The Emergence of Crime Victims as a Target Group in the Swedish Social Services Act

This article examines the political motives behind the introduction of crime victim support provisions in the Swedish Social Services Act. The findings derive from a case study of the preparatory material that prefaced the legal changes that were adopted in 2001. The result shows that the explicit purpose of the provisions was to consider measures to improve the support to crime victims. To some degree the provisions can also be explained by symbolic factors. In fact, most actors in the law-making process indicate that their motives were communicative and symbolic. Support to crime victims was presumably a complicated issue for the social democratic government. Because of the economical crisis in the early 1990s, there was no scope for reforms that implied high increased costs. Yet expanding the crime victim's rights in relation to the offender, such as toughening the penal law and promoting victim impact statements, was not in line with social democratic ideology. By enacting the provisions in the Social Services Act the government demonstrated that support to crime victims was an important area of concern. At the same time, the provisions did not involve any increased costs or strengthen the crime victim's rights in relation to the offender. In this way, the provisions became a mediator that solved a difficult political dilemma for the government.     

Effectiveness of the habitual offender act: An assessment of criminal histories

Habitual offender acts have been adopted by 43 states and are under consideration in the legislatures of others. These acts have been adopted with relatively little evaluation of the costs involved in the implementation of this legislation. This study seeks to evaluate the extent to which Alabama’s habitual offender statute captures serious career criminals. The results indicate that the differences between those in the prison population sentenced under habitual offender statutes and those sentenced under other statutes is not significant. There does appear to be support for the contention that the majority of prisoners have substantial criminal histories; however, it is noted that many have not committed a severe crime. The exaggerated claims for the number of crimes committed by “typical” offenders and resultant high costs of non-incarceration are examined and challenged. The authors suggest that the resources available to deal with offenders could be better invested in the development and testing of community-based programs designed to divert offenders from a life of crime rather than in programs which intervene after criminal histories are severe and which invoke life-long incarceration as a remedy. The authors wish to express their appreciation to the Alabama Department of Corrections for their assistance in this project.     

共犯最小从属性说之再提倡——兼论帮助信息网络犯罪活动罪的性质

限制从属性说以正犯行为同时具有构成要件该当性与违法性作为共犯的成立前提,因而面临无法有效应对新型网络共同犯罪的危机.为解决这一危机,该说中有着眼于帮助对象必须是他人的"犯罪",主张帮助信息网络犯罪活动罪只是"帮助犯的量刑规则"的,也有以刑法分则条文的定罪机能为根据,提出"帮助犯正犯化"说的.但是,共犯的违法性不从属于正...     

GENDER,RACE, AND HABITUAL OFFENDER SENTENCING IN FLORIDA*

This study explores the effects of race and gender on habitual offender sentencing in Florida. The sample consists of 1,103 female offenders admitted to the Florida Department of Corrections in fiscal year 1992–1993 who were eligible for sentencing under the habitual offender statute. Controlling for prior record, crime seriousness, crime type, and sentencing county contextual variables through logistic regression analysis, defendant race was found to be a relevant and statistically significant factor in the enhanced sentencing of female offenders. This factor was most noticeable with black female drug offenders and under structural contexts that were “high,” i.e., the percent of the population black, drug arrest rates, and violent crime rates. The race effects found with this sample of female offenders were often stronger than those in the Crawford et al. 1998 study of 9,960 eligible male offenders in Florida. The relevance of these findings is discussed.     

Proportionality in Sentencing and the Restorative Justice Paradigm: ‘Just Deserts’ for Victims and Defendants Alike?

The doctrine of proportionality seeks to limit arbitrary and capricious punishment in order to ensure that offenders are punished according to their ‘just desert’. In Australian sentencing law, proportionality goes some way toward achieving this ‘balanced’ approach by requiring a court to consider various and often competing interests in formulating a sentence commensurate with offence seriousness and offender culpability. Modification of sentencing law by the introduction of victim impact statements or the requirement that sentencing courts take explicit account of the harm done to the victim and community has generated debate, however, as to the extent to which offenders may be now subject to unjustified, harsher punishments. This article proposes that in order to overcome the controversy of the modification of offender and victim rights in sentencing, sentencing courts adhere to a doctrine of proportionality that is explicitly sensitive to the needs of victims and offenders in a model of restorative justice that focuses on the consequences of crime as against the individual, rather than the state. The extent to which proportionality, as the current constitutive principle of Australian sentencing law, may be modified to better encourage a dialogue between victim and offender is discussed.     

析共同正犯的几个问题

共同正犯理论是刑法理论的一个重要组成部分。根据我国的立法实际,采用形式的客观说来界定共同正犯的概念更为可取。就共同正犯的性质而言,它是介于正犯与共犯之间的中间类型,既有正犯的属性也有共犯的属性。按照不同的标准,可以对共同正犯作不同的分类。其中相互的共同正犯与附加的共同正犯、累积的共同正犯与择一的共同正犯等共同正犯类型,我国学者研究较少,应予重视。     

Agency and outcome expectancies for crime desistance: measuring offenders' personal beliefs about change†

Abstract

While the majority of offenders eventually desist from crime, the internal psychological mechanisms hypothesized to drive the process of desistance and offender change have not been systematically measured. This study developed scales for assessing intention to change, or offenders' beliefs regarding their perceived ability to stay crime-free (agency) and expected outcomes for crime and desistance (expectancies). Incarcerated offenders (N=142) endorsed these beliefs in a way that is consistent with theories of offender change. The structure of beliefs suggests offenders with positive expectancies for desistance and negative expectancies for crime also endorse a higher sense of personal agency to desist. Outcome expectancies for desistance were unrelated to static risk variables, suggesting these measures may be complementary to risk assessment. Overall, the scales developed for this research showed high internal consistency and evidence for concurrent and construct validity. Refining the measurement methods and assessing recidivism outcome post-release should further advance this avenue of research.     

“Prison doesn’t stop them” Orchestrating criminal acts from behind bars

This article is about crime entrepreneurs that manage to organize criminal acts in the outside world, while being imprisoned. An examination of police intelligence on 13 cases, the Dutch penitentiary law, visits to two prisons and interviews with prison and law enforcement staff leads to the conclusion that for criminal leaders, whose most important tool for committing crimes is communication, there are a lot of possibilities, and little thresholds, for managing their criminal organisation from prison. The paradigms of reintegration of criminals and internal security in prison dominate the design of Dutch prison regimes. As a result, there are many opportunities for prisoners to communicate with the world outside. The findings of the case study are set against the theoretical background of the routine activity approach (R.A.T.). This theory provides a suitable conceptual framework to explain the forms of criminal behaviour found in the case study and it invites giving recommendations for situational crime prevention. An important notion for understanding the problem of crime that is organized from behind bars, that applying R.A.T. led to, is the physical distance between the ??motivated offender?? and his ??target??. In other words, the offender is imprisoned and his target is somewhere outside. This means that the guardians that keep an eye on the intellectual offender are others than the guardians that observe the actual offender and the target. For detecting crime organized from prison, a good monitoring of communication of the prisoner and his potential helpers and sufficient exchange of information between the different guardians is essential. Possible preventive measurements can be found in the reduction of communication channels.     

共犯论中的直接—间接模式之批判——兼及共犯论的方法论基础

构成要件论、法益论与规范论均认为,应将全体共同犯罪人区分为直接者与间接者。该模式符合直观的认识观念和朴素的正义情感,契合教义学中的存在论倾向和物本逻辑,因此对共犯论产生了持久而深远的影响。但是,直接——间接模式不仅与刑法教义学中的间接正犯、共同正犯、义务犯和未遂犯等理论冲突不断,还间接催生了共犯论中的诸多极端观点,阻碍了归责理念在共犯论中的贯彻,并抵制着共犯论方法论基础的更新。摒弃潜在影响了共犯论数百年之久的直接——间接模式,彻底走出存在论的迷思,也许是从共犯论困局中脱身的必由之路。     

The emergence of restorative justice in Sri Lanka: a review essay

Within the framework of retributive justice, crime is understood as an offence against the State and is defined as a violation of law. It represents the punitive approach of reaction to crime, where the offenders are considered as an unwanted group who should be punished. However, with the development of criminology, offenders are identified as the persons needing rehabilitation and reintegration into the society as law abiding citizens. This novel thinking has paved the way to the establishment of the concept of restorative justice where crime is understood to be an infringement on man and human relationship. It involves reintegration of both the offender and victim within the community. The restorative justice principle could be found in community service orders, probation, parole, and other noncustodial measures as alternatives to the traditional incarceration, victim offender mediation, sentencing, peacemaking and healing circles, police cautions, and active participation of victims in the criminal justice process, and so on. This article evaluates Sri Lanka's transformation from retributive justice to restorative justice by incorporating the above-mentioned means and methods to the criminal justice system. Further, it examines how these innovations have affected the crime rate in Sri Lanka.     

ASSESSING LENGTH OF INSTlTUTIONALIZATION IN RELATION TO PAROLE OUTCOME

This study assesses the relative impact of different lengths of imprisonment upon parole outcome, for narcotic law violotors, while holding other factors constant. Three alternative procedures for measuring association (r, ø and r_t) were each used in parallel base expectancy analyses on the same data base. The study group consists of 929 narcotic law violators who were paroled in 50 jurisdictions. Parole performance ws derived after a twe-year follow-up period The 1968 parolees were used to develop offender risk ratings. These ratings were applied to 1969 parolees to determine whether they would be associated with parole outcome in a new sample. The three methods worked about the same for developing offender risk ratings. Once personal characteristics of offenders were taken into considemtion, the number of months served had no consistent relationship to parole outcome. This remained true for all three parallel techniques used.     

The Moving Home Effect: A Quasi Experiment Assessing Effect of Home Location on the Offence Location

Objectives

This study aims to test whether the home location has a causal effect on the crime location. To accomplish this the study capitalizes on the natural experiment that occurs when offender??s move, and uses a unique metric, the distance between sequential offenses, to determine if when an offender moves the offense location changes.

Methods

Using a sample of over 40,000 custodial arrests from Syracuse, NY between 2003 and 2008, this quasi-experimental design uses t test??s of mean differences, and fixed effects regression modeling to determine if moving has a significant effect on the distance between sequential offenses.

Results

This study finds that when offenders move they tend to commit crimes in locations farther away from past offences than would be expected without moving. The effect is rather small though, both in absolute terms (an elasticity coefficient of 0.02), and in relation to the effect of other independent variables (such as the time in between offenses).

Conclusions

This finding suggests that the home has an impact on where an offender will choose to commit a crime, independent of offence, neighborhood, or offender characteristics. The effect is small though, suggesting other factors may play a larger role in influencing where offenders choose to commit crime.     

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。     

清代共同犯罪制度辨析

《大清律例》“共犯罪分首从”条是清代处理共同犯罪的总则性律条，它所规定的基本原则有两点：一是“共犯罪分首从”，二是“以造意者为首”。这种将共同犯罪人区分为首犯与从犯的分类方法，既不同于西方法律的“正犯与共犯”之分，也不同于当代中国法律的“主犯与从犯”之分。清代的共同犯罪制度体现了乡土中国独特的法律追求，应当引起当代法学界的重视。     

Sexual crime and place: The impact of the environmental context on sexual assault outcomes

Purpose

Using the rational choice perspective, the current study investigates the impact that the environment and offending behavior have on serial sexual crime event outcomes.

Methods

The effects of time and place factors, as well as offender modus operandi strategies, on sexual crime event outcomes are tested using Generalized Estimating Equations on a sample of 361 crime events committed by 72 serial sex offenders.

Results

Time and place do impact serial stranger sexual offenders’ modus operandi strategies, but the place characteristics of the crime have more of an effect on the offender’s behavior than do the temporal conditions during which the event occurs. Subsequent analyses indicate that temporal and place factors, as well as offender modus operandi strategies, predict whether the offender completes the rape, his reaction to victim resistance, and the level of physical force that he inflicts on the victim, but not whether the victim is forced to commit sexual acts on the offender.

Conclusions

Serial stranger sexual offenders are effective decision-makers who adapt their strategies to the physical environment in which they commit their crimes, but their degree of rationality can vary as some outcomes are more dependent on the context than the offender and his actions.     

Juvenile firesetters: Crime scene actions and offender characteristics

Purpose. To investigate whether and to what extent the thematic structure of crime scene actions in arsons identified in Canter and Fritzon (1998) is replicated for juvenile firesetters and to explore whether any associations between the crime scene action themes and offender characteristics would be evident. Methods. The crime scene actions and offender characteristics of 61 male and 5 female juvenile firesetters (aged 6‐17 years) were examined. The data were drawn from a larger database originally collected and content analysed in Fritzon (1998). In total, 43 dichotomous crime scene actions, 17 offender background characteristics and offender criminal record variables had been coded. Smallest space analysis was employed to examine the configuration of crime scene action and offender characteristic variables. The associations between the crime scene actions and offender characteristics, as well as the criminal record variables, were analysed using the correlation. Results. Distinct structural themes for crime scene actions were found in juvenile firesetting, similar to those identified in Canter and Fritzon (1998). Contrary to Canter and Fritzon, only two groups of background characteristics were identified, depressed and delinquent, the latter being more common and related to an instrumental form of firesetting. The expressive form of firesetting was associated with offenders' psychopathology and female gender. The presence of a crime scene action theme was associated with the offender's age. Conclusions. The structural themes of firesetting behaviour appear to transpire early. The background characteristics of juvenile firesetters indicate that juvenile firesetting is often associated with antisocial behaviour and psychopathology, deserving, therefore, disparate prevention, intervention and investigation programmes.     

Jurisdiction,Crime, and Development: The Impact of Public Law 280 in Indian Country

Public Law 280 transferred jurisdiction over criminal and civil matters from the federal to state governments and increased the extent of nontribal law enforcement in selected parts of Indian country. Where enacted, the law fundamentally altered the preexisting legal order. Public Law 280 thus provides a unique opportunity to study the impact of legal institutions and their change on socioeconomic outcomes. The law's controversial content has attracted interest from legal scholars. However, empirical studies of its impact are scarce and do not address the law's endogenous nature. We examine the law's impact on crime and on economic development in U.S. counties with significant American‐Indian reservation population. To address the issue of selection of areas subject to Public Law 280, our empirical strategy draws on the law's politico‐historical context. We find that the application of Public Law 280 increased crime and lowered incomes. The law's adverse impact is robust and noteworthy in magnitude.     

Offender-focused police intervention in residential burglary and theft from vehicle hot spots: a partially blocked randomized control trial

Objectives

To test an offender-focused police intervention in residential burglary and residential theft from vehicle hot spots and its effect on crime, arrests, and offender recidivism. The intervention was prevention-focused, in which detectives contacted offenders and their families at their homes to discourage criminal activity.

Methods

The study was a partially blocked, randomized controlled field experiment in 24 treatment and 24 control hot spots in one suburban city with average crime levels. Negative binomial and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression were used to test the effect of the presence of intervention and its dosage on crime and offender recidivism, and examination of average and standardized treatment effects were conducted.

Results

The analyses of the hot spot impact measures did not reveal significant results to indicate that the treatment had an effect on crime or arrest counts, or on repeat arrests of the targeted or non-targeted offenders living in the hot spots. However, the relationships, while not significant, were in a promising direction.

Conclusions

The collective findings from all four impact measures suggest that the intervention may have had some influence on the targeted offenders, as well as in the treatment hot spots. So, while the experimental results did not show an impact, they are promising. Limitations include large hot spots, the low case number, low base rates, and inadequate impact measures. Suggestions are provided for police agencies and researchers for implementing preventive offender-focused strategies and conducting studies in suburban cities.

     

论集合犯

“集合犯”在海外刑法理论中是使用比较普遍的一个概念 ,而我国理论界只是在近年才有学者关注。基于我国刑法已经取消了对“惯犯”的规定 ,因此 ,有必要借鉴海外刑法理论对于集合犯的研究 ,联系我国刑法理论和现行刑法的规定 ,对刑法中的集合犯的基本理论问题予以研讨。