Reconsidering the Relationship Between Welfare Spending and Serious Crime: A Panel Data Analysis with Implications for Social Support Theory

Several researchers have found an inverse relationship between welfare spending and serious crime. With few exceptions, these findings have been based on cross‐sectional designs, single measures of welfare spending, and few indicators of crime. In response to these limitations, the relationship between welfare spending and crime was reconsidered using panel data from California counties. Fixed‐effects regressions revealed virtually no relationship between several measures of welfare spending and five types of serious crime: (1) homicide; (2) robbery; (3) assault; (4) burglary; and (5) larceny. The estimates were resistant to numerous robustness checks and alternative specifications. The most plausible explanation for the findings is that heterogeneity was not controlled for in previous studies. Implications for social support theory are discussed.     

Serious and Violent Juvenile Crime: A Comprehensive Strategy

Abstract OJJDP is actively involved in the Department of Justice's “Pulling America's Communities Together” (PACT) program. Developed at the direction of Attorney General Janet Reno, this initiative is designed to provide training, technical assistance and program development resources to participating jurisdictions address violence in their communities. Four jurisdictions have been selected to date: Denver, Omaha, Atlanta, and the District of Columbia. In addition to making its wide range of training and technical assistance resources available to these jurisdictions, OJJDP is helping the sites assess their juvenile justice systems and develop plans to implement the Comprehensive Strategy. To help jurisdictions begin assessing their systems and existing youth violence problems, OJJDP is preparing a juvenile violence fact book, called “The State of Juvenile Justice.” In addition to presenting statistical data on the nature and scope of the problem across America, the fact book will encapsule program and policy positions of major juvenile justice professional associations regarding youth violence. Such knowledge will assist local jurisdictions in developing their own positions, strategies and programs. In addition to NCJFCJ, other groups such as the American Probation and Parole Association, the National Juvenile Detention Association, the American Correctional Association, and the Coalition of Juvenile Justice State Advisory Groups have been invited to participate in development of The State of Juvenile Justice document.     

European Regional Policy and Backward Regions: Implications Towards EU Enlargement

In this paper we show that the success of the EU Regional Policy, in terms of boosting growth in objective 1 regions, will mean a big opportunity for Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) and hence the increases in competition arising from an enlarged European market combined with a suitable regional development policy should in the future boost the growth of those countries. In the last part of the paper we made a simulation for the funding envelope from 2007, based on the 2000–2006 budget. We show that the figures of the Agenda 2000 provide enough financial support for 90% of the total CEEC population and for 75% of current objective 1 population.     

What Lies Beneath: Exploring Links Between Asylum Policy and Hate Crime in the UK

This paper explores the link between increasing incidents of hate crime and the asylum policy of successive British governments with its central emphasis on deterrence. The constant problematisation of asylum seekers in the media and political discourse ensures that ‘anti-immigrant’ prejudice becomes mainstreamed as a common-sense response. The victims are not only the asylum seekers hoping for a better life but democratic society itself with its inherent values of pluralism and tolerance debased and destabilised.     

Taking Language Seriously: An Analysis of Linguistic Reasoning and Its Implications in EU Law

This article discusses legal reasoning at the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The following questions are addressed. First, the authors look at the way linguistic arguments are used in ECJ case‐law. Second, they consider whether the requirements of legal certainty, and more specifically that of predictability, may be fulfilled by reference to linguistic arguments in a multilingual legal system. The theoretical starting‐point is that of open‐endedness of language: no means exists to definitely pin down the meaning of words. Defining the meaning of words in a legal context is necessarily a matter of choice involving evaluative considerations. Consequently, when the ECJ uses linguistic arguments to justify a decision, it is an active agent choosing the meaning of words in a specific case. Essentially, the authors argue that legal reasoning based on linguistic arguments is particularly problematic from the viewpoint of legal certainty and predictability. In this respect, the key importance of systemic and teleological argumentation is emphasised in assuring convincing, acceptable and transparent legal reasoning especially in the context of multilingual EU law.     

宽严相济政策对犯罪控制效率的兼顾

宽严相济的刑事政策以促进社会和谐为基本价值目标,但这一政策对犯罪控制的效率可能产生一定的消极影响。犯罪控制效率同样决定着社会和谐的程度,因此,实施宽严相济刑事政策必须兼顾犯罪控制的效率。其主要对策是,借鉴《联合国反腐败公约》制定的反腐败策略,在立法和司法两个层面鼓励涉嫌犯罪者与刑事执法机关合作,并以现代侦查手段武装侦查机关,提高侦查、公诉机关揭露和证实犯罪的能力。     

Crime and Justice in Japan: Implications for the United States

Examining official statistics from the United States since the mid-1960's, we see rapidly increasing rates of crime. Japan, on the other hand, has experienced rates that have dramatically declined during this same period. In fact, Japan is the only industrialized non-communist nation where crime has been decreasing. This paper summarizes the structural/cultural and justice related reasons for this phenomenon. Implications for the United States are specified.     

Legislating Crime Policy from the White House: Presidential Success with Congress in the Passage of Federal Crime Control Policy

Previous research has found that presidents, in general, have the power to influence congress in the passage of federal crime control policy. What has not been fully explored is whether presidential supported bills are more likely to influence congress to pass federal crime control bills. Therefore, this study draws upon the theory that presidents influence congress to test the hypothesis that president supported legislation on crime will achieve greater success in congress than non-supported bills. Analysis of legislative, presidential and congressional data from 1946 through 1996 suggests support for the theory that presidential supported bills are 2.8 times more likely (or 185% more likely) to become law.     

The European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics: A New Tool in Assessing Crime and Policy Issues in Comparative and Empirical Perspective

Theories which suggest a relationship between crime or criminal justice variables on the one hand, and variables related to criminal justice policies on the other hand, cannot be tested without reference to historic or comparative data. Since international comparisons offer the most powerful test of such theories, policy-related research in Europe has suffered, so far, from a lack of valid comparative data. Whether crime data from different countries are comparable, has always been subject to controversies. In the case of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice, a network of specialists was established under the auspices of the Council of Europe in order to assess the validity of the data. Although some problems in cross-country level comparisons could not be settled, the European Sourcebook offers comparative data on 36 Member States of the Council of Europe on a variety of subjects (offences and offenders known to the police; prosecution, convictions, sentences, and corrections; survey data; and indications on manpower and budgets of police forces, prosecutors, and corrections).     

The Relationship Between Crime Reporting and Police: Implications for the Use of Uniform Crime Reports

Empirical studies that use reported crime data to evaluate policies for reducing crime will understate the true effectiveness of these policies if crime reporting/recording behavior is also affected by the policies. For instance, when the size of the police force increases, changes in the perceived likelihood that a crime will be solved may lead a higher fraction of victimizations to be reported to the police. In this paper, three data sets are employed to measure the magnitude of this reporting bias. While each of these analyses is subject to individual criticisms, all of the approaches yield similar estimates. Reporting bias appears to be present but relatively small in magnitude: each additional officer is associated with an increase of roughly five Index crimes that previously would have gone unreported. Taking reporting bias into account makes the hiring of additional police substantially more attractive from a cost–benefit perspective but cannot explain the frequent inability of past studies to uncover a systematic negative relationship between the size of the police force and crime rates.     

Behavioral Economic Analysis of Crime: A Critical Review

Behavioral economic analysis of law is about bringing recent research about behavior and choice together with classical law and economics. In this essay we assess its relevance for the theory of optimal law enforcement. It is our view that criminal law is an area where behavioral analysis has a role to play. Notwithstanding the results so far provided by the behavioral approach are somehow disappointing.     

骗取贷款罪中“其他严重情节”的体系性反思——基于169份刑事裁判文书的实证分析

关于骗取贷款罪中其他严重情节的认定,司法实务部门面临的问题在于:不法的认定欠缺层次性,作为兜底条款予以适用,机械套用数额标准或次数标准,与重大损失的关系错位。上述问题的症结在于法益界定不清、风险高低的无视以及体系性思考的欠缺。金融机构信贷资金安全是设立本罪保护的唯一法益,其他严重情节应认定为犯罪构成要件。从欺骗行为到其他严重情节存在不法程度的提升。其他严重情节与重大损失具有相当性,应限定为有造成重大损失的危险。数额标准或次数标准只是提供了进行是否有造成重大损失的危险判断的契机,能否进一步评价为其他严重情节还需做实质的、具体的判断。对其他严重情节的司法适用应构建一套体系性的判断框架,以消弭司法实务部门的疑惑。     

Crime and Residential Choice: A Neighborhood Level Analysis of the Impact of Crime on Housing Prices

Crime serves as an important catalyst for change in the socio-economic composition of communities. While such change occurs over a long period of time, crime is capitalized into local housing markets quickly and thus provides an early indicator of neighborhood transition. Using hedonic regression, we quantify this “intangible cost” of crime and extend the crime-housing price literature in several important ways. First, we disaggregate crime to the census tract level. Second, using longitudinal data, we examine changes in crime in addition to the neighborhood levels of crime. Third, we differentiate between the effects of property crime and violent crime. Fourth, we also disaggregate our sample into groups based on per capita income of the census tract. Finally, we show that it is vital to account for the measurement error that is endemic in reported crime statistics. We address this with an instrumental variable approach. Our results indicate that the average impacts of crime rates on house prices are misleading. We find that crime is capitalized at different rates for poor, middle class and wealthy neighborhoods and that violent crime imparts the greatest cost.