BARS,BLOCKS, AND CRIMES REVISITED: LINKING THE THEORY OF ROUTINE ACTIVITIES TO THE EMPIRICISM OF “HOT SPOTS”*

Anticipating recent developments in routine activities theory, Roncek and Bell (1981) found that bars and taverns had detrimental effects on crime on residential city blocks in Cleveland for 1970. We replicate and extend their work by examining the effects of recreational liquor establishments (i.e., taverns and cocktail lounges) on crime from 1979 to 1981 on Cleveland's residential city blocks. The number of such businesses on residential city blocks has positive and statistically significant effects on the amount of crime. The effects on crime are compounded when the businesses are located in areas with physical characteristics that are associated with more anonymity and lower guardianship. Our results reaffirm the value of new developments in routine activities theory that now stress the importance of facilities. They also extend recent work attempting to identify and analyze “hot spots” of crime.     

SUICIDE AS MURDER AT COMMON LAW: Another Chapter in the Falsification of Consensus Theory

The debate among advocates of consensus, pluralist. and Marxist views of the origins of criminal law continues to occupy a central position in contemporary theoretical criminology. This article assesses these positions through a historical inquiry into the law-making and-enforcing processes surrounding self-murder or suicide. Historical data on the criminalization and depenalization of suicide indicate that economic and fiscal interests shaped suicide laws, but these laws were unenforceable because of popular resistance. The significance of these findings for criminological theory is that laws generally thought to be based on consensus were instead grounded in conflict and struggle.     

Alexy on Necessity in Law and Morals*

Robert Alexy has built his original theory of law upon pervasive claims for “necessary” features of law. In this article, I show that Alexy's claims suffer from two difficulties. First, Alexy is never clear about what he means by “necessity.” Second, Alexy writes as if there have been no challenges to claims of conceptual necessity. There have been such challenges and Alexy needs to answer them if his project is to succeed.     

Books: British Politics

P. Cosgrave, Thatcher: the First Term (London, The Bodley Head, 1985)
A. King (ed.), The British Prime Minister (second edition) (London, Macmillan, 1985)
A. Ranney (ed.) Britain at the Polls 1983 (Durham, N.C., Duke University Press, 1985)
D. S. Bell (ed.), The Conservative Government 1979–84: an Interim Report (London, Croom Helm, 1985
S. Fothergill and J. Vincent, The State of the Nation (London, Pan, 1985
Philip Norton (ed.), Parliament in the 1980s (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985
Leo Pliatzky, Paying and Choosing: the Intelligent Person's Guide to the Mixed Economy (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985)
John Grieve Smith (ed.) Strategic Planning in Nationalised Industries (London, Macmillan, 1984)
E. Durbin, New Jerusalem (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985)
Geofrey Foote, The Labour Party's Political Thought (London, Croom Helm, 1985)
D. Selbourne, Against Socialist Illusion: a Radical Argument (London, Macmillan, 1985)
J. Grigg, Lloyd George—From Peace to War (London, Methuen, 1985)
David Dutton, Austen Chamberlain: Gentleman in Politics (Bolton, Ross Anderson Publications 1985)
Norman Flynn, Steve Leach and Carol Vielba, Abolition or Reform? The GLCand the Metropolitan County Councils (London, George Allen & Unwin, 1985)     

Joining the Gang and Becoming a Broder: The Violence of Ethnography in Contemporary Nicaragua

The fact that anthropologists ‘construct’ the field in which they conduct their ethnographic research has long been recognised, but less considered are the ways in which the field can ‘construct’ both the anthropologist and fieldwork practices. In many ways, this process is a natural corollary of the fact that researchers must always adapt and sensitise themselves to the realities of their field locations, and more importantly, the inherently dialogical nature of ethnographic research. At the same time, this ‘construction’ can potentially have more singular ramifications, particularly when fieldwork is carried out in situations characterised by chronic violence. In such circumstances, the ethnographic process almost inevitably exposes the anthropologist to violence, but can also become intrinsically imbued with violence, to the extent that it can make sense to talk of the ‘violence’ of ethnography. This article illustrates this idea through a consideration of the author’s doctoral fieldwork experiences in Managua, Nicaragua, including his ritual initiation into an urban youth gang, and considers some of the ethical and practical ramifications of this experience.