From Dictatorship to Democracy: Crime and Policing in Contemporary Spain

Francisco Franco's death in 1975 ended nearly forty years of fascist dictatorship in Spain. In the next decade the country underwent substantial and dramatic change: The political structure was democratized under King Juan Carlos. Rapid industrialization and commercial development, especially on the northeastern areas, altered the economic nature of Spain. Internal migration, particularly from the more impoverished South to Madrid and Barcelona, altered social arrangements as well.

Crime and disorder also increased rapidly. All crime rates and imprisonment rates grew. Drug use and abuse became a major problem. Basque pressure for a separate state often resulted in a terrorist war in which the main casualties were policemen.

Attempts at reforming the police occurred almost immediately after Franco's death. The old Armed Police—a repressive agency that policed cities over 20,000 populations-was substantially demilitarized and became the National Police. Although transformations are incomplete, the National Police can be seen as a symbol of the new era. The more rural police, the Civil Guard, has been less responsive to change and may be seen as a symbol of the old dictatorship.     

Crime and Delinquency Prevention in Some European Countries

As part of a larger study on crime and delinquency prevention programs in North America, the authors visited four European countries, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland in order to compare prevention programs and their evaluation.

The authors found that the systematic study of the programmatic effectiveness and efficiency of crime and delinquency prevention is unknown to European practitioners and researchers.

The authors describe in this article six European crime and delinquency prevention programs: family case-work, leisure activities, community organization, crisis intervention centers, information for victims and prevention police activities.     

Participation of the Public in the Prevention and Control of Crime and Delinquency

[Editor's Note] No criminologist today would deny the importance of public participation in crime control. Public involvement—through the family, neighborhood, schools, private businesses and public agencies—are potential assets in curbing rising crime and delinquency rates. In this article the basic concerns are two in nature: 1) how to best utilize community resources, including meaningful participation of citizens; and, 2) how public and community organizations can effectively participate in preventing, treating and controlling offenders on parole or probation. In all these endeavors, public support—moral, financial and otherwise are necessary for success.

What is more important is to achieve the most salutary form of public participation, and to obtain the most beneficial balance between local participation and the actions of many government agencies involved. Not all pure local participation is at all times positive, as is illustrated by the actions of a lynch mob. It is also true that the closer one is to local institutions, the more difficult it is to achieve any degree of impartiality. On the other hand, highly centralized judicial and law enforcement structure often tends to be arbitrary and impersonal. This balance although essential, is difficult to achieve. The community agency (welfare boards, citizen's groups, parole boards), independent of the judicial and law enforcement institutions, plays an increasing role in enlightened public participation. Other important factors include education for crime prevention and reporting of offenses, and the relative closeness individuals feel toward their local groups (family, clan, school, neighborhood), as well as the efficiency of the police and judicial organs. No effective public participation in crime control programs can be achieved when there is a wide divergence between the value systems of local and national groups, and when there are great differences of opinions as to exactly what the public can do to prevent crime.

Broadly speaking, there are four ways in which community groups can participate in crime prevention: 1) political support for social defense programs; 2) public co-operation with social defense programs; 3) delegation to community groups of elements of social defense programs; and 4) provision by community groups of autonomous social defense programs.

Much more work must be done to collect reliable data and make significant critical analyses and evaluations of the myriad ways of public participation in crime prevention throughout the world. [Source: “Participation of the Public in the Prevention and Control of Crime and Delinquency,” Fourth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders (Tokyo, Japan, 17–26 August 1970)]     

Criminal Justice in Soviet Russia

Compared to American criminal justice, the fabric of Russia's system is a tightly woven structure operating under centralized co-ordination. During recent history, the goals of Russia's criminal justice system have shifted from repression by terrorism to crime prevention through education and an emphasis on individual duty in peace-keeping matters.

The militia (police), created in 1917, has been mandated to prevent crime through intelligence activities, direct intervention, and citizen education. In 1966, it was given the responsibility for the supervision of offenders newly released from correctional institutions. Peoples Volunteer Brigades and the DRUZHINNIKS aid the militia in crime prevention.

The courts also make use of non-professionals in the persons of lay assessors to insure that the accused is judged by his “peers.” The court system itself is inquisitorial in nature as opposed to the American accusational model. As the accused person moves through pre-trial and trial procedures, one can see how his “rights” may be legally abridged at every step.

Russian courts have a variety of sentences from which to choose, ranging in harshness from public censure to death by shooting. Deprivation of liberty may be applied by degree from “education” to compulsory labor to strict incarceration. The Soviets are attempting an organized plan of diversionary sentencing, in order to reduce prison populations to all but the most dangerous offenders.

Correctional facilities depend on inmate commissions to keep order and motivate good behavior through group influence and peer pressure. Inmates as well as civilians have “a national duty to mind other people's business.”

In the United States, justice is fragmented into a variety of jurisdictions: municipal, county, state, and federal, each with its own law enforcement agencies, courts, and correctional agencies. Further, there is only limited coordination among the various segments of the system. There is little argument to the proposition that the American “system” of criminal justice is inefficient.

Unlike America's disjointed system, the Russian Criminal justice system is unified; militia (police), procurators (prosecutors), courts, and correctional facilities operate under a centralized coordinating body. This body is characterized by a unity of purpose and a high degree of systemic integration (Juviler, 1979, p. 1).     

Slaves as criminal informers in ancient Rome

The Romans expected slaves to inform on their fellow slaves, particularly in regard to the master's safety. If a slave killed his master, a terrible retribution on the entire household of slaves would have to be paid to atone for the offense. In the final analysis, the slave‐informer system, with all of its drawbacks, supported the Roman criminal justice system nearly 1,000 years and the Byzantines employed it in a modified form. This paper is a case study of how a culture, with its values, musters its resources, in the case of slavery, to cope with the problems of internal security.

With most of the crime problems that confront us today, the ancient Romans were hard put to protect the public peace. They had neither the modern technology nor the forensic science that we do, so they utilized the limited resources they had to prevent crimes and catch criminals. They devised a policy of enticing slaves to act as criminal informants with the offer of freedom. Considering the sizeable adult slave population, this policy greatly deterred crime and the saying “Every slave, an enemy” became current among the citizenry.

The Romans, however, did not intend to open a door by which slaves could accuse citizens of false charges out of vindictiveness. The legal‐minded Romans adopted the safeguard of having the slave informant interrogated under torture.

Slaves also served the criminal justice system in other ways besides volunteering information. When the police were stymied in an investigation, they “rounded up the usual suspects” in the form of slaves who might have knowledge of the crime, but for some reason had not stepped forward. The police would use their powers to interrogate slaves in this case, too. This ancient practice reflects the procedure of modern police investigators checking surveillance cameras in the vicinity of the crime scene in the hopes of discovering a clue.     

Singapore justice

Singapore was brought to the world's attention in the spring of 1994, when it sentenced Michael Fay to six lashes with a cane. Many debated the issues presented by that case and there were many half‐truths released about Singapore and the eighteen year old male from Ohio. This research does not raise the issues of caning or corporal punishment. Rather, the research was done to explore ‘'Justice in Singapore'’ and how its system of justice really operates.

More specifically, this research will focus on this city‐state consisting of many divergent peoples, races, cultures, languages, and its thriving economy. The major part of the research focuses on crime related matters. The research compares U.S. and Singapore crime rates, and has found the overall U.S. rates to be 200% to 380% higher in the 1980s. Violent crime rates for ten years were also compared, and the U.S. rates range from 749% to 1,405% higher than Singapore. The paper also examines the ‘'drug problem'’ in Singapore and its response to it.

The last section of this paper explores why there is generally very strong support for police in Singapore (little corruption and few acts of police brutality). The court structure was also explored and an analysis has been done on how it functions. Lastly, the prison system is examined and its operations are presented. Justice in Singapore works very well, but it is also very different from other nations of the world.     

Analysis and counter‐policies on elderly criminals in Korea

The second counter‐policy is an establishment of a proper network of legal systems, including the establishment of accurate statistical data and well‐structured criminal law and defense systems for the elderly — comparable to the currently operative systems established to process and to deal with crimes of teenage and female offenders.

Research on indigence, health, recreation, housing and other welfare areas of the elderly is common in Korea, but research on elderly criminals is rare. Projecting that their crime rates will rise, this preliminary research was conducted in order to understand their crime status and to establish proper counter‐policies.

This research focuses on the analysis of the present elderly population and changes of their status, in addition to criminal theories and criminal trends. Analysis on criminal statistics is done through classifying criminal offenses and special offenses according to the present governmental criminal classification methods of Korea. Criminal offenses are further separated into serious and estate‐related offenses.

The result of analysis on elderly criminals in Korea indicates that the most common crimes are assaults and related offenses, including battery and bodily injuries. Most assaults or related charges were, however, not decidedly serious. Among estate‐related offenses, misappropriation and property‐damage were the most common. Among special offenses, constructional violations have the highest rate. The majority of estate related offenses were less serious and produced less than W‐ 1,000,000 (approximately $1150 US dollars) in damages.

Destruction of traditional society is the major source of criminal activities. While younger generations demand less authoritarian and more interdependent relationships, the elderly insist upon adhering to their traditional ways of thinking. The elderly commit crimes out of the animosity and exasperation created from a perceived incompatibility with modern society. Their diminishing social and family hierarchies, along with carelessness and lack of recreation, lead the elderly into feeble or fatuous life styles, eventually leading to various offenses.

There is no simple solution to prevent the elderly from committing crimes since complex social and/or personality problems cause these deviant behaviors. The government needs to understand the overall problems and establish necessary counter‐policies with regard to the elderly. Even if their present crime rates seem insignificant now, the numbers are growing rapidly.

Conclusively, the first counter‐policy is to eliminate the source of the problems. Some specific policies that can be adopted to eliminate these sources include the expansion of employment and related educational opportunities to improve their economic conditions; realignment of medical benefit systems; broader access to effective recreational activities through volunteer and other civic programs; and social adjustment programs that can guide the elderly to better adjust to the evolving social changes.     

Coping With Crime in a Developing Country: The Fear of Crime in Port Moresby,Papau New Guinea

The purpose of this article is to describe the various responses to the crime problem in Port Moresby and to compare the fear of crime among three groups living in Port Moresby (college staff, college students, and senior level managers).

Urban crime has become a major problem and a public issue in Port Moresby and the various responses to it are similar to those found in the U.S.: individual strategies for maintaining security, ad hoc collective measures among neighbors, pressure group demands, and political proposals.

Three groups were compared on their levels of fear of four types of crime and the security precautions they took in order to protect themselves. It was found that the group with the most economic resources and greatest community cohesiveness had the lowest level of fear of crime. The group with the most fear tended to rely more on neighbors for assistance and took greater security precautions than the “low-fear” group. Also, the findings suggest that expatriates may have a lower level of fear than nationals. Proposed policy responses include neighborhood organization and youth development.     

Evaluating a Police Report

An evaluation system was developed for a police department using the MAUT-Baysian (Multiple Attribute Utility-Baysian Statistics) system of strategy evaluation. This system requires the elected officials, police department, and community to jointly establish the goals for the police department. These goals are then rank ordered from most important to least important. A weighting system is then established using the least important goal as the unit of measure to ensure goal consistency.

Both objective and subjective measures were developed to help assess the success of the Department meeting these goals. Measurements included comparisons between the Department and other similar departments on areas of concern, survey results of citizen and police attitudes, and observational information. After completing the data collection for the evaluation it is placed on a matrix to aid the decision maker get a complete overview of the Department. The array allows the manager to see quickly how the Department is doing on each goal and how the Department is doing as a whole.

The management implications for the system are extensive and powerful, since the manager can see how resource allocation or change can affect overall success. By shifting small resources from lower ranked to higher ranked goals major changes in police effectiveness can be accomplished.     

K9s killed in the line of duty

While police work comes with a slew of dangers, little research has focused on deaths of police dogs in the line of duty. The purpose of this paper is to begin a conversation about violence toward police dogs and the treatment of animals working with the police.

To do so, a database of 96 police dogs that died in the line of duty in the United States between 2011 and 2015 was compiled, drawn from the Officer Down Memorial Page. More police dog deaths were reported in 2014 and 2015, during summer months, with half clustering in the Southern US. The victim police dogs were mostly younger and recently employed by the policing agency. The most frequent cause of death was heat exhaustion, followed by gunfire and automobiles. Most offenders were apprehended by police or shot.

Policymakers and researchers should encourage systematic data collection for a better understanding of the extent of the issue.     

Crime and Imprisonment Trends: An Analysis by Individual Crime-Types

This research was done while the author was visiting the Max-Planck-Institut, Freiburg, West Germany. Thanks are due to the Humboldt Foundation for a Fellowship, and to Baruch College for a Scholar Incentive leave of absence that made this research possible.

In this paper, the relationship between crime and imprisonment rates is explored in more detail by examining the rates for individual crime types. Given the observation that aggregate crime rates have increased far more rapidly than imprisonment rates in many countries, the possible existence of an adaptive mechanism is explored, where the imprisonment rates increase with the crime rates for serious offenses but not for minor offenses. Analysis of data from West Germany appears to support such a hypothesis.     

Islamic courts and corrections

This paper explores Islamic Criminal Law and Procedure. There are some differences among Islamic states but these differences are relatively minor. Muslims are tried in Sharia Courts for offenses found in the Quran. Non‐Muslims can not be held to the same standard (Apostasy). All people are subject to the jurisdiction of Mazalim Courts which handle taxation, traffic, and other administrative functions.

Islamic Law has three major divisions of crime: 1. Hadith Crimes (most serious); 2. Quesa Crimes and Diya (restitution); and 3. Tazir Crimes (least serious).

Islamic Law has many similar “defenses to crime” as the Common Law nations. They use puberty of a juvenile as the age of accountability. Police must obtain a search warrant for property. The punishment philosophies are similar to western views in theory, but they do apply these ideas in much different ways. Many punishments are public and done as a deterrent for others. Islamic judges have more freedom for sentencing options than western judges. They have mandatory sentences for only a few of the most serious Hadith Crimes. Some in the popular media point to the harshness of Islamic Law, and conclude that it must be wrong. They have very low crime rates and few social problems. We conclude that Islamic Law is not wrong, only different.     

Jesus and police brutality

The name, Jesus, evokes different responses from people. Some believe that he was an impostor; others see him as a philosopher; others, a prophet; and, still others, the ‘'Redeemer.’’ But, most would likely agree that Jesus was the most heralded victim of police brutality in Western History.

This paper is an objective treatment of how the ancient Roman police went ‘'out of control'’ on the first Good Friday in their mistreatment of the prisoner, Jesus, and what lessons can be learned to help us cope with today's pandemic problem, police abuse.

This writer herein describes the organization of the criminal justice system in the ancient Roman provinces and the occupational pressures exerted on the individual police officer. This article brings to bear profile information available on the Roman police and suggests how their propensities could manifest themselves in the abuse of prisoners, such as Jesus. Identifying the striking similarities between the self‐image of the ancient Roman police officer and his present day counterpart, the writer offers insights to help understand today's incidents of police brutality and provides lessons for reducing their frequency.

Rather than leave the police officer with a low opinion of his or her profession, the writer identifies several Roman officers who treated Jesus with respect and courtesy and hence can serve as role models in treating the general public.     

Validating Niederhoffer's Cynicism Scale: The Case for Black Officers

Previous methodological reports in the literature about cynicism have concluded that the Niederhoffer Scale is unreliable and meaningless in predicting police officer behavior. The entire research has rested on small samples of white officers, despite the increasing presence of black officers in urban departments.

Past literature has examined the relationship between the cynicism scale and other attitudinal constructs. Despite the fact that the scale is intended to predict behavior, correlations between the scale and behavioral criterion variables have not been reported.

In this paper we present the results of conventional reliability analysis on a sample of black police union activists. The twenty item scale is resubjected to a five factor varimax solution. Only eight items are observed to reload on factors initially observed by Regoli (1976) and indicate little stability within internal factor configurations.     

Gun Control in a Developing Nation: The Gun Court Act of Jamaica

Generally, the study of Third World crime can be approached from two acutely different theoretical perspectives. “Modernization” theory attempts to attribute crime in Third World societies to the rapid pace of industrialization and attempts to apply a variety of criminological theories that focus on the individual and the immediate social context of the actor. “Political economy/dependency” theory attempts to address the processes of imperialism and underdevelopment and the whole range of law violations and legal controls present in post-colonial societies.

This paper explains the Jamaican firearm crime problem, and the societal response to it, during the 1970's and early 1980's by applying the political economy/dependency theoretical framework. The legislative policy designed to curb increases in firearm crimes in Jamaica during the study period was the Gun Court Act. This mandatory piece of criminal legislation is examined in order to develop the connection between crime in underdeveloped nations and crime and social control.     

Measures Tending to Combat Recidivism Among Women Offenders

[Editor's Note] Traditionally crime has been the domain of males for a number of reasons, chief of which is the fact that they have had more responsibility in both domestic and occupational areas. In the administration of justice differential treatment has been practiced in accordance with age, sex, social status, race, ethnicity, wealth, education, prestige, and other idiosyncrasies of individuals. Females have a distinct advantage over males in the following areas: 1) the public's report to the police; 2) police arrest; 3) the court's sentence; 4) incarceration. There is evidence to show that because of this males not only risk becoming offenders more than females, but also risk becoming victims of that offense.

To cite some examples, in 1972 male arrests outnumbered female by almost six to one in the United States, and only 18 percent of the arrests for Crime Index offenses were women. According to an F.B.I. report approximately 20 per cent of total property crime arrests in 1972 were female. Yet it should be noted that some crimes are committed more by females than by males, such as offenses against chastity and common decency, prostitution, embezzlement and fraud, forgery and counterfeiting, larceny and theft. Recently the F.B.I. reported a rise in female offenses, particularly among those under the age of 18. According to this report, well over half the runaways apprehended are young women.

As a result of a higher educational level among women, more women remaining single due to professional and occupational interests, and the Contemporary Women's Liberation movement, a gradual increase in criminality among women is anticipated, although this is disputed by the French correspondent in the following article who argues for a reverse trend. Yet with more women competing with men in the future and becoming more active politically to achieve equality, crime as a predominantly male pattern of behavior may change.

Crime among women has yet to be thoroughly studied. Some criminologists maintain that female criminality is “masked” or “suggestive” behavior because to a great extent female criminals are hidden or unreported, or in some instances men commit crime on behalf of women. Any meaningful assessment of female criminality must take into account complex physiological, psychological and socio-cultural factors.

The meeting of the International Council of Women in conjunction with the Third United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1965 marked only a small beginning in the understanding of this segment of criminal behavior. This article deals only with recidivism among women offenders, and readers are advised to discover how other societies treat female criminals. Although several recommendations are made as to how women offenders can best be served, much more research into female criminality must be done before reaching any definite conclusions. Some causal factors paralleled the male counterpart, but before this segment of criminality can be treated effectively, causal elements of a more general nature must first be established. [Source: “Measures Tending to Combat Recidivism Among Women Offenders,” article submitted by the International Council of Women, Standing Committee for Social Welfare to the 3rd United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, Stockholm, A/CONF. 26/NGO/2, 4 May 1965.]     

A Cross-Cultural Verification of a Social Control Theory

The most discussed social control theory of crime has been put forth by Travis Hirschi. In this paper we are interested in examining the relationship between the elements of the bond and self-reported delinquent behavior. In methodology, the paper is a replication of Hirschi's analysis on a random sample of French speaking adolescents of Montreal.

We were able to replicate Hirschi's findings on commitment, belief, and involvement; but there were some differences concerning attachment. There seems to be a cultural difference in the importance of the attachment to school: it is much less significant in the French sample.     

Organized Crime in Africa

This paper examines the extent to which the crime problem—adult crime and juvenile delinquency—in general and elements of organized crime in particular have surfaced in the 1960's and 1970's in the new states of Africa. That is, it touches on what observers of the African scene used to say about it as a point of departure. The emergence of the crime problem in the 1960's and 1970's is mentioned in order to provide the logical linkage between the existence of the crime problem in general and the emergence of organized crime in particular in some of these states.

The extent to which organized crime in the new states of Africa resembles in other parts of the world, particularly in the United States and in Western European countries, is examined in terms of definition and organizational structure. In the latter case, the examination is done in order to briefly shed some light on such aspects as the scope of legitimate and illegitimate activities and the impact of organized crime on the new states of Africa.

By way of summary, implications of the study of organized crime in the new states of Africa are examined in so far as they have a bearing on the development of African criminology, and the latter, in turn, in its contribution to nation-building.     

Detention Short of Arrest For Questioning in England: An Update

This research sampled 163 nations of the world to determine the use and non-use of capital punishment for 1980–85. The first conclusion was that the majority of the nations do have a legal device to administer capital punishment (77% with Yes; N = 126). The 22 nations who executed averaged 4.2 executions, per year. When the other nations are factored in, the average is 1.57 “official executions” per year (N = 163). Many nations have the legal device to execute, but few do. The top nations reporting were South Africa with 111, and Mauritius with 25 (per year 1980–85).

The average age for execution for the 42 reporting nations was 18. The United States of America was the only nation reporting for less than 16 years old. The following “methods of execution” were reported:

1.

Hanging (N = 26, 57%)

2.

Shooting (N = 11, 24%)

3.

Beheading (N = 7, 15%)

Nations also excluded from the death penalty for the following reasons:

1.

Mental Illness

2.

Juveniles

3.

Pregnant Woman

Only 7 nations reported “open” or “public” executions.     

Book reviews

Handbook of Legal Information Retrieval Edited by J Bing, Norwegian Research Centre for Computers and Law, Oslo, in co‐operation with T Fjeldvig, T Harvold and R Svoboda North‐Holland 1984, US $96.25

Information Technology: The Challenge to Copyright. James Lahore, Gerald Dworkin and Yvonne Smyth Sweet & Maxwell and The Centre for Commercial Law Studies 1984, £12.00

Data Processing and the Law Edited by Colin Campbell Sweet and Maxwell 1984, £20.00

Le droit des Contrats Informatiques — Principes — Applications Centre de Recherches informatique et droit des Facultes Universitaires de Namur Maison Ferdinand Larder (Brussels), 1983, 45 FB

Computer Insecurity Adrian R.D. Norman Chapman and Hall 1983, £14.95

The Data Protection Act Richard Sizer and Philip Newman Gower Publishing, 1984, £16.95

The Data Protection Act 1984 Professor Bryan Niblett Oyez Longman Publishing, 1984, £18.00

The Data Protection Act 1984 — A Guide to the New Legislation J. A. L. Sterling CCH Editions, 1984, £15.00

Privacy and Data Protection — An International Bibliography Professor David H. Flaherty Mansell Publishing, 1984, £23.50

Computer Contracts R Morgan & G Stedman Oyez Longman Publishing 1984, 2nd Edition, £27.50

Computer Contracts Handbook Michele Rennie Sweet & Maxwell 1984, £15.00

Computer Contracts — An International Guide to Agreements and Software Protection Hilary Pearson Financial training 1984, £14.95