Making the second step before the first: Assessing organized crime

The debate on organized crime has shifted from the question of “myth or reality?” to efforts to come to an assessment of the nature and extent of organized crime. This paper discusses the possibilities and limits of such an endeavor in the case of Germany. A meaningful assessment requires linking the concept of organized crime to clearly defined empirical referents, having a thorough understanding of their dynamics and interrelations, and obtaining valid and reliable data. It is argued that these requirements cannot be met given the present paucity in theory and data. From the available aggregate data contained in the official crime statistics and annual situation reports on organized crime drawn up by the federal police agency BKA no overall trends are discernible. Where trends are identifiable, they mostly pertain not to patterns of criminal cooperation but to contextual factors. In contrast, the analysis of individual cases may serve to shed some light on the situation of organized crime, provided they are put in perspective with a differentiated conceptualization. A four-fold typology of criminal networks based on differences in the social embeddedness of criminal actors suggests that the seriousness of the problem may depend on the likelihood of the manipulation of relevant decision-making processes. Germany is not characterized by alliances between underworld and upperworld, but the existence of criminal networks within the upperworld gives grounds for concern.     

Is It Who You Know,or How Many That Counts? Criminal Networks and Cost Avoidance in a Sample of Young Offenders

The aim of the current study is to assess whether criminal networks can help young offenders avoid contacts with the criminal justice system. We examine the association between criminal network and cost avoidance specifically for the crime of cannabis cultivation in a rural region in Quebec, Canada. A self‐report delinquency survey, administered to the region's quasi‐population of high‐school students (N = 1,166), revealed that a total of 175 adolescents had participated in the cannabis cultivation industry (a 15% lifetime prevalence rate). Forty‐seven respondents (27%), including 29 who were arrested, reported having participated in a cultivation site that was detected by the police. Results indicate that “who you know” matters in the cultivation industry, and is an important independent predictor of arrest: very few young growers who were embedded in adult networks were apprehended. Conversely, embeddedness in a youth network emerged as an independent risk factor, especially embeddedness in larger networks.     

The Economics of Female Recidivism

This article examines the effect of economic incentives on the rearrest rates of 125 women ex-felons. The data are drawn from the TARP experiment designed around the premise that individuals steal largely out of economic need. Many criminologists have argued that female crime is sexual and emotional rather than rational and economic in nature. Results, however, support the expectation that unemployment compensation and employment are negatively associated with rearrests for economic crimes. Also, exogenous factors of criminal background and marital status reveal important differences in post-release behavior.     

A Perspective on Policy and Practice in the Re-Integration of Offenders

Concentrations of unemployment and crime are promoting a slow crisis in the lives of unskilled young men, and obstruct the successful re-integration and resettlement of offenders. At the same time, criminal justice system programmes for offenders are seeking a new balance between treatment approaches and the creation of opportunities. In this article the author reflects on the policy frameworks which give rise to these approaches, and considers the danger that criminal justice systems may place emphasis on diverting people from crime without directing them towards opportunities for re-integration. The author considers the needs of offenders in relation to housing and employment in particular.     

Unemployment and Crime: Toward Resolving the Paradox

While official crime statistics from many countries show that unemployed people have high crime rates and that communities with a lot of unemployment experience a lot of crime, this cross-sectional relationship is very often not found in time-series studies of unemployment and crime. In Australia there have been no individual-level or cross-sectional studies of unemployment and adult crime which have failed to find a positive relationship and no time-series which have supported a positive relationship. Consistent with this pattern, a time series of homicide from 1921 to 1987 in Australia reveals no significant unemployment effect. A theoretical resolution of this apparent paradox is advanced in terms of the effect of female employment on crime in a partriarchal society. Crime is posited as a function of both total unemployment and female employment. When female employment is added to the model, it has a strong positive effect on homicide, and unemployment also assumes a strong positive effect.     

“Last Hired,First Fired”: The Effect of the Unemployment Rate on the Probability of Repeat Offending

Research examining the connection between the unemployment rate and the aggregate crime is inconclusive. One explanation for the inconsistent findings is that the unemployment rate influences the criminal activity of repeat and first-time offenders in different ways. Results support this thesis by revealing an inverted U-shaped association between the unemployment rate and the probability of repeat offending. The curvilinear relationship likely results from repeat offenders and those lacking a criminal record entering and exiting the labor force at different levels of unemployment. Our findings highlight the role that the unemployment rate plays in affecting repeat offending and underscore the importance of distinguishing between repeat and first-time offending when analyzing the effect of the unemployment rate on crime.     

EXAMINING THE GENERALITY OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT–CRIME ASSOCIATION

This article examines whether the relationship between unemployment and criminal offending depends on the type of crime analyzed. We rely on fixed‐effects regression models to assess the association between changes in unemployment status and changes in violent crime, property crime, and driving under the influence (DUI) over a 6‐year period. We also examine whether the type of unemployment benefit received moderates the link to criminal behavior. We find significantly positive effects of unemployment on property crime but not on other types of crime. Our estimates also suggest that unemployed young males commit less crime while participating in active labor market programs when compared with periods during which they receive standard unemployment benefits.     

CRIMINAL ACHIEVEMENT, OFFENDER NETWORKS AND THE BENEFITS OF LOW SELF-CONTROL

This study follows recent research on criminal earnings and examines the impact of underlying traits (low self-control) and personal organization features (nonredundant networking) on the criminal earnings of a sample of incarcerated offenders previously involved in market and predatory crimes. Controlling for various background factors (age, noncriminal income, lambda and costs of doing crime), both low self-control and nonredundant networking independently explain why some offenders are more successful than others in achieving higher monetary standards through crime. Although efficient, brokerage-like networking enhances market offenders' earnings, low self-control emerges as an asset for predatory offenders: the lower their self-control, the higher their criminal earnings. For market offenders, however, low self-control has no direct effect, but it does mitigate the impact of effective networking on criminal earnings. The results emerging from this study have implications for Gottfredson and Hirschi's theory of crime and the advent of a criminal network perspective. Extensions are also made toward the conventional/criminal embeddedness framework and deterrence research.     

Adolescents as offenders, social order, and the morality of work in a postindustrial society: The Australian experience

This article argues that traditional views of employment as both financially necessary and morally imperative for guaranteeing a relatively smooth transition from adolescence to responsible adult status are naive in the context of a postindustrial society. Increased youth unemployment since the mid-1970s has excited considerable anxiety and debate about the criminal potential of “youth,” generating debate and research claiming a causal link between youth unemployment and crime. Analyzing this gives rise to inquiry about some of the old assurances and certitudes of full-time, waged labor in a context where full-time, waged labor is steadily becoming a minority activity for most people of working age. The pursuance of youth, political, and economic policies based on assumptions about an indefinite growth in the labor market, or a return to the “full-time employment” of the past, are problematic and require rethinking. Rather than providing corrective measures that entail the restoration of now unfeasible certainties (“full” employment), effort can be better spent appreciating the significance of the shift toward a postindustrial society and considering other ways of providing the inner stability and the fundamental social experiences for young people once obtained through waged work.     

Reconsidering the unemployment and crime relationship: Variation by age group and historical period

Although considerable research has examined the direct effects of age and economic conditions on crime, relatively little work has investigated the joint influence that age and unemployment may have on rates of criminal behavior. This study extends prior research on the unemployment-crime relationship by testing simultaneously for (1) variation in the unemployment-crime relationship by age group and (2) variation in the unemployment-crime relationship over time. Age-specific arrest and unemployment time-series data for the United States from 1958 to 1995 are used to test these hypotheses. The two main findings indicate that (1) unemployment has a greater motivational effect on property crime among youth and young adults and (2) the unemployment-crime relationship varies over time, but in a way that appears to be more random than systematic. The implications for future research are discussed.     

侵犯注册商标权犯罪问题研究

侵犯注册商标权犯罪是当前实践中比较突出的问题 ,正确理解和认定刑法规定的三种侵犯注册商标权犯罪对于运用刑法惩治当前制售假冒伪劣商品犯罪具有重要的理论指导意义。本文认为 ,注册商标罪只能由直接故意构成 ;对“明知”的理解应区分存在论意义上和司法推定层面的不同 ;应明确“销售金额”、“违法所得数额”、“非法经营数额”各有不同的内涵     

“四要件论”——质疑犯罪标准引论

20世纪50年代引自苏联的犯罪构成四要件理论,在新刑法确立罪刑法定原则、废除类推制度后,缺陷凸现,已不能适应新形势下司法实践的要求,难以提供犯罪标准.依犯罪标准为目标的犯罪构成理论应坚持法定性和实践性原则,在科学地解释刑法中对犯罪的全部规定基础上,建立符合刑事司法实践内在逻辑、逐级深化的开放式立体体系.重构犯罪标准理论体系,对于落实罪刑法定原则、解决原理论与司法实践脱节的缺陷,满足司法人员定罪需要具有极其重要的意义.     

试论刑事一体化模式下的犯罪预防

犯罪预防是刑法学尤其是犯罪学中的一项重要命题,对犯罪预防的研究一直都为刑法学家和犯罪学家所重视。而且,开展犯罪预防工作也是刑事立法和司法活动中的重要环节。要行之有效地进行犯罪预防,最重要的莫过于犯罪预防体系的建立。刑事一体化主要是一种认识和处理犯罪和刑罚问题的刑事法研究思路,这种思路付诸于司法实践就要求综合运用刑事法所涵盖的诸多学科知识全方位、多角度地对犯罪和刑罚做出整体的透视,以期获得全面科学的认识,其中就必然包含了犯罪预防方面的内容。     

Working Through Work Release: An Analysis of Factors Associated with the Successful Completion of Work Release

In line with reentry and life course research that has shown increases in desistance for individuals connected with employment, work release programming attempts to achieve desistance from crime by linking criminal offenders to the labor market while in the correctional system. Recent research has speculated that the completion of rigorous employment programming may serve as a signal to employers that criminal careers have ceased and the offenders are employable. Therefore, it is important to understand factors associated with successful program completion. This study utilizes a sample of jail-based work release participants to explore factors correlated with program completion. Consistent with prior research, we find that offenders who are older, Caucasian, and employed at time of arrest are more likely to complete the program and that minority participants and those with prior mental health treatment are less likely to complete the program.     

WORK,INCOME SUPPORT,AND CRIME IN THE DUTCH WELFARE STATE: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY FOLLOWING VULNERABLE YOUTH INTO ADULTHOOD

Life‐course criminological research has consistently suggested that employment can reduce criminal behavior. However, it is unclear whether the financial aspects of employment or the social control that inheres in employment best explains the relationship between employment and reduced offending. By using longitudinal information on a sample of men and women (N = 540) who were institutionalized in a Dutch juvenile justice institution in the 1990s, this study examines the effects of employment as well as the different types of income support on crime. Random‐ and fixed‐effects models show that for men, both work and income support are associated with a reduction in the rate of offending. For women, however, although employment is correlated with a lower offending rate, receiving income support, and in particular disability benefits, is correlated with a higher offending rate. The findings support both theories that stress the financial motivation for crime as well as theories that emphasize the importance of informal social control for reducing offending.     

Race,the Economic Maturity Gap,and Criminal Offending in Young Adulthood

While research has documented that racial and ethnic groups are differentially involved in juvenile and adult crime, little research has examined whether economic and employment well‐being can explain Black and White adolescents' persistence in criminal activity into young adulthood. One potential explanation emerges from Moffitt, who posits an economic maturity gap to explain Blacks' greater persistence in offending in young adulthood. To evaluate this hypothesis, we draw on three waves of data available in the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health to examine whether economic and employment well‐being in young adulthood can account for the racial gap, and persistence in offending. Findings are consistent with Moffitt's hypothesis and indicate that economic and employment well‐being in young adulthood explain Blacks' greater involvement in criminal and violent offending in young adulthood. In addition, results indicate that the greater tendency of Blacks, compared to Whites, to persist in violent offending is also driven by the reduced economic and employment well‐being that Blacks face in young adulthood.     

分裂国家罪及其司法认定

我国刑法关于分裂国家罪的立法规定,经历了一个历史发展过程.近年来,各种形式的分裂国家犯罪活动在全国范围内时有发生,对该罪的惩治面临着严峻的形势.2005年3月,十届全国人大通过《反分裂国家法》,也给我们研究分裂国家罪带来了新的课题.因此,了解分裂国家罪的立法概况,研究分裂国家罪的特征以及司法认定,有重大现实意义.     

“Prison doesn’t stop them” Orchestrating criminal acts from behind bars

This article is about crime entrepreneurs that manage to organize criminal acts in the outside world, while being imprisoned. An examination of police intelligence on 13 cases, the Dutch penitentiary law, visits to two prisons and interviews with prison and law enforcement staff leads to the conclusion that for criminal leaders, whose most important tool for committing crimes is communication, there are a lot of possibilities, and little thresholds, for managing their criminal organisation from prison. The paradigms of reintegration of criminals and internal security in prison dominate the design of Dutch prison regimes. As a result, there are many opportunities for prisoners to communicate with the world outside. The findings of the case study are set against the theoretical background of the routine activity approach (R.A.T.). This theory provides a suitable conceptual framework to explain the forms of criminal behaviour found in the case study and it invites giving recommendations for situational crime prevention. An important notion for understanding the problem of crime that is organized from behind bars, that applying R.A.T. led to, is the physical distance between the ??motivated offender?? and his ??target??. In other words, the offender is imprisoned and his target is somewhere outside. This means that the guardians that keep an eye on the intellectual offender are others than the guardians that observe the actual offender and the target. For detecting crime organized from prison, a good monitoring of communication of the prisoner and his potential helpers and sufficient exchange of information between the different guardians is essential. Possible preventive measurements can be found in the reduction of communication channels.     

CHANGES IN CRIMINAL OFFENDING AROUND THE TIME OF JOB ENTRY: A STUDY OF EMPLOYMENT AND DESISTANCE

Does employment promote desistance from crime? Most perspectives assume that individuals who become employed are less likely to offend than those who do not. The critical issue has to do with the timing of employment transitions in the criminal trajectory. The turning point hypothesis expects reductions in offending after job entries, whereas the maturation perspective assumes desistance to have occurred ahead of successful transitions to legitimate work. Focusing on a sample of recidivist males who became employed during 2001–2006 (N = 783), smoothing spline regression techniques were used to model changes in criminal offending around the point of entry to stable employment. Consistent with the maturation perspective, the results showed that most offenders had desisted prior to the employment transition and that becoming employed was not associated with further reductions in criminal behavior. Consistent with the turning point hypothesis, we identified a subset of offenders who became employed during an active phase of the criminal career and experienced substantial reductions in criminal offending thereafter. However, this trajectory describes less than 2 percent of the sample. The patterns observed in this research suggest that transition to employment is best viewed as a consequence rather than as a cause of criminal desistance.     

CRIMINAL GROUP EMBEDDEDNESS AND THE ADVERSE EFFECTS OF ARRESTING A GANG'S LEADER: A COMPARATIVE CASE STUDY

Although law enforcement agencies arrest criminal group leaders to dismantle organized crime, few studies have assessed whether such interventions produce adverse effects. Through a mixed‐method comparative case study of the Latin Kings and 22 Boys street gangs in Chicago, this article examines the consequences of arresting a gang's leader. Using violent crime data, I show that a spike in violent crime took place in the first month after the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader. In contrast, the arrest of the Latin Kings gang leader produced no change in violent crime. Using several qualitative data sources, I show that the arrest of the 22 Boys gang leader temporarily led to the gang's withdrawal from its territory, which spurred violent aggression from rival gangs in adjacent territories. In contrast, the Latin Kings gang continued its operations because the gang's prison leaders quickly appointed new leadership. The results suggest that criminal group embeddedness (or the social relations between criminal groups) can contribute to adverse effects in interventions targeting gang or other criminal group leaders.