The economics of pre-crime interventions

Several observers suggest that we may have undergone a shift from a post-crime to a pre-crime society in which the principal focus has become the pursuit of security by anticipating and forestalling future harms, rather than responding retrospectively to harms that have actually happened. This paper is about the economics of pre-crime interventions. It investigates the welfare consequences of risk assessment and early interventions to prevent individuals from engaging in criminal activities. Furthermore, it deals with the question of what constitutes an optimal application of risk assessment and early intervention. Finally, it presents three rules of thumb to identify conditions where pre-crime intervention may be welfare enhancing.     

Restructuring the Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion in England

Determining whether a person who appears to have committed anoffence should then be prosecuted for it requires a number ofassessments and weighing of interests. Yet, to read the latestCode for Crown Prosecutors, one would think that the exerciseof prosecutorial discretion is a relatively unstructured process.This is because the Code does not require prosecutors to identifyan aim in seeking the punishment of the accused, and becauseit does not distinguish between the harms caused to the defendantby punishment and the distinct harms which are caused to himby prosecution. I shall argue that the aim of the prosecutor(assuming that guilt will be proven) should be to decide whetherthe aims of punishment of the accused would be justified bythe likely costs of the proceedings, but that this aim may beconstrained by considering the harms which may be caused tothe defendant by prosecution. If this structure were to be accepted,then it would both be easier to draft a Code for Crown Prosecutorswhich has useful guiding value and to identify to whom the prosecutorshould be accountable for his decisions.     

Environmental regulation, cost-benefit analysis, and the discounting of human lives

The loss of human life resulting from environmental contaminants generally does not occur contemporaneously with the exposure to those contaminants. Some environmental problems produce harms with a latency period whereas others affect future generations. One of the most vexing questions raised by the cost-benefit analysis of environmental regulation is whether discounting, to reflect the passage of time between the exposure and the harm, is appropriate in these two scenarios. The valuations of human life used in regulatory analyses are from threats of instantaneous death in workplace settings. Discounting, to reflect that in the case of latent harms the years lost occur later in a person's lifetime, is appropriate in these circumstances. Upward adjustments of the value of life need to be undertaken, however, to account for the dread and involuntary nature of environmental carcinogens as well as for higher income levels of the victims. By not performing these adjustments, the regulatory process may be undervaluing lives by as much as a factor of six. In contrast, in the case of harms to future generations, discounting is ethically unjustified. It is simply a means of privileging the interests of the current generation. Discounting raises analytically distinct issues in the cases of latent harms and harms to future generations. In the case of latent harms, one needs to make intra-personal, intertemporal comparisons of utility, whereas in the case of harms to future generations one needs to define a metric against which to compare the utilities of individuals living in different generations. Thus, the appropriateness of discounting should be resolved differently in the two contexts.     

Jewish–Gentile intermarriage in pre-war Amsterdam

Intermarriage is generally regarded as the litmus test in the process of assimilation of ethnic-minority groups. The Jewish community in Amsterdam was a religious minority. When a Jew married a Gentile it was assumed that Judaism lost a family. Odds ratio calculations based on marriage tables for 1911–1941 show that the rate of intermarriage among Jews was much lower than among Catholics, Protestants and religious unaffiliated. Although the Jewish community might still be more homogeneous than the Protestant and Catholic communities, it was rapidly assimilating as the log odds ratios for Jews dropped more heavily. While mutual aversion is reflected in the remaining high log odds ratios for Jewish–Catholic marriages, Jewish–Protestant marriages and Jewish–unaffiliated marriages increased because of the higher propensity among Protestants to marry a Jew and the higher propensity among Jews to marry an unaffiliated spouse from the 1920s onwards. Next, we created life courses for a sample of 480 descendants from Jewish grandparents living in Amsterdam in 1941 of whom we know were married to a Gentile or to a Jew. The collected data from the Amsterdam registry allow us to test several hypotheses on preferences, opportunities and third parties in a logistic regression analysis. One's own affiliation significantly influenced the preference to marry a Gentile or a Jew. Successive marriage cohorts showed a higher chance to marry a Gentile among those who had Jewish parents at birth. A similar but weaker effect is found for those born in the old Jewish neighborhood. These differences in effect on later marriage cohorts indicate that religious and social barriers within the Jewish community had largely diminished. Opportunities like the social network of the mother and the living district during one's adolescents' age also significantly influenced the choice of a spouse.     

Jewish–Gentile intermarriage in pre-war Amsterdam

Intermarriage is generally regarded as the litmus test in the process of assimilation of ethnic-minority groups. The Jewish community in Amsterdam was a religious minority. When a Jew married a Gentile it was assumed that Judaism lost a family. Odds ratio calculations based on marriage tables for 1911–1941 show that the rate of intermarriage among Jews was much lower than among Catholics, Protestants and religious unaffiliated. Although the Jewish community might still be more homogeneous than the Protestant and Catholic communities, it was rapidly assimilating as the log odds ratios for Jews dropped more heavily. While mutual aversion is reflected in the remaining high log odds ratios for Jewish–Catholic marriages, Jewish–Protestant marriages and Jewish–unaffiliated marriages increased because of the higher propensity among Protestants to marry a Jew and the higher propensity among Jews to marry an unaffiliated spouse from the 1920s onwards. Next, we created life courses for a sample of 480 descendants from Jewish grandparents living in Amsterdam in 1941 of whom we know were married to a Gentile or to a Jew. The collected data from the Amsterdam registry allow us to test several hypotheses on preferences, opportunities and third parties in a logistic regression analysis. One's own affiliation significantly influenced the preference to marry a Gentile or a Jew. Successive marriage cohorts showed a higher chance to marry a Gentile among those who had Jewish parents at birth. A similar but weaker effect is found for those born in the old Jewish neighborhood. These differences in effect on later marriage cohorts indicate that religious and social barriers within the Jewish community had largely diminished. Opportunities like the social network of the mother and the living district during one's adolescents' age also significantly influenced the choice of a spouse.     

Risks and Opportunities of Faith and Culture: The Case of Abused Jewish Women

Intimate partner abusers often focus on physical violence, but abuse may also include exploiting a partner’s faith or subculture. Alternatively, faith or subculture may be a source of strength and support for victims. We explored this by analyzing case files from a Jewish domestic violence services agency. Jewish identity conditions women’s experiences with intimate partner abuse through the use of Judaism as a “tool” for abuse, the role of Jewish holidays and observances, and the role of the Jewish community. While partners of abused Jewish women often perverted the laws and traditions of Judaism to control their partners and the reaction of the larger community varied, being part of an integrated cultural and religious community offered support for some women.     

Choosing disability: preimplantation genetic diagnosis and negative enhancement

This article examines the unusual circumstance of what the author has tentatively termed "negative enhancement". This term is used to describe those instances where individuals seek to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to achieve outcomes that, commonly, are socially not preferred. In a recent survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Centre, it was found that 3% of IVF-PGD clinics in the United States reported having provided PGD to couples who seek to select an embryo for the presence of a particular disease or disability, such as deafness, in order that the child share the characteristic with the parents. The idea of "negative enhancement" is, therefore, both a paradox and a useful means to describe the hidden assumptions behind claims that enhancement technologies can only lead us in one direction -- towards a race of blond, blue-eyed, able-bodied, intellectually magnificent and athletically superior beings. In Australia there does appear to be a consensus that PGD should only be used to select against serious disability. This inevitably raises the question of how we define disability and who is best placed to make decisions about the kind of kin we want to create.     

Procedural justice,minorities, and religiosity

The current research explores six hypotheses derived from the well-known procedural justice-based model of legitimacy in two different religious groups in Israel, and adds to the model the effect of religiosity on the perceived legitimacy of rules and institutions of social control. Our results, based on data from a representative sample of 1,216 Israeli Jews and Arabs, provide general support for the hypotheses. We found that the social order is perceived as less legitimate by the Arab minority compared with the Jewish majority, and by highly religious members of the Jewish majority compared with those who are less religious.     

Is there only One Correct Legal Answer to a Question of Fact? Three Talmudic Answers to a Jurisprudential Dilemma

This article focuses on questions of pure fact‐of‐the‐matter and asks whether two omniscient judges (or jurists or scholars) may disagree over the legal answer to a straightforward question of a matter of fact. There are approaches to legal theory among some western and Jewish philosophers of law whereby at least superficially it is possible that two or more contradictory legal statements regarding a given reality can be equally correct. The article provides a critical analysis of three different models derived from the Jewish legal literature, and reviews the contributions of Jewish sources to the understanding of the phenomenon of disagreements concerning matters of fact.     

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, tissue typing and beyond: the legal implications of the Hashmi case

The legality of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has recently been confirmed by the Court of Appeal in the Hashmi case, based on a purposive construction of the statute. The court went on to declare tissue typing lawful and strained the wording of the statute in order to do so. The Hashmi case confirms that it would be lawful for the HFEA to license tissue typing in the absence of PGD. However, the HFEA only licenses tissue typing where PGD is also indicated, on the basis of a blanket application of the welfare of the child test set out in S 13 (5). This policy can be criticised. Firstly, a blanket approach to S 13 (5) is not appropriate. Secondly, the HFEA is applying the test too strictly when compared to the 'best interests' test which would govern the situation were an existing child to be a potential donor. Thirdly, by licensing tissue typing in the Hashmi case, where it was the primary reason for testing, the HFEA has undermined the argument that it can be justified only in cases where it is ancillary to PGD. These arguments, coupled with human rights arguments, based on Art 8 and Art 12, could be used to challenge the legitimacy of the HFEA's policy. The restriction on tissue typing to cases where PGD is also indicated is not ethically justified. It offers the same direct benefit to the embryo as PGD, namely selection for implantation. PGD does not cure the relevant condition so offers no additional benefit in a causative sense. Moreover, the Kantian injunction against treating people solely as means is not breached where the child will be wanted for its own sake, as well as for its potential as a cord blood donor.     

Juvenile Transfers to Adult Court: An Examination of the Long‐Term Outcomes of Transferred and Non‐Transferred Juveniles

Juveniles who are transferred to adult court are more likely to recidivate than non‐transferred juveniles, but limited research has examined how transfer can impact other life outcomes like attending college and employment. To examine this issue, data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1997) were analyzed from 1998 to 2011. It was found that court involvement during adolescence does not harm educational attainment. However, prosecution of juveniles in adult court significantly impairs earning potential well into adulthood. The current study provides further evidence of the long‐term harms caused by transfer and demonstrates how transfer further disrupts the desistance process.     

Does religion count for religious parliamentary representation? Evidence from Early Day Motions

The article addresses one facet of the representation puzzle, namely substantive minority representation in the UK House of Commons. It examines whether a religious Jewish and Muslim minority background stimulates politicians from these backgrounds to address issues of concern for Jewish and Muslim minority groups in Early Day Motions (EDMs), and compares the effects from identity-based and institutional predictors. The study draws upon previous studies that used low-cost parliamentary activities to assess the impact of gender and ethnic minority identities on the representation of women and ethnic minorities, employing quantitative content analysis and time-series cross-sectional data analysis to examine the content of EDMs sponsored by members of parliament from Jewish and Muslim background (plus a control group) between 1997 and 2012. The analyses test for the effects of religious background and institutional predictors on the likelihood of referring to minority issues. They show that identity-based predictors such as a religious background are vastly inferior to institutional factors, including a legislative role, representing a constituency with a significant proportion of minority population, and the length of parliamentary service, in determining such references.     

The illegal trade of raptors in the Russian Federation

Wildlife trafficking, along with other green crimes, receives little attention from the criminological community. This study provides further knowledge of this black market, and exposes the structural harms that are associated with it, by examining the illegal trade in falcons in Russian Far East. The structural harms proposed here are that wildlife trafficking, and the illegal raptor trade in particular endangers the environment, is cruel to animals, and threatens national and human security because of its connection to other dangerous illicit activities. Through semi‐structured interviews, trade statistics, and online news sources, a framework is developed as to who is involved, how it is occurring, and where it is taking place as well as possible ways in which to curb this activity.     

Eyes wide shut: the police investigation of safety crimes

This article reports the results of an empirical research project on the police investigation of harms caused by occupational safety crimes in Finland. It begins with a theoretical discussion of how those harms are excluded from mainstream criminal justice discourse by a range of obscuring mechanisms and the role that policing plays in maintaining and constituting a social order that marginalises safety crime. The paper uses an empirical study of safety crimes reported to the police in Finland. The study, located in a rare case of a jurisdiction in which safety crimes are the responsibility of mainstream policing agencies, will be used to explore the possibilities for stretching the legitimate parameters of criminal justice intervention. In order to do so, the analysis explores features of the ‘structural’ readiness of the state and the ‘conceptual’ readiness of police officers to criminalise those harms. The paper concludes on the value of those findings for understanding how safety crimes might be mainstreamed into policing systems more generally.     

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis: current and future perspectives

Over the last 30 years prenatal diagnosis has been available to couples at genetic risk to determine the genetic health of a naturally conceived pregnancy. Prenatal diagnosis involves fetal cell sampling either by chorionic villous sampling at 10-12 weeks or by amniocentesis at 12-15 weeks gestation and testing for genetic disease. If the fetus is affected, termination of pregnancy is a difficult and emotional issue for the couple. The advent of assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) and more recently preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) now provides an alternative reproductive option that allows couples to commence a pregnancy knowing that their baby will not be affected with the indicated genetic condition. This article explores the option of PGD, its clinical application now and into the future and the current status of regulation and legislation. With recent changes to national legislation, scientists now have the opportunity to access affected PGD embryos donated by patients to establish disease-specific stem cells that may be useful models of human disease and a means to develop more effective therapies for treatment.     

Is embryo research and preimplantation genetic diagnosis ethical?

The legal position in the UK on embryo research and preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is outlined and contrasted with the position in other EU countries. The "gradualist" position of the UK on the moral status of the embryo is defended on the basis of an argument that precaution must be applied in proportion to the degree to which the embryo has developed to display components of agency, on the assumption that mortality is categorically binding and requires agents to be granted rights and that it cannot be known with certainty that the embryo is not an agent. The extent to which this argument, when combined with vicarious protections that the embryo should receive in order to protect the rights of other agents, limits embryo research and PGD, is discussed. It is concluded that the complexities that attend deliberation about the moral problems attending embryo research and PGD are such that the proper response to these problems is via the procedures of political democracy to achieve accountable answers rather than "correct" answers. This allows for a variety of judgements.     

Genetic citizenship: DNA testing and the Israeli Law of Return

The Israeli State recently announced that it may begin to use genetic tests to determine whether potential immigrants are Jewish or not. This development would demand a rethinking of Israeli law on the issue of the definition of Jewishness. In this article, we discuss the historical and legal context of secular and religious definitions of Jewishness and rights to immigration in the State of Israel. We give a brief overview of different ways in which genes have been regarded as Jewish, and we discuss the relationship between this new use of genetics and the society with which it is co-produced. In conclusion, we raise several questions about future potential impacts of Jewish genetics on Israeli law and society.     

A New History of Colonial Lawyering: Likhovski and Legal Identities in the British Empire

The history of the legal profession has been dominated by Richard Abel's monopolization thesis, and by Terence C. Halliday and Lucien Karpik's political model of lawyers as maintainers of liberal polities. By contrast, Assaf Likhovski's legal history of mandate Palestine treats lawyers and judges as cultural intermediaries who shaped the legal identity of Jewish and Arab communities. This article situates Likhovski's book within a growing body of scholarship on non-European lawyering in the British Empire. It links Likhovski's case studies to legal figures from colonial India, West Africa, and Malaya, all of whom acted as cultural translators and ethnographic intermediaries in the formation of colonial identities.     

Human Rights and State-Corporate Crimes in the Practice of Gas Flaring in the Niger Delta,Nigeria

This article addresses the social harm of gas flaring by petroleum companies in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and makes a conceptual case for human rights and state-corporate crimes. It outlines the human and environmental harms caused, the role of the state and Shell and other corporate entities in producing such harms, the disregard shown to the communities when concerns are raised about the effects on their health and livelihood, and the disrepute brought to the administration of justice. It also outlines the insecurity spawned in the communities in the Niger Delta as a result of these harms and the high level of impoverishment suffered despite the wealth generated since the discovery of oil in the 1950s, thus broadly contributing to the literature on green criminology.     

Selecting "saviour siblings": reconsidering the regulation in Australia of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis in conjunction with tissue typing

In recent years, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has been developed to enable the selection of a tissue type matched "saviour sibling" for a sick child. This article examines the current regulatory framework governing PGD in Australia. The availability of PGD in Australia to create a saviour sibling depends on the regulation of ART services by each State and Territory. The limitations on the use of PGD vary throughout Australia, according to the level of regulation of ART in each jurisdiction. This article considers the limitations on the use of PGD for tissue typing in Australia and argues that some of these should be removed for a more consistent national approach. In particular, the focus in ART legislation on the "paramount interests" of the child to be born is inappropriate for the application of tissue typing, which necessarily involves the interests of other family members.