Guest Editor’s Introduction

This paper describes the latest stage of an ongoing attempt to update and upgrade CPTED’s concepts and actions and link them more closely to developments in architecture, design and crime science. The concept of territoriality, for example, is central to the practice domain of CPTED. Yet territoriality is only vaguely defined within that domain, as are the other core concepts such as activity support and target hardening; and all of them confusingly intersect and overlap. The paper attempts a remedy by developing a suite of definitions in depth, relating the core concepts to various frameworks and discourses developed for crime prevention and design against crime, and more generally exploring ways in which CPTED could become richer and more subtle. It will also consider the ‘dark side’ of the environment, covering offenders’ countermoves to prevention and their own counter-exploitation of space, buildings and what they contain. The ultimate intention is to produce a more rigorous, yet deeper and better-integrated conception of CPTED useful for practice, research and theory alike. The paper should be considered as work in progress, indicating what might be possible and stimulating debate rather than offering a definitive resolution of the issue. Further steps are suggested and constructive contributions from readers are invited.     

Editor’s Note

Over the past two decades, China’s tax law reform has become a highly valued and distinguished area for earnestly advancing Chinese socialist rule of law construction. With the establishment of the principle on strengthening legality of imposing tax, as well as new settings regarding China’s social and economic development, the administration and management of tax collection and protection of taxpayers’ well-being gradually and vigilantly attain responsiveness from top national legislators and scholars. Meanwhile, the efforts exerted by tax administers on fighting tax evasion have been elevated on both international and domestic grounds. For example, a focal area is the evaluation and collection of presumptive tax which is a common routine for administers around the world. Moreover, the current laws and regulations on administering tax collection invite a rigorous process of revision and modification with contemporary conceptions of taxpayers’ well-being. This article argues that, through the example of presumptive tax collection, the administration and management of tax collection should adhere to the basic principles of protecting taxpayers and advancing the goals of de-administrating arduous procedures to conform to new trends of social and economic development. It also proposes that the vigor and dynamics of tax collection efforts should coincide with national goals of reformulating the individual income tax collection mechanisms, solidifying the national conversion of business tax to value-added tax, matching with the new wave of bankruptcy of certain enterprises, and so forth.     

Editor’s Note

Envisioning a well-ordered society composed of filial subjects who obeyed the law, avoided disputes, shunned religious heresy, paid their taxes, and peacefully engaged in agriculture, the Kangxi emperor’s “Sacred Edict of Sixteen Maxims” (圣谕十六条) has often been considered a declaration of the alien Qing dynasty’s Confucian bona fides. While the rhetoric of the pronouncement echoed traditional moral values, the political acumen of the Qing rulers was readily apparent in the eighth maxim, “explain the laws to warn the ignorant and obstinate.” Melding moral and legal education, the eighth maxim specifically endorsed the efficacy of the law. The importance placed on legal knowledge was abundantly clear in one of the earliest commentaries, which explained all sixteen maxims with examples of applicable legal guidelines. Thus, the “Sacred Edict” was a shrewd maneuver that endorsed traditional moral values, but it also foreshadowed a “legislative turn” in the Qing rule that was discernible in the evolving ethos of criminal justice. Despite the extensive efforts to propagate the “Sacred Edict,” violent crime was on the rise in the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong reigns. When transformation through moral “teaching and cultivation” (jiaoyang 教养) failed to alleviate social conflict, Qing rulers reconsidered and revised the established practice of criminal justice and the existing concept of criminal behavior. By the end of the eighteenth century, the effort to stem the tide of violent crime relied less on ideological exhortation and more on legislation that articulated harsh punishments. This “legislative turn” in Qing criminal justice resulted in an aggressive policy of deterrence that facilitated the greater use of capital punishment.     

Editor’s note

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, a small movement endorsing the use of animal abuse registries (AARs) has emerged in the United States. Today, one state, 16 counties, and the City of New York have adopted AAR legislation, and 28 other states have attempted to pass such legislation. Here, we discuss similarities between AARs and sexual offender registries in theoretical terms, discuss the nature of AAR legislation, and provide data on the use of AARs, and count the number of offenders listed in those registries at two points in time. We also provide a count of animal abuse, and potential ways that animal abuse might be counted that are not addressed in current AAR legislation. We discuss whether AARs are ‘a good idea,’ especially as a policy response that might be associated with green criminology.