Personality and crime: Where do we stand

Abstract

This article argues for a central role for personality in mediating between the genetic and environmental forces which act as causal agencies on the one hand, and the criminal behaviour that is to be explained on the other. Such a causal chain must of course also incorporate the biological-hormonal intermediaries between DNA and personality. In addition we require an explanation for the specific behaviours that make up anti-social conduct, and it is suggested that this is to be found in Pavlovian conditioning. The evidence relating to these theories is reviewed, and suggests a fairly definite framework which also leads to some suggestions concerning the reduction of criminality.     

Theory and racial profiling: Shortcomings and future directions in research

The volatile political environment that surrounds the issue of “racial profiling” has led local and state police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic and pedestrian stops. The controversy over this issue is overwhelmed by the unsupported assumption that all race-based decision making by police officers is motivated by individual police officers' racial prejudice. This article reviews recently published studies on racial profiling and critiques both their methods and conclusions. Using the conceptual framework for police research presented by Bernard and Engel, it reviews a number of theories that may explain racial disparities in the rates of police stops. The authors argue that to explain police behavior better, theoretical models must guide future data collection efforts.     

What caused fertility variations by settlement in Transylvania at the time of industrialization?

There is an ongoing debate in the literature regarding the causes behind fertility transition. Especially, the relative importance of economic modernization versus cultural adaptation is hotly debated. The paper takes Transylvania, the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as an example. The period of 1880–1910 was a time of fast modernization and industrialization in Transylvania, and it created large territorial differences in economic development. The ethnic and religious composition of the area is versatile; mainly Orthodox Romanians, Catholic Hungarians, and Protestant Germans populated the area.

Data

A cross-sectional database has been created by matching census and vital statistics records for 4112 settlements, for the 1900–1910 period.

Method

OLS regression is used to model crude birth rates by settlement. The factors affecting fertility are modeled using the Easterlin–Crimmins framework.

Results

An explanation placing economic factors (demand and supply) in first place, but accepting the secondary role of innovation factors as barriers to implement fertility regulation, fits the data about Transylvania well.

Discussion

Previous research results regarding Hungary could not show the effect of some socio-economic variables on fertility, due to the high level of aggregation. They favoured cultural explanations, and shown Hungary as an exception to the rules of demographic transition. In contrast, this paper shows that the classic explanatory factors like infant mortality, migration, literacy, and secularization do explain fertility differentials in Transylvania at the turn of the 20th century.     

What caused fertility variations by settlement in Transylvania at the time of industrialization?

There is an ongoing debate in the literature regarding the causes behind fertility transition. Especially, the relative importance of economic modernization versus cultural adaptation is hotly debated. The paper takes Transylvania, the eastern part of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as an example. The period of 1880–1910 was a time of fast modernization and industrialization in Transylvania, and it created large territorial differences in economic development. The ethnic and religious composition of the area is versatile; mainly Orthodox Romanians, Catholic Hungarians, and Protestant Germans populated the area.DataA cross-sectional database has been created by matching census and vital statistics records for 4112 settlements, for the 1900–1910 period.MethodOLS regression is used to model crude birth rates by settlement. The factors affecting fertility are modeled using the Easterlin–Crimmins framework.ResultsAn explanation placing economic factors (demand and supply) in first place, but accepting the secondary role of innovation factors as barriers to implement fertility regulation, fits the data about Transylvania well.DiscussionPrevious research results regarding Hungary could not show the effect of some socio-economic variables on fertility, due to the high level of aggregation. They favoured cultural explanations, and shown Hungary as an exception to the rules of demographic transition. In contrast, this paper shows that the classic explanatory factors like infant mortality, migration, literacy, and secularization do explain fertility differentials in Transylvania at the turn of the 20th century.     

The fourth amendment and aerial surveillance: Searching for guidelines

Advances in technology have given law enforcement agencies additional capabilities when performing surveillance activities. One area in particular—aerial surveillance—especially demonstrates the possible intrusiveness of police investigatory activity.

One of the most important considerations in the area of aerial surveillance is striking a balance between the necessity of police activities and protections guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. Cases relating to aerial surveillance have sought to develop guidelines for police agencies in this expanding area of search and seizure inquiry.     

The conference of European affairs committees: A collective voice for national parliaments in the European union

The role of national parliaments in the European Union has been the subject of intense debate in the last decade. The Maastricht and Amsterdam Treaties contained significant texts aimed at enhancing the role of national parliaments. Several major political figures in Europe have recently discussed the case for making the collective voice of national parliaments better heard and this issue is firmly on the ‘post‐Nice’ agenda.’ In parallel, an important debate has been running between the parliaments themselves about a collective role for national parliaments. Since 1989, a little‐known body has provided a forum for these debates. This article aims to set out the history of that body, and to highlight some of the issues surrounding an enhanced role for national parliaments.     

The legal classification of identity-based signatures

Identity-based cryptography has attracted attention in the cryptographic research community in recent years. Despite the importance of cryptographic schemes for applications in business and law, the legal implications of identity-based cryptography have not yet been discussed. We investigate how identity-based signatures fit into the legal framework. We focus on the European Signature Directive, but also take the UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signatures into account. In contrast to previous assumptions, identity-based signature schemes can, in principle, be used even for qualified electronic signatures, which can replace handwritten signatures in the member states of the European Union. We derive requirements to be taken into account in the development of future identity-based signature schemes.     

Accountability, Control and Independence: The Case of European Agencies

This article points at two problematic assumptions made in some of the contemporary European agency literature. It proposes a conceptual framework, integrating accountability, autonomy and control, and aims to demonstrate how this type of conceptualisation contributes to clarifying problematic aspects of the current European agency debate. Empirical evidence from interviews with high-level practitioners is provided to illustrate the relevance of the proposed framework. The empirical information reveals that, at times, the de facto level of autonomy displayed by some European agencies is below the autonomy provided by the formal legal rules as a result of ongoing controls exercised by one (or other) of the principals. The repercussions that flow from these empirical insights for the agency debate in general, as well as for our understanding of agency accountability, will be discussed at length.     

The BT Kemi Scandal and the Establishment of the Environmental Crime Concept

This study analyses the significance of the 1977 BT Kemi scandal in Teckomatorp, Sweden for the establishment of the concept of 'environmental crime', first in the public debate and then later in legislation. The BT Kemi scandal is analysed as a 'focusing event' that placed the relationship between environmental pollution, responsibility, legislation and penal sanctions firmly on the political agenda. Several commissions of inquiry were established as a consequence, and in 1981 the Environmental Protection Act was revised and environmental crimes were included in the penal code. This tightening of the legislation had very little effect in practice, however, and this study examines why these legislative changes had so little practical impact. Attention is focused on the historical and societal contexts in which Swedish environmental legislation during the 1960s, as an explanation of why environmental crime has been and remains such a marginalized phenomenon. Shared mentalities in the area of environmental protection, which have evolved over time within public sector agencies and the private sector, coupled with an unequal emerged distribution of power and diffuse legislation, have obstructed the establishment of environmental crime. The BT Kemi scandal was a decisive factor in the coming of age of environmental offending, but it nonetheless takes time before a new form of crime becomes 'self-evident' and accepted as such in the wider society.     

Beat patrol deployment in Hong Kong

This article addresses critical policy issues raised in the SB vs. DB debate. How should such a policy debate be resolved? What are the pros and cons of both patrol deployment measures? More importantly, what immediate and effective remedial steps can be taken to secure the front line police officers’ desire for safety and security without compromising the public's legitimate expectation for order and service. This article provides the HKP community — policymakers, operational managers and front line officers — with relevant research literature and pertinent empirical data to understand the issues involved and help resolve the debate in an informed and reflective manner. In the end, the article argues that education and training are more important than patrol deployment in reducing risk of injury to police officers in the line of duty. Removal of side arms and demilitarization of the HKP is also suggested.     

The influence of occupational strain on organizational commitment among police: A general strain theory approach

Purpose

Using a General Strain Theory (GST) framework, this study examines the role of various strains on officers’ organizational commitment to their agencies. In addition, the mediating effect of negative affect is investigated.

Methods

A total of 180 law enforcement personnel from multiple agencies in the Northern Kentucky area were surveyed.

Results

Two strains, the failure to achieve positively valued goals and the removal positively valued stimuli, significantly predicted greater negative affect. Negative affect did not serve as a mediating variable between strain and officers’ commitment to the department. The failure to achieve positively valued goals, the removal of positive stimuli, and the two measures of presentation of noxious stimuli all significantly and directly influenced an officer's commitment to the agency after controlling for negative affect.

Conclusions

GST is a viable theoretical framework in which to study organizational commitment among police officers as various strains have been shown to result in officers being less committed to their police agencies. Consequently, policies that attempt to alleviate those strains or stressors commonly faced by officers can increase the dedication and possibly the job performance of America's law enforcement officials.     

A factorial analysis of police pursuit driving decisions: A research note

Police pursuit driving has become an important public policy concern and topic of research during the past few years. The present study reports the attitudes of police officers and supervisors from four different agencies concerning the continuation of a pursuit. Using logistic regression, it is reported that the most influential factor on the officers' opinions is the offense for which the suspect is wanted. This one factor is more than twice as important as the environmental factors such as chase area, traffic conditions and weather.     

End note: Reflections and limitations

Abstract

It may seem curious to some readers to match the outstanding athlete biographical sketches of the main scholar-researchers of this volume with their fierce message regarding the threat to sport, and its practitioners, from sexual harassment. In an absolutist, three second sound bite, mass consumption stereotype-driven developed world, one might expect here a “weakest link” debate about the value(s) of sport. This debate would feature effete, intellectual critics and very muscular, tradition-bound advocates. Not so; for these writers not only demonstrate well-reasoned and literature-informed arguments, and thorough, data-driven analyses but also courageous research programmes extending back to times when the work they did was completely marginalised and misunderstood. Their work, then as now, was fuelled in great part by a deep awareness and regard for the experience of sport as a healthy and joyful human right and by a wish to preserve it as such, for all.     

Diversity in Policing

Abstract

Police and minority relations have received much interest among public and academic audiences, yet little is known about policing in Latino communities. As Latinos emerge as the largest minority group in the United States, researchers and police agencies are increasingly concerned with the experience of Latinos in the criminal justice system. One strategy for improving police and community relations is to enhance the diversity of law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the ethnic composition of law enforcement agencies in major U.S. metropolitan areas between 1990 and 2000. Using data from the U.S. Census and the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) survey, it appears that the growth in the U.S. Latino population has been met with an increase in the percentage of Latinos as sworn full-time police officers. Further, the degree of enhanced diversity varies by the ethnic composition of the community served. Implications of findings for improving relations between police and the Latino community are discussed.     

The Value of Art and Culture in Everyday Life: Towards an Expressive Cultural Democracy

ABSTRACT

Ever since the earliest forms of mass media, the dichotomy of mass culture/high culture has been a topic of debate. The concept of cultural democracy has developed as a way to acknowledge a variety of cultural activities. Despite attempts to develop a broader understanding of culture, cultural policy still seems to reproduce the dichotomies, and to value one over the other. In this article, we would argue for an expanded understanding of cultural democracy, which may serve as a starting point for a turn of perspective of arts advocacy and cultural policy—the perspective we call an expressive cultural democracy.     

Financial instruments entail liabilities: Ether,bitcoin, and litecoin do not

The financial assets that are subject to major EU financial legislation (i.e. (designated types of) financial instruments) have traditionally been defined in a largely exemplary and circular manner. The recent proliferation of ‘non-traditional’ financial assets, such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, is increasingly challenging the viability of these pragmatic financial asset definitions. Through the analysis of the technologies and functionalities underpinning non-traditional financial assets, legal scholarship has aimed to categorize novel assets within the existing framework of financial asset definitions. Although a solid understanding of e.g. distributed ledger applications and cryptography appears a prerequisite for future policy and legislative interventions, contemporary EU financial legislation is mostly indifferent to the technologies on which financial assets may be wired. Categorizations based on the purposes that non-traditional assets may serve (i.e. payment, utility, and investment) are more relevant to financial law, but suffer from subjectivity because they depend on the asset usage by the asset holder. Against this backdrop, this paper proposes a novel systematization of non-traditional assets that is based upon the conceptual substructure of the assets within the scope of EU financial legislation. More specifically, this paper submits that, irrespective of underlying technologies and functionalities, all assets that are subject to major EU financial legislation have a conceptual common denominator: they entail the liability of an entity and, hence, have intrinsic value. The proposed categorization singles out a well-defined group of novel financial assets that is not subject to EU financial law (i.e. assets that only have extrinsic value). Different from functionality- and technology-based categorizations, the suggested approach allows to eradicate some ambiguities that are present in the existing taxonomies. By exploring the conceptual common denominator of the financial assets that are subject to EU financial legislation, this paper aims to foster debate on the circular and exemplary character of financial asset definitions in EU financial legislation in general and the relation of these definitions to novel types of financial assets in particular.     

Florida’s task force approach to combat human trafficking: an analysis of county-level data

Abstract

Since emerging in the USA during the 1990s, the multi-agency task force has become the preferred organizational structure for enforcing human trafficking laws and providing assistance to victims. These task forces often work across county lines and typically include law enforcement agencies, as well as social service and non-governmental organizations. The effect of collaborations with other types of agencies on law enforcement’s human trafficking arrests is unknown. County-level arrest data for human trafficking first became available through the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2014. In this paper, we present findings from county-level analyses with human trafficking arrests in the State of Florida as the dependent variable. Independent variables include the presence of a task force, sociodemographic characteristics, tourism measures, and police officers per capita. The strongest predictor of human trafficking arrests is the presence of a task force.