美国对犯罪与违法的法理界定

本文阐述的是美国关于犯罪本质的哲学解释。刑罚既包括过错犯罪。也包括严格责任违法,这两者代表了两种不同的刑事责任类型。美国学界主张过错犯罪的要点在于其是侵害公众利益的不法行为,并非由于其危害公众利益,而是因为公众负责处罚此类行为,即它们应该得到国家的处罚。不法行为得到惩罚是因其性质严重,它们不敬重社会公认的价值;只有当行为人违反重要价值时才应得到处罚,不仅是出于对刑法实用主义的考虑,亦取决于罪刑法定原则的内涵。美国学者分析过错犯罪和不太严重的违法行为,认为后者同样存在着损害公众利益的危险。     

Violent crime and modernization in Colombia

This paper assesses violent crime in Colombia by focusing on police arrest data from 1938 to 1967. Social and political conditions provide the cultural context from which the effects of modernization on crime are examined. Shelley's modermization perspective claims that violent crime increases when a country modernizes, but property crimes increase after relative wealth and prosperity are achieved. Regression results support Shelley's perspective for the crimes of robbery and theft, whereas her theory gamered weaker support for the crimes of homicide and assault. Theoretical implications for modernization theory in light of the findings are discussed.     

Art crime: a brief introduction

Art crime refers to criminally punishable acts involving works of art and includes a spectrum of phenomena as diverse as art thefts and confiscations, faked and forged art, vandalism, and illicit excavation and export of antiquities and other archaeological materials. This paper provides a cursory introduction to a variety of art crimes, and discusses the consequences of such crimes.     

Consistency in crime site selection: An investigation of crime sites used by serial sex offenders across crime series

PurposeKnowing sites used by serial sex offenders to commit their crimes is highly beneficial for criminal investigations. However, environmental choices of serial sex offenders remain unclear to this date. Considering the challenges these offenders pose to law enforcement, the study aims to identify sites serial sex offenders use to encounter and release their victims and investigate their stability across crime series.MethodsThe study uses latent class analysis (LCA) to identify victim encounter and release sites used by 72 serial sex offenders having committed 361 sex offenses. Additional LCA are performed to investigate the stability of these offense environments across offenders' crimes series.ResultsDistinct profiles of crime sites that are recurrent across crime series are found, suggesting that serial sex offenders present a limited diversity of victim encounter and victim release sites. Encounter sites representative of longer crime series are also identified. Specifically, the use of sites known to "attract" potential victims decreases over series and offenders become more risk-taking in regard of sites used to encounter their victims.ConclusionsThe study identifies patterns of site- selection for the victim encounter and release in cases of serial crimes. Implications for crime linkage and police investigations strategies are discussed.     

Beyond crime seriousness: Fitting the punishment to the crime

This paper presents an exposition of how the factorial survey approach may enhance empirical assessments of the complex judgment principles involved in public views of just punishments for convicted offenders. Ratings of the appropriateness of sentences given across 50 typical crimes obtained from a household sample (N=774) of the Boston SMSA and several special-interest samples in 1982 are examined in three alternative ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression equations. These analyses show there is not a one-to-one direct relationship between public perceptions of the seriousness of criminal acts and desired sanctions. Crime seriousness is modified by the characteristics of the offenders and victims and by the consequences of the crimes. Preferred punishments also vary in severity by demographic, experiential, and attitudinal characteristics of the persons who make the judgments.     

The impact of racial slurs and racism on the perceptions and punishment of violent crime

When a crime is committed by an individual of one race against an individual of another race, there is the possibility that the crime is a hate crime. Legislation often mandates harsher penalties for perpetrators convicted of crimes determined to be hate crimes, yet this determination is difficult to make. This study used vignettes of violent crimes to examine how the races of the perpetrators and victims, the severity of the assault, and the use of racial slurs by the perpetrators would affect perceptions of the crimes as "hate crimes," victim blaming, and sentencing recommendations. Results showed that each of these factors affected participants' perceptions and punishments of violent crime. Participants' levels of racism were an additional factor. These results contribute to the understanding of how crimes in which the perpetrator's and victim's races differ are perceived.     

Rural and agricultural crime

Thinking and research about crime have traditionally been urban centered. This focus has diverted attention from the study of other areas and has reduced general understanding of crime. The thesis advanced here, stated in the form of propositions for consideration, is that rural and agricultural crimes are fertile and significant areas for inquiry.     

职务犯罪心理特征分析

犯罪心理是犯罪行为发生的内在根据。职务犯随着职位升迁,比较对象变化,特别是面对他人的阿谀奉承和糖衣炮弹,他们的欲望持续膨胀,自我发生扭曲,认知出现错误,心理产生失衡。一旦官员的自我调控弱化,而外在制度对权力控制又不力,官员就容易在各种侥幸心理支配下,实施以权谋私的职务犯罪。     

Building NESTs to combat environmental crime networks

This article begins by providing a brief overview of environmental crime in the Asia and Pacific, highlighting its complexity, varying dimensions and transnational nature. It acknowledges the difficulties in responding to organised criminal groups that operate with flexible modus operandi to commit such crimes. The paper then discusses the importance of the National Environmental Security Taskforce approach, a model developed by INTERPOL to tackle environmental crimes. Collaboration and cooperation, within and between government and non-government organisations, are conceptualised as having a possibly positive ‘panopticon effect’ that has implications for responding to both organised criminal networks and state corruption in this domain.     

Defining event reconstruction of digital crime scenes

Event reconstruction plays a critical role in solving physical crimes by explaining why a piece of physical evidence has certain characteristics. With digital crimes, the current focus has been on the recognition and identification of digital evidence using an object's characteristics, but not on the identification of the events that caused the characteristics. This paper examines digital event reconstruction and proposes a process model and procedure that can be used for a digital crime scene. The model has been designed so that it can apply to physical crime scenes, can support the unique aspects of a digital crime scene, and can be implemented in software to automate part of the process. We also examine the differences between physical event reconstruction and digital event reconstruction.     

Improved street lighting and crime prevention

This article reports on a systematic review—incorporating meta-analytic techniques—of the effects of improved street lighting on crime. Studies were included if they had before-and-after measures of crime in experimental and control areas. Eight American evaluation studies met the criteria for inclusion, and their results were mixed. Four studies found that improved street lighting was effective in reducing crime, while the other four found that it was not effective. However, five more-recent British evaluation studies showed that improved lighting led to decreases in crime. In two studies, the financial savings from reduced crimes greatly exceeded the financial costs of the improved street lighting. A meta-analysis found that the 13 studies, taken together, showed that improved lighting led to reductions in crime. The overall reduction in crime after improved lighting was 20% in experimental areas compared with control areas. Since nighttime crimes did not decrease more than daytime crimes, a theory focusing on the role of street lighting in increasing community pride seems more plausible than a theory focusing on increased surveillance. Future research should be designed to test the main theories of the effects of improved lighting more explicitly and should measure crime using police records, surveys of victims, and self-reports of offending.     

Urban crime trends and patterns in Ghana: The case of Accra

The study examined the broad crime trends and patterns, and the conditions under which crimes flourish, the crime incidence rates per 1,000 of population, and crime among the four police divisions of Accra, Ghana. Where crimes clustered the most and the times some crimes were committed were examined using the official police data. The study suggests that crime in Accra has been accentuated by rigid centralization of government bureaucracy, the nature of Ghana's economy, routine activities, lifestyles, and opportunities fostered by social change. Overall, the Accra Central Police Division recorded the highest volume of crimes, followed by the Nima, Kaneshie, and Kpeshie Divisions. The highest property offenses were recorded within twelve miles of the city center—the area most congested and heavily concentrated with socio-economic and routine activities. Calls for the adoption of situational crime prevention methods and strategies to reduce the incidence of crime in Accra have been made.     

Analysis of crime control strategies

An important problem in the selection of crime control programs is the choice among broad crime control strategies. This paper presents a Markov approach to the study of one important aspect of the analysis of crime control strategies—the characterization of the criminal population. Results indicate that persons with previous arrest records may commit a somewhat smaller proportion of the common crimes of robbery, burglary, larceny over $50, and assault than is indicated by rearrest data.     

Correlates of distance to crime in Mexico City

This study examined the correlates of distance to crime in a sample of 412 prison inmates in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. The study focused on crimes of theft and included a spatial analysis of the crime scene and the place of residence of the prison inmates. The data show a high clustering of criminals in a few neighbourhoods surrounding the old downtown area. Also, 38.8% of the sampled criminals committed their crimes in the same neighbourhood where they lived. Regression analysis revealed two independent and positive correlations of distance to crime: the monetary gain of the crime and if the prison inmates' intimate partner was also in jail. These findings suggest that, aside from the monetary rationale in the distance to crime function, the neighbourhood and family contexts deserve further research for a better understanding of criminal behaviour in Mexico.     

Prison population growth and crime reduction

The impact of state prison populations on crime is typically estimated by applying the lambda, the individual crime rate, of prisoners or arrestees. We outline the problems with this approach, attempt to reanalyze the widely divergent lambdas derived in past research, and make adjustments necessary to use lambdas for estimating the incapacitation impact. The result is an uncertain estimate of 16 to 25 index crimes averted per year per each additional prisoner. We argue that regression analysis can provide a better estimate of the impact of prison population growth. Applying the Granger test to pooled state data over 19 years, we found that prison population growth leads to lower crime rates but that crime rate changes have little or no short-term impact on prison population growth. Next we regressed crime rates on prison population and conclude that, on average, at least 17 index crimes are averted per additional prisoner. The impact is limited mainly to property crime.     

Assessing the public's demand for hate crime penalties

In this article, we analyze responses from a nationally representative sample of American adults to determine public attitudes toward punishment for hate crimes. While attitudinal polls find strong support for hate crime laws, criminological research provides reasons to believe that this support may be weaker than assumed. Our findings suggest that, while there is minimal public support for harsher penalties for offenders who commit hate crimes, attitudes toward punishment, treatment, and minority rights are predictive of preferences for differential treatment of hate crime offenders. We discuss possible implications of these results in our conclusion.     

Assessing temporal and weather influences on property crime in Beijing,China

Though the relationships between environment and crime have been studied a lot in many countries, this work is still a void in China. This work presents the study about how property crimes are influenced by the temporal and weather factors in China. With the crime data collected from police, the property crimes pattern by season of year, day of week and time of day are investigated firstly. Then the influence of the temporal variables—major holidays, school close days and weekends—and weather on the crimes are tested. The findings show that the robbery is significantly influenced by the temporal variables but has no correlations with weather, while burglary is not only affected by the temporal variables but also correlated with sun light hours.     

The prevention of international economic crime: Make it unprofitable for criminals and cohorts

Economic greed and the possibility of large profits are very powerful incentives for many criminals. This is especially true in the areas of international money laundering and drug related crimes. There are always criminals who are interested in certain activities as long as the financial rewards of these crimes are larger than the possible risks involved. The efforts and tactics which have been used so far to combat international economic crimes were not successful at all and we need to consider new options, even if some of these options seem controversial at first. Doing nothing would have catastrophic consequences for the economic well‐being of our society. Concerted and deliberate action plans are needed to prevent and to discourage criminals, and their facilitators and cohorts, from these types of illegal activities. Governments and citizens need to agree on methods to eliminate the profit motive of these economic crimes. Only after that will we have a chance to prevent the unfair enrichment of small numbers of criminal elements in our society, at the cost of law abiding citizens.     

Socio-political change and crime

This article offers an epistimological approach to criminological inquiry that draws on political and economic perspectives to create a theoretical context for hate crimes and xenophobia in contemporary Germany. The paper concludes that criminology as a discipline may be inadequate to grasp the complexities of criminal interactions and that criminology must draw heavily on the perspectives of other disciplines. Ultimately, it may be more important to illicit ideas rather than attempt to know the truth. The author wishes to note that this paper draws on an earlier published work and was constructed post facto from his comments and presentation at the conference.