The European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics: A New Tool in Assessing Crime and Policy Issues in Comparative and Empirical Perspective

Theories which suggest a relationship between crime or criminal justice variables on the one hand, and variables related to criminal justice policies on the other hand, cannot be tested without reference to historic or comparative data. Since international comparisons offer the most powerful test of such theories, policy-related research in Europe has suffered, so far, from a lack of valid comparative data. Whether crime data from different countries are comparable, has always been subject to controversies. In the case of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice, a network of specialists was established under the auspices of the Council of Europe in order to assess the validity of the data. Although some problems in cross-country level comparisons could not be settled, the European Sourcebook offers comparative data on 36 Member States of the Council of Europe on a variety of subjects (offences and offenders known to the police; prosecution, convictions, sentences, and corrections; survey data; and indications on manpower and budgets of police forces, prosecutors, and corrections).     

International Norm Diffusion and Organised Crime Policy: The Case of Greece

The premise of this paper is that a section of the Greek policy-making elite responsible for formulating policy against organised crime has taken advantage of an internationally-developed programme of action on this issue to strengthen perceptions of the Greek state's legitimacy amongst both domestic and foreign audiences. Although positive reaction to foreign pressure for policy change has tended to be made at the risk of losing further legitimacy in the eyes of domestic public opinion, in this case the issue of organised crime has presented an opportunity to the policy-making elite to develop policy that also aims to bolster the domestic legitimacy of the state by dealing with criminality and presenting the state as a clean and neutral body acting for the common public good.     

Crime Trends in Europe from 1990 to 1996: How Europe Illustrates the Limits of the American Experience

In the Council of Europe's European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics, crime and other relevant data are assembled for 36 European countries and the years 1990 to 1996. The data show that crime trends differed from those in the United States. Particularly drug and violent offences continued to increase until the end of the period under consideration (1996). Most of the theoretical explanations of crime trends currently in vogue in the United States seem of little help in understanding current European trends. Generally the most valid approaches seem to be routine-activities and situational explanations.     

Strategic Standardization in Europe: A Public Choice Perspective

In October 1990, the EC Commission presented a Green Paper in which it outlined a New Approach to European standardization. In particular, standardization was interpreted as a means of furthering the completion of the Internal Market. This paper discusses the impact of the modifications to the process of standard setting, as they have been proposed by the Commission, with respect to the incentives and goals of the major players in the European standardization game, i.e., national and European standardization bodies, industry and the EC Commission. Selected economic models of standardization are applied to investigate the policy impact of the New Approach.     

Crime Trends in Western Europe from 1990 to 2000

This paper analyses the evolution of police recorded crime rates for nine offences (intentional homicide, assault, rape, robbery, theft, vehicle theft, burglary, domestic burglary, and drug offences) over the period 1990–2000 in 16 Western European Countries. The analysis shows that there was an increase in drug and violent offences, while property offences reached a peak at the beginning of the 1990s and started decreasing afterwards. The evolution of property offences can be related to the emergence of a large black market for stolen goods in Central and Eastern Europe at the beginning of the time series, while by the end of it that market was saturated and there had also been a reinforcement of police measures in the frontiers and of security measures in Western European households. The increase in drug offences is correlated to the rise of drug use in Europe shown by other indicators, and can be related to an increased availability of drugs in European markets. Finally, the upward trend in violent offences can be explained partially by gang struggles over the control of illegal markets and by the consolidation of problematic neighbourhoods, but seems also due to a large extent of increase in the reporting of violent offences by their victims and the recording of such offences by the police. The analysis shows that opportunity-based theories provide a satisfactory explanation of the trends in recorded crime, and that the crime opportunities are heavily influenced by socio-economical factors.Versions of this paper were presented at the 3rd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology (Helsinki, August 27–30, 2003) and at the Societies of Criminology 1st Key Issues Conference (Paris, May 13–15, 2004). The paper was written during a stay at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law (Freiburg imBreisgau, Germany) made possible through the support of Swiss National Science Foundation     

Organised Crime in East Central Europe: The Czech Republic,Hungary and Poland

Recent developments in East Central Europe have made countries in the region increasingly attractive to organised crime. The development of organised crime in ECE is seen as a significant problem with global implications. The roots of organised crime in ECE date back to the 1970s, but conditions after the revolutions of 1989 led to an influx of foreign-based gangs into the region. This has resulted in the emergence of organised crime that is predominantly international in character. Gangs have established strategic alliances to organise operations spanning three continents. The countries of ECE have been fighting back against organised crime and significant advances have been made. Continued criminal operations through the region, however, are perceived as a threat on a global scale. The accession of the Czech republic, Hungary and Poland into the EU in May 2004 will provide a clear litmus test for how successful these attempts have been to date.     

Introduction: Global Crime Today

International relations scholars and practitioners alike have paid increasing attention to how malevolent non-state actors like terror groups and transnational criminal organisations challenge the state and otherwise threaten secure and stable human relations. Scholars and experts have yet to agree on the existence, nature and scope of enduring alliances (or a nexus) between crime and terror groups. In this article, the author wades into the debate and offers a new perspective using an analytical framework rooted in James Rosenau's postinternationalist paradigm. Drawing on research gathered through a recently-completed comparative study of the crime-terror nexus, the article notes that two forms of the crime-terror nexus exist. Such bifurcation eclipses the more parsimonious view that criminals and terrorists only engage in marriages of convenience to further their methods but their motives maintain long-term separation. The articles concludes with suggestions on how to develop state policies that address all forms of the crime-terror nexus.     

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.     

How to Develop More Effective Policies Against Crime: Some Reflections on Drugs and Crime Research in an International Context

This paper offers some reflections on how to develop more effective policies against crime, drawing on more than 10 years of research experience on the international drug problem. The paper begins by trying to illustrate the so-called justice gap in the world, and explain why an institution such as the United Nations has a comparative advantage in closing that gap. It then details four lessons that the author has learnt from his own personal experience as head of research in the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, now called the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: (i) measure, count, and keep counting; (ii) publish or perish, either in inter-governmental default, or in public hysteria; (iii) limit the dangers of committing the euphemistic fallacy; and (iv) divorce research and policy, because research is policy-dependent; make research policy-relevant, and re-marry it to policy. Finally, the paper tries to show how these lessons can be applied in related areas and used as good practice in research on crime.     

Prosecution in Europe: Varying Structures, Convergent Trends

Chapter 2 of the European Sourcebook attempts to show the differences as well as the common features of the prosecution services of the Council of Europe Member States. In order to do so the following five categories of statistics were collected: the total number of cases the prosecuting authority recorded as having been dealt with within a particular year; the number of cases brought before a court; the number of cases dropped; the number of cases dropped conditionally; the number of cases ended by the imposition of a sanction. The prosecution statistics of the European countries studied vary because of differences in the input structures. They are also affected by variations in output structures. These are determined by the powers that the prosecution authorities themselves possess. These variations between the prosecution systems within Europe cause significant differences in the resulting statistics and must be borne in mind when analysing the European Sourcebook data.     

有组织犯罪刑罚之比较研究--兼论我国刑法关于有组织犯罪刑罚规定的完善

有组织犯罪目前已成为各国普遍关注的热点问题.本文通过对各国关于有组织犯罪刑罚的具体规定比较,建议我国刑法对有组织犯罪的刑罚规定从以下几方面予以完善:扩大财产刑的适用范围;增加规定其他附加刑;并且,对有组织犯罪的犯罪分子在刑罚执行过程中应予以一定的限制,以贯彻对有组织犯罪从严打击的刑事政策.     

The Market for Scientific Crime Prevention: A Comparative Study of Canada and Venezuela

Crime prevention is an activity that, sooner or later, requires the concourse of science. But the dictates of science may not mesh well with the social, institutional and political considerations that are persistent and powerful determinants of collective action. To the extent that they are ignored, crime prevention is less scientific and more pragmatic. Using a marketing metaphor, this paper examines selected aspects of the supply of and demand for scientific crime prevention in Canada and Venezuela from 1949 to the present. In both countries, academic entrepreneurs are revealed to be a necessary factor in the sale of crime prevention to government. On the demand side, governments adopt and adapt crime prevention policies in relation to their broader perspective on social problems and social change. However, rising crime rates and climates of urgency reduce the attractiveness of crime prevention. Scientific crime prevention is easier to sell when crime rates are stable or declining.     

中外犯罪构成理论体系之比较

犯罪构成是刑法理论的核心,也是刑法科学中举足轻重的基本范畴。本文通过对我国的犯罪构成理论体系和外国的犯罪构成理论体系的比较研究,较为全面地透视了中外犯罪构成理论体系存在的差异性,从而为我们正确地认识中外犯罪构成理论体系的内在价值具有重要的参考意义。     

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。     

打击跨国人口贩卖犯罪的现状、误区及对策——以经济全球化为视角

跨国人口贩卖犯罪业已成为威胁国际社会正常秩序最为严重的罪行之一。我国应将保护视角从妇女、儿童的人身权利拓展到一般公民的人身权利,将打击重点从性剥削转移到强迫劳动;在学术上的研究,应将跨国人口贩卖作为危害人类罪管辖、起诉和定罪的可能。     

The cost of protection racket in Sicily

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the current cost of protection rackets in Sicily. By means of a database constructed on judicial evidence, it has been possible to come up with an estimate of the average and total costs of the protection-money system, as well as finding out in which sectors of economic activity and in which provinces is most pervasive. The average monthly payment is approximately 600 euros per business, with stronger effects in those areas with a relatively more traditional economic structure. As a whole, in monetary terms, the protection racket in Sicily accounts for over 1.4% of gross regional product. Finally, the paper supports the hypothesis that in most cases, the pervasive presence of the mafia represents a considerable constraint on business growth.     

The Secret History of Japanese Cinema: The Yakuza movies

This article explores the interplay among economic imperatives within the entertainment business, the mafia's role in the creation of its own media image, and the production of gangster films. Taking Japan as a case study, the paper shows that, when given the chance to influence the content of gangster movies, crime bosses have portrayed themselves as benevolent patriarchs and a positive force in society, rather the anti-heroes of classic American gangster movies. In Japan, such a choice had, however, the unintended consequence of a decline in audience interest and eventually led to the demise of studio yakuza movies. Ultimately, the paper shows that the mafia control over art can lead to the death of art—something that is bad for the mafia as well.     

The Role of Public Opinion in Improving Legislation in the Fight Against Crime

In the decree of the CPSU Central Committee "On improving work in the maintenance of law and order and strengthening the fight against crime," the need for increasing public involvement in the fight against crime and other antisocial behavior is pointed out. (1) The role and functions of public involvement increase significantly under conditions of developed socialism. Its effect as a subjective factor is directly dependent on the qualitative condition, structure, and content of public consciousness and its component parts. Therefore, not only does multi-faceted study of public consciousness as an integrative factor of the social organism as a whole have important theoretical and practical import but so also does clarification of the inner content of public consciousness and of the characteristics of the mechanism of the formation of its separate components, for example, of public opinion, which plays a significant role in the policy of the Soviet state with regard to the eradication of crime. (2)     

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．     

Organised crime groups in cyberspace: a typology

Three categories of organised groups that exploit advances in information and communications technologies (ICT) to infringe legal and regulatory controls: (1) traditional organised criminal groups which make use of ICT to enhance their terrestrial criminal activities; (2) organised cybercriminal groups which operate exclusively online; and (3) organised groups of ideologically and politically motivated individuals who make use of ICT to facilitate their criminal conduct are described in this article. The need for law enforcement to have in-depth knowledge of computer forensic principles, guidelines, procedures, tools, and techniques, as well as anti-forensic tools and techniques will become more pronounced with the increased likelihood of digital content being a source of disputes or forming part of underlying evidence to support or refute a dispute in judicial proceedings. There is also a need for new strategies of response and further research on analysing organised criminal activities in cyberspace.