污染环境罪的未遂

污染环境罪的未遂包括作为结果犯的未遂和作为结果加重犯的未遂。作为结果加重犯的未遂,是指对环境污染本身持故意,对于人身伤亡财产损失的加重结果持过失的污染环境罪未遂。司法实践中存在直接判决污染环境罪未遂的判例,也存在提及是否可以成立污染环境罪未遂的判例,但更多的是对成立污染环境罪未遂未予提及的判例。在刑事立法未及增设污染环境罪具体危险犯的情况下,对污染环境罪未遂的肯定无疑对于司法实践起到了指引作用。但污染环境罪抽象危险犯的功能是污染环境罪未遂所无法替代的。     

共同犯罪的认定方法

我国认定共同犯罪的传统方法,存在不区分不法与责任、不区分正犯与狭义的共犯、不分别考察参与人行为与正犯结果之间的因果性等三个特点,这种认定方法导致难以解决诸多复杂案件。认定共同犯罪应当采取相反的方法:其一,共同犯罪的特殊性仅在于不法层面,应当以不法为重心认定共同犯罪;至于其中的责任判断,则与单个人犯罪的责任判断没有区别。其二,正犯是构成要件实现过程中的核心人物,应当以正犯为中心认定共犯;当正犯造成了法益侵害结果 (包括危险)时,只要参与人的行为对该结果做出了贡献,就属于不法层面的共犯。其三,只有当参与人的行为与正犯结果之间具有因果性时,才承担既遂犯的刑事责任,故共同犯罪的认定应当以因果性为核心。完全没有必要提出和回答"共同犯罪犯的是什么罪"之类的问题。在刑法理论与司法实践中,可以淡化"共同犯罪"概念。     

The presentation of drugs in the news media: The news sources involved in the construction of social problems

We use content and ethnographic methods to analyze news media coverage of crime, drug offenses, and celebrated cases. We document the sources cited in crime stories to determine which officials are used to define what is important about crime as it is presented to the public. This analysis demonstrates that the organizational constraints of news production determine the presentation of the great majority of crime stories. The media rely on criminal justice sources to increase efficiency of news production. The involvement of sources in the standard production of news, however, gives them an opportunity to take advantage of important social problems and celebrated cases. We examine the sources cited in crime stories, drug stories, and celebrated cases to document how the news process evolves according to the importance of the story. Implications for understanding crime and the role of the media as an institution of social control are discussed.     

贷款诈骗罪定性问题研究

司法实践中 ,在对贷款诈骗罪的认定上 ,无论是客观方面、犯罪主体、主观方面 ,还是犯罪数额及犯罪形态 ,都有许多特殊的问题需要加以明确 ,这对于正确处理贷款诈骗案件具有重要意义     

Enron Et Al.: Paradigmatic White Collar Crime Cases for the New Century

The Enron et al. cases (i.e., the series of “corporate scandal” cases emerging in 2001–2002, beginning with Enron, and including such cases as WorldCom, Global Crossing, Adelphia, and Tyco) are the first major American white collar crime cases of the new century. This article identifies some of the key attributes of these cases. The Enron et al. cases can only be understood by applying criminological theory on several different levels; structural, organizational, dramaturgic and individualistic dimensions are applied to the Enron case in particular. The Enron et al. cases must also be understood in the context of an emerging postmodern society. The specific role of criminologists in explaining and responding to these paradigmatic new white collar crime cases is addressed. The article ends with some conjectures on the potential outcomes of the Enron et al. cases. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

论吸毒者持有毒品行为之定性与定量

吸毒者涉毒案件在毒品犯罪中占有较大比重,其定性与处罚为司法实践所重点关注,其间,既涉及罪与非罪之界定,也涉及此罪与彼罪之区分,当具体分析认定:吸毒者为了自己吸食、注射而非法持有较大数量毒品的,应以非法持有毒品罪论处;对以贩养吸者持有毒品的,应根据其持有毒品的目的、数量,结合证据使用规则,分别以贩卖毒品罪、非法持有毒品罪或者非罪定性处理;对吸毒者已经吸食、注射之毒品不得再计入非法持有毒品的数量之中。     

A CRITIQUE OF THE CRIME OF DELIBERATELY RENDERING AN ARBITRAL AWARD IN VIOLATION OF LAW

The crime of deliberately rendering an arbitral award in violation of law was provided at the end of Article 20 of the Amendment VI to the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China. Such a crime is likely to be misunderstood because views are sharply divided on its implication and scope of application. In addition, pertinent provisions are not manipulable. The wording of violation of law should not be included in articles of the law, as legalese. The charge is the product of redundant legislation, whose provisions are bound to be considered as pieces of blank paper. The creation of the crime disrespects arbitration, and removes the peculiarities of it. The charge of the crime undermines the profession of international arbitration. Therefore, the crime should be repealed. Where cases were arbitrated wrongly, and social harms were caused, criminal law and other laws would serve as remedies.     

票据犯罪若干问题研究

票据犯罪主体因罪而异 ,有的票据犯罪一般个人主体、一般单位主体不能实施 ,只有特殊个人主体、特殊单位主体才能实施。有的票据犯罪主体必须具有票据当事人身份 ,非票据当事人不能成为该项犯罪主体。票据犯罪罪过形式是故意和过失 ,模糊罪过和混合罪过的观点并不适用刑法所要求的票据犯罪。银行结算凭证虽然不是票据 ,但是应该归属票据犯罪对象范畴。我国刑法应当承认票据无形伪造。     

The Unusual Victim: Understanding the Specific Crime Processes and Motivations for Elderly Sexual Homicide

Sexual homicides involving elderly victims are rare and unusual crimes, and research specifically focusing on these homicides is almost inexistent. The current study investigates the crime commission process as well as the motivations underlying elderly sexual homicides. The sample comes from the Sexual Homicide International Database (SHIelD) including sexual homicide cases from Canada and France. A total of 56 cases involving victims aged 65 years or more were compared with 513 cases involving victims aged between 16 and 45 years old. Bivariate analyses and two-step cluster analysis are performed. Findings show major differences in the crime commission process of the two groups of offenders. We also identified a four-cluster typology of elderly sexual homicide offenders based on their motivations (sexual, robber, sadistic, experimental). Although sexual homicides involving elderly victims are rare, these crimes are different, presenting specificities and should be studied as a group on its own.     

Women,brokerage and transnational organized crime. Empirical results from the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor

This paper analyzes the role of women in various types of transnational organized crime and tests the ‘gendered markets’ hypothesis by Zhang et al. (Criminology 45(3):699–733 2007) for a wide cross-section of 150 cases from the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor. The main information sources for the Dutch Organized Crime Monitor are closed Dutch police investigations into criminal groups, often spanning a period of several years. Following four data sweeps, a wide cross-section of 150 cases was collected about various forms of organized crime (period 1994–2011): ‘traditional’ drug trafficking cases (cocaine, heroin, and cannabis), but also other—less frequently prioritized—phenomena such as synthetic drugs (production and export), human smuggling, human trafficking, and fraud and money laundering. The paper discusses several important theoretical perspectives from the organized crime literature: the gendered markets hypothesis; the social embeddedness of (transnational) organized crime: and the idea of brokerage. Furthermore, empirical data are presented on how often women play a (prominent) role in different types of criminal activities and which roles they play. These findings are related to the ‘gendered markets’ hypothesis and alternative explanations. Further qualitative analysis is presented on the transnational aspects which can be discerned in the studied cases: transnational marriage and transnational relationships; language and mediation; and migration and legal status. Finally, the main conclusions are discussed as well as their theoretical and empirical relevance.     

Distance travelled and offence characteristics in homicide,rape, and robbery against business

Purpose. We aimed (1) to describe distances from home to offence locations (journey‐to‐crime) of offenders in difficult‐to‐solve homicides and rapes as well as robberies against businesses; (2) to see whether the distances in these offences differ from each other; and (3) to test whether selected features related to the offence would be associated with the distances. Methods. Lists of difficult‐to‐solve (DTS) homicides (N = 99) and rapes (N = 56) as well as robberies against businesses (N = 275) from the city of Milan (Italy) were acquired. The collected data consisted of home and offence location coordinates with information on the behaviour of the offenders (for rapes and homicides). The journey‐to‐crime functions were calibrated using the journey‐to‐crime module of CrimeStatIII©. Results. Most distances were short. In homicides, distances were below 1 km, in rapes below 2 km whereas in robberies against businesses almost 6 km. Some crime features were correlated with the distances in rape and homicide cases. Combining the behavioural information to a spatial behaviour measure allowed for better prediction of travelled distances compared to using single variables. Conclusions. The results have practical implications for crime investigations as the crime features explored were, as a rule, such that they would be known by the police prior to the offender being identified. A general theoretical framework for binding together journey‐to‐crime distances and offender crime scene behaviour and other important crime features is needed.     

Ascent of the corporate model in environmental-organized crime

Since the mid-1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) has been used against traditional organized criminals (i.e., Mafia) operating within various waste-trade industries. Recent civil and criminal RICO cases brought in New York City and State, provide current examples of the overall limited success of using RICO against criminal actors situated within the waste-trade industries. Although the traditional form of organized crime (i.e., Mafia) appears to be on the wane, corporate forms of organized crime have already entered into the waste-trade industries to fill the void created by the extraction of their predecessors. These corporate racketeers closely mimic the old traditional form of crime they have replaced, but may prove to be even more intractable, because, as the literature on corporate crime has clearly shown, corporate entities are extremely resistant to labeling as illegitimate organizations. One result of addressing “environmental-organized crime” as strictly organized crime, rather than as environmental crime, is that little change will be forthcoming in our current environmental regulations, laws, strategies and policies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

On The Application of Fuzzy Clustering for Crime Hot Spot Detection

   One of the fundamental challenges in crime mapping and analysis is pattern recognition. Efforts and methods to detect crime hot-spots, or geographic areas of elevated criminal activity, are wide ranging. For aggregate data, such as total crime events in a census tract(s), measures of spatial autocorrelation have proven useful. For disaggregate data (i.e. individual crime events), kernel density smoothing and non-hierarchical cluster analysis (e.g. k-means), are widely used. Non-hierarchical techniques are particularly effective in delineating geographic space into areas of higher or lower crime concentrations, because each observation is assigned to one and only one cluster. The resulting set of partitions provides clear-cut spatial boundaries that can be used for hot-spot evaluation and interpretation. However, the strength of non-hierarchical methods can also be viewed as a weakness. Although the hard-clustering of observations into a set of discrete clusters is helpful, there are many cases where ambiguity exists in the data. In such cases, a more generalized approach for hot-spot detection would be helpful. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of a generalized partitioning method known as fuzzy clustering for hot-spot detection. Functional and visual comparisons of fuzzy clustering and two hard-clustering approaches (medoid and k-means), across a range of cluster values are analyzed. The empirical results suggest that a fuzzy clustering approach is better equipped to handle intermediate cases and spatial outliers.

DNA in the Criminal Justice System: The DNA Success Story in Perspective,

Current figures on the efficiency of DNA as an investigative tool in criminal investigations only tell part of the story. To get the DNA success story in the right perspective, we examined all forensic reports from serious (N = 116) and high‐volume crime cases (N = 2791) over the year 2011 from one police region in the Netherlands. These data show that 38% of analyzed serious crime traces (N = 384) and 17% of analyzed high‐volume crime traces (N = 386) did not result in a DNA profile. Turnaround times (from crime scene to DNA report) were 66 days for traces from serious crimes and 44 days for traces from high‐volume crimes. Suspects were truly identified through a match with the Offender DNA database of the Netherlands in 3% of the serious crime cases and in 1% of the high‐volume crime cases. These data are important for both the forensic laboratory and the professionals in the criminal justice system to further optimize forensic DNA testing as an investigative tool.     

影像中的有组织犯罪亚文化——以香港黑社会题材电影为例

文化是一个十分模糊的概念，但它的表现形式十分具体。研究跨国有组织犯罪的角度可以有很多，其中黑社会组织犯罪的文化形式可以是其一。作为一种传播广泛的媒体形式，电影与文化生活的互动频繁。以黑社会为题材的电影是华语电影的重要组成部分，其中属香港涉黑题材电影最为典型。电影投射出的黑社会组织犯罪有许多符号，较为突出的包括神秘、“义”、身份认同、崇尚暴力和拜金。而这些只是现实中的香港黑社会组织犯罪亚文化的抽象与简化。尽管如此，研究涉黑题材的香港电影还是能从一个侧面了解现实中的黑社会组织犯罪，回答为什么黑社会摆明了是有组犯罪的姿态却仍然让有些人加入而深陷其中的问题。     

Counting the cost of crime in Italy

We gauge the cost of crime in Italy by concentrating on a subset of offences covering about 64% of total recorded crimes in the year 2006. Following the breakdown of costs put forward by Brand and Price, we focus on the costs in anticipation, as a consequence, and in response to a specific offence. The estimated total social cost is more than €38 billion, which amounts to about 2.6% of Italy's GDP. To show the usefulness of these measures, we borrow the elasticity estimates from recent studies concerning the determinants of crime in Italy and calculate the cost associated with the surge in crime fuelled by unemployment and pardons. Indeed, in both cases such costs are substantial, implying that they should no longer be skipped when assessing the relative desirability of public policies towards crime.     

Juvenile conference committees: An evaluation of the administration of justice at the neighborhood level

The Juvenile/Family Court has significant problems in dealing efficiently and effectively with its caseload. Due to the pressure of “serious” juvenile crime, a large volume of status offense and minor crime cases, although of significant social consequence, are dismissed by the court. The concept of “neighborhood justice” has provided one basis for dealing with such cases.This is a report of a process evaluation of New Jersey's Juvenile Conference Committee (JCC) program, which provides an extensive network of citizen tribunals as an arm of the court. The evaluation was designed to explore both structural and procedural aspects of the JCC with a focus on policy implications. Results show that the JCC is a major diversion mechanism. Questions are raised, however, as to the purpose of intervention in cases of minor delinquency and the adequacy of current JCC procedures in dealing with such cases. The conclusion is reached that the citizens' tribunal is an important mechanism for community development.     

The Internet, Technology, and Organized Crime

Digital technology has transformed organizational life. Developments in communications, and in information storage and retrieval, to name just two areas, have greatly enhanced the efficiency with which legitimate organizations operate. Unfortunately, the benefits of digital technology are not lost on criminal organizations, which exploit digital technology to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of their own operations. This paper will discuss the organized criminal exploitation of digital technology, by looking at a number of illustrative cases from Asia and around the world. It will discuss the various types of “conventional” organized crime that can be facilitated by digital technology, as well as terrorism, which itself can be regarded as a special kind of organized criminal activity. One fundamental question that the paper will seek to address is whether the activities of Asian organized crime have become substantively different as a result of technology, or whether traditional organized criminal activities in Asia are merely being conducted on a more efficient and effective basis. The paper will note the transnational nature of much organized criminal activity, and will discuss mechanisms for the control of organized crime in the digital age.     

Is it Important to Examine Crime Trends at a Local “Micro” Level?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Street to Street Variability in Crime Trajectories

Over the last 40 years, the question of how crime varies across places has gotten greater attention. At the same time, as data and computing power have increased, the definition of a ‘place’ has shifted farther down the geographic cone of resolution. This has led many researchers to consider places as small as single addresses, group of addresses, face blocks or street blocks. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of the spatial distribution of crime have consistently found crime is strongly concentrated at a small group of ‘micro’ places. Recent longitudinal studies have also revealed crime concentration across micro places is relatively stable over time. A major question that has not been answered in prior research is the degree of block to block variability at this local ‘micro’ level for all crime. To answer this question, we examine both temporal and spatial variation in crime across street blocks in the city of Seattle Washington. This is accomplished by applying trajectory analysis to establish groups of places that follow similar crime trajectories over 16 years. Then, using quantitative spatial statistics, we establish whether streets having the same temporal trajectory are collocated spatially or whether there is street to street variation in the temporal patterns of crime. In a surprising number of cases we find that individual street segments have trajectories which are unrelated to their immediately adjacent streets. This finding of heterogeneity suggests it may be particularly important to examine crime trends at very local geographic levels. At a policy level, our research reinforces the importance of initiatives like ‘hot spots policing’ which address specific streets within relatively small areas.     

Crime Volume and Law and Order Culture

The literature on public opinion about crime and justice has neglected the exploration of macro‐ or community‐level influences on individual‐level attitudes. A key macrofactor that may be related to individual level attitudes is the volume of violent crime. High crime rates can facilitate the development of a culture of “law and order,” a response that may be a practical or instrumental attempt to control crime. The present paper tests the hypothesis that persons residing in nations marked by a high volume of crime will be more likely to adhere to elements of a law and order culture. It employs data from the International Social Science Program (N = 15,024). Controls are taken from major theoretical perspectives on public opinion about crime as well as demographic factors. The results from a hierarchical linear model support the hypothesis that individuals residing in nations with high crime rates are more likely than others to support law and order ideologies. The findings extend the support for this relationship from research based on the US alone to other industrialized societies.