-specific data illuminating policy orientation for more inclusive, just, and resilient societal outcomes.
Gabriel T. W. Wong and Matthew Manning
Wiley
Matthew Manning, Christopher M. Fleming, Hien-Thuc Pham, and Gabriel T. W. Wong
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractCrime consistently penetrates public and political debate, where crime, either perceived or real, shapes one’s sense of security, safety and wellbeing. This matters, as the perceived versus real dilemma influences policy decisions. But what matters most? Here the evidence is mixed with often highly inconsistent findings. Against this background, and employing more recent and arguably more robust econometric models, we compare the effect of real crime and perceived crime on self-reported life satisfaction after controlling for the effect of victimisation. We also explore the heterogenous effects of real crime and perceived crime among different socioeconomic and demographic groups. Overall, our results, across all model specifications, demonstrate that perceived crime always matters, while real crime only matters to those on high-incomes. We also find that females tend to be more sensitive to their perceptions, while living outside major cities does not have a significant effect. Our results support our belief that more should be done to reduce the misperceptions of crime. Further, public media coverage related to crime should be more objective and informative to avoid inflating misperceptions and public distress.
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, and Hien-Thuc Pham
Springer International Publishing
Matthew Manning, Christopher M. Fleming, and Hien-Thuc Pham
Springer International Publishing
Christopher M. Fleming, Matthew Manning, Hien-Thuc Pham, and Margarita Vorsina
SAGE Publications
Few studies have explored the influence of horizontal (i.e., among group) inequalities on terrorism, yet it seems plausible that these inequalities may be relevant. Employing data from the Global Terrorism Database and Ethnologue, this article examines the effect of ethnic economic inequality on domestic terrorism for 130 countries over the period 2001 to 2018. We present evidence that higher degrees of ethnic inequality lead to higher numbers of terrorist attacks as well as a higher number of people killed or injured. This positive association between ethnic inequality and terrorism is robust to alternative measures of ethnic inequality, omission of influential countries and regions, the inclusion and exclusion of controls, and alternative estimation strategies. In contrast, countries with high degree of political freedom and high governance quality tend to suffer less from terrorism. Promoting economic equality among ethnic groups, therefore, has the potential to reduce the risk of domestic terrorism. We propose that a critical step towards promoting this equality is to enhance social inclusion. The benefits of increasing social inclusion extend beyond simply reducing the incidence of terrorism and inter-racial violence; creating a socially inclusive society is a social justice imperative and the responsibility of policymakers, social institutions, civil society, and the private sector. It is also consistent with the notion of inclusive economic growth, as championed by organizations such as the OECD and the United Nations Development Program.
Jessica C. M. Li, Gabriel T. W. Wong, Matthew Manning, and Dannii Y. Yeung
MDPI AG
While the majority of studies on the fear of crime focus on the impact of violent and property crimes at the population level, financial fraud against senior citizens is often under-investigated. This study uses data collected from 1061 older citizens in the community through a cross-sectional survey in Hong Kong to examine the levels of fear and perceived risk among Chinese senior citizens toward financial fraud and the factors behind them. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the explanatory power of four theoretical perspectives (vulnerability, victimization, social integration, and satisfaction with police) on fear and perceived risk of fraud victimization. The results indicate significant predictive effects of victimization experience and satisfaction with police fairness and integrity on both the fear and the perceived risk of fraud among respondents. The findings not only confirm the differential impact of theoretical explanations on these constructs but can also contribute to crime prevention policy and practice in an aging society.
Lyudmila Nurse, Kateřina Sidiropulu-Janků, Jana Obrovská, Katarzyna Gajek, and Jérôme Mbiatong
Routledge
Gabriel T. W. Wong and Matthew Manning
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Abstract In this study we examine how the process of crime detection by frontline and investigative police can be modified so that the same level of policing inputs (i.e. police strength) can produce more outcomes (i.e. crime detection rate). A pooled frontier analysis method is used to measure the relative efficiency of 18 police districts in Hong Kong from 2007 to 2015 (n = 18 districts × 9 years = 162 decision making units (DMUs)), demonstrating variable returns-to-scale. Findings reveal that 95 of the 162 DMUs were found to be inefficient compared to the benchmark DMUs (those police districts identified by the Free Disposable Hull (FDH) approach as efficient) with an average FDH efficiency score of 95.37 out of a possible score of 100. Efficient districts provide an exemplar on how an inefficient district could achieve an optimal input–output translation for the detection of crime. This evidence can be used to shape police policy at the district level. This study represents the first frontier analysis of police efficiency in the detection of crime in Hong Kong using the most recent efficiency technique. We produce evidence that can inform police policy regarding the deployment of finite resources that improve the efficiency of detection without compromising other institutional targets.
Simone Georg and Matthew Manning
Informa UK Limited
ABSTRACT This research is part of a larger 3-year project that investigates how a socially and culturally inclusive policy approach could improve community safety in a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory. In this article, we attempt to address the questions – how is community safety defined and conceptualized in Australian policy, and how does this compare to how it is viewed in the case study community? Our goal is to challenge and build on Australian policy concepts, specifically relating to community safety and crime prevention, in remote areas where there is a large proportion of Indigenous people. Findings reveal that: (1) the definition and conceptualization of community safety differs between the case study community and current Australian Government strategies and (2) current government strategies to reducing crime and improving safety do not adequately address the range of problems experienced in this case study. To address this gap, Australian policies and services need to embrace a strength-based approach to addressing the complexity of behavioural and neighbourhood problems holistically.
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, and Nada Jevtovic
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Jacqueline Homel, Ross Homel, Tara Renae McGee, Pauline Zardo, Sara Branch, Kate Freiberg, Matthew Manning, and Gabriel Wong
Wiley
Matthew Manning and Christopher Fleming
Wiley
Margarita Vorsina, Matthew Manning, Christopher M. Fleming, and Christine Smith
SAGE Publications
We employ the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey–Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), a survey of 6,000 individuals, and a difference-in-differences estimation strategy to examine the effect of the 2002 Moscow theatre siege on the level of self-reported expectations of life in the future of the Russian population. The longitudinal nature of the data allows us to explore both the short- and long-term effects of terrorism on this population as well as contribute to the limited number of quasi-experimental studies in this area. By focusing on expectations of life in the future, we broaden our understanding of the social consequences of terrorism. Controlling for a range of sociodemographic variables including self-assessed relative income, our findings suggest that the well-being effects of terrorism are complex and the net effect of a terrorism incident on well-being may not necessarily be negative. This can be explained, at least in part, by the theory of posttraumatic growth—a theory that refers to the positive psychological change experienced as a result of adversity, with terrorism incidents inadvertently promoting more meaningful interpersonal relationships, new views of the self and new views of the world. That is not to suggest that terrorism is a positive phenomenon—rather, that individuals have a lifelong plasticity rendering them capable of recovery from adversity. The primary objectives of terrorists, therefore, are unlikely to be fully achieved. It is hoped that our research allows for the development of more refined policies that aim to encourage posttraumatic growth while simultaneously attempting to minimize posttraumatic stress disorder. This may involve engaging with the psychological community to devise policies and programs that target those in the population who are most vulnerable and for these groups devise strategies to enhance their psychological resilience following a terrorist (or other traumatic) event.
Melody W.S. Ip, Matthew Manning, Gabriel T.W. Wong, and Dennis S.W. Wong
Elsevier BV
Jyoti Belur, Amy Thornton, Lisa Tompson, Matthew Manning, Aiden Sidebottom, and Kate Bowers
Elsevier BV
John M. Blythe, Shane D. Johnson, and Matthew Manning
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractThe Internet of Things (IoT) is considered the next technological revolution. IoT devices include once everyday objects that are now internet connected, such as smart locks and smart fridges, but also new types of devices to include home assistants. However, while this increased interconnectivity brings considerable benefits, it can and does increase people’s exposure to crime risk. This is particularly the case as most devices are developed without security in mind. One reason for this is that there is little incentive for manufacturers to make devices secure by design, and the costs of so doing do not encourage it. The principle aim of the current paper was to estimate the extent to which consumers are willing to pay for improved security in internet connected products. The second aim was to examine whether this is conditioned by their exposure to security-related information. Using an experimental design, and a contingent valuation method, we find that people are willing to pay for improved security and that for some devices, this increases if they are exposed to information about security prior to stating their willingness to pay. The implications of our findings for industry and the secure by design agenda are discussed.
Shane D. Johnson, John M. Blythe, Matthew Manning, and Gabriel T. W. Wong
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
The Internet of Things (IoT) brings internet connectivity to everyday electronic devices (e.g. security cameras and smart TVs) to improve their functionality and efficiency. However, serious security and privacy concerns have been raised about the IoT which impact upon consumer trust and purchasing. Moreover, devices vary considerably in terms of the security they provide, and it is difficult for consumers to differentiate between more and less secure devices. One proposal to address this is for devices to carry a security label to help consumers navigate the market and know which devices to trust, and to encourage manufacturers to improve security. Using a discrete choice experiment, we estimate the potential impact of such labels on participant’s purchase decision making, along with device functionality and price. With the exception of a label that implied weak security, participants were significantly more likely to select a device that carried a label than one that did not. While they were generally willing to pay the most for premium functionality, for two of the labels tested, they were prepared to pay the same for security and functionality. Qualitative responses suggested that participants would use a label to inform purchasing decisions, and that the labels did not generate a false sense of security. Our findings suggest that the use of a security label represents a policy option that could influence behaviour and that should be seriously considered.
Matthew Manning, Gabriel T. W. Wong, Christopher M. Fleming, and Susanne Garvis
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Poor-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) can be detrimental to the development of children, as it may lead to poor social, emotional, educational, health, economic, and behavioral outcomes. A lack of consensus, however, regarding the strength of the relationship between teacher qualification and the quality of the ECEC environment makes it difficult to identify strategies that could enhance developmental and educational outcomes. This meta-analytic review examines evidence on the correlation between teacher qualifications and the quality of ECEC environments. Results show that higher teacher qualifications are significantly correlated with higher quality ECEC environments. Specifically, the education level of teachers or caregivers is positively correlated to overall ECEC qualities, as well as subscale ratings including program structure, language, and reasoning.
L. Redmond and J. Gittelsohn
Routledge