Explaining crime in developing countries: The need for a case study approach

The relationship between crime and development typically has been investigated within the theoretical umbrella of three dominant frameworks (modernization, underdevelopment, routine activities) and by the analysis of cross-national, statistical correlations between developed and developed countries. We outline the empirical, methodological, conceptual and theoretical weaknesses of these studies. The categories developed and developing are invalid when studying crime and change and the defects of existing approaches can only be overcome by a case study approach to the relationships of patterns of crime in different countries.     

Human rights is not enough: The need for demonstrating efficacy of an ethical approach to interviewing in India

Purpose. The present study compared attitudes about Human Rights (HR) and the advocation of coercive interviewing practices amongst Indian Police Officers, Offenders and a sample from the General Public. Method. 100 Police Officers, 50 Offenders and 50 members of the General Public completed a questionnaire that assessed their attitudes about the Human Rights of suspects and the use of coercion in suspect interviews. Results. Police Officers and the Public accepted both custodial violence and the use of intimidating interrogation strategies more readily than Offenders. They were also more prepared to suspend Suspects' Human Rights. Further, individuals who scored high on a coercive belief scale (CBS) were particularly inclined to favour custodial violence and suspend Human Rights. In addition, the self‐reported frequency with which Police Officers used intimidating and non‐intimidating interviewing techniques was related to their beliefs about Suspects' Human Rights and the extent to which they perceived intimidating interviewing methods to be useful. Conclusion. Attitudes about effective interviewing strategies may well be embedded within a broad social context. The effectiveness of a Human Rights Agenda requires that officers in India are informed of the effectiveness of ethical interviewing standards and the practical and legal dangers of using inappropriate methods.     

Suing the Philadelphia Police: The Case for an Institutional Approach

Note: The comments of Alan Snyder, Eugene Lewis and the Editor and anonymous reviewers of Law and Policy are gratefully acknowledged.
This article examines the merits of two alternative briefs in Equal Protection litigation on police misconduct. The several suits brought against the Philadelphia Police Department illustrate the shortcomings of the judicially preferred intentionality brief and indicate the need for a more completely specified institutional brief. The background of the two briefs is traced to a dialectical conflict between discretion and control in the idea of law enforcement.
The use of force is not a philosophical issue for a policeman. It is not a question of should or whether, but when and how much (Rubinstein 1973:323).     

Organization and environment: The case of correctional personnel training programs

An intensive field study of 17 correctional personnel training programs was conducted to assess the organization-environment context in which these programs emerged and operated. Content analysis of site visit data revealed that correctional training programs less often served specific organization goal achievement purposes, and more often served as general strategies for coping with external environmental demands and pressures. A theoretical framework for examining organization-environment relations is described, and then used to analyze correctional training programs as a boundary-spanning activity that relates correctional organizations to environmental conditions. Organizational responses to environmental demands are placed along a continuum of adjustment ranging from survival, to adaptation, and innovation. Organizational responses to environmental demands, in turn, are related to training patterns that dovetail with the major needs of organizations and their personnel in efforts to adjust to the environment.     

Police use of force: a transactional approach

Drawing on Tedeschi and Felson’s () theory of coercive actions for conceptual guidance as well as principles underlying the notion of a force continuum structure (i.e., proportionality and incrementalism), this research examines 3,544 police–suspect encounters from an observational study of the police in an attempt to better understand the transactional process of the police–suspect encounter. Results indicate, within the context of a force continuum structure, that officers escalated the level of force in about one of five encounters involving nonresistant suspects, and de‐escalated the level of force in three of four encounters involving resistant suspects. A series of logistic and multinomial regression models show that a number of factors differentially affect the manner in which officers apply force. The results suggest that before one can begin to judge the appropriateness of police force, one should measure and consider the extent to which force is applied proportionately and incrementally.     

Police use of force against drug suspects: Understanding the legal need for policy development

When confronted by the police, drug suspects sometimes attempt to destroy evidence by orally ingesting the contraband in their possession. Police officers have limited time to react before this evidence is destroyed. These conditions raise the question of exactly how much force officers may employ lawfully to prevent the imminent destruction of evidence. If an officer overreacts and uses more force than reasonably necessary to retrieve the drugs, the evidence may be ruled as inadmissible at trial. Furthermore, the application of excessive force may expose the officer and the agency to claims of civil liability for injury or damages. Given the myriad of legal questions arising within this unique context, this paper reviews relevant federal and state case law to assess the legality of various levels of force when resolving such situations. Law enforcement agencies need to develop appropriate policy statements to guide officer behavior during these types of field encounters.     

法官职业道德建设：一个伦理学的解读

法官职业道德是指基于法官职业特性,在长期司法实践中形成的对全体法官具有普遍约束力的价值观念、行为规范和风俗习惯的总和,它鲜明地表现为程序性,与特定社会的道德不完全相容。当前我国法官职业道德建设存在如下一些问题:法官职业道德建设与其实践基础相脱节;法官职业道德教育的目标定位过高,以为道德教育就可改造法官为道德人;重视法官职业道德的工具性而轻视它的自目的性,致使一些法官缺失职业道德信仰。要正确推动我国法官职业道德建设,我们应当:尽快实现法官职业化,夯实职业道德的实践基础;完善法官职业道德制度化机制,促进法官职业道德自成目的性;提高法官薪金,以利益机制促进法官遵守职业道德。     

Police drinking behavior and organizational deviance: An exploratory approach

Contemporary literature on police officer subculture has focused on correlates of cynicism while ignoring behavioral manifestations within law enforcement organizations. This paper explores the relationships between trouble due to drinking, cynicism, absenteeism, rank and deviation from police officers. Antecedent variables examined by regression analysis are observed to explain forty-eight percent of the total variance in police officer drinking scores and is highly significant. The relationship between a modified version of the Niederhoffer cynicism scale and the trouble due to drinking scale [r=−.22] is in an opposite direction than expected from anomie theory and seems to suggest that drinking behavior is an alternate adaptation to the stresses and strains of policing for older, higher ranking officers.     

Narrative approach to ethics education for students without clinical experience

Niigata University School of Medicine has provided three courses in which medical ethics (ME) is taught to students who have little or no clinical experience. To evoke student's imagination, we have developed a "narrative approach" to learn ME using cases. Prior to a case analysis, students are required to exchange their own life history regarding the core issues in the case. A case is presented not only in the traditional form of vignette, but also in the form of narrative. In the narrative, the case is a story composed of personal narratives, collected and edited from diaries, letters, interviews of persons involved. Our experience suggests that the principle-based reasoning using simple vignettes is often hardly accomplished by students. However, the narrative approach was found to be useful since students can: (1) gain more accurate and wide comprehension of medical and psycho-social aspects of the case; (2) grasp the nature and the history of the conflicting views among persons in the case; (3) find more easily any method for dealing with and settling problems; and (4) exchange viewpoints with patients and their family.     

Residential Stability and Trust in the Police: an Understudied Area of Police Attitudinal Research

American Journal of Criminal Justice - Residential in/stability has been observed to influence several behavioral outcomes such as mental health, child abuse, adolescent substance uses and...     

Barcelona 2002: law, ethics, and human rights. The need for harm-reduction approaches in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

In a region where HIV is spread primarily by injection drug use, harm-reduction strategies must be the mainstay of prevention efforts. In her plenary presentation to the XIV International Conference on AIDS on 9 July 2002, Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch asserts that if the world does not turn its attention to the emerging and exploding epidemic in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, the region will suffer the same fate as Africa. The presentation explains that while their economies continue to struggle, the countries in the region have seen their public health systems crumble in the face of the twin health crises of injection drug use and HIV infection. The presentation demonstrates how current repressive laws and practices with respect to drug use serve only to fuel the epidemic. It describes harm-reduction approaches (such as needle exchanges and drug-treatment programs) and provides examples of how NGOs in the region have been attempting to implement such approaches, often with little or no support from governments. Finally, the presentation outlines other measures required to respond to the epidemic in the region, including ensuring that people infected with HIV can access care, treatment, and support services.