Crime prevention cooperation in Sweden: a regional case study

In crime prevention, local cooperation and networks have recently become central organizing principles and concepts, especially in Nordic countries such as Sweden. This article explores cooperation in Swedish crime prevention by examining a local example, the regional network Regbrå. Regbrå aims to increase knowledge about crime prevention through cooperation and to support local crime prevention efforts by the municipalities in Östergötland County. Regbrå has promoted many universal (primary), selective (secondary), and indicated (tertiary) crime prevention mechanisms. The Regbrå case also merits attention because of its strong links with a local university and higher education. Some shortcomings and problems also emerge in the analysis, such as the possibility that cooperation becomes an end to itself, detached from verified crime reduction effects. The analysis draws on a study of the Regbrå network, including interviews with qualitative experts (N = 10) and a survey sent to involved municipalities (N = 13).     

Organised crime,occupations and opportunity

This paper elaborates upon occupations, work relations, work settings, and their connection with organised crime activities. The analysis is based upon data from 120 case studies from the Dutch Organised Crime Monitor, involving 1623 suspects. The paper describes the different kinds of occupations encountered in cases of organised crime and the main characteristics of these occupations. Furthermore, the paper describes in more detail four cases of organised crime that illustrate the embeddedness of certain organised crime activities in work relations and work settings. Following Mars,1 ^?1. Gerald Mars, Cheats at Work: An Anthropology of Workplace Crime (London: Unwin Paperbacks, 1982). the paper analyses both the grid dimension and the group dimension of certain occupations and work settings. The paper concludes that social relations as well as settings and opportunity structures provide structure to the organisation of many forms of crime, including organised crime.     

Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity and fear of personal crime: exploring their interrelationship as a function of risk estimation

Both trauma psychology and criminology have studied the psychological correlates of crime victimization. While the former discipline has primarily focused on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among crime victims, the latter has particularly studied the association between history of victimization and fear of crime. A major difference between both concepts is that PTSD is experienced in relation to previous victimization, while fear of crime does not necessarily follow from previous victimization and is primarily experienced in anticipation of possible future victimization. Despite their different orientations, both perspectives share one central tenet: they both argue that feelings of anxiety are accompanied by increased perceptions of risk for future victimization. Given this theoretical overlap, both types of anxiety may correlate with each other. The current study explored this topic in a sample of Dutch university students (N = 375) and found that PTSD symptom severity and fear of crime were significantly associated with each other, both in univariate and multivariate analyses. This association was stronger for participants who scored higher on perceived risk of personal crime victimization than for those who scored lower. Results were discussed in light of study limitations and directions for future research.     

Discourse Analysis on Media Reports of Perceptions About Religion as a Solution to Jamaica's Crime Problems

ABSTRACT

This discussion, which focuses on Jamaica's crime rates, explanations for these trends, and recommended solutions, is based on discourses about the role of religion in crime resolution and specifically on the issue of (re)integrating religion in addressing Jamaica's crime problems. The analysis draws on the content of news, editorials, commentaries, and letters to the editor in both the Jamaica Daily Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer on the topic of religion and crime. It also looks specifically at the disjuncture between perceptions of and by the church regarding its role in crime resolution.     

RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEIVED NEIGHBORHOOD RACIAL COMPOSITION AND WHITES’ PERCEPTIONS OF VICTIMIZATION RISK: DO RACIAL STEREOTYPES MATTER?*

Recent theoretical extensions of threat theory have posited that Whites frequently view Blacks as a criminal threat because of stereotypes linking race and crime. Several studies have found indirect support for this hypothesis and have shown that the percentage of neighborhood residents who are Black is positively associated with the perceptions of victimization risk and fear of crime by White residents. To date, however, little research has investigated whether, as theory would suggest, this relationship is either a consequence of or is contingent on Whites holding stereotypes of Blacks as criminals. In this article, we address this issue by examining whether racial typification of crime mediates or moderates the relationships between static and dynamic measures of neighborhood racial composition and the perceptions of victimization risk by Whites. The results offer mixed support for the threat hypothesis and show that racial typification of crime conditions the relationship between perceived changes in neighborhood racial composition and the perceptions of victimization risk by Whites, but neither explains nor influences the association between static measures of racial composition and the latter. The implications of the findings for threat theory and research are discussed.     

Crime Volume and Law and Order Culture

The literature on public opinion about crime and justice has neglected the exploration of macro‐ or community‐level influences on individual‐level attitudes. A key macrofactor that may be related to individual level attitudes is the volume of violent crime. High crime rates can facilitate the development of a culture of “law and order,” a response that may be a practical or instrumental attempt to control crime. The present paper tests the hypothesis that persons residing in nations marked by a high volume of crime will be more likely to adhere to elements of a law and order culture. It employs data from the International Social Science Program (N = 15,024). Controls are taken from major theoretical perspectives on public opinion about crime as well as demographic factors. The results from a hierarchical linear model support the hypothesis that individuals residing in nations with high crime rates are more likely than others to support law and order ideologies. The findings extend the support for this relationship from research based on the US alone to other industrialized societies.     

Teaching Race and Crime

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of a select group of faculty (N = 37) from across the country who teach courses related to race and crime. Using survey methodology, the researchers solicited the faculty members' views on the course as well as their experience in teaching the course. The research was also designed to determine the receptivity of students to the course, as well as the nature of the evaluation scores of instructors who teach these courses. Most instructors reported having had a good teaching experience and felt the course should be required. Respondents also indicated that their teaching evaluation scores for race and crime courses were generally in line with their scores for other courses. The research found very minimal differences between the teaching evaluation scores of white and nonwhite race and crime instructors. Students were perceived to be generally enthusiastic about taking this course.     

Victim Blame in Fictional Crime Dramas: An Examination of Demographic,Incident-Related,and Behavioral Factors

How victims are portrayed in fictional crime dramas is an important way that individuals come to understand and interpret what it means to be a victim of crime. We examine how demographic variables (e.g., gender, race, age), incident variables (e.g., location of offense, relationship between victim and offender, type of crime), and behavioral variables (e.g., drug use/alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, negative personality traits, or concealing elements of personality) predict victim blame. Although some literature has analyzed victims in fictional crime dramas, such literature has been limited to a single year, a single show, a particular crime, or a particular factor. We extend this literature by focusing on multiple factors that predict victim blame using data collected from a systematic sample of 124 episodes from 4 fictional crime dramas (CSI, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Criminal Minds, and Without a Trace) over 7 years (2003–2010).     

A THEORY OF CRIME RESISTANCE AND SUSCEPTIBILITY*

The “causes of crime” research has up to this point focused on those events and conditions that push or pressure individuals into crime (strains), that pull or attract individuals to crime (social learning for crime), and that restrain individuals from responding to pressures and attractions with crime (controls). Work in several areas, however, has suggested that the response to the pressures for and attractions to crime is not simply a function of controls. It is also a function of the individual's resistance or susceptibility to the events and conditions described by strain and social learning theories. Those high in resistance are less likely to experience these criminogenic events and conditions as pressures for or attractions to crime, whereas those high in susceptibility are more likely. Resistance and susceptibility are a function of factors that influence the perception and interpretation of criminogenic events and conditions, the emotional reaction to them, and the behavioral inclinations prompted by them. These factors include negativity, pleasure and sensation seeking, conventional efficacy and perceived social support, and general sensitivity to the environment. With certain notable exceptions, these factors have been neglected in mainstream crime research, but they have the potential to improve the explanation and prediction of crime substantially.     

Having a Bad Month: General Versus Specific Effects of Stress on Crime

We examine whether particular types of stress are related to particular types of crime or whether all types of stress are related to all types of crime. Our estimates are based on analyses of within-individual change over a 36 month period among recently incarcerated offenders. We find that assault is most strongly related to family stress, suggesting that conflicts between family members lead to assault. Economic crimes (property crimes and selling illicit drugs) are most clearly related to financial stress, suggesting that these crimes often reflect attempts to resolve financial problems. On the other hand, crime is generally unrelated to stress from illness/injury, death, and work. The results support the idea that criminal behavior is a focused response to specific types of problems rather than a general response to stress. They are more consistent with explanations that focus on perceived rewards and costs (e.g., the rational-choice approach) than with explanations that portray negative affect as a generalized impetus toward violence or crime (e.g., frustration aggression approaches).     

Crime is the Problem: Homicide,Acquisitive Crime,and Economic Conditions

A question that emerges from recent research on the relationship between economic conditions and street crimes committed for monetary gain concerns the effect of changing economic conditions on violent crime. I propose that the economy stimulates violent crime indirectly through its effect on acquisitive crime. This hypothesis is evaluated in fixed-effects panel models of change in acquisitive crime and homicide rates between 1970 and 2006. The analysis indicates that collective perceptions of economic conditions have a significant effect on an index of acquisitive crime and an indirect effect, through acquisitive crime, on homicide. Consistent with this result, the effect of collective economic perceptions is stronger for felony than argument-related homicides. A promising focus for future research is the role of underground markets in the production of both property and violent crime.

Drug-Related and Economic Crime Among Unauthorized Latino Immigrant and Other Arrestees in California

Abstract

This paper employs 1994-1996 California Drug Use Forecasting (CALDUF) and 1994 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC-MIRSS) data to estimate the level and determinants of drug-related and economic crime among unauthorized Latino immigrant and other arrestees in California. Controlling for various potential individual, contextual and geographic determinants, logistic regression results suggest the use of illicit drugs, having entered the United States more recently and residing in a home without paying any rent or mortgage positively-and residing in a home where another is dependent on an illegal substance negatively-influenced being apprehended for a drug-related crime. Although being an unauthorized Latino resident also had no effect on having been arrested for an economic crime, U.S.-born blacks and Latinos as well as non-Latino immigrants were each more likely than non-Latino U.S.-born whites to be arrested, as were younger females. Working full time and depending on another for a place to live diminished the probability. In sum, although illicit drug use augmented the probability of having been arrested for a drug-related crime, neither this nor unauthorized residency status among Latinos increased the likelihood of being arrested for an economic crime. A concluding section discusses several policy implications.     

GHETTOS,THRESHOLDS, AND CRIME: DOES CONCENTRATED POVERTY REALLY HAVE AN ACCELERATING INCREASING EFFECT ON CRIME?*

Theories make varying predictions regarding the functional form of the relationship between neighborhood poverty and crime rates, ranging from a diminishing positive effect, to a linear positive effect, to an exponentially increasing or even threshold effect. Nonetheless, surprisingly little empirical evidence exists testing this functional form. This study estimates the functional form of the relationship between poverty and various types of serious crime in a sample of census tracts for 25 cities, and it finds that a diminishing positive effect most appropriately characterizes this relationship whether estimating the models nonparametrically or parametrically. Only for the crime of murder does some evidence exist of an accelerating effect, although this occurs in the range of 20 to 40 percent in poverty, with a leveling effect on crime beyond this point of very high poverty. Thus, no evidence is found here in support of the postulate of scholars extending William Julius Wilson's (1987) insight that neighborhoods with very high levels of poverty will experience an exponentially higher rate of crime compared with other neighborhoods.     

A psychological perspective on vulnerability in the fear of crime

Abstract

This paper examines vulnerability and risk perception in the fear of crime. Past studies have often treated gender and age as proxies for vulnerability, and on the few occasions that vulnerability has been operationalized, there has been little agreement on the mechanisms that underpin perceived susceptibility. To develop a more theoretically-driven approach, the current study examines whether markers of vulnerability are associated with higher levels of fear through mediating assessments of likelihood, control and consequence. Females are found to worry more frequently than males partly because (a) they feel less able to physically defend themselves, (b) they have lower perceived self-efficacy, (c) they have higher perceived negative impact, and (d) they see the likelihood of victimization as higher for themselves and for their social group. Younger people are also found to worry more frequently than older people, but differential vulnerability does not explain this association. Finally, structural equation modelling shows that the effects on worry of physical defence capabilities, self-efficacy and perceived consequence are mostly mediated through judgements of absolute and relative risk. Conclusions focus on the implications of this finding for debates about the rationality of the fear of crime.     

Multilevel Longitudinal Impacts of Incivilities: Fear of Crime, Expected Safety, and Block Satisfaction

Several aspects of the incivilities thesis, or the role of social and physical disorder in encouraging crime and fear, deserve further testing. These include examining individual- and streetblock-level impacts on reactions to crime and local commitment over time, and testing for lagged and co-occurring impacts at each level. We model these four types of impacts on three reactions to crime and community satisfaction using a panel study of residents (n = 305) on fifty streetblocks, interviewed two times a year apart. At the individual level, incivilities showed unambiguous, lagged impacts on satisfaction, fear, and worry; furthermore, changes in perceived incivilities accompanied changes in resident satisfaction and fear. At the streetblock level: incivilities failed to demonstrate expected lagged impacts on either of the two outcomes where data structures permitted such impacts; changing incivilities, however, were accomp-anied by changing community satisfaction and changing perceptions of relative risk. Before we conclude that lagged ecological impacts of incivilities are weaker than previous theorizing suggests, we must resolve some outstanding theoretical and methodological issues.     

Traits and states at work: lure,risk and personality as predictors of occupational crime

This study linked individual characteristics to proximate factors operating in the moment of decision-making to predict occupational crime. We distinguished between people’s task-related conscience, as embodied by the Conscientiousness personality trait, and a more general moral conscience as embodied by the Honesty-Humility trait, hypothesizing that both traits are differentially related to the way situational characteristics, such as costs and benefits, are perceived. We operationalized the concept of ‘felt lure’ emanating from the benefits of a crime, defining it as an affective state that tempts people to commit a criminal act, and examined it next to perceived risk of sanction as a proximate predictor of criminal choice. In line with our predictions, Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility significantly predicted occupational criminal choice as did felt lure and perceived risk. Specifically, perceived risk and felt lure mediated the relations between Conscientiousness and Honesty-Humility on the one hand, and occupational criminal choice on the other.     

Interviewing serious offenders: Ms. Egghead meets Mr. Gumshoe

Organised crime, due to its intricate nature, is a very challenging as well as less accessible research field. Although difficult to conduct a methodical research on this topic, organised crime, nevertheless, offers a unique opportunity to utilise an interdisciplinary research methodology. This paper describes (multiple) triangulation as an appropriate method for researching the role of culture in the advancement of ethnic Albanian organised crime groups in Europe. Triangulation, for the purpose of the described project, has been used to obtain confirmation of findings through convergence of different perspectives. Interviewing offenders is one of the research methods more thoroughly explained in this paper. The paper too explores some advantages of snowball technique used for interviewing less accessible research subjects. It also discusses various dilemmas, security-related or not, researchers are faced with when intending to interview serious offenders.

DNA in the Criminal Justice System: The DNA Success Story in Perspective,

Current figures on the efficiency of DNA as an investigative tool in criminal investigations only tell part of the story. To get the DNA success story in the right perspective, we examined all forensic reports from serious (N = 116) and high‐volume crime cases (N = 2791) over the year 2011 from one police region in the Netherlands. These data show that 38% of analyzed serious crime traces (N = 384) and 17% of analyzed high‐volume crime traces (N = 386) did not result in a DNA profile. Turnaround times (from crime scene to DNA report) were 66 days for traces from serious crimes and 44 days for traces from high‐volume crimes. Suspects were truly identified through a match with the Offender DNA database of the Netherlands in 3% of the serious crime cases and in 1% of the high‐volume crime cases. These data are important for both the forensic laboratory and the professionals in the criminal justice system to further optimize forensic DNA testing as an investigative tool.