The criminological potential of pure sociology

The pure sociology perspective invented by Donald Black, a general theoretical framework for the prediction and explanation of social reality, has considerable potential for the scientific understanding of criminal behavior. Several scholars have profitably drawn upon Black’s proposal that a significant amount of crime is a form of disputing or social control, especially to explain violent conflict. However, pure sociology has not yet been extended and applied to criminal behavior more broadly. A pure sociology of predatory behavior, for instance, would address the location and direction in social space of predators, prey, and third parties. In expanding criminological thought, however, pure sociology also challenges it. Pure sociology explanations are not restricted by time or place, a feature not easily realized with a concept so closely tied to a relatively recent social invention: the state. Additionally, the supra-psychological, -anthropocentric, and -teleological nature of pure sociology generates explanations of behavior that are at odds with many of the assumptions of traditional criminology. Ultimately, then, pure sociology yields a new paradigm for the explanation of behavior the state defines as criminal. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology. Toronto, November 17, 2005.     

Public Scrutiny, Standards and the Planning System: Assessing Professional Values within a Modernized Local Government

Since the 1990s there has been a long-standing concern in government towards public sector accountability, management, efficiency and service delivery. A number of studies have attempted to analyse the multitude of individual changes and their manifestations through analyses based on a variety of institutional, policy and governmental distinctions. This paper attempts to specify the changes with particular reference to planning, and to consider the evolution of the public service ethic in planning towards more openness, scrutiny, transparency and efficiency with particular reference to the changing ethos of the professional employee. We first explore the  main impacts upon local government, the public service ethic and professional planning as a consequence of the Modernization agenda and freedoms and flexibilities initiative. We then look at how such changes have impacted upon the ethos and values in public service and planning. We draw on some evidence of Ombudsman cases to highlight issues of professional values in planning practice over the past decade before finally drawing these strands together in some conclusions. Our principal findings indicate that the much-trumpeted decline of services and standards may not have been as apparent as is sometimes portrayed and that internal professional attitudes and values towards the external changes may not have significantly altered over the same period.     

Rape,burglary, and opportunity

Following on the recent development of opportunity theory in criminology, we apply an opportunity approach to rape. Although rape is commonly viewed as a street crime, a substantial proportion of rape occurs inside homes following an unlawful entry of the residence. Drawing on this observation, we argue that rape and burglary, because they share a common locus in the home, should exhibit similar opportunity structures. That is, characteristics that place particular types of homes and householders at greater risk of burglary should also place (female) residents at greater risk of rape. An analysis of UCR rates and censusderived opportunity variables for 155 SMSAs in 1980 supports this position. We conclude that home-intrusion rape (rape following an unlawful entry of the home) is a violent crime with the opportunity structure of a property crime.     

Reviews

Recently, various authors have examined the relationship between growth in government size and total economic growth. In each case, the authors permitted only a monotonic relationship. This paper examines the issue of a non-linear relationship between growth in government and overall growth in the economy.Government contributes to total economic output in various ways. The provision of Pigovian public goods enhances the productivity of the private sector inputs increasing total output. However, the public decision-making process can result in an inefficient quantity of public goods. The likelihood of this outcome increases with the size of government. Further negative effects are created by the revenue raising and spending mechanisms of government, and the increasing diversion of resources into unproductive rent-seeking activities. The magnitude of these effects is likely to increase with the relative size of government.     

Reviews

Terry Cox and Gary Littlejohn, eds., Kritsman and the Agrarian Marxists. (Library of Peasant Studies, No. 7), London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1984, 149 pp., £18.50.

S. G. Wheatcroft and R. W. Davies eds., Materials for a balance of the Soviet national economy 1928–1930 (with foreword by Richard Stone). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985, xxiv + 467 pp., £35.00, $59.50.

I. Birman, Ekonomika nedostach. New York: Chalidze Publications, 1983, 470 pp.

Richard F. Staar, USSR Foreign Policies After Detente. Stanford, Ca: Hoover Institution Press, 1985, xxvii + 300 pp., h/b $26.95, p/b $10.95.

John J. Maresca, To Helsinki: The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe 1973–1975. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1985, xiii + 292 pp., £47.50.

Mark V. Kauppi and R. Craig Nation eds., The Soviet Union and the Middle East in the 1980s. Lexington, Mass, and Toronto: Lexington Books, D.C. Heath and Company, 1983, ix + 293 pp., £25.00.

Jonathan Haslam, The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective Security in Europe, 1933–1939. New York: St. Martin's, 1984, xii + 310 pp., $29.95.

Alfred L. Monks, Soviet Military Doctrine: 1960 to the Present. New York: Irvington Publishers, 1985, xii + 351 pp., $34.50.

Jeffrey D. Boutwell, Paul Doty, and Gregory F. Treverton eds., The Nuclear Confrontation in Europe. London: Croom Helm, 1985, 247 pp., £22.50.

Condoleezza Rice, The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948–1983: Uncertain Allegiance. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984, xiv + 303 pp. Tables. £40.40.

Vitaly Rapoport and Yuri Alexeev, High Treason: Essays on the History of the Red Army, 1918–1938. Translated by Bruce Adams. Durham: Duke University Press, 1985, xvii + 436 pp., £35.00.

Robert Conquest, Inside Stalin's Secret Police. NKVD Politics 1936–1939. Stanford, California: Hoover Institution Press, 1985, ix + 222 pp., $22.95.

Jeffrey T. Richelson, Sword and Shield. The Soviet Intelligence and Security Apparatus. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Company, 1986, xix + 279 pp., $39.95 h/b, $16.95 p/b.

P. Marer, Dollar GNPs of the USSR and Eastern Europe. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London: For the World Bank. 1985, xiii + 241 pp., £20.00.

Moshe Lewin, The Making of the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia. London: Methuen, 1985, viii + 354 pp., £19.00 h/b, £8.95 p/b.

Eric P. Hoffmann and Robbin F. Laird, Technocratic Socialism: the Soviet Union in the Advanced Industrial Era. Durham: Duke University Press, 1985, viii + 228 pp. h/b £37.50, p/b £12.50.

Robert Cassen ed., Soviet Interests in the Third World. London: Sage Publications, 1985, xi + 329 pp., h/b £27.50, p/b £10.50.

Václav Havel et al., The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central‐Eastern Europe, Ed. John Keane, Introduction by Steven Lukes. London, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland, Johannesburg: Hutchinson, 1985, 228 pp., £16.95.

Michael M. Boll, Cold War in the Balkans: American Foreign Policy and the Emergence of Communist Bulgaria, 1943–1947. Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1984, ix + 250 pp., £27.50.

Edward R. Girardet, Afghanistan: The Soviet War. London: Croom Helm, 1985, 259 pp., £17.95.

Henry S. Bradsher, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Durham: Duke University Press, 1985, viii + 384 pp., £12.95.

David W. Lovell, Trotsky's Analysis of Soviet Bureaucratization. London: Croom Helm, 1985, ix + 82 pp., £7.95.

Katerina Clark and Michael Holquist, Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge, Mass, and London: Harvard University Press, 1984, xi + 398 pp., £19.95.

Hans‐Georg Heinrich, Hungary. Politics, Economics and Society. London: Frances Pinter, 1986, xviii + 198 pp., £17.50.

Henry Rollet, La Pologne au XX^e Siècle. Paris: éditions A. Pedone, 1985, 603 pp., 240F.

Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski, Ein schwieriger Dialog. Aufzeichnungen zu Ereignissen in Polen 1981–1984. Mit einem Vorwort von Peter Bender. Econ Verlag. Düsseldorf‐Wien 1985. 269 pp. Index. DM. 38,00.

John Ambler, Denis J. B. Shaw and Leslie Symons eds., Soviet and East European Transport Problems. London and Sydney: Croom Helm, 1985, xix + 260 pp., £19.95.

Joan de Bardeleben, The Environment and Marxism‐Leninism: The Soviet and East German Experience. Boulder and London: Westview Press, 1985, xi + 338 pp., no price quoted.

John R. Lampe, The Bulgarian Economy in the Twentieth Century. London: Croom Helm, 1986 x + 245 pp., £25.00.

Pedro Ramet, Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1963–1983. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984, xviii + 299 pp., $27.50.

Boris Meissner, Partei, Staat und Nation in der Sowjetunion. Ausgewdhlte Beitrage. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1985, 544 pp., DM148.00.

Jiri Hochman, The Soviet Union and the Failure of Collective Security, 1934–1938. Cornell Studies in Security Affairs. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1984. 253 pp. $32.95.     

The voter as juror: Attributing responsibility for economic conditions

One assumption of Key's reward-punishment theory that has attracted comparatively little attention is that voters hold the incumbent party responsible for all manner of economic fluctuations. A brief review of the survey literature in economic voting indicates that this assumption is in need of revision. The handful of existing studies in political science on responsibility attribution suffers from a lack of conceptual clarity and a failure to develop a theory of the attribution process. This paper outlines a model of economic voting in which people act as intuitive jurors using various decision rules to evaluate the evidence surrounding the president's responsibility for national economic problems. The generalizability of the framework and directions for future research are discussed     

From IDA to IIROC: Has self-regulation in the Canadian investment industry evolved?

This article analyzes the enforcement practices of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and compares them with its predecessor, the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA). The study collected data from IIROC's tribunal cases decided between June 2008 and December 2019 and compared them with data on the IDA's enforcement of complaints from 1984 to 2008. The findings reveal no statistically significant difference in the fines imposed by the two regulatory bodies. Furthermore, IIROC has refrained from issuing lenient penalties such as retaking examinations/courses or mandating terms and conditions for offenders. The results also indicate no significant impact on the number or distribution of offense types committed in the industry over time. Most notably, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Canadian Securities Regulators, and the new Self-Regulatory Organization of Canada should consider these findings when formulating policies concerning the role of self-regulation in the financial markets.     

Britain and the supergun

The controversy over the case of the Iraqui Supergun project, and over the possible role of British firms in supplying parts for its construction, was major news in 1990, and again in the year and a half following the Gulf War. It led to considerable new coverage, and to an investigation by a Department of Trade and Industry committee into the conduct of industrial firms, and of the officials who monitor arms-related exports. While many have concluded that the supergun affair primarily reflected administrative overload or incompetence, and while the official investigation took a narrow view of the major issues involved, closer scrutiny shows complex dealings among governments, businesses, and well-connected individuals. A full understanding of the supergun affair is only now beginning to emerge.     

Reviews

Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891–1924. London: Jonathan Cape, 1996, xx + 923 pp., £25.00

Hafeez Malik (ed.), The Roles of the United States, Russia and China in the New World Order. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xvi + 333 pp., £47.50.

Leszek Buszynski, Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold War. Westport and London: Praeger, 1996, xiv + 243 pp., £46.95.

Mette Skak, From Empire to Anarchy: Postcommunist Foreign Policy and International Relations. London: C. Hurst & Company, 1996, x + 340 pp., £35.00 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Hans von Zon, The Future of Industry in Central and Eastern Europe. Aldershot: Avebury, 1996, x + 164 pp., £35.00.

Bartlomiej Kaminski (ed.), Economic Transition in Russia and the New States of Eurasia. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996, xviii + 430 pp.

Ben Fowkes, The Disintegration of the Soviet Union: A Study in the Rise and Triumph of Nationalism. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997, xii + 273 pp., £40.00

Juan J. Linz & Alfred Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Southern Europe, South America, and Post‐Communist Europe. London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, xx + 479 pp., £15.50.

David Lane, The Rise and Fall of State Socialism. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996, 233 pp., £12.95.

Reneo Lukic & Allen Lynch, Europe from the Balkans to the Urals: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, xvii + 436 pp.

Thomas Cushman & Stjepan G. Mestrovic (eds), This Time We Knew: Western Responses to Genocide in Bosnia. New York: New York University Press, 1996, ix + 412 pp., $50.00 h/b, $18.95 p/b.

Derek Hall & Darrick Danta (eds), Reconstructing the Balkans. A Geography of the New Southeast Europe. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, 1996, xx + 260 pp., £45.00.

Ajay Patnaik. Central Asia. Between Modernity and Tradition. New Delhi: Konark Publishers, 1996, viii + 238 pp.

Rudolf L. Tokes, Hungary's Negotiated Revolution: Economic Reform, Social Change and Political Succession, 1957–1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xxiii + 544 pp., £19.95.

John D. H. Downing, Internationalizing Media Theory, Transition, Power, Culture, Reflections on Media in Russia, Poland and Hungary 1980–95. London: Sage, 1996, xviii + 269 pp., £45.00 h/b, £13.95 p/b.

Rogers Brubaker, Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, xi + 202 pp., £35.00 h/b, £12.95 p/b.

Donald P. Steury (ed.), Intentions and Capabilities: Estimates on Soviet Strategic Forces, 1950–1983. Washington DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1996, xxii + 504 pp.

R. W. Davies, Crisis and Progress in the Soviet Economy, 1931–1933. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1996, xviii + 612 pp., £65.00.

William Chase, Jeffrey Burds, S. V. Praslova, A. K. Sokolov & E. A. Tiurina (eds), Russian Stale Archive of the Economy: A Research Guide: I. Guide to Collections. Moscow: Blagovest, 1994, xx + 679 pp.

V. P. Butt, A. B. Murphy, N. A. Myshov & G. R. Swain (eds), The Russian Civil War. Documents from the Soviet Archives. London: Macmillan, 1996, xvii + 217 pp., £15.99.

Ilya Somin, Stillborn Crusade: The Tragic Failure of Western Intervention in the Russian Civil War, 1918–1920. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1996, ix + 236 pp., £21.95, $32.99.

David R. Shearer, Industry, State, and Society in Stalin's Russia, 1926–1934. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996, xiv + 263 pp., £33.50 h/b, £14.95 p/b.

Peter H. Solomon Jr., Soviet Criminal Justice under Stalin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, xvii + 494 pp., £55.00 h/b, £19.95 p/b.

Richard G. Hovannisian, The Republic of Armenia, Volume III, From London to Sèvres, February‐August 1920, xx + 534 pp., and Volume IV, Between Crescent and Sickle: Partition and Sovietization, xii + 496 pp. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996. £35.00 each volume.

Ian D. Thatcher & James D. White (eds), Journal of Trotsky Studies. Glasgow: Institute of Russian & East European Studies, 1993–1996, Nos. 1–4, £10.00 (Institutions), £5.00 (Individuals).

Mikhail Baitalsky, Notebooks for the Grandchildren. Recollections of a Trotskyist Who Survived the Stalin Terror, Edited and translated by Marilyn Vogt‐Downey. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, 1996, xviii + 447 pp.

Leopoldina Plut‐Pregelj & Carole Rogel, Historical Dictionary of Slovenia. London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc, 1996, xxvii + 345 pp., £63.65.