Improving distribution of pharmaceuticals in developing countries: A case study of The Gambia project

Without sufficient sanitation, nutrition and primary health care infrastructures, developing nations must depend on pharmaceuticals as the principal defense against debilitating diseases such as malaria, schistosomiasis, river blindness, tetanus, and leprosy. Yet the distribution of pharmaceuticals within many developing countries is severely inadequate to meet the health care needs of large sectors of the population, particularly those persons living in rural areas. The result is that with 80% of the world's population, and an even greater share of the world's serious illnesses and disease, the Third World consumes only 20% of the global supply of pharmaceuticals. One of the major obstacles confronting individuals in developing countries that need pharmaceuticals is access — the drug delivery infrastructure is often inadequate. Problems exist in the entire range of drug management: Ordering, receipt, storage, distribution, and resupply. To help combat the problems, a unique collaboration began in 1981 at the initiation of several members of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PMA), and Africare, a private voluntary organization, to improve the drug distribution and management system in The Gambia in Africa. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the feasibility of transferring The Gambian model of cooperation between governments in developing countries, private voluntary organizations, and the international pharmaceutical industry to other Third World nations given different cultural, political and economic parameters. Last year, after observing how effectively The Gambia project had improved record keeping and management, the government of Sierra Leone invited Africare to help set up similar improvements in its drug distribution and inventory program. Although the multinational pharmaceutical corporations are often criticized by Third World governments for overpricing and dumping drugs, and excessive marketing schemes, The Gambia project demonstrates how the industry can work with health ministries to alleviate the problem of an inadequate supply and storage of pharmaceuticals particularly to poor, rural areas in Less Developed Countries.     

Cyber terrorism challenges: The need for a global response to a multi-jurisdictional crime

With the widespread concerns about cyber terrorism and the frequent use of the term “cyber terrorism” at the present time, many international organisations have made efforts to combat this threat. Since cyber terrorism is an international crime, local regulations alone are not able to defend against such attacks; they require a transnational response. Therefore, an attacked country will invoke international law to seek justice for any damage caused, through the exercise of universal jurisdiction. Without the aid of international organisations, it is difficult to prevent cyber terrorism. At the same time, international organisations determine which state court, or international court, has the authority to settle a dispute. The objective of this paper is to analyse and review the effectiveness and sufficiency of the current global responses to cyber terrorism through the exercise of international jurisdiction. This article also touches upon the notion of cyber terrorism as a transnational crime and an international threat; thus, national regulations alone cannot prevent it. The need for an international organisation to prevent and defend nations from cyber terrorism attacks is pressing. This paper finds that, as cyber terrorism is a transnational crime, it should be subjected to universal jurisdiction through multinational cooperation, and this would be the most suitable method to counter future transnational crimes such as cyber terrorism.     

Access to justice and the need for a holistic approach to the delivery of legal aid services in developing countries: Lessons from South Africa

Jindal Global Law Review - Legal Aid South Africa, in its previous incarnation as the Legal Aid Board, was established in 1969, and began operating in 1971. During the apartheid era the scheme had...     

Explaining fear of crime in Queensland

A model to explain fear of crime in Queensland is developed and fitted to data from the 1991 Queensland Crime Victims Survey. Fear of crime is measured from the answers to the question about respondents' feelings of safety when walking alone in their area after dark. The results suggest that factors such as gender, age, poverty, educational level, labor force status, level of incivility in the area, perceived amount of crime in the area, and neighborhood cohesion all make an impact on fear of crime in a way that is consistent with the theory. The results also show that fear of crimein Queensland is explained by very concrete factors that can be subject to intervention and policy formulation by relevant bodies.The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Government Statistician's Office or the Queensland Government.     

Tuckers firm: a case study of British organised crime

This article provides a single case study of a British organised crime network operational from the late-1980s to 1996. The network centred around three security firms which spanned the ‘spectrum of legitimacy’ by legally providing security for licensed venues, whilst taxing and protecting drug dealers, and/or selling drugs in the nightclubs they protected. All three firms employed violence to prevent the encroachment of competitors and extort licensed businesses. Debt collection services were also used as a front for extortion. Actors were individually or collaboratively engaged in: the running of brothels and extortion of sex workers, robbery of drug dealers, burglary, the importation of drugs, and unlawful influence. At least three of the activities (robber, violence and unlawful influence) served a dual purpose: (1) To achieve immediate and tangible goals, such as preventing the encroachment of competing security firms, avoiding prosecution, and material gain; (2) To achieve more distant and abstract goal of creating, maintaining or inflating violent reputations.     

Foreign direct investment and human capital in developing countries: a panel data approach

Theoretical studies have shown that there is a direct relationship between human capital and foreign direct investment (FDI). However, only a few available empirical studies have attempted to investigate this relationship simultaneously. Using country level panel data from 55 developing countries over the 1980–2011 period, this paper examines the interrelationship between FDI and human capital. Statistical analysis, based on simultaneous equations fixed effect estimation, reveals significant bi-directional causality between human capital and FDI, which suggests that FDI and human capital development policies need to be coordinated. FDI-led economic growth models may not be entirely suitable for all developing countries aiming to replicate the economic success of countries such as Brazil and China unless attention is also paid to human capital development through increased spending on education and training.     

Explaining crime for a young adult population: An application of general strain theory

Most research informed by general strain theory (GST) concentrated on the young, particularly adolescents. Using data from the National Youth Survey (NYS) Wave 7, in which respondents were asked about their offending when they were ages twenty to twenty-nine, a model of young adult offending was estimated that incorporated variables reflecting strain, as well as control variables related to differential association and control theories and a lagged measure of offending to account for unmeasured dispositional factors. Results revealed that indicators of strain had significant effects on property and violent offending. In analyses of the role of depression, selected forms of strain were related to depression, and depression affected offending for males but not females. Taken as a whole, these findings demonstrated that GST, which was advanced as a general theory of crime, made an important contribution to the understanding of criminal offending among young adults.     

Legacies of a culture of inequality: The Janus face of crime in post-communist countries

This paper explores the role of the specific structure and culture of inequality of the communist and post-communist countries in the simultaneouswave of elite crime and violent crime in Central and East Europe. Under thelayer of homogeneity, which had been imposed on the region by ethnic cleansingduring and after World War II and by the continuous policies of communistregimes, a substructure and subculture of inequality emerged, which becamedominant during the transition phase. Among the consequences of the ``hour-glass' society (Rose) and feudalization of society are closely knit networks at the top and the bottom of society, clientelism as a pattern of linking them, and non-egalitarian and collectivist value patterns. This specific cluster combines factors that contribute to both high-level corruption and violence. Pathways of development during the transition periodindicate a bi-partition of the ``geography of crime' in the region. The relative ``success stories' of Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic withboth declining rates of corruption and lethal violent crime (homicide) are in stark contrast to many of the successor states of the Soviet Union. It is argued that strong institutions based on civil rights and the rule of law areimportant factors responsible for this difference.     

Explaining organized crime in Europe: Are economists always right?

Over the last 35 years, the acclaimed American political economist, Thomas C. Schelling, has asserted his belief that organized crime is purely monopoly enterprise. His definition of the phenomenon remains highly influential and continues to form the basis of many definitions of organized crime today. This article outlines Schelling's economic definition of organized crime and then applies it to an analysis of the major organized crime groups operating in the states of the European Union. It concludes that a purely economic definition is inadequate to define organized crime in Europe in the twenty-first century and that, in order to understand the phenomenon fully, other variables need to be introduced and appreciated.     

Information retrieval in systematic reviews: a case study of the crime prevention literature

Objectives

A defining feature of a systematic review is the data collection; the assembling of a meticulous, unbiased, and reproducible set of primary studies. This requires specialist skills to execute. The aim of this paper is to marshal tacit knowledge, gained through a systematic search of the crime prevention literature, to develop a ‘how-to guide’ for future evidence synthesists in allied fields.

Methods

Empirical results from a recent systematic search for evidence in crime prevention are supplied to illustrate key principles of information retrieval.

Results

Difficulties in operationalizing a systematic search are expounded and possible solutions discussed. Empirical results from optimizing the balance between sensitivity and precision with the criminological literature are presented. An estimation of database overlap for crime prevention studies is provided to guide other evidence synthesists in streamlining the search process.

Conclusions

A high-quality search will involve a substantial time investment in honing the research question, specifying the precise scope of the work, and trialing and testing of search tactics. Electronic databases are a lucrative source of eligible studies, but they have important limitations. The diversity of expression across the criminological literature needs to be captured by the use of many search terms—both natural language and controlled vocabulary—in database searches. Complementary search tactics should be employed to locate eligible studies without common vocabulary. Grey literature should be ardently pursued, for it has a central role in the crime prevention evidence base.

     

Understanding differences in crime reporting practices: a comparative approach

Despite a large body of literature detailing crime reporting practices, scant research examines the correlates of the crime reporting decision in developing nations with newer democracies, newer economies, or developing economies. Using a sample of 23 nations from the 2000 International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS), this study tests the generalizability of correlates of robbery and assault reports to the police in a non-US sample to determine whether there are national differences in reporting practices. Based on this analysis emphasizing the developing world and countries in transition, an expanded model, integrating incident, demographic, police-related, and national variables, is developed that will enhance our understanding of differences in reporting practices in developing and developed nations. Results identified both similarities and differences in crime reporting practices between developed and developing nations. Although the findings reinforce the importance of incident and demographic characteristics on reporting crime to the police, they also suggest that national variables, reflecting economic and social context, should not be excluded from studies examining reporting practices.     

The rise of the Red Mafia in China: a case study of organised crime and corruption in Chongqing

‘Red Mafia’ is the collective term for corrupt public officials in mainland China, mainly from the criminal justice system, who attempt to monopolise the protection business in the criminal underworld by abusing power. In contemporary mainland China, the Red Mafia has developed into an alternative system of governance that can control organised crime groups, enable them to flourish, and protect them where strong government and effective self-protection associations are absent. The author examines organised crime and corruption by analysing the Wen Qiang case, one of the most famous and widely publicised cases in Chongqing’s latest crime crackdown campaign. Drawing on interview data and extensive published materials, this paper offers a tentative definition of ‘Red Mafia’, develops a typology of organised crime, describes the emergence of the Red Mafia in China, explores how gangsters developed relationships with public officials, suggests why organised crime groups chose the Red Mafia as their preferred protection and enforcement mechanism, examines patterns of services provided, and explores the differences between the Red Mafia and other Mafia groups.     

Comparing crime reporting factors in EU countries

Through crime-reporting citizens make their security needs explicit to the police. This information helps the police in the allocation of resources. In the European Union, there are significant differences among countries, both in terms of overall and specific crime-reporting rates. Factors highlighted by the literature that might explain these differences are not entirely satisfactory. There is little comparative research, and most published studies are nation-centred, based on the experience of central and northern European countries, and largely focused on the situational variables related to the criminal incident itself. It is widely assumed that situational variables have a universal explanatory capacity in crime reporting. This article questions this assumption and shows that a number of factors weight differently in explaining national rates. Following a literature review, we identified four groups of causal factors and analysed their explanatory capacity. These are related largely to the incident (rational models) and victims’ perception (psychological models). In addition, we also analysed the influence of institutional and community factors. The European Survey on Crime and Safety database was used for our analysis. Results show the existence of two areas in Europe, the north-central area and the south-eastern area, in terms of crime reporting rates and the factors that explain these differences. Rational and psychological models explain crime-reporting practices better in the north-central area. In contrast, socio-demographic variables and social inequalities are more relevant for explaining crime reporting in the south-eastern area of Europe. Institutional variables are also important in eastern countries. Community factors are not significant explanatory variables due to the limitations of indicators available in the database. Our research reveals that crime-reporting is a rather more complex phenomenon than is often assumed, and highlights the limitations of existing knowledge and methodologies on comparative crime-reporting.     

Niche crime: The Columbus gangs study

Even though researchers have studied gangs for many years now, very little is known about the criminal activity of gang leaders. The purpose of this study is to examine the types of criminal activities in which gang leaders participate. Analysis of the criminal histories of 83 gang leaders from Columbus, Ohio, suggests that gangs there specialize in certain types of crime. These data imply that gang suppression policies might be more effective if they target specific niches of the crime market. The Office of Criminal Justice Services of the State of Ohio funded this research under Grant No. 91-JJ-C010682. The author wishes to thank Dr. Michael R. Sutton of Nottingham Trent University for his contributions to this article.     

Turning science into business in developing countries: the case of vaccine production in Vietnam

Turning scientific discoveries into business opportunities is a difficult process, particularly in high-tech related area such as bioscience and biotechnology. In developing countries, where research conditions are much less favorable than in the industrialized world, there are many additional constraints in terms of finance, investment, and human resources. However, the production of vaccines on the basis of research and technology transfer in Vietnam shows that this is possible provided the right policy and right people are available. Relying on transfer of technology from overseas, plus a combination of domestic efforts and international cooperation on R&D, Vietnamese research institutes have turned their research into business operations and turned some scientists into a businessmen and women. This in turn, has contributed to the eradication of certain diseases and Vietnam’s self-reliance of key vaccines.      

Shipping hazardous waste: implications for economically developing countries

Trade in hazardous waste has given rise to great concerns. One source of transboundary trade in hazardous waste is the ship-breaking industry. Though end-of-life vessels provide incentives to developing countries in the form of raw materials, these same developing countries are not only ill equipped to manage hazardous waste in an environmentally sound manner, but they also lack the resources to mitigate health impacts arising out of the handling of hazardous waste. These concerns of weaker economies have been addressed by the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. However, the shipping of vessels with hazardous waste for final disposal in developing countries continues. To illustrate the inequity involved in such negotiations, we present a case study of the French aircraft carrier “Le Clemenceau”, which was sent to a shipyard in Alang, India, for disposal. This vessel became the focus of attention given its transport of an unknown amount of toxic waste, including asbestos. Similarly, there are reports that large quantities of toxic waste are still being imported by India from countries that ban the use of this waste. The use, import, and export of these chemicals raise serious environmental and health concerns. This paper assesses the implications of shipping such hazardous waste to developing countries and emphasizes the need for promoting research to plug the gaps and for implementing stringent measures to check the trade in environmental pollutants.

A technology-utilization framework for developing countries

The International Development Research Centre, an agency created two decades ago by the Canadian Parliament and operated by an international board of governors, supports and funds research and development activities outside Canada. Initially it concentrated on building research capacity in developing countries and funding research projects. In the mid-1980s a significant part of the centre's attention shifted to technology transfer. In response to this new emphasis, the author developed what he calls a framework—a set of elements to consider in formulating research projects—for the purpose of improving the chances of transferring and implementing the research results. This article describes the utilization framework, using past research projects to illustrate its eight elements, and briefly describes how the centre has applied it. J. Andre Potworowski, until recently a consultant to the International Development Research Centre in the areas of technology transfer and research utilization, now is a principle with the Hickling Corporation in the management of technology. He has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He also has had various advisory positions with the Science Council of Canada; the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources; the Ministry of State for Science and Technology; and the Secretariat of the Prime Minister's National Advisory Board on Science and Technology.     

The dimensions of a transnational crime problem: the case of iuu fishing

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a significant transnational crime problem that costs developing nations from $2 to $15 billion in economic losses annually. Perpetrators include established organized crime groups and commercial fishers, while the incidence of IUU fishing is often shaped by public corruption. Various economic drivers, such as the exceptionally high value of some species, and the Flag of Convenience (FOC) system of vessel registration contribute to the significance of the problem. Negative environmental impacts involve the depletion of fish stocks, damage to coral reefs, and stress on marine mammals and birds. Social and economic impacts are severe as well, and are most especially prevalent in developing nations. Theoretically, IUU fishing may be viewed as arising and proliferating due to “criminogenic asymmetries,” especially evident in the uneven patchwork of international laws governing the world’s oceans. A broad range of public and private responses have thus far generated limited success in thwarting IUU fishing.