Green energy and black economy: mafia investments in the wind power sector in Italy

In recent years, the EU has supported actions to develop the green economy. Among these, incentives to sustain the growth of the wind power (WP) sector were welcomed as strategic for promoting environmental sustainability. This paper argues that the enthusiasm in supporting the green economy, without a preliminary assessment for crime opportunities, could end up fueling the black one. In particular, looking at the Italian case, the intention to facilitate wind farm construction provided remarkable (economic and procedural) incentives but neglected the issue of crime infiltration in the legitimate economy. Consequently, investments in wind farms also became a very lucrative business for organized crime (OC) groups. Through an analysis of the WP sector in Italy, this paper aims to show that, in territories characterized by a significant presence and control of OC groups, regulation could have an adverse effect providing opportunities for OC infiltrations in the legitimate economy. In particular this paper discusses whether investments in the WP sector in Italy are more likely in those regions with higher levels of OC presence and analyzes the role played by OC groups in cases of criminal infiltrations in the WP sector.     

CORPORATIONS,ORGANIZED CRIME,AND THE DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS WASTE: AN EXAMINATION OF THE MAKING OF A CRIMINOGENIC REGULATORY STRUCTURE*

This paper explores the relationship between legitimate corporations that generate hazardous waste and elements of organized crime with whom they contract for the removal, treatment, or disposition of those wastes. The scope and importance of hazardous waste as a social problem is first described and the variety of organized crime participation in waste handling is summarized. The paper then explores the factors that enabled organized crime to become active in this sector of the economy. Lax implementation and en forcement, the most common explanations, are discussed. The formation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 is analyzed to show that there was a prior and more fundamental factor: large corporate generators of hazardous waste fought for a regulatory structure that would prove to be highly vulnerable to organized crime intrusion. This fact is then used to discuss and critique two current explanations of the relationship of corporate generators to organized crime waste handlers: “ignorance” and “powerlessness.” Finally, it is argued that although generators did not consciously intend to facilitate organized crime entry into hazardous waste hauling, they did subsequently enjoy tangible benefits from that entry.     

Street Youths and the Proximate and Contingent Causes of Instrumental Crime: Untangling Anomie Theory

Utilizing a sample of 300 homeless street youths, the research examines the individual‐level sub‐model of Baumer’s interpretation of Merton’s anomie theory. The paper explores the role the interaction between monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means plays in the generation of instrumental crime and the manner in which this interaction is itself moderated by blocked opportunities, monetary dissatisfaction, social modeling, cultural support, and the perceived risk of punishment. The findings reveal that a weak commitment to legitimate means, but not monetary goals, has a lower order impact on the willingness to commit instrumental crime. These two variables, however, do not interact to predict intentions to offend. Instead the findings reveal that blocked opportunities and higher levels of monetary dissatisfaction moderate the relationship between the monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means interaction and the willingness to offend. Findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.     

Organized economic crime and corruption in Urkraine: The problem of countermeasures

The collapse of communism in Ukraine created opportunities for organized criminal groups to expand their economic criminal activities in the “shadow economy” by penetrating all levels of public and economic administration. Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are poorly equipped to handle this increase in criminal activity, especially with respect to uncooperative foreign and domestic economic institutions. State machinery for regulation and control of industry and commerce was easily accessible to organized crime through bribing of state officials, who received no supervision during economic restructuring. Notwithstanding the active assistance of corrupt government officials, organized economic crime has benefited from chaos and lost government control as the result of recent economic reforms in Ukraine. Researchers in this study hypothesize that the social and economic disorder, as well as a common and justified mistrust of state officials, fosters a pessimism and erodes moral standards, which in turn fosters criminal activity. Of late, judicial sentencing for those convicted of economic crimes has become lighter while many economic criminal cases are never investigated or prosecuted in the first place. In order to combat large-scale corruption, there must be better supervision of government officials and better monitoring of foreign economic transactions. One of the most disastrous consequences of the collapse of the Ukrainian communist system has been the widespread increase of economic crime. This phenomenon is self-sustaining, penetrating all levels of Ukraine's economy and administrative sectors. Criminal activity helps to sustain the shadow economy in Ukraine, which has been estimated by various sources to constitute 50 to 60 percent of the economy. Law enforcement and administrative efforts have been largely futile in curbing this corruption. Nevertheless, it is possible to overcome the criminal social and economic order that has become ingrained in this “shadow economy.” This paper seeks to propose policy solutions for Ukrainian economic crime and corruption that could be implemented at the national level.     

Employment,age, race,and crime: A labor theoretic investigation

The fundamental objective of this paper has been to reinvestigate the relationship between employment and crime, while taking account of deterrence, age and race effects. The data, a sample of Brooklyn arrestees, was collected by the Vera Institute of Justice simply to explore, with individual data, the relationship between employment and crime. In this research, a labor theoretic formulation is used incorporating a model that views the problem as one of rational choice between legitimate work and participation in crime. Factors affecting the diminution of crime participation with age are investigated. Changes at age 18 in economic opportunities and in deterrence effects from moving from juvenile to adult status are found to have a significant impact on crime participation. The results are important because they tend to confirm with official crime report data, results found in earlier studies using self-report data, i.e., (1) when the process is appropriately modeled, previous contacts with police are found to cause some experimenters with crime to become desisters, (2) prior work experience and economic opportunities tend to reinforce this tendency to desist, (3) even though blacks are found to have a greater prevalence of involvement in crime, when the data are standardized for all of the aforementioned factors and educational attainment, there is no significant difference between blacks and whites in their tendency to recidivate.     

Crime and the transformation of capitalism

This study investigates factors that enhance criminal behavior. Typically, explanations for increasing crime rates discuss various familial and community attributes; i.e., single parent households and poverty rates. When crime has increased, these attributes are cited as being responsible. This we believe is an incorrect assumption. In particular, we argue the factors that are cited by these authors merely reflect transformations within the greater economic structure. As a result, the familial and community attributes suggested as causing crime are seen as intervening variables; which are either attentuated or amplified in their ability to control criminal behavior by the condition of the economy itself. Within this study, five urban cities (New York, Detroit, Newark, Boston, and Philadelphia) are observed over a twenty eight year period. Structural change is measured by industrial employment and crime is measured by three indices: burglary, robbery and murder. Our investigation reveals a strong relationship between declining industrial employment and increasing crime rates. In addition, we find that the magnitude of this relationship is subject to variation. This variation is dependent upon whether or not the industrial decline experienced was steady or vacilating between high and low levels. These findings support the contention that familial units and other communal organizations are merely intervening variables between large-scale structural changes and criminal behavior. Moreover, it suggests that unless anti-crime efforts (increasing the size of the police forces, increasing state expenditures for law enforcement, etc.) are accompanied by strategies of industrial reorganization, they will have no impact on reducing crime rates.     

The roots of Russian organized crime: from old-fashioned professionals to the organized criminal groups of today

This study focuses on the development of persons and organizations in the successor states of the Soviet Union, with an emphasis on Russia. It examines the development of criminal professionalism in Russia between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and argues that exiling peasants to Siberia contributed to the development of a criminal underworld and the creation of a professional criminal underclass. In the early to late Soviet periods, vory v zakone, or “thieves-in-law,” evolved together with criminal groups as a means to survive in the GULAG, these criminal groups operating within the Soviet prisons and penal colonies. Inadequacies of the Soviet system of central planning led to the criminalization of the Soviet economy and the emergence of the thieves-in-law as critical players. Activities such as racketeering, robbery, and other crimes were dangerous but predominantly secondary. The roots of the Russian mafia lie in the innermost depths of the Russian shadow economy. Some of the key aspects of the post-Soviet privatization process are analyzed together with the interaction between various levels of the Russian government and organized crime groups. It is argued that the state was not corrupted by organized crime groups, but rather the organized crime groups became the state. In the new Russia, organized crime groups and corrupt government executives work together to generatea new criminal state.     

Cycles in Crime and Economy: Leading, Lagging and Coincident Behaviors

In the last decades, the interest in the relationship between crime and business cycle has widely increased. It is a diffused opinion that a causal relationship goes from economic variables to criminal activities, but this causal effect is observed only for some typology of crimes, such as property crimes. In this work we examine the possibility of the existence of some common factors (interpreted as cyclical components) driving the dynamics of Gross Domestic Product and a large set of criminal types by using the nonparametric version of the dynamic factor model. A first aim of this exercise is to detect some comovements between the business cycle and the cyclical component of some typologies of crime, which could evidence some relationships between these variables; a second purpose is to select which crime types are related to the business cycle and if they are leading, coincident or lagging. Italy is the case study for the time span 1991:1–2004:12; the crime typologies are constituted by the 22 official categories classified by the Italian National Statistical Institute. The study finds that most of the crime types show a counter-cyclical behavior with respect to the overall economic performance, and only a few of them have an evident relationship with the business cycle. Furthermore, some crime offenses, such as bankruptcy, embezzlement and fraudulent insolvency, seem to anticipate the business cycle, in line with recent global events.     

The economics of crime and criminal law: An antithesis to sociological theories?

The relationship between sociology and economics of crime has been dominated by mutual prejudice and misunderstanding. This paper tries to contribute to a change of this stale of affairs by showing that, on the one hand, the economics of crime does not as a method imply politically conservative policy recommendations and, on the other hand, that insights of the sociology of crime may enrich the economic approach considerably. This is done via a brief survey of the economics of enforcement, the literature on the relation of income distribution and unemployment on crime, and the literature relating sociological theories of crime to methodological individualism.     

Violent Crime,Residential Instability and Mobility: Does the Relationship Differ in Minority Neighborhoods?

This study examines the reciprocal relationship between violent crime and residential stability in neighborhoods. We test whether the form of stability matters by comparing two different measures of stability: a traditional index of residential stability and a novel approach focusing specifically on the stability of homeowners. We also examine whether the racial/ethnic composition of the neighborhood in which this stability occurs affects the instability—violent crime relationship. To test the simultaneous relationship between residential mobility and crime we estimate a dual multivariate latent curve model of the change in the violent crime rate and the change in the rate of home sales while controlling for neighborhood socioeconomic and demographic characteristics using data from Los Angeles between 1992 and 1997. Results indicate that the initial level of violent crime increases the trajectory of residential instability in subsequent years, whether the instability is measured as homeowner turnover specifically, or based on an index of all residents. However, the effect of instability on violent crime is only apparent when measuring instability based on an index of general residential turnover and not when including the presence of owners in this measure, or when measuring it based on homeowner turnover. We consistently find that stable highly Latino communities exhibit a protective effect against violence.     

Disentangling the Crime-arrest Relationship: The Influence of Social Context

Drawing on the economic and conflict perspectives of crime control, as well as insights from the tipping effect literature, the present investigation examines the extent to which the social context within which potential offenders operate tempers the macro-level, reciprocal relationship between crime and arrests. We use autoregressive integrated moving average techniques to assess the extent to which the April 2001 race-related riot in Cincinnati, Ohio conditions the reciprocal relationship between property crime and arrests for the entire city and disaggregated by police district. Consistent with a majority of prior longitudinal studies, our analyses for the entire length of the times series reveal no evidence of an association between our measures of crime and arrest, regardless of the level of spatial aggregation. In contrast to the results from our baseline models, the post-riot transfer function models indicate that there is a reciprocal association between crime and arrests that is contingent upon the social context. The implications of our findings for the further study of the reciprocal relationship between crime and arrests are discussed.     

生产销售伪劣商品罪的法经济分析及防治对策——以伪劣奶粉案为例

生产销售伪劣商品罪产生的内在动因是经济主体的自利性和市场经济的逐利性,外在诱因是市场秩序的失范和犯罪的可获利.防治生产销售伪劣商品罪并非是消灭该类犯罪,而是努力使该类犯罪降低到最低限度.措施主要有:提高刑罚效率,直接增加犯罪的刑罚成本;深化体制改革,建立健全各项规章制度,为合法正当的经济活动创造良好的制度环境和社会环境;打击腐败,消除地方保护主义;加紧研究并实现对经济犯罪的社会控制,对生产销售伪劣商品罪实行综合治理.     

A TEST OF GENERAL STRAIN THEORY*

Tests of general strain theory (Agnew, 1992) have focused primarily on the relationship between strain and crime, ignoring the intervening role of negative emotions and legitimate coping strategies. This research provides a more comprehensive test of general strain theory, including measures of both anger and other expressions of negative affect, as well as a measure of legitimate coping. Results suggest that strain, negative emotions, and legitimate coping are all related, although not always in the expected direction. Moreover, results indicate that the nature of the link among these three variables and criminal outcomes are shaped by the types of strain and negative affect individuals experience, and by sex differences in the links among central variables.     

单位犯罪存在范围的批判性反思

市场经济的进一步发展催生出了更多的单位犯罪,我国1997年《刑法》正式将单位确定为犯罪主体,这对于打击单位犯罪具有里程碑式的意义。但是,由于立法层面上没有兼顾单位犯罪与自然人犯罪之间的逻辑平衡,加之刑法理论界相关研究的匮乏,导致在司法层面上对单位犯罪的认定各行其是,以致使得刑事司法难以应对诸多的新型单位犯罪。因此,针对单位犯罪研究与司法操作的混乱局面,深入探究单位犯罪与自然人犯罪的关系,进而全面思索刑事立法对于单位犯罪加以干预范围的明确化和视角转换问题,对于完善单位犯罪刑法规制体系具有立法和理论研究的必要性和前瞻性。     

我国刑法对非公有制经济区别保护的原因探析——兼评平等保护观

侵犯公有制经济和非公有制经济的职务犯罪,其犯罪主体的身份是不同的,这种不同导致了刑法对两种经济成分的区别保护。对二者区别保护既是罪刑均衡原则的要求,又反映了人民群众的利益和价值取向,因而是合理的。     

对过度维权行为的刑法评价

过度维权行为从性质上讲,属于行使权利范畴。行使权利通常是不会构成犯罪的。但如果在行使权利过程中,超出了不得损害他人合法利益和社会利益这一边界时,其行为已不是行使权利而是滥用权利行为,滥用权利可以构成犯罪。对过度维权行为的刑法评价：一是行为人所主张权利超出权利范围,但在手段合法的场合,属于行使权利行为,不构成犯罪;二是行为人所主张的权利没有超出权利范围,但在手段不合法的场合,可能构成财产罪以外的其他犯罪;三是行为人所主张的权利超出权利范围,且在手段非法的场合,则构成敲诈勒索罪。     

窃取、收买、非法提供信用卡信息资料罪刍议

针对日益猖獗的信用卡犯罪,我国《刑法》增设了窃取、收买、非法提供信用卡信息资料罪。本罪是指违反信用卡管理规定,窃取、收买或者非法提供他人信用卡信息资料的行为;本罪与同一条文规定的妨害信用卡管理罪是两个不同的罪名;本罪所指的信用卡包括借记卡;本罪侵犯的客体是持卡人的合法利益和金融机构的信誉,其犯罪对象为信用卡信息资料;正确认定本罪必须明确其与妨害信用卡管理罪、伪造金融票证罪和信用卡诈骗罪的界限。     

Highway Robbery: Testing the Impact of Interstate Highways on Robbery

Research has shown that the occurrence of crime is based on multiple factors including a variety of geographical characteristics. Previous researchers have suggested that the environmental feature of the interstate system has an influence on crime. For this study, we test for a relationship between interstate presence and robbery at the county-level in Georgia. Additionally, we test whether or not urban/rural differences affect this relationship. Findings are consistent with previous research showing that the number of interstate exits in a county significantly increases crime; in this case the robbery rate.     

风俗犯罪的处罚根据初论——以风俗犯罪正当化的考察为视角

立法者在刑法中创制风俗犯罪主要是基于维护社会生活中善良风俗的考量,但是刑法的目的是保护法益,单纯侵害社会生活中善良风俗的行为是否具有法益侵害性和应否发动刑法对其予以规制是需要进一步探讨的问题,这有赖于考察风俗犯罪的正当化。唯有侵害社会生活中善良风俗的行为犯罪化与风俗犯罪正当化的内涵相符,相关风俗犯罪的创制才是合理的,这是阐明风俗犯罪处罚根据的核心所在。风俗犯罪的正当化不仅与自由保障理念和法益保护理论具有重要关联,还与伤害原则、从属性原则以及罪刑均衡原则密不可分。     

辩护律师的量刑建议权初探

刑事司法审判中量刑之轻重不仅直接事关被告人的切身利益,而且关乎到能否真正落实罪刑法定原则和罪责刑相适应原则,关系到法律的统一。在当前因刑法法定刑规定幅度较大而致实践中法官量刑畸轻畸重的情况下,赋予维护被告人合法权益的辩护律师以量刑建议权,充分发挥辩护律师的作用,对促进被告人的公正量刑,不仅是必要的,而且也是可行的。