Gangs and governance in Russia: the paradox of law and lawlessness

ABSTRACT

The paper addresses the nature of gang governance. It questions the notion that gangs regulate social and economic transactions and create stable orders in certain territories. It shows that, while presenting themselves as upholders of the ‘law’ in their territory, the gangs also create a climate of uncertainty and fear. The gangs manipulate their own unwritten rules and set up traps for residents and businessmen. These traps are designed to deprive non-gang civilians of presumed rights and identities and extort their money. The paper uses Schmitt’s notion of ‘state of exception’ and Agamben’s idea of ‘bare life’ to explain how gangs function.     

Fear,Social Interactions,and Violence Mitigation

The fear of crime is generally considered as a social ill that undermines dimensions of individual well-being. Prior research generally specifies the fear of crime as an outcome variable in order to understand its complex etiology. More recently, however, researchers have suggested fear has a deterrence function whereby it reduces individuals’ involvement in violent encounters. This notion could hold important clues to understand the social sources of violence. We examine whether the fear of crime inhibits involvement in violent encounters, both as offender or victim, and if adjustments in routine activities explain these effects. The results suggest fear of crime reduces violence involvement, in part, by constraining routine activities. We conclude that the fear of crime appears to be a mechanism of violence mitigation that, paradoxically, bolsters physical well-being. The results are discussed with regard to their implications for criminological theory and research on interpersonal violence.     

Deadly Words: State Power and the Entanglement of Speech and Violence in Hate Crime

Any analysis of hate crime that attempts to separate speech from action, language from violence, faces epistemological difficulties that limit the range of conversations about laws responding to identity-based injury in the United States. Active debates have raged over the implications of bias crime sentence enhancement laws for the protection of ‘freespeech’, thus addressing the inextricability of language and meaning from hate crime. Those in favor of legal responses to identity-based injury tend toward essentialist claims which assume the stability of identity and of meanings inherent in words or actions. Those opposed assert the impossibility of codifying the meaning of words or actions in the law, and/or they worry about the reification of (victimized) identities accompanying bias crime statutes. This article argues that the focus on language and speech in these debates simultaneously enables an evasion of discussion about the law's response to bias-related violence, and misleadingly assumes too much stability in the functions of law and the nature of state power. Interviews conducted by the author with individuals involved in a 1992 racist hate crime are used to show the diverse elements of state power suffusing the incident and its aftermath. An analysis of the crime's investigation and prosecution under a Maryland hate crime statute suggests that law enforcement officers are primarily using hate crime laws as public relations tools in a fight against community perceptions that they are themselves bigots. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Policing Intimate Partner Violence in Rural Areas and Small Towns: Policies,Practices, and Perceptions

The extant literature has given only limited consideration to the adoption of intimate partner violence policies and procedures on the part of police organizations, particularly in rural areas and small towns. Using survey data from police agencies in the southern regions of Illinois, this study found that although policies were nearly universal, specific elements varied. Agencies relied heavily on conferences and other departments in formulating their policies, making less use of recommendations from professional associations or the salient literature. The findings suggest variation in how intimate partner violence is perceived and policed in rural areas and small towns while highlighting some of the challenges agencies encounter in addressing this offense within their jurisdictions.     

农村家庭暴力与女性暴力犯罪心理的形成和发展

家庭暴力在我国农村普遍存在,它不仅影响家庭和睦,严重摧残女性的身心健康,而且成为当今社会女性暴力犯罪心理形成的直接诱因。农村受虐女性经历困惑、伤心、绝望无助、报复泄恨等心理变化,最终形成了犯罪心理并在特定情景下激化成暴力犯罪行为。应据此采取有效措施,预防女性暴力犯罪心理、犯罪行为的发生发展。     

严重暴力犯罪案件的特点及处置对策

严重暴力犯罪案件通常具有犯罪的预谋性、发案的突然性，危害的连续性和拒捕的凶残性特点，且不确定的因素增多，对参与处置行动的人民警察构成巨大的威胁。人民警察在处置严重暴力犯罪案件行动时，往往由于情况未明、准备仓促，过分轻敌、心存侥幸等导致较大伤亡。因此，我们在处置严重暴力犯罪案件行动时，必须吸取近年来处置严重暴力犯罪案件时种种血的教训，紧紧围绕国家法律的有关规定，根据严重暴力犯罪案件的不同特点，立足于现有武器装备和当地的实际，多措并举，依法制止严重暴力犯罪，尽量避免或减少人员伤亡、财产损失和恶劣的社会影响，努力提高公安机关处置严重暴力犯罪案件的能力。     

暴力犯罪的内涵与外延

本文认为我国理论上对于暴力犯罪的界定存在值得商榷之处 ,对暴力犯罪的界定 ,重要的并不在于刑法分则条文本身是否明文规定以暴力为犯罪构成要件 ,而在于行为人在实施犯罪时所采取的是否为暴力行为。并根据我国刑法的规定对“暴力犯罪”的范围以及“暴力”的内涵予以分析 ,在此基础上进一步论述了几种法律明文规定的暴力行为。     

Barriers to Seeking Police Help for Intimate Partner Violence

Intimate partner violence is underreported to police. A study was conducted utilizing focus group methodology to identify women's perceptions of the barriers to seeking police help for intimate partner violence (IPV). Facilitators used a structured format with open-ended questions for five focus group sessions that were recorded and subsequently analyzed using Ethnograph software. Participants were 41 women identified from social service agencies in an urban setting serving IPV women with diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Participants identified many barriers for victims, which fell within the following three themes: (1) Predisposing characteristics — situational and personal factors; (2) fears and negative experiences with police response; and (3) fears of possible repercussions. Participants also described positive experiences with police and generated a wish list for improving police response to IPV. Policies and actions that can be taken by police and social service agencies to address the barriers IPV victims face in seeking police help are discussed.     

Assessing and Explaining the Resurgence of China's Criminal Underworld

Based upon collected crime statistics, this paper provides a sketch of China's criminal underworld during the past two decades and a quantitative assessment of its current state. Through examining the organised criminal groups, it also assesses the hardcore of China's criminal underworld — the mafia-style criminal syndicates and their greater base — the underworld society. It argues that a challenge from the criminal underworld has increasingly posed a serious threat to Chinese society. It also provides explanations for the recent resurgence of the criminal underworld in China through a perspective of political science — placing emphasis on the state-failure factors.     

Black and White School Violence

Abstract

This study examines racial, social, and contextual-environmental factors to determine what effects they have in predicting the likelihood of student victimizations in urban, suburban, and rural schools. In doing so, it seeks to answer two basic questions-Is school violence more prevalent among African-American students in urban schools? And if so, which factors predict the likelihood of one being victimized in urban schools compared to suburban and rural schools? The results of this study indicate that race was not significant in predicting victimizations among students in either urban, suburban, or rural school districts. However, the probability of student victimizations increased for students who attended school in the Western regions of the U.S. where student diversity is greater. Also, students who attended schools where gangs, drugs, weapons, and security were present were more likely to be victimized than those who did not have these elements in their schools. Finally, the regression models for school crimes did better in predicting student victimizations than the personal and property crime models.     

Violence in Police Families: Work-Family Spillover

This article uses a path model to examine the relationship between violence exposure and domestic violence among police officers with the expectation that the relationships would be both direct and mediated. The mediation factors included burnout, authoritarian spillover, alcohol use, and department withdrawal. The model was tested through an analysis of data collected from 413 officers. Four mediation chains were identified; the most powerful of these was burnout and authoritarian spillover. Suggestions for future research include understanding violence in the context of unique workplace cultures, classifying violence types, and clarifying how this population defines violence and control.     

Re-Conceptualising the Policing of Hatred: Confessions and Worrying Dilemmas of a Consultant

Community Safety Units in the London Metropolitan Police handle over 9000 reported incidents of ‘hate’ crime each month. This paper explores the work of these Units through its conceptualisation of the notion of vulnerability. The workload of the CSUs includes domestic, racist and homophobic incidents. The victim/perpetrator relationship, it is assumed, provides special motivation for the offender's violence and requires police to consider special support for the victim. The paper begins with an exploration of how the MPS conceptualises ‘hate crime’. Its rationale for dedicated resources for the policing of particular forms of violence can be found, I suggest in the second part of the paper, in the way in which violence itself is conceptualised. I then offer a different term for thinking about hate crime – targeted violence. I go on to argue in depth how the(faulty) logic about violence obscures our ability to take people's ordinary experiences of intimidation, threat and bodily harm seriously in law and in society. The term ‘hate crime’, I conclude, in advertently reinforces this (faulty) logic. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

警察介入家庭暴力法律制度之完善

家庭暴力法律规制,不仅涉及公权和私权的平衡、法律规制的方式方法,而且还关涉介入主体的安排和权限等。我国反家庭暴力在法制上存在明显的缺失与不足。通过对当前法律体系的反思,提出了一系列完善我国警察介入家庭暴力的法律制度构想。     

Family Violence, Anger Expression Styles, and Adolescent Dating Violence

How partner violence is transferred across generations is relatively unexplored. This paper proposes that anger expression style (constructive, destructive direct, destructive indirect) mediates the relationship between exposure to family violence and dating violence perpetration by adolescents. Data are from 1,965 completed self-administered questionnaires given to eighth- and ninth-grade students in a primarily rural county in North Carolina in 1994. Results varied by gender and type of exposure to family violence. For females, destructive direct and destructive indirect anger expression styles mediated the relationship between experiencing family violence and dating violence perpetration. For males, this relationship was mediated primarily by destructive direct anger expression style. The association between witnessing family violence and dating violence perpetration for females was mediated by destructive direct anger expression style only. Witnessing family violence was not associated with dating violence perpetration for males, and therefore could not be mediated. This study suggests that adolescents exposed to family violence learn anger expression styles that put them at risk of being perpetrators of dating violence. Further research is needed to identify other mediators that explain how partner violence is transferred across generations.     

垄断黑金与暴力魅影——王兴强黑社会性质组织犯罪评析

公安部挂牌督办的王兴强黑社会性质组织为追逐非法利润,以合法企业为外衣,暴力垄断市场;该黑社会性质组织结构严密,并拉拢国家工作人员包庇、纵容犯罪行为。在司法实践中,应加强市场监管,严厉整治社会秩序;制定专门法规,准确认定黑社会性质组织犯罪：强化司法部门的特殊打击能力,有力打击黑社会性质组织犯罪;严厉打击国家工作人员涉黑职务犯罪,彻底消除“保护伞”的庇护;加大对洗钱行为的预防、监控和打击力度。     

The Criminalisation of Russian State Security

While the Russian authorities may seek to talk up the role their security apparatus plays in combating organised crime, in fact, they are to a large extent falling prey to criminalisation. A culture of corruption and a decade of neglect have combined to create a situation in which not only do police, army, and security officers provide services to ‘civilian’ criminals but organised crime groupings have actually formed within them. These gangs tend to be defined by their location and legal powers, both of which can be abused for criminal ends, and they include police and military officers at the very apex of their respective command structures. There are grounds for hope now that President Putin is beginning to become aware of the practical dangers this poses for Russian national security, not least given the haemorrhage of weapons to criminal and insurgent hands, but, for the immediate future, the security apparatus will remain corrupted and criminalised.     

Domestic Violence Victims' Behavior in Favor of Prosecution

Abstract

This article examines how economic, emotional and social-power related factors affect victims' behavior in favor of prosecution during police investigations. Data drawn from police records and police narrative reports indicated that mutual charge, dual arrest, the severity of assaults and the severity of injuries suffered by victims negatively affected the victims' behavior in favor of prosecution. These findings suggest that the norm of unequal relationships between men and women combined with an indiscriminate use of mutual charge and dual arrest without considering the defensive or offensive nature of violent acts can reduce trust in the criminal justice system among women victims of domestic violence and decrease the victims' interest in pursuing prosecution.     

Strategic versus emergent crime groups: the case of Vietnamese cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands

This article addresses the nature and development of the Vietnamese involvement in cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands. The findings are based on empirical data collected from national police registrations, case studies and in-depth interviews with over 30 Dutch and international respondents. The authors describe the background characteristics of Vietnamese cannabis farmers, the structure of the predominantly mono-ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups and the international context. A situational approach to organised crime is applied to illustrate the ‘emergent’ character of the Vietnamese crime groups as opposed to a ‘strategic’ context of organised crime. The Vietnamese supervisors in the Netherlands have legal citizenship and often have ‘careers’ in cannabis-related crimes. It would appear that for a Vietnamese gardener or farmer, the path into cannabis cultivation is linked to financial debt. Besides situational factors, group characteristics, such as the migrant community, seem important in understanding the Vietnamese involvement in the Dutch cannabis market.     

“腐败暴力”犯罪及其防治

腐败暴力犯罪是私欲恶性膨胀的领导干部，谋官害命的极端腐败犯罪行为。本文剖析了此类犯罪的主客观特点和犯罪根源，提出了要加强思想教育、权力制约、重点惩治、民主政治等方面建设，使其不想犯罪、不能犯罪、不敢犯罪的对策。     

Reports of Intimate Partner Violence Made Against Police Officers

The purpose of this case control study was to compare police officers (n = 106) from a large urban police force, charged with committing intimate partner violence (IPV) with officers who were not charged (n = 105), in order to identify risk factors for IPV. We also compared the frequency, type, and final disposition of IPV reports filed against police officers before and after the enactment of the 1994 Violence against Women Act (VAWA). Officers accused of IPV were more likely to be members of a minority, on the force more than 7 years and assigned to a high crime district. No major differences on intake baseline MMPI scores were noted between cases and controls. A significant increase in reports of IPV was noted after the enactment of VAWA; the rate changed from 0.2/100 to 1.2/100 person years, although there were too few pre-1994 reports to compare further. Most of the final dispositions of the cases resulted in cases closed due to unsupported testimony from victims. An erratum to this article is available at .