The economy,crime and time: An analysis of recorded property crime in England & Wales 1961–2006

We seek to determine whether one of the unanticipated side-effects of social and economic changes associated with the adoption of neoliberal and monetarist economics during the 1970s/1980s was rising crime rates. Undertaking time series analysis of social and economic determinants of property crime (using official statistics on recorded crime for England and Wales from 1961 to 2006) we develop a model of the effect of changes in socio-economic variables (unemployment, inequality, welfare spending and incarceration) on property crime rates. We find that while three of these had significant effects on change in the property crime rate, income inequality did not. We conclude with a discussion of the extent to which neoliberal economic and welfare (and later criminal justice) policies can be held to have influenced the property crime rate since the early 1980s and what this tells us about the social and economic determinants of crime at the macro-level.     

“Nerve” and violent encounters: An assessment of fearlessness in the face of danger

The findings from a large body of research on the ecology of violence indicate that individuals demonstrate a willingness to engage in violence to reduce their risk for violent victimization. Scholars have suggested that a reputation for toughness and aggression acts as an informal signal that deters mistreatment. Anderson (1999), in his street code thesis, in particular, argued that adherence to the street code functions as a signal that reduces violent victimization risk. Other research findings, however, reveal that the street code leads to an increase in victimization risk; moreover, violent offenders are routinely victimized at high rates given their lifestyle and routine activities. The evidence, therefore, does not show support for the position that a reputation for toughness or aggression effectively reduces violent victimization. In the current study, we operationalize the concept of nerve, which findings from criminological studies indicate is an important mechanism for protecting adolescents from victimization. Using data from the second national evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program, we test this operationalization of nerve to determine whether the concept is associated with later violent offending and violent victimization in ways consistent with theory and research on the ecology of youth violence. Our results demonstrate support for the notion that nerve is positively associated with violent offending, whereas those at the highest levels of this construct experience fewer violent victimizations.     

Empirical assessment of the role of economic analysis in the Russian antitrust: Why is economic analysis used?

Economic analysis is an important tool for the modern antitrust. This article provides an empirical study of its role in the Russian antitrust law enforcement practice in order to answer the following question: Has the understanding of the usefulness and importance of economic analysis in the Russian antitrust been achieved, or has economic analysis been applied formally? The study is based on the sample of official records on published decisions by the Supreme Court of Arbitration of the Russian Federation, created specifically for this research.     

An analysis of data curated from 5 years of identifying human remains

An archive of 5 years of cases involving the identification of human remains was curated, collecting information on: The sample type submitted, the number of STR loci yielding interpretable results, the kinship challenge posed, and the outcome for the case. A total of 129 cases of remains ID were investigated using manual DNA extraction and recovery methods with amplification of STR markers using the Power Plex 21 multiplex STR kit from Promega Corp. In 52 cases, blood spots collected by the ME were provided as sample and in 100% of those cases, probabilities of relatedness to the reference samples was ≥99%. In 77 cases, tissue other than blood was provided as a source of DNA. These other samples were grouped categorically into long bones (femur and tibia; 40 cases), skull bones/teeth (11 cases), other bones (16 cases), and tissue (normally adherent to bone) (10 cases). Reference samples provided for cases included alleged parents or child(ren) of the victim (86 cases), alleged full siblings of the victim (38 cases), or alleged second-order relatives (five cases). The overall success rate in confirming the identity of the source of the remains in these cases was 89.2%. Our results demonstrate that a laboratory can be often successful identifying human remains using methods easily implemented in any DNA typing laboratory.     

What really matters for TTOs efficiency? An analysis of TTOs in developed and developing economies

The Journal of Technology Transfer - The university’s role in reaping the benefits from research by transforming knowledge and technology into commercially usable forms is becoming...     

Stealing more is better? An economic analysis of Islamic law of theft

This study is the first attempt (in the field of Law and Economics) to apply economic analysis to shari’a or Islamic criminal law, in particular, that aspect of the law pertaining to theft. Shari’a imposes two main punishments for theft; hadd, a fixed penalty of amputation of the offender’s right hand under certain conditions and ta’zir, a discretionary punishment, less severe than hadd. From the viewpoint of marginal deterrence and multiplier principles, lesser crimes with low social harm are punished more severely with hadd whereas crimes with high social harm are punished with ta’zir. Moreover, as the probability of detection and sanction is less in those crimes of high social harm, criminals would have more incentive to commit them. Consequently, if Islamic criminal law is to be applied in its current form, crimes of high social cost are likely to become more frequent.     

What do prosecutors maximize? An analysis of the federalization of drug crimes

Recent legislation has expanded the jurisdiction of the federalgovernment over crimes that were traditionally prohibited onlyby state law. We model the decision-making process of stateand federal prosecutors, and the determinants of prosecutors'decisions to allocate drug cases to the state versus the federalsystems. Using 1991 surveys of state and federal inmates incarceratedfor drug crimes, we find that individuals who hire private attorneysand who are high-human-capital and successful in the legitimatesector are more likely to end up in the federal system. Thisis consistent with the model in which prosecutors maximize boththe payoffs from eliminating crime and their private human capital.     

Does the measurement of peer deviance change the relationship between self-control and deviant behavior? An analysis of friendship pairs

Purpose

The measurement debate between social learning and self-control theories has predominantly focused on self-control, leaving an unexplored and equally important measurement controversy concerning the operationalization of the peer delinquency construct. This study addresses how self-control's relationship with deviant and criminal behavior changes when peer deviance is statistically controlled for using an indirect, perceptual measure or a self-report directly from a peer.

Methods

Data from 796 friendship pairs are used to estimate a series of regression models that regress respondent deviance onto indirect and direct peer deviance and attitudinal and behavioral self-control measures while controlling for elements of the social bond and demographic characteristics.

Results

When an indirect measure of peer delinquency is replaced with a direct measure from respondents’ friends, the relationships between self-control - attitudinal and behavioral measures - and deviance and criminal behavior are consistently larger. The use of a direct peer deviance measure does not prove the peer deviance-crime relationship spurious, but does substantially weaken the relationship between self-control and deviance and criminal behavior.

Conclusions

The strength of the relationship between self-control and deviant/criminal behavior is contingent on how peer deviance is operationalized, regardless of how self-control is measured (attitudinally or behaviorally).     

Mercy, death, and politics: An analysis of executions and commutations in New York State, 1935–1963

This study focuses on the 249 executions and the 49 commutations not based upon any policy per se of the New York State governors between the years 1935 and 1963. Clemency is an inherently political decision. Therefore, it is expected that groups which are disfavored or viewed as dangerous (blacks, males, felony murderers, and non-youthful offenders) will register higher execution rates than favored groups. Contingency tables and logistic regression analyses offer partial support in that offender race and age are significantly related to final disposition. A draft of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Criminology, Chicago, IL, 1996. The authors would like to thank Bill Doerner, C. Loftin, A. Lizotte, J. Acker and four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.     

The legal form of labour conflicts and their time persistence: an empirical analysis with a large firms’ panel

Using a panel of large firms from Spain, we check the relative time persistence of different types of labour conflicts such as strikes, collective conflicts, lockouts and other conflicts with lost working hours but with no specific legal form. The results show that no legal form labour conflicts do not have long-term persistence (only from quarter to quarter), and the other types of conflicts suffer short and long-term persistence of conflicts at the firm level. Strikes have the higher size of both types of persistence. As short and long term persistence of strikes have almost the same size, these results do not support asymmetric information theories of strike.     

Filling the gap? An analysis of non-governmental organizations responses to participation and representation deficits in global climate governance

The involvement of civil society actors such as NGOs is often presented as one possible remedy to shortcomings in the democratic legitimacy and accountability of institutions of earth system governance. This article uses the case of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to show how its constituency of environmental and development NGOs has responded to perceived representation and participation deficits in global climate policy-making. It discusses three types of NGO responses, which could potentially help to bring the voices of affected but marginalized communities to the relevant levels of climate policy-making: firstly, NGO proposals designed to remedy representation inequities among governments; secondly, NGO demands for strengthening opportunities for participation by societal stakeholders at all levels of climate policy-making; and finally, representative practices (based on authorization and accountability) reflected in the NGOs’ own decision-making processes and governance structures. With regard to the first two types of responses, the article finds that the NGOs tend to support broadly similar standards of participation and representation in the climate convention. The analysis of the decision-making processes and governance structure of the Climate Action Network, the constituency focal point for the environment and development NGOs in the climate convention, highlights a number of ways through which the network can legitimately claim to represent a wider constituency. At the same time, however, it is important for NGOs not to underestimate the potential costs of high standards of inclusiveness and representativeness.     

A systematic analysis of Decker's “A systematic analysis of diversion: Net widening and beyond”

A recent article, entitled “A Systematic Analysis of Diversion: Net Widening and Beyond,” carries on the tradition of condemning diversion by a labeling process rather than by a thorough analysis of consequences. In addition to objecting to the logical foundations of that article, this critique raises questions about the research design and statistical analyses upon which its results are based.     

An analysis of the United Kingdom’s cannabis market using crowdsourced data

This article contributes to the growing literature on the use of computer-mediated communications to research illicit markets. In it, we conduct an analysis of the British cannabis market using data crowdsourced from a publicly available platform, PriceofWeed.com. Crowd-sourced transaction data present some new insights into the British cannabis market. First, this study has tracked the trafficking flow of cannabis within the UK. Second, it shows the extent to which a quantity discount is granted to consumers. Third, it discusses purchasing habits of cannabis users. Conclusions suggest new areas of application of crowdsourcing to research hard to reach and deviant populations.     

An analysis of science–industry collaborative patterns in a large European University

Our paper analyses the modalities according to which a large European university collaborates with firms by exploring its relational portfolio. We address this issue by exploiting a database that lists more than 1,000 firms having collaborated with the University Louis Pasteur (ULP) between 1990 and 2002. We first observe the relative importance of four collaborative channels (private contracts, European contracts, co-publications, co-inventions) across the whole population of firms. Second, using a multi-correspondence analysis, we derive a typology of collaborative patterns which underline the discriminating features of the frequency of interactions, of the exclusive versus open character of the relationships and of the nature of the collaborative channels. Four coherent classes emerge from particular combinations of these relational characteristics. Finally, using multinomial logit estimation, we show how this diversity of partnerships is connected to some individual attributes of the firms: size, status, sector and location.

An analysis of outlaw motorcycle gang crime: are bikers organised criminals?

ABSTRACT

Outlaw motorcycle gangs (OMCGs) are identified in Australia and internationally as being heavily involved in organised crime and/or as being criminal organisations. However, academic studies have shown that OMCG members are involved in organised crime to varying extents; this differs between clubs and across jurisdictions. To date, Australian studies of OMCGs are rare. Despite this, Australian governments target OMCGs as key players in organised crime. This study contributes to the existing literature by analysing OMCGs’ criminality in one Australian jurisdiction – Queensland. It draws on rich qualitative data to determine whether and to what extent Queensland’s OMCGs are involved in serious crime, organised crime and/or are operating as criminal organisations. The study finds that Queensland’s OMCG members participate in serious crime at a higher rate than the general public, but that there are few examples of organised crime. There is little to no evidence of OMCGs acting as criminal organisations.     

Do laws affect attitudes? An assessment of the Norwegian prostitution law using longitudinal data

The question of whether laws affect attitudes has inspired scholars across many disciplines, but empirical knowledge is sparse. Using longitudinal survey data from Norway and Sweden, collected before and after the implementation of a Norwegian law criminalizing the purchase of sexual services, we assess the short-run effects on attitudes using a difference-in-differences approach. In the general population, the law did not affect moral attitudes toward prostitution. However, in the Norwegian capital, where prostitution was more visible before the reform, the law made people more negative toward buying sex. This supports the claim that proximity and visibility are important factors for the internalization of legal norms.