Street Youths and the Proximate and Contingent Causes of Instrumental Crime: Untangling Anomie Theory

Utilizing a sample of 300 homeless street youths, the research examines the individual‐level sub‐model of Baumer’s interpretation of Merton’s anomie theory. The paper explores the role the interaction between monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means plays in the generation of instrumental crime and the manner in which this interaction is itself moderated by blocked opportunities, monetary dissatisfaction, social modeling, cultural support, and the perceived risk of punishment. The findings reveal that a weak commitment to legitimate means, but not monetary goals, has a lower order impact on the willingness to commit instrumental crime. These two variables, however, do not interact to predict intentions to offend. Instead the findings reveal that blocked opportunities and higher levels of monetary dissatisfaction moderate the relationship between the monetary goals and weak commitment to legitimate means interaction and the willingness to offend. Findings are discussed and suggestions for further research are offered.     

DIFFERENTIAL COERCION,STREET YOUTH,AND VIOLENT CRIME*

Using a sample of 300 homeless street youths, this study examines differential coercion theory and the role that coercion and the socialpsychological deficits of anger, low self‐control, coercive modeling, coercive ideation, and control imbalances play in the generation of violent crime. Results from cross‐sectional and prospective offending models that examine the individual mediators reveal that coercion has a direct relationship with violent offending as well as a relationship that is mediated by low self‐control, anger, coercive modeling, and coercive ideation. Although control imbalances have a direct relationship with crime, they do not mediate the relationship between coercion and crime. In the cross‐sectional model that contains all the mediators, coercion, low self‐control, anger, coercive modeling, and coercive ideation are associated with crime. In the prospective model that contains all the mediators, only anger, coercive modeling, and coercive ideation remain associated with crime. Results are discussed regarding future theory development and policy implications.     

罪刑均衡蕴意探究

罪刑均衡形式上的抽象框架是 :罪与刑的质的相称与量的相称的有机统一。其中 ,罪是指以已然之罪为主、未然之罪为辅的罪的统一体 ;刑是指以报应之刑为基础、预防之刑为引伸的刑的统一体。罪刑均衡抽象框架的基本要求 ,在我国现行刑法的规定中 ,有着一定的体现。     

GENERAL STRAIN,STREET YOUTH AND CRIME: A TEST OF AGNEW'S REVISED THEORY*

Using a sample of homeless street youth, this research examines how specific forms of strain–emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, homelessness and being a victim of robbery, violence or theft, relative deprivation, monetary dissatisfaction and unemployment–lead to crime and drug use. It also explores how strain is conditioned by deviant peers, deviant attitudes, external attributions, self‐esteem and self‐efficacy. The results reveal that all ten types of strain examined can lead to criminal behavior either as main effects or when interacting with conditioning variables. The results are discussed in light of general strain theory and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.     

中西文化中的犯罪异同论——我国犯罪相关理论研究的出路

文化作为上层建筑的组成部分,对犯罪研究的影响极为深远。中西方的文化迥异,导致犯罪研究的背景及途径各有特色。本文试图从文化的角度解析犯罪,并通过对中西方文化发展轨迹异同的研究,阐明其研究对法律制定、犯罪控制、学科建设等相关领域的影响,进而增强学术研究的忧患意识,最终为我国的犯罪研究提供新的视角及建议。     

Unemployment, Economic Theory, and Property Crime: A Note on Measurement

Drawing on rational choice theory, this study considers how best to measureunemployment within the context of the unemployment–property crimerelationship. Specifically, we use ARIMA techniques to examine the relativeefficacy of using the conventional Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)unemployment rate and two alternative measures of the demand for labor aspredictors of monthly counts of U.S. property offenses for the years 1982through 1996. The bivariate time series analyses indicate that while theBLS unemployment rate exhibits null effects, the number of individualsunemployed for 15 weeks or more and the capacity utilization ratesignificantly affect the level of property crime. The implications ofthese results are discussed.     

Structural Covariates of Violent Crime Rates in Germany: Exploratory Spatial Analyses of Kreise

This research applies the techniques of exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and spatial regression modeling to explain variation in robbery and assault rates across 413 districts or “Kreise” in Germany. The findings from ESDA reveal a distinct clustering of low rates in southern Germany, especially for robbery. The results of the spatial regression analyses indicate that for the nation at large, Kreise with high robbery and assault rates tend to be those with comparatively high levels of socioeconomic deprivation and a more urbanized environment, findings consistent with those commonly reported with data for areal units in the USA. We also observe net regional effects for the south in the regression models that pose puzzles for further inquiry into the German case, and “null effects” of the eastern region that have implications for more general debates of the potentially criminogenic consequences of the transition to market economies.     

Violent Crime in the Urban Community: A Comparison of Stockholm and Basel

In this article the authors present some preliminary findings from a comparative study of police recorded violent crimes in Stockholm and Basel. They present the first results from a comparative analysis of the situational context, the ecology of crime, and of offender residences in these cities. There is impressive evidence of basic similarities in the situational context of violent crime and the residential distribution of violent offenders. Yet there are also significant differences, some of which may have interesting implications for crime prevention. Firstly, violent crime seems to be more highly concentrated during weekend nights in Stockholm than in Basel. Secondly, they find evidence that the presence of weapons in a community increases the risk of more serious outcomes of violent events. Efforts to reduce the availability of weapons may thus have significant effects on the outcomes of violence, but not necessarily on its frequency. Thirdly, they show that offenders in both cities are highly concentrated in socially disorganised communities with few economic and social resources.     

犯罪理论研究的理性思考与严肃态度

犯罪理论的研究目前非常活跃，但是犯罪理论研究是社会科学中一个十分严肃的课题，寻找发现研究犯罪规律是犯罪理论研究中的重大课题，对此犯罪研究要防止过度的娱乐化、简单化、片面化，唯此才能揭示犯罪规律，建立犯罪理论体系，为改革开放保驾护航，为社会治安的长治久安提供强大的理论武器．     

广东街面犯罪常见防治措施与创新思路分析

街面犯罪是广东刑事犯罪中最主要的类型。近年来,广东警方通过公开巡逻、便衣伏击、端窝断腿等多项措施,在防治街面犯罪方面取得了一定成绩,但发案态势依然居高不下。警方宜转变思路,从截断犯罪链条、取证社会化、进一步解放警力、成立对抗犯罪的公益法律援助中心等多方面着手,全面深入地防治街面犯罪。     

Local Social Ties and Willingness to Intervene: Textured Views Among Violent Urban Youth of Neighborhood Social Control Dynamics and Situations

Social control in urban neighborhoods has been studied for over a century in America, yet our understanding of the dynamic nature of social relations for exerting informal social control remains limited. The present study uses detailed reports from those most likely to be the target of local control efforts—violent youth in extremely disadvantaged urban locations—to re‐examine two features of this work: variations across different hypothetical scenarios widely used in this research, and connections between local ties and intervention type and likelihood in actual events. In‐depth qualitative interviews from 159 violent males aged 16–24 from two distressed New York City neighborhoods identify ways in which responses to commonly used scenarios of informal social control are age‐ and space‐graded. Reports on the transactional nature of social control in violent events show how local ties may undermine, rather than support, social control processes. It would appear that we need to consider more carefully general suggestions about local ties encouraging more informal social control, move to a more textured, multithreaded view of these connections, and incorporate age‐ and space‐graded dynamics into future studies of social control.     

Self-Complexity and Crime: Extending General Strain Theory

General strain theory suggests that a number of conditioning factors affect who is more likely to respond to strain with crime. This study introduces a previously neglected conditioning variable from the social psychology literature, self-complexity (SC). SC refers to (1) the number of identities individuals perceive as important to themselves; and (2) the varied characteristics they ascribe to these identities. The central argument of this study is that those who are lower in SC, or those with fewer identities and more overlap among these identities, should be more susceptible to the negative emotional and behavioral effects of strain. This assertion was tested through a vignette study of undergraduates. Results indicate that those who are lower in SC are more likely to intend to assault another person and drink heavily than those who are higher in SC. The findings suggest that SC should be included among traditional conditioning variables explicated in GST.     

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.     

犯罪控制与社会参与——构建和谐社会背景下的思考

和谐社会是稳定而有活力的社会,是国家与社会动态平衡的二元结构社会.在构建和谐社会的大背景下,犯罪控制模式应当由传统的"国家本位模式",向"国家·社会"双本位模式转化,应积极推进犯罪控制中的社会力量参与,以适应社会转型时期,公众对犯罪预防和控制的要求.     

论我国双层模式犯罪构成理论的建构

基于对中外犯罪构成理论的考究与分析,揭示并遵循犯罪构成理论的必要规则,正视中国大陆刑法的实然规定与犯罪构成理论的基本现实,应当建构我国双层模式的犯罪构成理论。犯罪成立必须具备本体构成符合与严重危害充足二个阶层要件;本体构成符合为第一层次,描述犯罪的基本轮廓,严重危害充足为第二层次,限定犯罪的实质底线。犯罪成立是本体构成与严重危害两者缩限评价的结论。     

共同过失犯罪行为理论研究——兼论行为理论的重构

两人或者两人以上基于相同的过失共同造成损害结果即为共同过失犯罪,但现有的共同犯罪理论和行为理论并不能合理解决这类行为的定罪量刑问题。重构行为理论,将行为理解为"行为人运用一定的主客观条件作用于特定的人或物的存在状态的过程",过失共同犯罪就是行为人之间在相互利用对方行为之际,应当控制而没有控制,最终造成了实际损害结果,所以应当分别按照过失犯罪定罪处罚。     

犯罪现场层次论

犯罪现场层次是犯罪现场存在表现及其被侦查人员认知的程度。犯罪现场是由犯罪时间、犯罪空间、犯罪嫌疑人条件、犯罪痕迹物证、犯罪活动过程、犯罪心理、犯罪证据等各种层次构成的复合体。研究犯罪现场层次论也是研究犯罪现场构成要素的存在及其在不同层面的联系。犯罪现场层次也是研究和揭示犯罪现场存在的一种认知。研究犯罪现场层次问题,也可以使我们对犯罪现场状况及其勘查工作质量给以程度判定。     

盗窃罪保护法益的理论嬗变与司法抉择——新修正的所有权说之提倡

关于财产罪保护法益究竟采取所有权说还是占有说,在德日刑法以及我国刑法理论之中均存在较大争议。就一般情形而言,无论采取所有权说或者占有说,对案件的定性并不存在分歧,但是在特定案件中对定罪量刑具有实质性影响。立足于我国刑法的相关规定以及司法解释的立场,对盗窃罪保护法益应当提倡新修正的所有权说。对于司法实践中发生的所有权人擅自处置被公权力机关依法扣押、查封的财物,擅自取回处于他人合法占有之下的财物以及以非法手段侵害他人占有的违禁品、赃物的案件,在新修正的所有权说指导下均能得出妥当且统一的结论。     

论我国犯罪控制的优化

犯罪是严重危害人身安全与财产安全,侵害生活安宁与经济发展的反社会行为,同国家与法律如影相随。但犯罪行为总是客观的、外在的,具有可控制性特征．为了实现犯罪控制的目标,我们需要深刻剖析制约我国犯罪控制的现实因素,进而探索优化我国犯罪控制的具体路径。     

犯罪论体系的维度

犯罪论的事实判断是对外界客观行为的实然认识,价值评价是主体对客观事实的应然判断,两者应当是协调统一的。行为入罪具有客观规律性。犯罪论的事实判断包括客观事实判断与主观事实判断,具有普遍性与特殊性、恒定性与可变性。犯罪论的价值评价包括客观价值评价、主观价值评价和混合价值评价。行为入罪在价值评价上需要遵循目的有效性、手段有效性、司法有效性、效益均衡性和后果均衡性原则。大陆法系国家的犯罪论体系缺乏实质的混合价值评价要素;我国平面的犯罪论体系缺乏形式的混合价值评价要素。重构论不可行的理由是:作为其哲理根据的事实与价值二元论早已崩溃,作为其立论基础的德日阶层犯罪论体系在评判次序上并非先事实后价值。