An empirical test of social control theory

A test of social control theory was operated on a random sample of about 2000 juveniles aged 12 to 18 years. A second test was performed 2 years later on a subsample of the original one, taking into account changes in the life situation with respect to the family, school, work, leisure, peers, and some values connected with delinquency. Both self-report data and official data were collected. Using the HOMALS technique, scales were constructed of family integration (parental control, communication with parents, family activities, and family climate), school integration (liking school, commitment to school values, school performance, and social behavior), leisure and peers (nature and involvement in leisure activities, bravado), and some normative statements. Changes in social integration were measured over a period of 2 years and compared to the impact of official intervention in delinquency cases by police or prosecutor. On the basis of path analysis and a LISREL model, we were able to conclude that there was no impact of police or prosecutor intervention on later delinquency, but there appeared to be a strong and inverse relationship between changes in social integration, or the bond with society, and the frequency of offending.This article is based on two Dutch research reports, which have been published in English inJuvenile Delinquency in the Netherlands (Junger-Tas and Block, 1988).     

An empirical testing of informational efficiency in Bangladesh capital market

We investigate how efficiently the stock market participants incorporate the information contained in money supply changes into stock prices in an emerging economy like Bangladesh. Of particular interest is to test how the changes in monetary aggregates directly affect the stock prices through asset changes and indirectly through their effects on real economic activity. We have considered the monthly series of the real stock returns (P) and examine the relationship between stock returns and monetary aggregates from 1980 to 2008. We also include the exchange rate of US dollar against Bangladeshi Taka and industrial production index. The presence of cointegration between stock prices and monetary aggregates indicate long-run predictability of the Bangladesh stock market. The short-run dynamics between monetary aggregates and real stock return, relied on theoretically motivated long-run restrictions, are analyzed using an empirical structural VAR model. The dynamic response of the real stock returns to changes in macroeconomic variables (such as broad money supply, exchange rates), particularly its lagged responses to real economic activity generates inefficiency in the Dhaka Stock Exchange. The findings of this article indicate that informational inefficiency exists in the stock market of Bangladesh due to the presence of unidirectional causality. To be efficient, the infrastructure of the SEC should be modernized, revaluation of the net asset value of the companies should be audited by the affiliated firms of the SEC, demutualization should be done as early as possible, private placement, issue of preference share and book building methods must be under rule based. Insider trading should be strictly prohibited.     

File fragment encoding classification—An empirical approach

Over the past decade, a substantial effort has been put into developing methods to classify file fragments. Throughout, it has been an article of faith that data fragments, such as disk blocks, can be attributed to different file types. This work is an attempt to critically examine the underlying assumptions and compare them to empirically collected data. Specifically, we focus most of our effort on surveying several common compressed data formats, and show that the simplistic conceptual framework of prior work is at odds with the realities of actual data. We introduce a new tool, zsniff, which allows us to analyze deflate-encoded data, and we use it to perform an empirical survey of deflate-coded text, images, and executables. The results offer a conceptually new type of classification capabilities that cannot be achieved by other means.     

An empirical study of openness and convergence in labor productivity in the Chinese provinces

Based on the theoretical framework of the Solow growth model, this paper employs a dynamic panel data approach to examine the impact of openness on growth and convergence in labor productivity in the Chinese provinces during the period 1984–2008. The study finds that regional openness has a significantly positive effect on regional growth in labor productivity in the Chinese provinces. When regional heterogeneity and regional openness are accounted for, the study finds fast conditional convergence in labor productivity across the Chinese provinces. As a byproduct, this study also estimates the structural parameters of the aggregate production function in the case of China. In sum, the major findings of this study lend strong support to the claim that openness promotes growth of labor productivity in China.     

Street youth and labor market strain

This article applies strain theory to a high-risk sample of homeless street youth, with a particular focus upon labor market strain to predict violent and property crime and substance use. Data were collected through interviews with 200 street youth in a western Canadian city. Labor market strain was found to be related to the frequency of the youth's property, violent, and total crimes. Criminal peers and norms were also related to these crimes, as well as to drug use. Results also revealed a significant interaction effect between labor market strain and criminal norms predicting property, violent, and total crime. Interactions between strain and criminal peers, and external attributions also predicted property crime. Contrary to predictions, emotions were unrelated to crime and drug use. The results are discussed in light of Agnew's revised strain theory and suggestions are offered for future research on this topic.     

Tokenism in policing: An empirical test of Kanter's hypothesis

This study presented the first quantitative test of tokenism theory (Kanter, 1977) in a municipal policing context with data collected from a large sample of Baltimore police officers (Gershon, 1999). In bivariate and multivariate analyses, the effects of gender and race status and their interaction on three dependent variables capturing the central dynamics of tokenism (visibility/performance pressure, contrast/social isolation, and assimilation/role encapsulation) were explored. The study found weak to moderate support for the theory, but no evidence of a distinct “double token” interaction effect between race and gender statuses. By and large, race status alone predicted the greatest tokenism consequences. Limitations and future directions for tokenism research in policing are discussed.     

Differential association theory reconsidered: An extension and its empirical test

In 1974 the German methodologist Karl-Dieter Opp expounded and expanded Sutherland's differential association theory. In this article an empirical test of this version of the theory is presented based on data for 1196 boys and girls in the age range 12 to 17 years. Furthermore, some new and additional theoretical specifications about the social influence of others on the individual, all in accordance with the original ideas of Sutherland, are proposed and empirically tested. The differential association theory according to the version of K.-D. Opp is fairly well corroborated by the data. Only three of the postulated relationships are rejected. The theory explains 51% of the variance of criminal behavior, even considering that no criminal population is used for the test and only minor offenses are measured. The test also shows that the impact of the frequency of contacts with deviant behavior patterns on the development of positive definitions and on the frequency of communication about relevant techniques is substantial and cannot be ignored by criminologists. Furthermore, special analyses show that several propositions favor the theory. It is the deviancy of others that has the most substantial impact: the more youngsters have contact with their friends, the stronger the impact of the deviancy of their friends on the development of positive definitions or on the frequency of communication about techniques. The tests also show that the more youngsters identify themselves with others, the stronger will be the impact of the deviancy of the others on their norms. These results support the modification of the DA theory according to Opp and falsify some propositions of social control theory.     

A general theory of crime and computer crime: An empirical test

Computer crime has become a global issue and continues to rapidly grow; however, few studies had examined the applicability of a general theory of crime in explaining computer deviance. Using a panel of 2,751 Korean youths, the current study examined whether low self-control theory can be useful as a theoretical framework for explaining computer crime. The results indicated the applicability of low self-control theory in explaining both illegal download of software and illegal use of others’ personal identification online. Consistent with the theory's prediction, opportunity variables, especially hours of computer use, were found to be significant predictors of computer crime. The shortcomings of the current research and the directions for future research were discussed.     

Criteria-Based Content Analysis: An empirical test of its underlying processes

Abstract

Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) is a tool to assess the veracity of written statements, and is used as evidence in criminal courts in several countries in the world. CBCA scores are expected to be higher for truth tellers than for liars. The underlying assumption of CBCA is that (i) lying is cognitively more difficult than truth telling, and (ii) that liars are more concerned with the impression they make on others than truth tellers. However, these assumptions have not been tested to date. In the present experiment 80 participants (undergraduate students) lied or told the truth about an event. Afterwards, they completed a questionnaire measuring “cognitive load” and “tendency to control speech”. The interviews were transcribed and coded by trained CBCA raters. In agreement with CBCA assumptions, (i) truth tellers obtained higher scores than liars, (ii) liars experienced more cognitive load than truth tellers, and (iii) liars tried harder to control their speech. However, cognitive load and speech control were not correlated with CBCA scores in the predicted way.     

An empirical approach on regulating China’s pension investment

A prerequisite for preserving and increasing the value of pension funds is to make an appropriate investment with them; for this purpose most countries have issued regulation to guide the pension investment. After conducting an empirical analysis of different investment portfolios, e.g. Bank deposit, Treasury bond, and Equity in China, this paper reaches the following conclusions. Observing the strict limitation on quantity, the public equity ratio in portfolios of pension funds should be controlled below 20 %. To alleviate the “Home Bias” in investment, as well as to avoid the systematic risks intrinsic of the investing within a single country as China, some part of pension funds investment should be allowed to be invested into overseas markets. The constraints on public equity investment may be liberalized and the prudential person rule of pension investment in Common Law could be imported into pension legislation amendments when the Chinese stock market and legal system is more developed and going mature.     

Routine activity and victimization at work

This paper introduces the idea of domain-specific models of victimization as a means of improving the fit between theoretical concepts in routine activity theory and available data. Peoples' activity and their victimization experience can be divided into domains such as work and leisure. This paper focuses on the work domain. It demonstrates that activities performed as part of the occupational role affect the risk of victimization at work to a much greater degree than demographic characteristics of workers. These findings provide support both for routine activity theory generally and for domain-specific models as a particular approach to testing the theory.     

An empirical test of the social support paradigm on male inmate society

While social support theory has been applied to a variety of criminal justice settings, there has been little empirical research on the effect of social support on inmate behavior. In this article, we test Cullen’s proposition that social support, in whatever form it manifests itself, has an effect on Korean inmates’ experiences. Specifically, we examine whether social support in an all-male prison environment explains inmate misconduct, victimization, fear of victimization, and the intent to commit crime in the future. We build upon previous research by using unique measures of the instrumental and the expressive dimensions of social support to determine their effect on reducing criminogenic engagement in a prison setting. The results indicate that social support is an important factor in reducing prison violence, enhancing pro-social behavior, and potentially reducing recidivism.     

A longitudinal test of the revised strain theory

Agnew's (1985) revised strain theory argues that delinquency results from the inability to escape legally from painful or aversive situations. There is much indirect support for the theory, with experimental and survey data indicating that delinquency is associated with a wide variety of aversive situations. The experimental data, however, are of questionable generalizability and the survey data are primarily cross sectional in nature, leaving unresolved the issue of causal direction. This study examines the relationship between environmental adversity and delinquency using longitudinal data from a nationally representative sample of adolescent boys. A distribution-free method (arbitrary generalized least squares) is used to estimate a covariance structure model depicting a reciprocal relationship between adversity and delinquency. The results support the revised strain theory: environmental adversity has a causal effect on delinquency, but delinquency does not have an effect on adversity.     

An empirical test of techniques of neutralization regarding polluting behaviors in rural Iran

Crime, Law and Social Change - Environmental pollution is regarded as a major environmental crime in most countries; Iran is no exception. This study examines water and soil polluting behavior...     

Journey history reconstruction from the soils and sediments on footwear: An empirical approach

The value of environmental evidence for reconstructing journey histories has significant potential given the high transferability of sediments and the interaction of footwear with the ground. The importance of empirical evidence bases to underpin the collection, analysis, interpretation and presentation of forensic trace materials is increasingly acknowledged. This paper presents two experimental studies designed to address the transfer and persistence of sediments on the soles of footwear in forensically relevant scenarios, by means of quartz grain surface texture analysis, a technique which has been demonstrated to be able to distinguish between samples of mixed provenance.It was identified that there is a consistent trend of transfer and persistence of sediments from hypothetical pre-, syn- and post-crime event locations across the sole of the shoe, with sediments from ‘older’ locations likely to be retained in small proportions. Furthermore, the arch of the shoe (the area of lowest foot pressure distribution) typically (but not exclusively) retained the highest proportion of grain types from previous locations including the crime scene. A lack of chronological layering of the retained sediments was observed indicating that techniques that can identify the components of mixed provenance samples are important for analysing footwear sediment samples. It was also identified that the type of footwear appeared to have an influence on what particles were retained, with high relief soles that incorporate recessed areas being more likely to retain sediments transferred from ‘older’ locations from the journey history. In addition, the inners of footwear were found to retain sediments from multiple locations from the journey history that are less susceptible to differential loss in comparison to the outer sole. These findings provide important data that can form the basis for the effective collection, analysis and interpretation of sediments recovered from both the outer soles and inners of footwear, building on the findings of previously published studies. These data offer insights that enable inferences to be made about mixed source sediments that are identified on footwear in casework, and provide the beginnings of an empirical basis for assessing the significance of such sediment particles for a specific forensic reconstruction.     

Self-control and its manifestations among university students: An empirical test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory

This article presents an empirical test of Gottfredson and Hirschi's general theory of crime. Measures of crime equivalents were regressed on a measure of self-control and other relevant independent variables to determine their independent effects. Self-control was found to have the strongest effect.