Affairs of the Heart: Hate Crime and the Politics of Crime Control

Various scholars have noted the priority given to law in the politics of hate violence; violence is the problem and law, more specifically the criminal law, the solution at the ‘heart’ of society. This article seeks to explore some of the gaps and silences in the existing literature and politics that mobilize these ideas and associations. It is the gap sand silences associated with demands for and expectations of criminal justice that will be the particular concern of this article. The demand for law is examined by way of David Garland's recent work on the culture of crime control. His work offers an analysis of the contemporary place of crime control in Anglo-American liberal democracies. A distinctive feature of his analysis is to be found in the way it maps an important paradox of contemporary crime control; its political centrality and an increasing recognition of its limitations. Garland's ‘criminology of the self’ and the ‘criminology of the other’ raise some important challenges for those who advocate resort to crime control. My particular concern is to consider the significance of Garland's work for a contemporary sexual politics that puts violence and criminal justice at the heart of that politics. Feminist, gay and lesbian scholarship first on criminal justice and second, on violence and law will be used to develop a critical dialogue with Garland's analysis and to reflect upon the challenges raised by his insights into contemporary crime control. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Intersection of Crime Seriousness,Discretion, and Race: A Test of the Liberation Hypothesis

Spohn and Cederblom’s interpretation of the liberation hypothesis asserts that with trivial crimes, judges are “liberated” to consider extra-legal attributes such as race when making sentencing decisions. The current study posits that this perspective may be too theoretically simplistic because it fails to distinguish between the concepts of discretion and uncertainty. In light of this argument, we examine the sentencing decisions of felony cases in the Florida circuit courts. Results indicate that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be imprisoned than whites, and males more so than females. Contrary to expectations, this disparity increases with crime seriousness. Consistent with the imprisonment model, blacks and males receive longer sentences and the effect increases with case seriousness. We found no evidence that the effect of offender extra-legal attributes depends upon the characteristics of the judges handling the cases. Suggestions for future research and implications for the liberation hypothesis are discussed.     

The Fox and the Hunters: How IC Technologies Change the Crime Race

The article deals with the impact of new technologies on crime. Specifically, the analysis develops two aspects: an analysis of how new technologies are reshaping criminal typologies, dynamics and trends; and an analysis of the most important challenges that legislation, law enforcement and science have to face in order to prevent and combat Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-related crime. From the methodological perspective, each section opens with a specific question and develops by trying to find a suitable answer. The paper starts by analysing what impact new technologies have on society and crime. It continues by examining how criminal patterns are changing (How does ICT facilitate the commission of new and traditional crimes?) and who these criminals are (Are criminals really going cyber?). It ends by focusing on the other side, on how crime is prevented and combated (How are technologies reshaping the approach and the fight against crime at legal, law enforcement and scientific levels?). The analysis and the results achieved show that new technologies are valuable means in the hand of both criminals and institutions involved in the fight against crime. There is thus an urgent need to improve knowledge about the phenomena, and develop new paradigms and theories together with best practices.     

The Politics of Legal Representation: The Influence of Local Politics on the Behavior of Poverty Lawyers

This article explores the influence of local groups on the strategies employed by poverty lawyers in representing clients. Data collected from one suburban legal services program suggest that despite attitudinal predispositions to initiate law reform litigation, poverty lawyers are constrained in their use of social reform strategies by local organizations opposed to such activity. I argue that politics inevitably affect poverty lawyer behavior due to the nature of legal services work and programmatic features of the national Legal Services Corporation. I assess the implications of these findings for federal control of local programs.     

The Context of Minority Group Threat: Race, Institutions, and Complying with Hate Crime Law

A wealth of research suggests a direct association between minority group size and government social control, such as arrest or imprisonment rates. Prior work in this vein, however, gives scant attention to (1) types of law that explicitly address intergroup conflict and (2) regional variation in the salience of minority group threat. At the same time, research on organizational responses to law indicates that institutional linkages to legal environments dictate policy innovation and compliance, yet the relevance of such linkages for law enforcement agencies is less clear. The present research investigates these themes by focusing on law enforcement responses to hate crime in the United States. Data from a sample of large municipal and county policing agencies and their degree of compliance with the federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act are analyzed. Main effects models show that compliance with federal hate crime law is less likely in places with larger black populations, an intriguing finding in light of extant work suggesting that both formal social control and race-based hate crime offending are typically more prevalent where more blacks reside. This effect of black population size on compliance with hate crime law, however, is contingent on region. A positive correlation in the Northeast contrasts with an inverse association in the South. The findings also suggest that organizational facets of law enforcement agencies, notably their engagement in community policing, are associated with compliance. The results elaborate and qualify group threat explanations of government social control and contribute to a burgeoning literature on the utility of organizational theory in the realm of law enforcement.