Street justice: a theoretical paradigm

Three theoretical perspectives examine the role of justice as a means of informal social control and as a reactionary process to dynamics of social strain and subcultural demands. This theoretical analysis is then applied to concepts of justice, including retributive, distributive, restorative, and procedural. The derived street justice paradigm incorporates these various forms of justice as they are linked with cultural imperatives associated with street culture and street crime. The linking of these concepts provides a clearer understanding of the motives and means of exacting justice in a state of heightened relative strain that is pronounced by a preference for revenge and violence. Implications for policy, future study, and theoretical expansion are discussed with particular emphasis on the application of the paradigm to non‐street crime and to policies directed toward involving community members in the justice process.     

Street youth and labor market strain

This article applies strain theory to a high-risk sample of homeless street youth, with a particular focus upon labor market strain to predict violent and property crime and substance use. Data were collected through interviews with 200 street youth in a western Canadian city. Labor market strain was found to be related to the frequency of the youth's property, violent, and total crimes. Criminal peers and norms were also related to these crimes, as well as to drug use. Results also revealed a significant interaction effect between labor market strain and criminal norms predicting property, violent, and total crime. Interactions between strain and criminal peers, and external attributions also predicted property crime. Contrary to predictions, emotions were unrelated to crime and drug use. The results are discussed in light of Agnew's revised strain theory and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.     

Explaining Crime Diversity with Google Street View

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Crime diversity is a measure of the variety of criminal offenses in a local environment, similar to ecological diversity. While crime diversity distributions...     

Street youth, strain theory, and crime

Utilizing a sample of homeless street youth, the study examined a more complete model of the classic strain perspective whereby relative deprivation, monetary dissatisfaction, monetary goals, and objective structural factors lead to crime. It also explored the interactions between these factors and the conditioning effects of peers, beliefs, and attributions. The results revealed that relative deprivation, monetary dissatisfaction, monetary goals, homelessness, and unemployment were related to crime. Further, monetary dissatisfaction and relative deprivation were conditioned by objective economic situations in their relationship with a number of illegal behaviors and interactions between monetary goals and monetary expectations and achievements were associated with crime. The results are discussed in light of the classic strain theories and suggestions are offered for future research.     

三维街景地图在多道仪测试中的应用研究

多道仪测试中的证据探索类测试,在国外常借助地图予以实施,这被称为地图测试法。本文使用三维街景地图替代传统的平面图,取得了明显的成效。在一起重大杀人焚尸扬灰案测试中,为了寻找3年前被抛洒的死者骨灰,作者利用三维街景地图,既改进完善了传统地图测试法,又将街景地图测试的形式推广至情节测试。结果显示,较之图片测试法和视频测试法,三维街景地图测试对被测人更生动形象,刺激效果更好,测试结果令人满意。     

论街面犯罪的特点及侦查对策

当前,我国社会型态逐渐由静态社会向动态社会转变。街头犯罪这一新的犯罪形态也呈现上升势头。街头犯罪的特点是:发案高、报案少、犯罪黑数高,作案人员以流动人口为主,作案过程短、逃离现场快、跨区域作案,人员流动性大、调查取证相对困难。安机关需要探索建立以街面犯罪情报信息为基础,由情报信息主导侦查,综合运用巡逻堵截、视频图像监控、便衣侦查、专案侦查、专项斗争、公开悬赏等侦查措施相互协调而形成的侦查对策体系。     

Street justice: Some micro-moral reservations: Comment on sykes

Research on the use of incapacitation strategies to reduce crime has increased rapidly in the last decade. Estimates of the crime reduction potential are numerous and variable, reflecting different assumptions by researchers. This paper reviews and synthesizes studies of collective and selective incapacitation. Sentencing practices in the 1970s and early 1980s prevented an estimated 10 to 30 percent of potential crimes through collective incapacitation strategies. Greater use of incarceration, such as through mandatory minimum sentences, would prevent additional crimes, but prison populations would increase substantially. Selective incapacitation strategies target a small group of convicted offenders, those who are predicted to commit serious crimes at high rates, for incarceration. These high-rate serious offenders, however, are difficult to identify accurately with information currently available in official criminal history records. Preliminary research, assuming moderate accuracy, suggests that selective incapacitation may prevent some crimes, such as 5 to 10 percent of robberies by adults, but increases in prison populations would result. The future of selective incapacitation is discussed in light of current research and knowledge about serious criminal activity.     

Street Youth Crime: A Test of Control Balance Theory

Utilizing a sample of 400 homeless street youths, the paper explores the role control balance plays in the generation of crime. Using vignettes designed to represent violent crime, serious property crime, and minor property crime, the paper tests whether these youths sense of control over their poverty, shelter, hunger and other living conditions influences their participation in crime. Further, it examines how perceptions of risk and thrill, as well as deviant values, self‐control, deviant histories, and peer support impact on crime. Results indicate that both control deficits and control surpluses were related to assault and serious theft but not minor theft. Perceptions of thrill, deviant peers, deviant histories, and deviant values predicted violent and property crime, and perceptions of risk were related to the property offenses. Criminal peers also conditioned the impact of control surpluses and deficits on property offenses. Results are discussed in terms of future research and policy.     

Quantifying the Exposure of Street Segments to Drinking Places Nearby

Objectives

Introduce and test the relative efficacy of two methods for modeling the impact of cumulative ‘exposure’ to drinking facilities on violent crime at street segments.

Methods

One method, simple count, sums the number of drinking places within a distance threshold. The other method, inverse distance weighted count, weights each drinking place within a threshold based on its distance from the street segment. Closer places are weighted higher than more distant places. Distance is measured as the street length from a street segment to a drinking place along the street network. Seven distance thresholds of 400, 800, 1,200, 1,600, 2,000, 2,400 and 2,800 feet are tested. A negative binomial regression model controlling for socio-economic characteristics, opportunity factors and spatial autocorrelation is used to evaluate which of the measure/threshold combinations produce a better fit as compared to a model with no exposure measures.

Results

Exposure measured as an inverse distance weighted count produces the best fitting model and is significantly related to violent crime at longer distances than simple count (from 400 to 2,800 feet). Exposure to drinking places using a simple count is significantly related to violent crime up to 2,000 feet. Both models indicate the influence of drinking places is highest at shorter distance thresholds.

Conclusions

Both researchers and practitioners can more precisely quantify the influence of drinking places in multivariate models of street segment level violent crime by incorporating proximity in the development of a cumulative exposure measure. The efficacy of using exposure measures to quantify the influence of other types of facilities on crime patterns across street segments should be explored.     

Both Sides of the Street: Introducing Measures of Physical and Social Boundaries Based on Differences Across Sides of the Street,and Consequences for Crime

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - Although previous studies have theorized the importance of physical and social boundaries (edges) in understanding crime in place, the relationship between...     

流浪儿童乞讨权规制的法理思考

当下中国城市有一个令人痛心的图景,那就是流浪乞讨儿童的大量存在。要从根本上保障流浪乞讨儿童的权益,就要立法禁止儿童乞讨,建立起对相关人员和机构的责任追究制度,从制度上防范儿童流浪乞讨。同时,应化解在城市生活的农村户籍儿童所面临的物质和精神层面的诸种现实难题,践行保障儿童权益的国际法基本原则。