Coping with crime: Institutional rehabilitation of offenders with mental health issues

Effectively coping with criminal behavior is one of the most serious social issues confronting contemporary policy makers. Philosophical arguments have been made to address the causes of Crime rather than simply treating its symptoms. While this makes sense logically, the feasibility of such a endeavor is questionable. This being the case, it appears that treating the symptoms of criminal behavior is not only a necessary but possibly the only course of action. In this light, the measures taken to address crime to this point in time have, for the most part, been ineffective and in may cases, the costs have far exceeded the benefits. Recidivism rates clearly illustrate that a large percentage of newly committed crimes are being perpetrated by individuals who have been convicted of offenses in the past. Accordingly, effective rehabilitation emphasizing individually tailored programs of treatment during periods of institutionalization is necessary, prior to reintegration of offenders back into society. This need is particularly evident when faced with psychologically disturbed inmates.     

In partial defense of socialist realism

While left realist discourse emerged out of the specific politics of policing in England and Wales, its relative importance for progressive criminology generally has been the subject of much debate. On the one hand, the advocates of left realism have consistently argued that the local crime survey provides an empirical basis for understanding crime patterns and for developing progressive crime control policy. Critics of left realism, on the other hand, have argued that for a variety of reasons, the progressive quality of realist criminology is dubious at best, and reactionary at worst. This paper explores both sides of this debate and argues that while left realism has the potential of making a considerable contribution to the struggle for social justice, that contribution must rest on empirical observation. The paper suggests that while much of the foundation work for left realist literature is grounded in local crime survey data, recent policy recommendations emerging in this literature are not. It is argued that while the local crime survey has potential, there are a number of theoretical and methodological concerns raised by this technology which appear to have remained unexplored within the current debates.The paper begins by challenging Young's conception of the aetiological crisis facing criminology, and argues that the crisis is a definitional one. Ian Taylor's critique of left realism generally, and the Islington Crime Survey (ICS) specifically, is then closely examined in order to assess its validity. It is argued that by imputing his own purposes to the ICS, Taylor's critique is misplaced while the progressive potential that local crime survey technology offers for criminology, both academically and practically, remains unnoticed by him. The section concludes by arguing that a more thoughtful consideration of this line of inquiry leads to the conclusion that while such a technology is of utility, in order for that potential to be realized there are a number of methodological considerations which must be examined.These methodological considerations are then explored. It is argued that if left realism is to distinguish itself from a more conventional approach, local crime surveys must consider the measurement of all moments within the process of crime construction, eliminating the conservative bias inherent in conventional surveys, eliminating the sexist bias inherent in conventional surveys, coping with the sampling error produced by cost effective sampling designs, local versus national surveys, the use of proxy interviews, and the use of in-person interviews as opposed to telephone interviews.The paper concludes by arguing that while modest, the contribution of left realist surveys to the development of progressive criminology and the struggle for social justice is an important one which, if nurtured in a thoughtful way, has the potential for contributing to the demise of the state's monopoly on crime and policing knowledge.     

The role of symbolic politics in exceptional crime policy debate: a study of the 2014 Swedish general election

Symbolic politics are often considered to be closely linked to an alarmist rhetoric, as well as to punitive crime policy initiatives. This article explores the symbolic dimension of the Swedish crime policy debate. Since Sweden is frequently depicted as an antithesis to punitive Anglophone societies, exploring symbolic politics in this setting might expand our understanding of what symbolic statements may consist of. The article analyses the electoral campaign preceding the Swedish general election of 2014, with the aim of identifying which symbolic statements occupy a central position in the debate through the use of a qualitative content analysis. This analysis reveals an ambiguous political rhetoric, comprising morally and emotionally charged condemnatory statements about getting tough on crime, as well as reformist and restrained references to expert knowledge and long-term solutions. On the one hand, these reformist statements strengthen the image of Swedish crime policy as being based on ideals such as rationality and humanity. On the other, they also serve to legitimize and obscure penal expansion.     

Social goals and appropriate policy for corrections: An economic appraisal

This paper presents a logical approach to the problem of devising socially acceptable policy for the operation of a corrections system. As an alternative to considering separately the frequently mentioned, but conflicting goals of providing rehabilitation, retribution, detention of dangerous criminals, and general and specific deterrence of criminal behavior, the authors suggest that the goal be couched in terms of minimizing the social cost of crime. By developing a model which illustrates how the corrections process relates to the various facets of the criminal justice system, and by isolating the functional relationships which must be taken into account, the authors are able to show there is an optimal level of rehabilitation, detention, and deterrence associated with a socially optimal level of criminal activity and criminal justice control activity. Although much remains to be learned before such a model can be effectively implemented, considerable research has already pointed the way for learning how to more effectively balance the alternatives for policy. An enumeration of the policy implications of the model identifies targets for further research.     

Social Science and the Governance of Crime: Crime Prevention Policy Making during the 1980s

As with much else in Britain, the 1980s marked a watershed in the politics of crime control. This article traces the role of criminological research, developed and articulated by governmental social scientists, in the evolution of penal policy around the (then) innovative idea of engaging the community in the prevention of crime. Its central theme is that although the raison d'être for crime prevention policy and practice, then as now, can be found in a concern about the deficiencies of the statutory police in addressing crime, shifting the locus of social control towards the institutions of civil society was, and remains, a contested project.     

功能主义"法律史解释"及其限度——评瞿同祖《中国法律与中国社会》

《中国法律与中国社会》的功能主义倾向集中体现于其整体文化观,即历时性向度的"古代法整体论"和共时性向度的"法律的社会决定论"。经由历时性问题共时性化而达致的整体文化观不仅因看不到社会/法律变迁、"小传统"与"大传统"的互动博弈而有失之专断的简单化缺陷,而且其法律史解释也因其梅因式单线进化论和"尾随西方"的现代化模式之前设的存在而具有较大的主观性。法律的功能分析与整体文化观、单线进化论前设之间也存有张力。     

A complicity continuum of state crime∗

State crime scholars and radical criminologists have struggled to draw distinctions between state-initiated and statefacilitated state crimes and state-corporate crimes. The first of these, a less contentious concept, denotes an explicit and distinct action by a state for the furtherance of its organizational goals which violates law or produces social injury. State-facilitated and state-corporate crimes have been defined as implicit actions or inactions by the state which facilitate social injury, harm, or violations of law. Here we seek to establish more clearly the parameters of the phenomenon of state crime by creating a multidimensional continuum of state crime complicity. A sample of cases found in the radical-state and state-corporate crime literature are placed on or between the two extremes of the continuum: commission-omission behavior and implicit-explicit policy.     

Juvenile Delinquency in the Federal Republic of Germany

Juvenile delinquency has gained recognition worldwide as one of the most prominent criminological problem areas as well as a pressing crime political issue. The current state of this field in Germany is characterized by a tremendous increase after World War II, similar to other west European countries, but slightly leveling down since the Eighties. However, the great bulk of juvenile delinquency is built by minor offenses-in particular petty theft and non-serious road traffic offenses. Violence (although with an enormous increase), illegal drug offenses, and sexual crimes make together not more than one fifth of the total volume of youth crime. On the whole, juvenile delinquency represents the deviant behavior of young males; the proportion of female crime—although increasing too- is not higher than three decades ago, and consists mainly of shoplifting and bicycle theft. Youngsters of foreign groups or minorities are more involved in delinquency at present than in the Seventies or earlier, partly in activities of violent groups. While, in the past, rockers mainly got attention, now soccer hooligans and violent right-wing skinheads, especially when attacking minority people and asylum seekers, are in the forefront of public interest. This is true for East and West Germany. In general, the delinquents come mostly from the lower social strata, show socialization defects, have reduced start chances, are often unemployed, and are without or have less social support by their families. With regard to this, criminological experts favor socialization theories, social learning and control theories to explain these phenomena, emphasizing the binding forces of the underlying orientation of moral values. The corresponding guidelines of juvenile crime policy give preference to the application of non-custodial measures and diversion strategies on one hand, and to the reduction of freedom-depriving sanctions like community service or offender-victim-mediation on the other, indicating a successive retreat from a traditional punitive concept.     

Four forms of ‘offender’ rehabilitation: Towards an interdisciplinary perspective

This paper aims to advance the case for a more fully interdisciplinary understanding of offender rehabilitation, partly as a means of shedding light upon and moving beyond contemporary ‘paradigm conflicts’. It begins with a review of current arguments about what a credible ‘offender’ rehabilitation theory requires and by exploring some aspects of current debates about different theories. It goes on to locate this specific kind of contemporary theory building in the context of historical arguments about and critiques of rehabilitation as a concept and in practice. In the third part of the paper, I explore the nature of the relationship between desistance theories and rehabilitation theories, so as to develop my concluding argument; that is, that debates about psychological rehabilitation have been hampered by a failure to engage fully with debates about at least three other forms of rehabilitation (legal, moral, and social) that emerge as being equally important in the process of desistance from crime.     

DETERMINISM,INDETERMINISM, AND CRIME: AN EMPIRICAL EXPLORATION*

Most individual-level research in criminology is based on a deterministic model: the factors that constrain individuals to crime or conformity are listed, and those factors are used to predict differences in the level of crime between individuals or groups of similar individuals. This paper explores an empirical model derived from recent work on sop determinism and indeterminism. Behaviors are said to vary in the extent to which they are determined, with behavior being fully determined at one end of the continuum and largely free (indetermined) at the other end. There is a discussion of those factors that influence the extent to which behavior is determined. And it is hypothesized that crime will be more variable and less predictable when conditions favor indeterminism. The empirical model in this paper, then, focuses on those factors believed to foster freedom of action and choice, and it uses those factors to predict differences in the amount of variation (unpredictability) in crime between individuals or groups of similar individuals. Data from two national surveys of adolescents provide tentative support for the hypothesis.     

PARTICIPATION IN CRIME PARTNERSHIPS BY FEMALE DRUG USERS: THE EFFECTS OF DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS,DRUG USE,AND CRIMINAL INVOLVEMENT*

Research findings on the crime patterns of women suggest that social changes in gender roles are associated with increased female criminality. Some researchers note that the increasing participation of women in established criminal organizations increases female crime levels in general, Other researchers demonstrate that involvement with deviant boyfriends or husbands in particular not only introduces women to addictive drugs, but also contributes to greater crime participation. Measures of the domestic network, crime commitment, drug use, ethnicity, and participation in vice and predatory crimes are used to focus on women's formation and participation in crime partnerships. Findings reveal that ethnicity, living with boyfriends or husbands, high levels of crime commission, particularly while carrying weapons, and participating in vice and predatory crimes are factors that are shared by a number of crime partnerships. On the other hand, having children raised by others, a history of incarceration and arrest, and opiate use are factors that are important for specific crime partnerships; therefore, these factors are unique considerations that relate to the likelihood that criminal partnerships will develop.     

Pretend It Doesn'T Work: The ‘Anti-Social’ Bias In The Maryland Scientific Methods Scale

The social constructs and methodological principles embodied in the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale (SMS), comprising part of the Campbell Collaboration in Crime and Justice assessment protocol, induce a series of biases in the evaluation of evidence of crime prevention policy interventions that focus on collective social phenomena, such as communities. Applying these principles leads to negative conclusions about effectiveness; yet their inherent ‘anti-social’ bias may induce Type II error with regard to the desirability of ‘social’ interventions to reduce crime. Policy-making is poorly served as a result. This point is illustrated, first, through a scrutiny of the social constructs used, including those that typify treatments, institutional settings and units of analysis. These are seen as being constructed in a way that is congenial to the underlying methodological issue of ‘control’ but that constitute nevertheless a distorted definition of the governance issues involved in crime reduction in community settings. A model more appropriate for evaluating voluntaristic action in civil society is needed. Second, it is suggested that this methodological bias arises particularly in policy interventions and change programmes that address issues concerning the ‘collective efficacy’ of local communities in reducing crime. An empirical exemplification of these arguments is presented with reference to a completed evaluation research study (Foster and Hope, 1993).     

也论行政犯的性质及其对行政刑法定位的影响

行政犯的性质问题实质上是一个行政犯与刑事犯以及秩序违反行为的关系问题,行政犯包括对法益的侵害或威胁,属实质性的违法,是对派生性生活秩序的违反,其理念在行政上的合目的性;而刑事犯的理念在于社会正义;应被科以罚金或其他秩序罚的行政法规违反,并不是对行政法规的直接攻击,而是对顺利达到其行政目的而规定的一定义务(即行政义务)的违背。因而应当根据行政犯的特殊性相应适用与普通刑法的一般原则所不同的行政刑法原则。     

宽严相济视野下的犯罪化与非犯罪化——从最高人民检察院《不起诉标准》谈起

犯罪化与非犯罪化是社会发展过程中的必然现象。我国的犯罪化与非犯罪化都主要出于现实主义的考虑。为适应宽严相济政策与构建和谐社会的要求,合理划定犯罪圈,应当树立犯罪化与非犯罪化并轨运行的理念,一方面要严密法网,另一方面,对微罪行为予以宽容。转型期社会现实决定了我国的犯罪化进程仍将继续。司法上的非犯罪化将是我国目前及今后非犯罪化的主要途径,《不起诉标准》就属于这方面的实践。     

Cesare Lombroso: Methodological ambiguities and brilliant intuitions

This paper on Cesare Lombroso aims to assess his contribution to the criminological sciences. Although much praised worldwide, Lombroso was also the target of scathing criticism and unmitigated condemnation. Examination of Lombroso's method of data collection and analysis reveals his weakness. Indeed, his approach was extremely naive, simplistic and uncritical, aimed at irrefutably demonstrating the hypotheses that he championed, without exercising the methodological caution that was already beginning to characterize scientific research in his day. However, we must acknowledge that his biological theories of crime are undergoing new developments as a result of the recent success of biological psychiatry. On the other hand we should recognize that his work was not limited to his biological central theory; rather, it covered a range of cues and concepts, for the most part ignored, that demonstrate his interest in the economic, cultural and social factors that impact on crime. For these reasons, Lombroso appears to have anticipated many modern conceptions regarding delinquent behavior and criminal justice, such as those of restorative justice, the so-called "situational" theories of criminal behavior and white collar crime.     

唐以前盗罪之变迁研究

尽管名称不一,但盗罪无疑是古今刑事法律均极为关注的罪名,今人也习惯于以财产性犯罪来理解传统中国的盗罪。然而,在中国文字初创之时,“盗”其实是泛指“不正”“不当”之义的词汇;至战国时代,才被相对明确地用来指称侵犯财产的行为,但其“不正”“不当”之义也并未完全消失。此种日常语义的多层次性也影响到战国秦至汉代的法律对盗罪的设计,使盗罪一方面以非法取财为主旨,另一方面又保留着超越财产性犯罪之概念限定的可能,从而表现出一定的含义复杂性。至魏晋南北朝,立法者们虽试图对盗罪予以分化或净化,但由于“盗”字的日常语义依然具有多层次性,作为法律术语之盗罪的含义复杂性也无法彻底改变并最终遗留在唐律之中。     

Erewhon: A manifesto of the rehabilitative ideal

Samuel Butler's novel, Erewhon (1872) is well known as a minor literary classic. This article proposes that it is also important in criminological history, in epitomizing a generation of debate about the nature of criminal responsibility. Butler wished to illustrate a paradox: contemporary social and medical sciences showed the role of determinism in causing crime, yet the courts still acted on the myth of free will, individual choice, and responsibility. Butler satirized this by depicting an imaginary world where sick people were stigmatized and punished for a condition they could not help—just as real criminals were blamed for factors beyond their control. The novel is a call for the replacement of deterrent or retributive punishment by rehabilitation and a medical model. It was especially important in the early twentieth century in helping to popularize the attack on free will and deterrence, and in propagandizing for the new discretionary penology.     

犯罪对象概念的批判性考察

我国刑法理论中的犯罪对象概念面临着很多理论困境,这些困境产生的根源在于犯罪对象在犯罪构成中的体系性位置及功能产生了错位。在传统理论中,犯罪对象同时作为犯罪客体的物质承担者和犯罪行为所直接指向、作用的对象而存在。实际上,这两种功能的承担者在某些情况下是分离的。我们应彻底抛弃犯罪对象的概念,以行为对象和社会关系的物质承担者,来分别承担犯罪对象原有的两种功能。     

THE PRAGMATIC AMERICAN: EMPIRICAL REALITY OR METHODOLOGICAL ARTIFACT?

Scholars widely agree that the public is pragmatic about criminal justice. The empirical basis for this conclusion is the failure in several previous studies to find a sizable negative relationship between dispositional and situational crime attributions, or between support for punitive and rehabilitative crime policies. We suggest, however, that public pragmatism may be an artifact of the use of unidirectional question batteries in prior research to measure attribution styles and policy support. When such questions are used, acquiescent responding can introduce systematic error that is positively correlated across items and scales. Drawing on data from an experiment with a national sample (N = 826) of Internet panelists, we examine how this methodological approach impacts the bivariate correlations and multivariate relationships between attribution styles and between support for punitive and rehabilitative crime policies. The findings reveal that using unidirectional sets of questions to measure these concepts likely results in 1) inflated alpha reliability coefficients, 2) an underestimation of the magnitude of the negative relationships between attribution styles and between punitiveness and support for rehabilitation, and 3) an underestimation of the extent to which punitiveness and support for rehabilitation are driven by the same factors, working in opposite directions.     

权利观念的中国化——从民族国家选择到社区伦理挑战

中国在法治现代化过程中,始终面临的基本问题是,外来权利观念与在地经验之间的关系。所谓在地经验,包括民族国家的认识和社会民众的认同两个层面。这也就意味着,权利观念进入中国要经历双重语境化的过程。一方面,引入外来权利观念是中国建立强大民族国家的需要,并且权利观念会随着国家治理策略的改变而改变;另一方面,权利观念一旦被确立为国家意识形态,并强力推行进入社会生活,有可能会加速既有社会结构的解体。由于新的社会结构并不能很快形成,反而使得社会处于不稳定状态。对于转型社会而言,以个体权利为基础,同时强调公民社会责任的共同体观念的建立就显得十分必要。