Youth Crime: Whose Responsibility?

Responsibility is an increasingly important concept within both political and academic debates about youth justice. As an alternative approach to youth crime, restorative justice ideology has contributed to this debate. Restorative justice emphasizes the importance of repairing harm by encouraging offenders to address past behaviour and to become responsible for future actions. This article reflects on empirical findings from the author's research with 41 young offenders who were the subjects of Referral Orders, a purportedly restorative disposal. It considers how successfully the English youth justice system has adopted this approach, arguing that there is a significant difference between the theory of restorative justice and its use in practice. To some extent, New Labour's emphasis on the criminal justice system has missed the point behind the ideology of restorative justice and the wider opportunities it offers for a proactively restorative society.     

Youth and the forbidden fruit: Experiences with changes in legal drinking age in North America

The effects of changes in the minimum drinking ages in various North American jurisdictions are reviewed. The research suggests that although most teenagers have experimented with alcohol, the rates of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related traffic collisions can be increased and decreased with the drinking age control legislation.     

Youth Crime in Canada: Observations for Cross-Cultural Analysis

Despite its proximity to the United States, Canada provides a unique context within which youth crime can be examined and utilized for comparative analyses. Canada's demographics, cultural mosaic, and the legislative and political bases of criminal justice are quite distinct from those of the United States. While Canadian youth generally experience lower rates of crime than their U.S. counterparts, there are areas where such rates are comparable and require close examination. Among the emerging concerns in youth crime are crime in urban areas, ethnic youth gangs, and the high rates of involvement of aboriginal youth in crime in many areas of the country. The notions of vulnerable youths and viable communities are offered as two useful concepts for the study of youth crime on a national and cross-national basis. High on the research agenda are studies of youth crime in the urban/rural/remote areas of the country, the impact of immigration policy on the emergence of specific types of youth crime, and longitudinal studies of male and female youth crime.     

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.     

State Crime: The North Korean Drug Trade

At least 50 documented incidents in more than 20 countries around the world, many involving arrest or detention of North Korean diplomats, link North Korea to drug trafficking. Such events, in the context of ongoing, credible, but unproven, allegations of large-scale state sponsorship of drug production and trafficking (especially heroin and methamphetamines), raise important issues for the global community in combating international drug trafficking. Rather than simply the activities of mercenary and corrupt individuals within the North Korean elite, the trafficking appears to be the result of a strategy initiated at the highest levels, directed through the shadowy organisation known as Bureau 39. As the DPRK's drug trade becomes increasingly entrenched, and arguably decentralised, analysts question whether the Pyongyang regime (or any subsequent government) would have the ability to restrain such activity, should it so desire.     

Megan's Law: Crime and Democracy in Late Modern America

To an unprecedented degree American society at the turn of the twentieth century is governed through crime. Nearly three percent of adults are in the custody of the correctional system. Crime and fear of crime enter into a large part of the fundamental decisions in life: where to live, how to raise your family, where to locate your business, where and when to shop, and so on. The crime victim has become the veritable outline of a new form of political subjectivity. This essay explores the complex entanglements of democracy and governing through crime. The effort to build democratic governance after the American Revolution was carried out in part through the problem of crime and punishment. Today, however, the enormous expansion of governing through crime endangers the effort to reinvent democracy for the twenty-first century.     

Promoting Stability for Youth Returning from Residential Care: Attorney Perspectives

Aftercare services have been suggested to improve reintegration for youth departing residential care programs. The purpose of this study was to collect views from legal professionals about the challenges youth and families face during reintegration and solutions to improve stability. Views were collected from 14 legal professionals (e.g., guardian ad litem, legal counsel) through a survey and 90‐minute nominal group technique focus group. Results indicated parent expectations about re‐entry and lack of services, supports and resources were challenges. Solutions suggested by participants included family, mental health and educational supports, and transition planning. Study limitations and future implications are discussed.     

雇佣犯罪问题研究

雇佣犯罪是近年来出现的一种新的犯罪现象。从各地司法部门公布的案件情况来看 ,这类犯罪呈现出急剧上升的发展态势。本文简要地分析此类犯罪的法律特征及其产生的原因 ,并就处理此类案件时应注意的问题作探讨。一、雇佣犯罪的法律特征雇佣犯罪是以金钱关系为基础 ,由雇佣者出资收买受雇者 ,受雇者按照雇佣者的旨意所实施的犯罪。这类犯罪同其他形式的犯罪比较 ,表现出以下几个明显的特点 :（一）犯罪行为人之间存在雇佣关系雇佣关系的存在是认定雇佣犯罪成立的前提条件。在雇佣犯罪中 ,雇佣者一般具有较为优越的经济条件 ,其与被害人存有矛…     

Evaluating Contemporary Crime Drop(s) in America,New York City,and Many Other Places

This paper describes and evaluates some fundamental facts about the contemporary crime drop, summarizes the major explanations that have been offered for it, and assesses the validity of these explanations in light of observed trends. In contrast with much of the recent literature, we argue that the locus of the crime drop in the 1990s is not wholly consistent with the available data and that while New York City experienced substantial crime decreases, its uniqueness has been exaggerated. We suggest that it is important to partition the crime drop observed in New York City and elsewhere into global and more localized shifts, and we offer some observations about the factors that appear most germane to driving these different dimensions of recent crime drops. We conclude with some suggestions for future inquiry.     

Shifting Perspectives: Cognitive Changes Mediate the Impact of Romantic Relationships on Desistance from Crime

Although research regarding the impact of marriage on desistance is important, most romantic relationships during early adulthood, the period in the life course when involvement in criminal offending is relatively high, do not involve marriage. Using the internal moderator approach, we tested hypotheses regarding the impact of non-marital romantic relationships on desistance using longitudinal data from a sample of approximately 600 African American young adults. The results largely supported the study hypotheses. We found no significant association between simply being in a romantic relationship and desistance from offending. On the other hand, for both males and females quality of romantic relationship was rather strongly associated with desistance. Partner antisociality only influenced the offending of females. Much of the effect of quality of romantic relationship on desistance was mediated by a reduction in commitment to a criminogenic knowledge structure (a hostile view of people and relationships, concern with immediate gratification, and cynical view of conduct norms). The mediating effect of change in affiliation with deviant peers was not significant once the contribution of criminogenic knowledge structure was taken into account. The findings are discussed in terms of social control and cognitive accounts of the mechanisms whereby romantic relationships influence desistance.     

货币犯罪比较研究

世界上绝大多数国家或地区都把针对货币的犯罪行为,列入了打击的对象,一些国家的刑法都辟专章专节将货币犯罪来规定。在罪名体系上,国外刑法将伪造、变造货币行为列为货币犯罪的首要打击对象,对变造假币的行为明确规定为犯罪,对取得或交付使用假币的行为有不同的规定形式。国外刑法大多将走私假币作为运输假币或输入、输出假币的行为处理,而我国刑法对走私假币规定为一种走私罪,对危害货币管理行为的主观目的明确予以规定。对伪造货币的预备形态进行惩罚,重视对外币保护,各国刑法对货币犯罪的规定虽然各不相同,但在很多方面有共同的特征。     

论有组织犯罪研究--十年回顾、评价与前瞻

我国学界在1994-2004年十年间对有组织犯罪研究取得重大成果,出版专著20部,论文发表近700篇,并形成自己的研究特点。十年间学者围绕着有组织犯罪的基本概念、有组织犯罪现象的科学解释,治理对策进行深入探讨,但有组织犯罪是一种新型的复杂犯罪现象,随着社会的演变发展,呈现出新的特征,这就亟待学界克服已经研究的缺陷与不足,推动有组织犯罪研究向纵深发展。     

无被害人犯罪研究

无被害人犯罪古已有之,但是作为一个专门的法律术语而纳入犯罪学研究领域却是晚近的事情。无被害人犯罪与伦理道德具有天然的紧密联系,在一定程度上可以说它是法的泛道德主义的产物。但伴随着现代社会法治文明的不断发展,刑法已经与道德严格区分开来,而且当今社会相对宽缓的刑事政策,也使得对无被害人犯罪进行除罪化成为社会发展的必然。