Organised Cybercrime or Cybercrime that is Organised? An Assessment of the Conceptualisation of Financial Cybercrime as Organised Crime

Criminological research over the last couple of decades has improved our understanding of cybercrimes. However, this body of research is regarded as still theoretically thin and not fully developed; more knowledge on the actors involved, their characteristics, and modus operandi is needed. Some publications recently suggested that organised crime is or might be involved in cybercrimes, which would have important policing implications, but evidence-based research on this point is still scarce and inconclusive. This article seeks to further this path of inquiry by providing a systematic analysis of 40 cases from The Netherlands, Germany, UK, and USA where criminal networks were involved in financial cybercrimes affecting the banking sector. It also assesses whether and to what extent these criminal networks meet the definitions of organised crime and discusses the theoretical and policing implications of our findings.     

Policing Women’s Bodies in an Illiberal Society: The Case of Ireland

This journal article outlines the history of the policing women’s bodies in Ireland in the context of law, crime and reproduction. It does this by means of three case studies. The first case study explores the policing of women’s bodies in relation to sexuality. The second case study focuses on reproduction and the policing of women’s bodies in relation to reproduction. The third and final case study considers the policing of women’s bodies in relation to abortion. Taken together, these three case studies provide an overview of the capacity, and indeed the readiness, that exists in Irish society to police women’s bodies and to do so particularly in relation to sexuality and reproduction.     

The Case of the “Offering of Life” in the Causes for Canonization of Catholic Saints: The Threshold of Self-Sacrifice

International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique - Catholic legal and doctrinal tradition defined two main cases for the canonization of saints:...     

Agents of Change or Unchanging Agents? The Role of Lawyers within Russian Industrial Enterprises

The transition from state socialism toward market capitalism has led to an almost endless supply of new laws and legal institutions. Industrial enterprises need to adapt to this new institutional regime. In-house lawyers are well placed to be agents of change in facilitating this adjustment. Using survey data from 328 Russian enterprises, the article examines the role of company lawyers, asking whether they have fulfilled this potential. Legal expertise is not in short supply, but lawyers are marginalized within the enterprise. They focus on established, routine tasks, such as handling labor relations or drafting form contracts, rather than on shaping enterprise strategies in the newer areas created by the transition, such as corporate governance or securities law. The failure of in-house lawyers to emerge as agents of change in Russia reflects a continuation of their low status during the Soviet era and the lack of professional identity among these company lawyers.     

The Independence of Kosovo: A Unique Case of Secession?

The issuance of the Declaration of Independence by Kosovar authoritiesin February 2008 has been treated by the United Nations as notcapable of creating a precedent in international law. The questionremains as to whether the act was in conformity with internationallaw. In resolution A/RES/63/3, the United Nations General Assemblydecided to request the International Court of Justice to renderan advisory opinion on that question. The Kosovo case, consequently,raises issues that merit further consideration. A legal findingby the Court would be worth all this trouble if it clarifiedthe rules regarding post-colonial-age secessions, even thoughits conclusion on the situation of Kosovo will not be likelyto affect the matter of recognition to any great extent. Internationalintervention as a title to sovereignty is given some truth followingthese events concerning Kosovo. The conformity or not with internationallaw of a unilateral act always depends on the legality of boththe root for its initiation and the original rationale. Fromthis perspective, the independence of Kosovo is indeed a uniquecase of secession.     

Young Offenders’ Decisions to Re-offend as A Breakdown of Self-Regulation of Hierarchically Organised Feedback Loops: The Role of Moral Disengagement in Formulating Decisions to Re-offend

The present paper examines young offenders’ decisions to re-offend, as a function of a breakdown of self-regulation, as represented by moral disengagement. There were 152 male inmates randomly selected from the largest young offender institution in Scotland and were asked to fill-in a moral disengagement scale and a questionnaire which assessed their cognitive representations. It was found that moral disengagement was neither related to frequency of offending nor age of initiation of delinquent behaviour. Moral disengagement was significantly related to attitudes, perceived behavioural control and intentions to offend in the future. Moral disengagement contributed to the prediction of intentions when the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was operationalised through the direct measurement of the constructs of the model, although such did not contribute to the prediction of intentions when the constructs were operationalised by indirect, belief-based measurements of the constructs of the model. A model is proposed in terms of self-regulation of hierarchically organised feedback loops. Attitudes and perceived behavioural control are operating at the level of program control, as a function of disengagement of moral principles at the level of principles control.     

Contesting Religious Authoriality: The Immanuel “Beis-Yaakov” School Segregation Case

This paper will focus on two textual articulations that emerged in the Immanuel “Beis-Yaakov” school segregation case. The first is a declaration of the Admor from Slonim that was published when the ultra-Orthodox fathers who refused to send their daughters to an integrated school were imprisoned. The second is a letter to the Supreme Court that was written by an Ashkenazi mother whose daughter attended the “Beis Yaakov” school. A semiotic reading of the articulations reveals several opposing characteristics. The Admor’s audience is determined by his choices of medium and rhetoric, which guarantee hegemonic reading, corresponding with the textual code of his interpretive community. The letter, on the other hand, represents an attempt to break through communal borders, and therefore its writer cannot expect hegemonic reading. Yet, she makes a considerable effort to employ signifiers denoting her ultra-Orthodox affiliation. In light of the hindrances that usually prevent ultra-Orthodox women from contesting the authority of the community, the letter presents a rare feminine voice, which is vigorous enough to attempt subverting under the authoriality of the Admor, and might have a long run affect on the quest for equality.     

Functions of Social Representations in Honour Violence: The “Other East” as Responsible

Although extensive research has been carried out in the field of social justice in terms of femicide in defence of family honour around the globe, intersecting aspect of identity as an underlying psychological mechanism to justify the social sources of these killing has not been addressed in much detail. The present study, therefore, examined the role of (a) diverse social representations in femicide, (b) geography and ethnicity in social representations of honour violence, and (c) the functions of these diverse social representations in maintaining social injustice towards women through the promotion of occidentalism in line with the boundaries for a hegemonic notion of western modernisation. Two studies were conducted. The first study includes a content analysis investigating data from 73 respondents living in the western part of Turkey. The present findings showed that there are different social representations of honour killings, such as töre killings and namus killings. These diverse representations were found to reflect the fact that individuals delegitimise töre killings as eastern, outrageous, tribalistic, and related to family honour while legitimising namus killings as personal, valuable, self-aware, and vulnerable, in the context of “westernised” Turkey. The second study comprises an experimental design in which participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: namus killing, töre killing, and control. The results showed that diverse social representations of femicide have psychological functions such that a namus representation gives more legitimacy to femicide than does a töre representation. The consideration of diverse representations in honour killings and their functions has the potential to inform research as well as to build effective prevention policies targeting the reduction in femicides. A focus on the concept of namus and an emphasis on moving the focus of social representations away from responsible backwards, “the other East” and towards namus as one of the leading sources of domestic violence may switch the problem from the perception of victimised eastern women and to a general injustice problem.

     

Structural Reform Policy: Privatisation and Beyond—The Case of Greece

Privatisation, coupled with liberalisation and competition, constitutes one of the most popular policy options to improve the performance of state-owned enterprises. However, in Greece, it was only after 1991 that privatisation started to gain ground in the political and economic agendas of governments. Drawing upon the theoretical underpinnings of privatisation, the paper overviews and critically analyses the new legal framework on denationalisation in Greece. The paper argues that, though the modernisation of the legal regime is welcomed, the Greek government has failed to treat privatisation as part of wider structural reforms aiming at enhancing competition and foreign investment. The paper concludes that wider structural reforms, including regulatory reform and liberalisation, as well as combating corruption and bureaucracy and promoting transparent capital markets, are absolutely necessary in order to create a competitive environment, which would both complement and support privatisation efforts.     

The Feasibility of Cost of Crime Estimations in Eastern Europe – The Case of Poland

Estimates of cost of crime have gradually been introduced into the public debate on crime policy. Estimates differ in their scope and methodologies and this impedes international comparisons. This article follows the model of estimating costs of crime developed under the 6th Framework Programme and provides the comparable results of costs of crime in Poland. The total costs of crime have been estimated at 5.1% of GDP. In particular, the victimisation costs of violent crimes have been estimated at 1.94% of GDP and the costs of property crimes against individuals at 0.5% of GDP. The results are in line with estimates for other countries and provide the relevant measure for any cost-benefit analysis of a crime policy.     

The “age of empire”: again?

Law and ways of thinking about law have historically been integral to processes of colonialisation and extension of empire. Contemporary forms of colonialism in a globalising legal environment may be less obvious, more nuances or even subconscious. However, the emergence of higher education as a trade commodity, the shift to fee-paying students as consumers and the market competition for international students among universities raise questions about the export and import of various forms of legal education, especially in the context of plural and mixed legal systems, debates about legal transplants, and concerns about legal imperialism. This article examines these issues and considers the place of comparative legal education in the contemporary environment facing university law schools.     

The Victim as Policy Agent? Exploring a Single Case from Denmark

European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research - Criminal policy processes often appear abstract and illusive, but sometimes a single criminal incident causes traceable policy impact. This...     

A System��s Approach to Crime Prevention: The Case of Macao

Macao has the world’s largest casino industry and represents a unique political, social, and cultural system that differs significantly from Western societies. The overall crime rate in Macao is relatively low. Scholarly knowledge about crime and crime prevention in Macao, however, is very limited. This paper first reviews crime prevention theories, typologies, and various strategies in Western societies, followed by an introduction and discussion of crime prevention practices in Macao. Crime prevention strategies in Macao may be characterized as a tripod structure with three major supporting legs: traditional criminal justice practices, social prevention beyond the criminal justice system, and situational crime prevention measures. The paper then discusses the factors that may contribute to the low level of crime in Macao and points out the direction for future research in Macao.     

Cultural Policy and Values: Intrinsic versus Instrumental? The Case of Romania

This article addresses cultural policy in post-Communist Romania, focusing on the justifications for support of culture and the arts. The objectives are to clarify values legitimizing public support and to determine their effect on the meaning and impact of cultural policy. The author argues that justifications of public funding—instrumental or intrinsic—depend on how successive governments represent the roles conferred to culture and the arts, as well as on the particular ideas of culture and art they promote. Policy discourse after 1989 has been characterized by its nourishment of a persistent instrumental ideology that gradually connected to the international debate and has been dominated by a traditional, narrow conception of culture and art, which conflicts with a modern conception. Until recently, the fluctuations and conflicts between different values and ideas of culture and art have worked to constrain cultural policy, disrupting its implementation and altering its effects.     

The return of the “Battered husband Syndrome” through the typification of women as violent

The process of the social construction of woman abuse includes the essential idea of typification: that how we typify abused women can be a part of justifying help, or it can provide the scientific justification for a male discourse which legitimates abuse and buffers batterers from guilt. Because Straus and Gelles are widely used by the press and academics as authorities, it is essential to recognize their return to an ideological position they once seemingly abandoned: that women are as violent as men, are not acting in self-defense, and may be ultimately responsible for male violence. As this debate is carried on in public, newsmaking criminology must be used to provide the media with alternative feminist views.     

The Trip – A Case of Problematic Friendship?

In Sweden, there have been several cases in recent years where local politicians and officials have been accused of corrupt behaviour. This article concerns one such case, where a Chairman of the Municipal Board and a County Governor were invited by a wealthy business man to the inauguration of a vacation facility abroad. Their travel costs and lodgings were paid for by the business man, whose firm also sold equipment to the municipality as well as the county. When the trip became known to the prosecutors at the Swedish National Anti-Corruption Unit, a police investigation was conducted and charges raised against them for giving (the business man) and receiving (the Chairman and the County Governor) bribes. Eventually, after two trials (District Court and Court of Appeal), the Chairman, County Governor, and the business man were cleared of all charges against them. The trip was viewed by the courts as a gift, not a bribe. It is argued that the case raises interesting questions about entangled friendship relations and the blurred boundaries between private and professional roles which are important for understanding local corruption (and allegations of corruption) in Sweden. Therefore, the article's main focus concerns what could be described as actions in the grey zone.     

When Justice Can’t Be Done: The Obligation to Govern and Rights in the State of Terror

This article explores a view nearly absent from modern political theory, that there is a duty to create and secure government which imposes on some a duty to govern. This duty is grounded in philosophers as disparate as Aquinas, Locke, Hobbes and Finnis. To fail one??s duty to govern, especially over the range of goods that can only be secured by government, is to have committed a wrong against another. If there is an obligation to govern that is rooted in the common good, then one might believe there is an obligation to maintain a government which pursues the common good. After disentangling the duty to govern from political duties which are much better explored, I focus on the more subtle question of how political legitimacy and the obligation to obey the law may clash with a duty to govern. Again, it is surprising that this claim can be located in scholars as disparate as Kant, Hobbes and Finnis. Yet in each example these thinkers give us, we are troubled by the tension between the duty to maintain a government and its conceptual fellow travelers, legitimate government and the obligation to obey. Nor is this question one restricted to abstract political philosophy. Particularly troubling are scenarios in which a threat to governance might lead to a reasonable belief that the government must maintain itself by taking actions which appear illegitimate. A scenario where a government must racially profile or violate civil liberties to guard against threats to the ability to govern brings the problem to life. Difficult moments of American history ?C the interment of the Japanese during World War II, racial profiling after September 11th and the use of torture by the United States government were surely mistakes. But they make live the perceived and potential clash between a duty to maintain a government, legitimate government and our duty to obey the law.     

The Trial of Joseph Dotterweich: The Origins of the “Responsible Corporate Officer” Doctrine

This article analyzes the origins of the “responsible corporate officer” doctrine: the trial of Joseph Dotterweich. That doctrine holds that an officer may be personally liable for the criminal act of a subordinate if the officer was, in some indefinite way, able to prevent the violation. Applying this doctrine, the prosecution of Dotterweich entailed strict liability for a strict liability offense. The underlying offenses—the interstate sale of one misbranded and adulterated drug and one misbranded drug—were said to be strict liability offenses. And then, with respect to Dotterweich as the corporation’s general manager, the government argued that he was strictly liable because he stood in “responsible relation” to the company’s acts. The government never tried to prove that the company, Buffalo Pharmacal, was negligent, nor did it try to prove that Dotterweich was negligent in his supervision of the employees of Buffalo Pharmacal. The prosecutor and judge were candid about this theory throughout the trial, although the judge conceded that it seemed bizarre and unfair. The defense lawyer repeatedly sought to inject what became known throughout the trial as the “question of good faith,” but was circumvented at almost every turn. What would thus seem to be the crux of any criminal trial—the personal fault of the defendant—was carefully shorn from the jury’s consideration. The government’s theory was so at odds with intuitive notions of liability and blame that, as one probes into the case, and looks at the language used in the government’s appellate briefs, imputations of moral fault inevitably crept in. Yet the government was not entitled to make such accusations, as it had pruned moral considerations from the trial. The article argues that the responsible corporate officer doctrine can never enjoy a secure place in our legal system. First, the doctrine is at a minimum in tension with, and often in direct opposition to, basic principles of the criminal law; and second, the doctrine fails, when followed to its logical conclusions, to accord with basic notions of fair play. The article concludes that the responsible corporate officer doctrine is either unnecessary, in cases in which the evidence establishes personal fault, or unjust, in cases in which it creates liability in the absence of personal fault through the unspecified notion of “responsibility.” The Dotterweich case illustrates what is contemplated by the latter possibility, and why it is problematic in any judicial system that purports, in the words of the Model Penal Code, “to safeguard conduct that is without fault from condemnation as criminal.”