Corporate crime and criminal justice system capacity: Government response to financial institution fraud

References to gang initiation rites are common in contemporary discourse about crime. Contemporary legends claim that gangs require initiates to commit horrific crimes, social science researchers depict initiations as brief tests of character, and newspaper accounts use initiation rites to explain unsolved crimes. The motif of gang initiation resembles claims about other deviant conspiracies. Its use illustrates how existing cultural resources serve the construction of social problems.     

The economics of crime and criminal law: An antithesis to sociological theories?

The relationship between sociology and economics of crime has been dominated by mutual prejudice and misunderstanding. This paper tries to contribute to a change of this stale of affairs by showing that, on the one hand, the economics of crime does not as a method imply politically conservative policy recommendations and, on the other hand, that insights of the sociology of crime may enrich the economic approach considerably. This is done via a brief survey of the economics of enforcement, the literature on the relation of income distribution and unemployment on crime, and the literature relating sociological theories of crime to methodological individualism.     

Nature and consequences of dismissals: Implications for public safety and crime prevention in criminal courts in America

The role of dismissal as a major case disposition in criminal courts in America has been largely neglected in empirical studies to date, despite long-lasting questions about its nature and important implications for justice goals. This paper is a first attempt to fill in this gap.

Purpose

Drawing on untested assumptions about a possible dismissal-reoffending connection, the paper proposes a public safety framework for examining the nature of dismissals and their consequences for the community. Under this perspective, dismissal is a function of defendants’ risk attributes and contributes to subsequent public safety threat.

Methods

To test these hypotheses, predictive and causal analyses were conducted on an 800-case sample of criminal defendants in one large urban American jurisdiction, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Cases were sampled at the first judicial stage and followed as a cohort for one year to record disposition and post-disposition outcomes.

Results

The findings indicate that defendants’ risk attributes contribute to the explanation of dismissal and that dismissal in itself adds to the probability of subsequent offending.

Conclusions

The findings raise questions about the justice system goals, particularly deterrence and have important policy implications for the processing and disposition of criminal cases in American jurisdictions.     

Fear of crime and criminal victimization: Gender-based contrasts

Extant research on the fear of crime and criminal victimization had generally found that women express greater levels of fear than men. Using survey data, this study contrasted perceptions of safety and the fear of personal and property victimization among male and female respondents. Specifically considered was the relationship between demographic characteristics, fear facilitators, fear inhibitors, neighborhood context, and crime-related fear. Results indicated some gender differences in the influence explanatory variables had on fear, although not all achieved statistical significance. For both gender groups, respondents' perceptions of their neighborhood as orderly and satisfactory had the largest effect on perceptions. Gender-based differences in the outcome of the analyses further supported that males and females experienced fear based upon different factors.     

Mortgage fraud and organized crime in Canada: strategic intelligence brief

Natasha Tusikov, Acting Manager, National Research and Methodology Development Unit, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada - Central Bureau, Intelligence Analysis and Knowledge Development Branch, November 2007     

Schizophrenia: Causes,crime, and implications for criminology and criminal justice

This paper is aimed at criminologists and criminal justicians seeking to understand their role in educating law enforcement and correctional personnel who must deal with the mentally ill. It is motivated by William Johnson's (2011) recent call for rethinking the interface between mental illness, criminal justice, and academia, and his call for advocacy. We concur with his concerns, and insist that this rethinking must necessarily include grounding in the etiology of mental illness (specifically, with schizophrenia) as it is currently understood by researchers in the area. Advocacy must go hand in hand with a thorough knowledge of the condition of the people for whom we are advocating. We first examine major etiological models of schizophrenia, emphasizing the neurodevelopmental model that incorporates genetics, neurological functioning, and immunological factors guided by the assumption that the typical criminologist/criminal justician has minimal acquaintance with such material. We then address the link between schizophrenia and criminal behavior, and conclude with a discussion of the implications for criminology and criminal justice.     

Victims of fraud: comparing victims of white collar and violent crime

Mental health professionals have focused attention on the psychiatric sequelae of criminal victimization. This article compares the experience of white collar and violent crime victims on several parameters including statistical risk of victimization and psychiatric outcome after victimization. Emphasis is given to data obtained from interviewing 77 victims of a fraudulent financial scheme.     

A general theory of crime and computer crime: An empirical test

Computer crime has become a global issue and continues to rapidly grow; however, few studies had examined the applicability of a general theory of crime in explaining computer deviance. Using a panel of 2,751 Korean youths, the current study examined whether low self-control theory can be useful as a theoretical framework for explaining computer crime. The results indicated the applicability of low self-control theory in explaining both illegal download of software and illegal use of others’ personal identification online. Consistent with the theory's prediction, opportunity variables, especially hours of computer use, were found to be significant predictors of computer crime. The shortcomings of the current research and the directions for future research were discussed.     

Victim survey research: Implications for criminal justice planning

The historic use of offense reports by police agencies for decision making is examined in the light of another data source — victim surveys. Survey information data can be used to: (1) more reliably estimate the extent and distribution of crime in a community; (2) evaluate the effectiveness of innovative programs; (3) develop police-sponsored public education programs; (4) describe the characteristics of victims and high crime areas; (5) sensitize police to the needs of the victim; and (6) develop police training programs that include dealing with the victim.     

中澳刑事被害人诉讼地位及权利比较

在现代刑事诉讼制度中,对被害人合法权益的保障日渐突出。本文结合我国立法和司法实践的现状,通过比较中国与澳大利亚在被害人诉讼地位和权利保护方面的异同,对如何完善我国的被害人权利保障机制提出了相应的建议。     

刑事推定与犯罪认定刍议

在刑事诉讼中,认定犯罪事实的方法不外乎两种:一是以全然确定的证据来直接证明案件事实,二是通过推定来认定犯罪.其中,前者是认定犯罪事实的主要方法,长期以来人们注重对其研究和运用.然而,对于后者,理论上的探讨还不是很多.不可否认,刑事推定运用得合理,对于拓展认定犯罪的方法,及时打击犯罪,防止犯罪分子逃脱刑事追究有着重大的意义.     

Using Raman Spectroscopy to solve crime: inks, questioned documents and fraud

Raman microscopy is becoming a tool of major importance in forensic analysis, particularly of drugs and explosives. It is a non-invasive, non-destructive chemical probe allowing samples to be examined in their entirety without any preparation. This paper demonstrates the use of the technique as a general tool for inks analysis. Furthermore, it addresses two important issues that historically have been extremely difficult for the professional document examiner, namely, comparison of black ballpoint inks and the chronological sequencing of crossed ink lines. We show that Raman can successfully distinguish between a representative sample of commercially available black ballpoint inks. This data has been converted into a database for future reference. A method for chronological sequencing of crossed ink lines has been developed using confocal Raman microscopy. Case study work has shown the feasibility of this approach.     

The judicial response to crime and the criminal: A utilitarian perspective

This paper examines the hypothesis that the sentencing decision of the criminal court is consistent with utilitarian principles and that the judiciary uses the length of incarceration as an instrument for the maximization of societal well-being. A theoretical model is developed, whose principal arguments are offender and offense attributes, resource costs, the availability of alternative sanctions, and the general crime rate. Four questions are considered: (i) How does a utilitarian court respond to a general increase in crime? (ii) How does the availability of alternative sanctions affect the length of incarceration ? (iii) How does a utilitarian court respond to offenders who are more likely to recidivate? (iv) How does the court respond to offenders who commit more serious offenses? The model is empirically evaluated, using cross-sectional data for the state of Georgia for individuals sentenced to prison in 1978 for a UCR index offense. The theoretical model provides few specific behavioral rules for the court to follow. Answers to the foregoing four questions are shown to depend upon both the efficacy of sanctions and the cost of the administration of those sanctions. It is not possible to predict, for example, how a utilitarian court should respond to a rise in crime or how it should respond to offenders who are likely to commit more serious offenses. The empirical analysis shows that, in fact, the sentence length varied inversely with the general offense rate, with the likelihood of imprisonment, and with the length of postprison probation. The evidence also indicates that sentences vary with the individual's original record but not with the offender's age or race. With the exception of possible gender bias, the court's sentencing behavior was consistent with utilitarian principles.