Population Size, Change, and Crime in U.S. Cities

The sometimes noted contradiction between cross-sectional and longitudinal relationships concerning city population size and crime rates is reexamined using more complex analytic procedures, controlling for extraneous variables, and allowing for non-monotonic relationships. Instead of a simple cross-sectional relationship between population size and crime rates, the more sophisticated analysis reveals either no association or a quadratic relationship. Similarly, instead of a simple lack of longitudinal relationship or a negative one, the more complicated analysis shows a non-monotonic pattern for three of six offenses. However, we contend that these divergent patterns for cross-sectional relative to longitudinal data are not necessarily indicative of an “anomaly.” Instead, they represent different aspects of a dynamic process in need of more extensive theorizing. Finally, the cross-sectional results showing that city size and crime rates are either not linked or when linked are in a non-monotonic pattern call into question one of the accepted relationships in criminology that have long guided thinking about crime.

Newspaper Structuring of Crime Views: Images of Homicide In Cali,Colombia

The research reported in this paper was supported in part by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and Tulane University's Center for Latin American Studies. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Gloria Lessan, Cecilia Camacho H., and Fany Ackerman at various stages of this investigation.

Though there is considerable consensus that newspapers distort the crime picture, there is little agreement that the papers structure public ideas about crime. In an effort to investigate that possibility free of the complications created by intervening variables, the present research investigates the influence of Cali, Colombia's major newspaper's presentation of homicide news upon Cali citizens' ideas about that type of crime. Media-related intervening variables are controlled because Cali has no local television stations and because crime news, focusing on homicide, is reported in the same quantity, fashion, and location in the daily newspaper. A sample of Cali residents was surveyed to ascertain whether or not their views of certain homicide characteristics coincided with the image presented by the newspaper. Victimization patterns were found not to influence public ideas about homicide. Public views, in the main, were found related to newspaper coverage of homicide. It is suggested that newspaper reporting, while one of several potential influences on public opinion, should not be considered inconsequential in structuring public ideas about crime. The implications of this finding for future research are examined.     

Presidential Candidates and State Crime: Views of Some U.S. College Students

This is a preliminary investigation of hawkish public opinion, understood as criminogenic in that it provides political support for state crimes of aggressive militarism. Our critical criminology approach treats public support for, or acceptance of, state aggression as part of criminogenic political culture. Despite growing interest among critical criminologists in broader perspectives on state crime and the politics of culture, there has been no work on this topic. Our survey of 53 criminal justice students at a liberal arts college finds both hawkish (militarist) and dovish (peaceful) beliefs and preferences regarding U.S. policy and the two major 2008 presidential candidates, Obama and McCain. We investigate whether authoritarianism helps explain hawkish opinions, but find little evidence for that expectation. We find evidence of respondent underestimation of the hawkishness of U.S. politics. We also find extensive evidence of dovish policy preferences, such as approval of diplomacy, a major attraction to Obama.     

美国犯罪成立要件与证明责任分配

美国犯罪成立要件包括两方面的内容:犯罪表面成立要件和犯罪实质成立要件.前者是指行为与心态,后者是指无罪辩护事由不成立.在犯罪成立要件证明责任划分上,美国刑事诉讼中通常要求控诉方将犯罪表面成立要件证明到排除合理怀疑的程度,犯罪成立实质要件的说服责任通常也由控诉方承担,只是在例外的情况下才由辩护方承担说服责任.在犯罪成立要件与证明责任分配的关系上,犯罪成立实体要件是刑事证明责任分配的关键内容,犯罪成立实体要件的结构决定了证明责任的分配,证明责任的分配实现了犯罪成立实体要件的机能.     

美国打击色情物品犯罪的司法实践及困境

美国联邦最高法院从1957年开始掀起审查色情案件的高潮,形成了一系列先例,确立了硬核色情物品和儿童色情物品不受宪法第一修正案保护的原则.但是美国社会,尤其是联邦最高法院的大法官们对色情物品的危害、淫秽物品的标准以及色情物品受不受宪法第一修正案的保护等问题一直争论不休,导致色情物品泛滥成灾.