A System��s Approach to Crime Prevention: The Case of Macao

Macao has the world’s largest casino industry and represents a unique political, social, and cultural system that differs significantly from Western societies. The overall crime rate in Macao is relatively low. Scholarly knowledge about crime and crime prevention in Macao, however, is very limited. This paper first reviews crime prevention theories, typologies, and various strategies in Western societies, followed by an introduction and discussion of crime prevention practices in Macao. Crime prevention strategies in Macao may be characterized as a tripod structure with three major supporting legs: traditional criminal justice practices, social prevention beyond the criminal justice system, and situational crime prevention measures. The paper then discusses the factors that may contribute to the low level of crime in Macao and points out the direction for future research in Macao.     

论刑法学与犯罪学研究的整体互动

在中国,犯罪学与刑法学彼此分离各自为“家”,导致了中国社会过于看重严刑峻法而忽视犯罪原因,使得犯罪虽受到严惩但犯罪情势依然十分严重。如何扭转这一现象,尽快使刑法学惩罚犯罪的研究与犯罪学预防犯罪的研究相互结合,构筑刑法学与犯罪学整体相互联动的格局,是中国社会实现社会稳定的现实政治需要,也是中国社会经济发展的自然要求,更是中国社会通过历史反思对历史的经验与教训进行总结的必然趋势,从而实现使中国的刑事政策从刑事惩罚为主到刑事预防为主的战略转移,刑事法理论对犯罪构成和刑事责任的重点研究为主要转移到对犯罪原因和犯罪预防为主的研究重点上来,以此迎接一个国家繁荣昌盛但犯罪并不猖獗疯狂的时代的到来。     

The Centrality of Theory in Modern Day Crime Prevention: Developments,Challenges, and Opportunities

Theory matters in crime prevention. Indeed, but this is hardly the full story. Crime prevention is oftentimes viewed as atheoretical—not grounded in the etiology of crime and offending. Reasons abound for this view, and the recent interest in an evidence-based approach to policy-making has been at the forefront. This article reviews the role that theory plays in modern day crime prevention, with a special focus on the three main crime prevention strategies: developmental, community, and situational. The review identifies a number of key challenges and opportunities for making theory more central to crime prevention. It suggests that the classification system employed in situational crime prevention has allowed for a more explicit connection between sound theory and prevention techniques, and may provide important lessons for developmental and community crime prevention.     

Promoting Whole-Process People’s Democracy Following the Rule of Law

Whole-process people’s democracy profoundly reflects the features of socialist democracy with Chinese characteristics, and comprehensively and systematically reveals the concept of people’s democracy as providing important mechanisms of national and social governance. Based on the traditional democratic understanding of democracy as majority rule, whole-process people’s democracy emphasizes the universality and extensive range of democratic governance, but also has the natural value defects of democratic value itself. Therefore, we must organically combine democracy with the values of the rule of law and human rights, to build a well-defined governance order based on people’s democratic value. The whole process in the “whole-process people’s democracy” has really resolved the situation of people’s “absence” from many links of state power operation caused by over-emphasizing the election-democracy in the Western capitalist democratic system. Through the people’s extensive participation and effective supervision, the state power operation mechanism based on the fundamental political system, the people’s congress system, has been ensured to be always in the framework of people’s democratic governance. This effectively realizes the people’s sovereignty and is consistent with the declaration that “all power in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) belongs to the people,” stipulated in the Constitution of China. To improve the governance efficiency of whole-process people’s democracy in practice, we must bring it onto the rule of law, and use the rule of law philosophy and methods to reasonably and effectively resolve all kinds of theoretical and practical problems.     

略论西汉控制犯罪的理论对策

西汉时期在预防为主、标本兼治、整体布局、综合为治的思想指导下 ,建立了一套上自中央下到地方组织严密、运转灵活的控制犯罪体系 ,并且综合运用多种手段 ,将怀柔感化与暴力镇压、罪前预防与罪后惩治紧密结合起来 ,奠定了中国古代控制犯罪的基本模式。这一理论对策不仅与德主刑辅、明刑弼教的传统思想观念相统一 ,而且与我国特定的宗法伦理的社会结构及“大一统”的集权政治体制相适应。它不仅为西汉王朝的长治久安起了积极的推动作用 ,而且对后世产生了深远影响     

抗制国有资产流失犯罪对策研究

国有资产流失犯罪给我国国民经济的发展造成了巨大的损失,成为我国经济、政治安全的巨大障碍.从对我国国有资产流失犯罪的原因分析人手,提出双层国有资产流失犯罪抗制模式的构想,强调从国有资产监管体系的完善和国有资产法律体系的完善两个层次构建我国国有资产流失犯罪的预防控制体系.     

Rising crime rates amidst transformations in Eastern Europe: Socio‐political transition and societal response

Unprecedented and dramatic increases in crime rates in countries of Eastern Europe (data are available to document the increases for Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and many of the former Soviet Republics) raise the issue of whether the political and social transformations that have been taking place in Eastern Europe must inevitably lead to social disruption and resulting crime increases. Since the nature of the phenomenon is historically unique (there has never been a similar revolutionary transition from socialism to capitalism), a new, unconventional, and innovative theoretical approach is needed to account for the phenomena being discussed here. Assuming that the transformations can be legitimately subsumed under the concept of ‘‘socio‐political process,’’ the purpose of the paper is to identify some basic and inherent characteristic features of the causal mechanism at work, specifically —?''How do the dynamics of the Eastern European socio‐political process explain the rising crime rates?'’ (''What causal factors inherent in the dynamics are responsible for the crime rises?'') Another issue to be examined is that because of the unprecedented nature of the process being talked about here, a different dimension of the socio‐political process theory must be realized and examined. The paper will be based on three hypotheses: 1. The Eastern European transformations imply a need for a new component of the socio‐political process theory (transition from socialism to capitalism, not vice versa as has historically been the case).

2. To the extent that crime is a product of socio‐political change, crime rates are bound to increase much more during a socialism‐to‐capitalism transition rather than during a capitalism‐to‐socialism transition.

3. Some inherent traits of socialism‐to‐capitalism transitions explain why crime rates increase much more during those transitions than during capitalism‐to‐socialism ones.

     

Crimes,arrests, and elections: Predicting winners and losers

Political candidates are frequently identified as being either “law and order” advocates or “soft” on crime; however, the importance of actual arrest and crime levels on election outcomes has not been examined empirically. One particular set of candidates for whom arrest and crime rates might be expected to be predictive is publicly elected law enforcement officials. Using 1976 Florida County Sheriff election data, this article examines the capacity for discriminating between winning and losing incumbent sheriffs by using county arrest and crime data in association with socioeconomic and political information. The findings show that a significant discrimination is obtained (significant = 0.009, canonical correlation = 0.59, and 76 percent of the counties were correctly classified) and that crimes and arrests are significant factors in determining the outcome of sheriff elections. The results indicate that although traditional political factors, such as party affiliation and number of terms in office, and socioeconomic factors, such as income, density, and unemployment rates, do well in discriminating winning from losing candidates, a sheriff-election model must also incorporate crime and arrest information, particularly information on murder and rape.     

Crime prevention strategies by the United Nations: A global perspective

Most of the studies on crime show that no society is immune from crime and organized crime. Large or small, complex or simple, developed or underdeveloped, every society faces the task of controlling crime and organized crime. Furthermore, recent events reveal that the so‐called ‘'domestic crime'’ has become more globalized, or internationalized. Unless dramatic changes take place, collectively, e.g., by the United Nations, no single nation can expect to control or regulate illegal activities. In particular, crime prevention and criminal justice has been a long standing agenda item of the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council; the two principal legislative bodies governing the United Nations program of work in the criminal justice field. The Council is, after the Assembly itself, the major legislative and policy‐making organ of the United Nations. The field of criminal justice is an important component of social and economic affair, the Economic and Social Council determines policy and initiates activities. Within the United Nations system, the most direct responsibility for international efforts toward crime prevention and control is borne by the recently created Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (which has replaced the expert subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council, namely, the Committee on Crime Prevention and Control) and the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch. The establishment of the Commission, by the Economic and Social Council in February 1992, ushered in a new era in United Nations involvement in crime prevention and criminal justice. The commitment of the Member States to the prevention of crime and the promotion of justice through strengthened international cooperation has been clearly spelled out in numerous General Assembly and Economic and Social Council resolutions. Those resolutions are indicative of the Member States’ heightened awareness and concern that crime, in its internationalized form, has to be tackled by a multilateral approach including international cooperative measures, and that interdependent efforts are urgently required. The Commission provides a means by which Governments can be directly involved in the determination and supervision of the program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and can clearly manifest their political will. Its establishment was the result of a long process of review of the functioning and program of work of the United Nations in crime prevention and criminal justice, and was seen as an indispensable condition of a structural reorganization of United Nations activities in this field. For further information on CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, and THE UNITED NATIONS COMMISSION ON CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE, see UN Newsletter, Numbers 22/23, July, l993. Further information on Operational Activities of the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Branch since the First Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in April 1992 (on Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe Western Europe and North America and Global aspects, see the same documents, pp. 22–26 for more detail.     

国家赔偿制度发展的宪法支撑研究

国家赔偿取得权、人权保障和政治文明分别是宪法支撑国家赔偿制度发展的“一体”和“两翼”。国家赔偿取得权是公民的基本权利,国家赔偿制度的发展应当以保障国家赔偿取得权为重点。第四次修宪特别突出的“人权保障”和“政治文明”分别对国家赔偿实体和程序制度的发展提供了宪法支撑,国家赔偿制度的修改必须体现这些宪法精神。     

Crime prevention cooperation in Sweden: a regional case study

In crime prevention, local cooperation and networks have recently become central organizing principles and concepts, especially in Nordic countries such as Sweden. This article explores cooperation in Swedish crime prevention by examining a local example, the regional network Regbrå. Regbrå aims to increase knowledge about crime prevention through cooperation and to support local crime prevention efforts by the municipalities in Östergötland County. Regbrå has promoted many universal (primary), selective (secondary), and indicated (tertiary) crime prevention mechanisms. The Regbrå case also merits attention because of its strong links with a local university and higher education. Some shortcomings and problems also emerge in the analysis, such as the possibility that cooperation becomes an end to itself, detached from verified crime reduction effects. The analysis draws on a study of the Regbrå network, including interviews with qualitative experts (N = 10) and a survey sent to involved municipalities (N = 13).     

An ounce of prevention...

A major theme in the apparent transformation of the criminal justice system in recent years is the commitment to shifting away from reactive responses to crime in favor of proactive prevention practices. This paper raises the question of whether the rhetoric of prevention has been translated into real substantive changes. The author argues that the activity which has occurred in response to the rhetoric of prevention is more significant as an ideology of practice and control than as a ‘solution’ to the problem of crime. For the moment, it is unlikely that an ounce of prevention will produce more than a few grams of cure.     

职务犯罪预防教育的若干思考

思想教育作为犯罪一般预防的重要内容，在职务犯罪预防中同样起着不可或缺的作用，然而当前的职务犯罪预防教育存在着诸多问题，影响并制约着教育的实效。为了满足当今预防职务犯罪的需要，应当着眼于以人为本，做到多策并举，从警示教育、忠诚教育、文化进补、加强调适等多个方面，力求提升教育在职务犯罪预防中的“贡献率”，从而使思想教育真正成为职务犯罪的一道坚实防线。     

由被害人“预防投资”解构犯罪未遂的轻刑化

潜在的被害人为自我保护通常会进行预防投资,但是其投资水平并非总是处于最佳状态,从而产生负外部性,需要刑罚对之进行宏观调控。法律的经济分析表明犯罪人更倾向于选择高预防水平的被害人为目标对象,而犯罪未遂轻刑化正是防止投资过度,节约社会资源的规律使然。从经济效用看,犯罪未遂轻刑化不仅契合了市场经济的理念,实现了帕累托更优状态,更推动了预防犯罪博弈的均衡。     

Meeting the enemy: American exceptionalism and international law

Howard Zinn has been classified in a number of ways for his many social contributions. However, despite the breadth of his work, he has never been considered a criminologist. It is likely that this is the result of the inaccurate perceptions many Americans have about crime being a predominantly street‐level social problem. Zinn maintains that the social harms caused by those in positions of political and economic power are in fact crimes against humanity that are far more destructive and violent than the actions our legal system has historically deemed criminal. He also points to the ways our criminal justice system is unjust and ineffective, and has demonstrated how social inequality ensures that the disadvantaged will be further subordinated by the criminal justice system. Zinn’s critical contributions about the most significant sources of social harm, the unjust nature of the American justice system, and the influence of social inequality offer an unorthodox criminological perspective that deserves special consideration. His unconventional criminology calls for increasing social justice by means of political dissent, social resistance, and civil disobedience.     

Macro-control power: from decentralization to control

Legal control of macroeconomic regulation power is a core proposition in the science of economic law, and is served as one of the key links to make macro-control (policies and measures implemented by the government to regulate the operation of market economy) ruled by law. Legal control of macroeconomic regulation power can be summarized into three methods: to acknowledge economic right of social agents (special interest groups, lobbies, and their representatives) by law; to safeguard economic power of social people (the public) by law; to decentralize macro-control power by law. By analysis, this article reaches the conclusion that the first method (to decentralize macro-control power by law) is the main method of legal control of macroeconomic regulation power. This is why it is necessary for China, in the transition period, to decentralize the macro-control power into the macro-control decision-making power, macro-control executive power, and macro-control supervision power in order to legally control macro-control power through mutual restraints and combined action.     

Corporate criminal liability and optimal firm behavior: internal monitoring versus managerial incentives

Legislation addressing corporate criminal liability has been the subject of worldwide debate ever since the financial scandals of the early 2000s. Under current regimes, firms must observe such compliance requirements as internal monitoring mechanisms, the purpose of which is inducing firms to detect the wrongful conduct of their agents. We develop an analytical framework for identifying when, and to what extent, firms may find it beneficial to adopt these regulatory devices. We conclude that more productive firms, those operating in sectors with more market power, and firms whose managers have more opportunities for criminal activity are more likely to prevent wrongful conduct—either through monitoring or the payment of efficiency wages. When the potential returns to illegal activities are high or the firm is large, internal monitoring is probably the optimal strategy of crime prevention; in contrast, smaller firms typically proceed by paying efficiency wages (or ignoring crime). This paper also analyzes the role of the State’s legal capacity as well as the effects of interactions between the structure of reputational losses and the firm’s market power.     

Drive-away policing and situational crime prevention in China: an analysis of motorcycle ban (jinmo) policy in Guangzhou

Using the example of motorcycle ban policy in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, this article examines how situational crime prevention strategies are used in contemporary urban China. The article argues that although a motorcycle ban policy may reduce motorcycle snatch theft (feiche qiangduo) in Guangzhou, it inevitably caused a problem of displacement. However, some types of displacement are desirable for local government. An argument about drive-away policing is proposed in this article to understand policing styles in contemporary China. In addition, the article argues that motorcycle ban, as a strategy to prevent snatch theft and robbery, is also a strategy to deal with the crisis in police legitimacy. Therefore, crime prevention in China has more social and political significance than just reducing crime.     

青少年犯罪的环境预防研究

青少年犯罪率的久高不下促使人们对青少年犯罪预防的理论不断进行日益深入的研究和探索。本文作者以青少年犯罪主体的生活环境为视角,展开对青少年犯罪的环境预防研究。在宏观和微观两个方面加以探讨。宏观预防方面要做到:加强社会监督,密化预防网络;弘扬传统文化,净化社会环境;整顿文化市场,清理精神垃圾;针对青少年的身心发育特点,开展青春期教育和性教育。微观环境方面应当做到:加强家庭教育;搞好学校教育;加快文明社区建设;加强在岗青年职工教育;美化暂驻型微观环境。宏观预防与微观预防要密切配合、相互补充,共同实现青少年犯罪环境预防的宏伟和长远目标。     

刑法中的国有公司、企业辨析

公司与企业之间的关系从本来意义上说是一种种属关系,但在我国刑法中,在多数情况下,公司与企业的关系是并列关系。如何理解刑法中规定的国有公司、企业,存在着不同的看法,这不同的看法,可能会对同一案件产生罪与非罪、此罪彼罪的不同认定。本文认为,刑法中所称的国有公司、企业是指全部资产为国有资本的公司、企业,而不包括国有资本控股或参股的公司、企业。