THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS ON ROBBERY AND PROPERTY CRIME: THE ROLE OF CONSUMER SENTIMENT*

Despite its long history in criminology, research on the relationship between macroeconomic conditions and rates of common crime remains limited. That is in part because many analysts doubt that any systematic relationship exists and in part because of disagreement with regard to the validity of the indicators typically used to measure economic conditions. We argue in this article that good theoretical reasons exist to expect macroeconomic effects on crime rates, but many theories imply that collective perceptions of economic hardship should have effects on crime that are independent of those of more “objective” economic indicators. To evaluate this argument, we examine the relationships between the Index of Consumer Sentiment and regional robbery, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft rates in the United States between 1970 and 2003, which was a period of large swings in both consumer sentiment and instrumental crime. Controlling for several factors thought to influence temporal variation in crime rates, we find that consumer sentiment had significant effects on robbery and property crime rates over the period that were largely independent of the effects of unemployment and economic growth. We also find that consumer sentiment accounted for a sizable fraction of the crime decline during the 1990s and yields reasonably accurate predictions of changes in the four offenses in 2004 and in two of the four offenses in 2005. We conclude that the effects of collective economic perceptions should become an important focus of future research on crime trends.     

论消费信用卡透支风险的法律监管制度建设

消费信用卡给发卡行带来新的利润增长点的同时 ,也对其造成一定的风险。风险背后的深层原因是制度的缺陷。我国信用卡业务的制度缺陷主要体现在银行对持卡人拖欠透支款缺乏有效催款措施、健全的个人信用制度、信用卡担保保证制度以及完善、统一的消费信贷法规。要改变这一现状 ,促进信用卡的健康发展 ,我国应在上述几个方面加强建设步伐 ,逐步建立一个有法可依的消费信贷法律制度体系。     

‘A MAD age’: Heibon Punch,student protest,the media and consumer society in Cold War Japan

Abstract

In the 1960s, Heibon Punch became one of the most popular weekly magazines in Japan. It was the first weekly magazine aimed at young men and I examine here a selection of articles from the late 1960s, a period of violent student protests and international uncertainty, to argue that the importance of Heibon Punch can be found in the creation of a commodified urban, male subjectivity. In the pages of Heibon Punch, the counter-cultures that were emerging along with the protest movements taking to the streets of the major cities, became firmly embedded within the ideological state promotion of a consumer culture. The government's explicit connection of national development to domestic consumption after the ANPO protests was tied to American military and economic power, and was simply one more assault on popular sovereignty. In the pages of Heibon Punch, the political nature of the social and economic transformations wrought by high-speed economic growth was effaced by the relentless consumerisation of individual subjectivity. I place the magazine, its editorial stance and mediatisation of subjectivity, within the broader emergence of an urban, middle-class culture of consumption that served to blur the contours of individual male subjectivity, and was, in many ways, a precursor of neo-liberal subjectivities that emerged full-blown both politically and economically in the 1970s and 1980s. By pressing its readers to decide for themselves how to negotiate the identities, ideas, and goods on offer in its pages, Heibon Punch shifted the focus of political subjectivity from the established social and political system to the core of the individual subject.     

The internal consumer response process: Towards an integrated conceptual model

Abstract

Most existing consumer response models explain consumer response processes in a simplistic linear and sequential manner (Strong 1925; Lavidge & Steiner 1961; Rogers 1962; McGuire 1978; Ray 1973; Smith & Swinyard 1982; Vaughn 1980; Petty & Cacioppo 1983; Preston 1982; Moriarty, Mitchell and Wells 2008), ignoring variables or factors which could alter the response process order. Although various theorists criticised existing consumer response models mainly because of this (Belch & Belch 2001; Hanekom 2006; Hanekom, Barker & Angelopulo 2007; Moriarty et al. 2008; Del Barrio-Garcia & Luque-Martinez 2003; Mortimer 2002; Wu [sa]; Bendixen 1993; Wilmshurst 1985), no efforts have been made to develop a conceptual model to address these limitations. The main objective of this article is, therefore, to develop an integrated conceptual model for the internal consumer response process through a comprehensive qualitative literature review and theoretical analysis of existing advertising response models. This model integrates existing and original consumer response levels and phases, and appends specific variables to each response level that influence the manner in which consumers internally proceed through the diverse response processes. Furthermore, the proposed model will allow the execution of more specific objectives which include (a) to propose a paradigm shift from advertising consumer response models to integrated marketing communication response models; (b) to systematise existing consumer response models by arranging them into three proposed paradigms, based on their focal aim; and (c) to develop an integrated marketing communication internal consumer response model, depicting eight internal consumer response levels, consisting of diverse internal consumer response phases.     

我国金融消费者权益行政法保护主体制度研究——现状分析与完善建议

在当代公共行政发展的趋势下,我国金融消费者权益行政法保护主体分为监管部门和社会组织两类。在对金融消费者权益提供保护的实践中存在监管部门之间协同合作机制缺失、行业协会等社会组织权威性缺失问题,建议通过完善联席会议制度加强监管部门的协同合作,通过立法赋予行业协会等市场组织更大的独立性与权威性,从而构建多元化的金融消费者权益行政法保护主体。     

网络交易中经营者与消费者的权益平衡

经营者与消费者作为网络交易的双方主体,在市场经济体制下对其权益全面加以保护具有异乎寻常的重要性。然而,现行理论总是立足于消费者一方的权益保护,而忽视经营者一方的权益保护。为平衡网络交易中消费者与经营者的权益,挖掘现行网络交易中的双方权益平衡的缺陷,本文参考外国相关法律法规,从网络交易运行模式和法律视角探寻网络交易中经营者与消费者的权益平衡方式,以完善网络交易市场,促进市场经济秩序的完善。     

Electoral Choice

ABSTRACT

The study examines the electoral psychology of voters, focusing on voters' locus of control, perceived risk, voter decision involvement and electoral control and positive affect as determinants of political satisfaction and voting stability in elections. The results indicated that locus of control influences voters' perceived risk and feelings of electoral control in elections. Further, locus of control and perceived risk influence voter decision involvement, which in turn influences perceived electoral control. Also, voter decision involvement and positive affect influence satisfaction. These, in turn, influence the propensity to vote for the same candidate or party over time (stability of voting behavior).     

Consumer Redress Legislation: Simplifying or Subverting the Law of Contract

The growth of statutory consumer protection regimes in modern commercial societies has the potential profoundly to disrupt the private law landscape. Such schemes aim to increase access to justice for consumers by offering simplified and clear suites of rights and corresponding remedies. In so doing, however, they affect core areas of private law rights and remedies, and may come to undermine or replace existing contractual principles and policies. The result could be an incoherent system of private law with different principles and rules applying to commercial and consumer transactions. Coherence in the law requires that lawyers abandon their traditional ‘oil and water’ attitudes to legislative schemes and confront directly the interactions between these two bodies of law. This paper engages in that enquiry by considering the relationship between the relatively new consumer redress provisions in the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and general law principles.     

院前急救法律关系探究——患者拨打120后的法律关系分析

120急救中心与患者的关系在院前医疗法律关系研究中还处于一个相对薄弱的研究领域,理论界对其研究不够成熟,实务界也存在很多问题。关于两者法律关系的定位及120急救中心的性质、权利义务等问题尚待进一步确实。通过对120急救中心的性质分析,及其与患者之间的法律关系定位,以及医疗急救服务合同的内容的分析等方面阐述自己的一点看法。最后通过一点建议希望能对实务有所借鉴和启发。     

美国2009年《个人消费者金融保护署法案》及其对我国金融监管法制的启示

为应对金融危机,保护金融消费者利益,加强对金融机构的监管,预防金融系统性风险的发生,奥巴马政府酝酿对美国金融监管体系进行彻底改革,其改革方案的核心就是设立个人消费者金融保护署。对于金融监管法律存在诸多缺陷、金融消费者权利保障不到位以及没有构建应对系统性风险的我国金融法律制度来说,美国2009年《个人消费者金融保护署法案》在金融消费者权利保护及存在系统性风险金融产品及服务监管方面是一个可以借鉴的“他山之石”。