Political Lawyers: The Structure of a National Network

Some research on lawyers active in politics has found that the ties among them create networks in which a center or core of influential actors is surrounded by more peripheral participants. Other studies, however, found more segmented networks, sometimes lacking central players. This research examines the structure and determinants of political ties among forty‐seven elite lawyers who served organizations prominent in fourteen national policy issues in 2004–05. The analysis finds a network structure that resembles a rough circle with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. Lawyers affiliated with organizations representing a broad constellation of interests are closer to the center of the network, while those working for specialized or narrow causes tend to be located in the periphery. Ties are more dense among conservatives than among liberals. Lawyers who work as organizational leaders or managers are more likely to be near the center than are litigators. Central actors contribute larger amounts to election campaigns. The organized bar, especially the American Bar Association, appears to provide links between liberals and conservatives in one segment of the network.     

论恐怖犯罪行为的根源——文明及文化冲突论解析

美国“9.11事件”清楚地向世界表明,恐怖组织及其所从事的恐怖犯罪行为将给世界带来巨大灾难,使人类文明惨遭破坏,给人们心灵留下难以忘怀的伤痛,甚至蒙上了长久的阴影。其实,恐怖犯罪由来已久,只是以前没有引起人们的足够重视罢了。目前,以美国为首的世界反恐怖战争似乎已取得了决定性的胜利,但是,如果不从根本上分析恐怖犯罪的原因,显然难以彻底消灭恐怖组织及其恐怖犯罪活动。作者认为,恐怖组织的出现,以及恐怖犯罪行为的发生,都是不同文明和不同文化冲突的结果。在经济全球化、政治一体化趋势越来越明朗的今天,充分注重各国、各民族、各区域的独立性和独特性;尊重各国和各民族的传统;协调各种文明和文化的冲突,才是治理恐怖犯罪的根本策略。     

犯罪网络分析:社会网络分析在有组织犯罪研究中的应用

在刑事司法领域所使用的"网络"(networks)一词通常是指犯罪组织。一个犯罪网络首先也是一个社会网络,社会网络分析是对社会关系结构及其属性加以分析的一套规范和方法。它主要分析的是不同社会单位(个体、群体或社会)所构成的关系的结构及其属性。自美国"9.11事件"以来,世界各国政府、学者、媒体逐渐认识到社会网络分析在有组织犯罪防控研究中的重要作用,纷纷使用社会网络分析方法对恐怖主义犯罪等有组织犯罪进行犯罪网络分析、研究,通过解构犯罪组织,发现犯罪成员体系、结构特征与行动目标,从而对有组织犯罪进行有效预防和打击。我国应充分认识社会网络分析在现代有组织犯罪防控研究中的重要价值,全面了解国外有关理论与应用发展,积极采取政府资助项目研发与直接设立研究机构等多种手段,促进犯罪网络分析理论与方法在我国的迅速发展。     

英国涉恐资产冻结法律制度介述及其对我国的借鉴

冻结涉恐资产可以有力地斩断恐怖组织及其人员实施恐怖活动的经济基础,因而冻结措施成为金融反恐的重要手段。英国《2010年涉恐资产冻结法》对涉恐资产冻结的相关措施作了专门的系统规定,该法令规定的冻结措施具有期限性、非终局性、冻结对象的广泛性等特征。我国的涉恐资产的冻结措施应当借鉴英国涉恐资产冻结的相关法律制度,注意不同法律制度间的相互配合,注重涉恐资产冻结中的权利保障,加强国际法和国内法的衔接,以便更好地实现打击恐怖活动犯罪的目的。     

The Black Mafia: African-American organized crime in Chicago 1890–1960

The historical role of African-Americans in organized crime in the UnitedStates has been greatly ignored by the academic community. What researchthat does exist argues that black Americans played a minor role in theethnic gambling and vice industries that existed in many American citiesat the beginning of the Twentieth Century. This view is supported by the alien conspiracy theory, which argues that the participation of African-Americansand other minorities in syndicated vice and crime followed the decline oftraditional Italian American organized crime groups. This research arguesthat sophisticated African-American organized crime groups in Chicago existedindependently of Italian American organized crime and that African-Americans eventually played an important role in the activities of the Chicago Outfit,the traditional Italian American organized group in Chicago.     

有组织犯罪的政治经济分析

当前,在现代工业文明日趋成熟、民主政治日渐完善的同时,有组织犯罪集团正在试图建立一种可以使犯罪活动职业化、企业化、合法化的黑秩序,严重破坏了各国的政治稳定和经济繁荣。有组织犯罪的主要特点和表现形式都说明,它有着较深的政治经济根源,并不是简单的社会治安问题。对此应运用政治经济学的理论和方法研究这种现象的本质特征、内在规律和发展趋势,并从国外入手结合我国实际,探讨行之有效的对策。     

恐怖主义犯罪的界定

恐怖主义犯罪的界定应当立足于犯罪学的角度 ,而不应限于刑法学或者政治学的范围 ;恐怖主义犯罪的目的具有层次性和多样性的特征 ,而不应锁定为纯粹的政治性目的 ;恐怖主义犯罪是有组织犯罪的一种表现形式 ,个人不能成为恐怖主义犯罪的主体 ;恐怖主义犯罪的手段不限于传统的暴力范围 ,而是日益呈现出高科技化的发展趋势 ;恐怖主义犯罪的袭击目标是特定的 ,但受害对象却具有广泛和不确定的特征。恐怖主义犯罪与恐怖犯罪、政治犯罪与黑社会性质犯罪等相近概念之间的界限有必要加以明确。     

Making the second step before the first: Assessing organized crime

The debate on organized crime has shifted from the question of “myth or reality?” to efforts to come to an assessment of the nature and extent of organized crime. This paper discusses the possibilities and limits of such an endeavor in the case of Germany. A meaningful assessment requires linking the concept of organized crime to clearly defined empirical referents, having a thorough understanding of their dynamics and interrelations, and obtaining valid and reliable data. It is argued that these requirements cannot be met given the present paucity in theory and data. From the available aggregate data contained in the official crime statistics and annual situation reports on organized crime drawn up by the federal police agency BKA no overall trends are discernible. Where trends are identifiable, they mostly pertain not to patterns of criminal cooperation but to contextual factors. In contrast, the analysis of individual cases may serve to shed some light on the situation of organized crime, provided they are put in perspective with a differentiated conceptualization. A four-fold typology of criminal networks based on differences in the social embeddedness of criminal actors suggests that the seriousness of the problem may depend on the likelihood of the manipulation of relevant decision-making processes. Germany is not characterized by alliances between underworld and upperworld, but the existence of criminal networks within the upperworld gives grounds for concern.     

恐怖主义的定义与发展新趋势——兼论恐怖组织与有组织犯罪的合作

恐怖主义作为一种长期存在的现象在全球化的背景下，在“后911”时代用有了不少新的特征。对其从新的角度进行定义变得重要和迫切起来。另外，恐怖组织与有组织犯罪的合作日益紧密，这种紧密的合作需要进行深入的调查和分析其合作的结构。关于恐怖主义的一个准确的定义和有关其与犯罪组织合作清晰的图卷有助于全球范围内打击这两股势力的行动的展开。     

Organized crime and the theft of Iraqi antiquities

Amid the chaos following the downfall of Saddam Hussein, thousands of treasured artifacts from Iraq’s museums and ruins disappeared. Many were trafficked out of the country and into auction houses in the West. This occurrence highlights the often-overlooked role of organized criminal networks in the collection, smuggling, and sale of illicit antiquities. By taking advantage of the breakdown in social order that surrounded the U.S.-led invasion in {dy2003}, criminals were able to profit from Iraq’s heritage and deprive its people of their past. This report examines the looting of Iraqi museums and archaeological during the fighting of 2003. Details of the antiquities theft that accompanied the chaotic aftermath of that conflict are investigated for signs of infiltration by organized criminal actors. In addition, the role of organized crime in the international trade in illicit antiquities is examined to shed further light on this obscure aspect of international criminal activity. Finally, the international response is evaluated to determine its effectiveness in combating both the theft of Iraq’s archaeological treasures and the increasing power of criminal actors in the country.     

The creation of RICO: Law as a knowledge diffusion process

This paper uses historical content analysis to examine the developmentof the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). It is argued that certain historical events led to the definition of organized crime as an alien conspiracy and helped shape the RICO law. The theoreticalframeworks of sociology of knowledge and innovation diffusion are used to relate the development of RICO to the alien conspiracy view. Thoughtof in this context, law is the result of a knowledge creation and diffusion process. This paper demonstrates how one knowledge diffusion process (the acceptance of organized crime as a national conspiracy)affected a new knowledge creation process culminating in the RICO law.     

Ascent of the corporate model in environmental-organized crime

Since the mid-1980s, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970 (RICO) has been used against traditional organized criminals (i.e., Mafia) operating within various waste-trade industries. Recent civil and criminal RICO cases brought in New York City and State, provide current examples of the overall limited success of using RICO against criminal actors situated within the waste-trade industries. Although the traditional form of organized crime (i.e., Mafia) appears to be on the wane, corporate forms of organized crime have already entered into the waste-trade industries to fill the void created by the extraction of their predecessors. These corporate racketeers closely mimic the old traditional form of crime they have replaced, but may prove to be even more intractable, because, as the literature on corporate crime has clearly shown, corporate entities are extremely resistant to labeling as illegitimate organizations. One result of addressing “environmental-organized crime” as strictly organized crime, rather than as environmental crime, is that little change will be forthcoming in our current environmental regulations, laws, strategies and policies. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Snakeheads,mules, and protective umbrellas: a review of current research on Chinese organized crime

China’s red-hot economy in recent decades has not only brought the country unprecedented wealth and political prominence in the world but also created ample opportunities for criminal enterprises to flourish. A review of recently published literature reveals that two types of transnational criminal activities – human smuggling and drug trafficking – received a fair amount of empirical attention in the research community. Other crimes, however, although carrying equally significant cross-national implications, have received scant attention. Thanks to a handful of empirical studies in recent years, the notion that traditional Chinese crime syndicates dominated transnational criminal activities has largely been dispelled. Most of those involved in transnational crimes (at least in human smuggling and drug trafficking) were found to be otherwise ordinary individuals who exploit their social or familial networks to take advantage of emerging opportunities. The criminal underworld in China appears to be growing along two separate tracks, with transnational organized crimes operating on one track and locally based criminal organizations on the other. Both groups of criminal entities are not known to cross paths in any systemic way. Research on Chinese organized crime (either locally based or transnational) has remained rather limited. Future research needs to emphasize empirical strategies to explore these and other pressing transnational criminal activities, as well as to solidify recent findings.     

Terrorist attacks targeting the police: the connection to foreign military presence

Terrorist attacks – suicide attacks in particular – targeting police have increased worldwide over the past decade in both number and relative to other targets. One plausible explanation for this is the presence of a foreign military on a country’s soil, which is theorized to increase terrorism in that country. Terrorist attacks targeting the police may be more likely in these countries because police typically are tasked with assisting the foreign military. The primary research question asks whether there is a relationship between foreign military presence and terrorist attacks on police. This is assessed using a cross-sectional sample of 82 countries, with data drawn from several sources between 1999 and 2008. Because the dependent variables – terrorist attacks targeting the police – are proportions, Tobit and Cragg’s double-hurdle analyses were used. Analyses were confirmed using zero-inflated negative binomial regression models, with the outcomes measured as counts. Foreign military presence significantly increased the proportion of suicide terrorist attacks targeting the police, terrorist attacks using any tactic targeting the police and fatal terrorist attacks targeting the police. Greater economic inequality, involvement in civil war and greater regional terrorism were related to the proportion of attacks targeting police, but each was inconsistent across the outcome measures. To avoid being viewed as an occupying force and, thus, to decrease the proportion and count of terrorist attacks targeting police, administrators and officers alike may wish to reflect on public perception of their image. Future research should expand the dependent variable to include additional target types and a longer time period.     

The legislative recreation of RICO: Reinforcing the ``myth' of organized crime

This paper uses historical content analysis to examine the implementation ofthe Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). It is argued thatthe historical events leading to the definition of organized crime as an alienconspiracy still affect RICO's use some 30 years after its passage. This paper applies state-centered theory to the theoretical frameworks of sociology of knowledge and innovation diffusion. This approach is used to relate the current implementation and controversy of RICO to the alien conspiracy view. Thought of in this context, legal implementation is the result of a knowledge creation and diffusion process. This paper demonstrates how one knowledge diffusionprocess (the acceptance of organized crime as a national conspiracy in 1970) leads to a new knowledge diffusion process (the use of RICO).     

Gangs as contractors: the social organization of American Taiwanese youth gangs in Southern California

This paper examines the organizational structure and operations of Taiwanese organized crime and youth gangs in Southern California. In-depth interviews were used as the principle method of research. In contrast to transnational criminal conspiracy claims and the La Cosa Nostra model of vertically integrated organizations, our findings suggest that these criminal groups consist of discrete local Taiwanese youth gangs which operate as largely independent economic units that show no substantive and operational ties to criminal organizations in Taiwan. The formation of Taiwanese criminal organizations and gangs in Southern California is primarily governed by the availability of financial opportunities. Furthermore, both the inter-gang relations and intra-gang structures exhibit a distinct form of contractor arrangement which consists of market-like weak ties that are simultaneously circumscribed by the criminal embeddedness. We argue that that these economic weak ties, which seem to render conventionally understood criminal organizational boundaries administratively less meaningful, still function as an operationally significant governance mechanism of the organizational structures of American Taiwanese youth gangs. In addition, the paper discusses the implications that the embeddedness has on the somewhat paradoxical and incoherent organizational structure.     

From tong war to organized crime: Revising the historical perception of violence in Chinatown

An analysis of New York City press accounts and official documents from 1894 to 1908 challenges many assumptions about Chinese organized crime in the United States. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this analysis provides strong evidence that Chinese organized crime is neither “emerging” nor “nontraditional” and that it predates, in structure and sophistication, organizations of other ethnic origins later recognized as “modern” organized crime by academics, the media, and the government. A qualitative, document-based case study of the first “tong war” between the Hip Sing Tong and the On Leong Tong (1899–1907) shows that both organizations were heavily involved in a multiethnic social system of organized crime that extended across the United States and to China itself. The turn-of-the-century tongs were involved with police and political corruption, labor racketeering, price fixing, prostitution, gambling, immigrant smuggling, slavery, drug trafficking, and violent crimes. They are still associated with these activities.     

我国刑法中“恐怖活动犯罪”的认定

“制造社会恐怖”是恐怖活动犯罪特有的犯罪目的 ,正确理解恐怖活动犯罪的这一犯罪目的的内容 ,以及由这一目的决定的恐怖活动犯罪的罪过结构和客观特征 ,是司法实践中认定恐怖活动犯罪 ,正确适用刑法相关规定的基本前提。     

试论有组织犯罪特别程序

有组织犯罪已经成为危害我国社会治安的日趋严重的问题,现行的刑事诉讼程序也面临着有组织犯罪的严峻挑战.基于有组织犯罪之特殊性,有必要以我国政府已经签署的《联合国打击跨国有组织犯罪公约》为准绳,建立我国有组织犯罪特别程序.     

Cybercrime and social ties

This paper presents a case study of phishing in Amsterdam, demonstrating that the current literature on criminal phishing networks provides an incomplete picture of this form of organized crime. The paper adds to the current literature by describing an organized group of phishers whose relationships are based on real-world social networks rather than internet forums, and who mainly use social engineering rather than malware as a tool to acquire information from their victims. Because the origin and growth of the Amsterdam network differ from those of groups previously described, other possibilities for situational crime prevention arise. In addition to technological measures, for example those aimed at forums, this article focuses on measures that target the social ties on which the networks are based.