To protect and collect: a nationwide study of profit-motivated police crime

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. This study reports the findings on 1,591 cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven-year period 2005–2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involved 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Our data is the first systematic study of profit-motivated police crime. The study describes the nature of this form of police misconduct in terms of several dimensions, including the characteristics of police who perpetrate these crimes, where it occurs, the specific criminal charges, and the contexts within which profit-motivated police crime is punished through police agencies and the criminal courts.     

Strategic versus emergent crime groups: the case of Vietnamese cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands

This article addresses the nature and development of the Vietnamese involvement in cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands. The findings are based on empirical data collected from national police registrations, case studies and in-depth interviews with over 30 Dutch and international respondents. The authors describe the background characteristics of Vietnamese cannabis farmers, the structure of the predominantly mono-ethnic Vietnamese criminal groups and the international context. A situational approach to organised crime is applied to illustrate the ‘emergent’ character of the Vietnamese crime groups as opposed to a ‘strategic’ context of organised crime. The Vietnamese supervisors in the Netherlands have legal citizenship and often have ‘careers’ in cannabis-related crimes. It would appear that for a Vietnamese gardener or farmer, the path into cannabis cultivation is linked to financial debt. Besides situational factors, group characteristics, such as the migrant community, seem important in understanding the Vietnamese involvement in the Dutch cannabis market.     

How Much Time Should the Police Spend at Crime Hot Spots? Answers from a Police Agency Directed Randomized Field Trial in Sacramento,California

Hot spots policing has been shown to be an effective strategy for reducing crime across a number of rigorous evaluations, but despite this strong body of research, there still exist gaps in our knowledge of how officers can best respond to hot spots. We report on a randomized experiment in Sacramento, California that begins to address these gaps by testing the recommendation from prior research that police officers randomly rotate between hot spots, spending about 15?min patrolling in each. Our results suggest significant overall declines in both calls for service and crime incidents in the treatment hot spots relative to the controls. Additionally, the study was carried out primarily by the Sacramento Police Department without any outside funding. In an era of limited economic resources for policing, this experiment suggests a model by which police agencies can take ownership of science and oversee the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions.     

中国与东盟经济自由贸易区跨国经济犯罪及其控制策略研究

在中国与东盟经济自由贸易区的合作与发展不断深化和加强的进程中,制度的差异、发展的不平衡、特殊的地理环境等因素让竞争中出现了不法手段乃至犯罪手段,跨国经济犯罪即是其表现之一。跨国经济犯罪是跨国犯罪中最为常见且最为严峻的犯罪,是经济全球化最明显的负面影响。通过对跨国经济犯罪、中国与东盟成员国间跨国经济犯罪现状与原因的分析,进而探求中国与东盟成员国间控制跨国经济犯罪的有效策略。     

Police Officers on Drug Corners in Philadelphia,Drug Crime,and Violent Crime: Intended,Diffusion, and Displacement Impacts

On May 1, 2002, the Philadelphia Police Department launched Operation Safe Streets, stationing officers at 214 of the highest drug activity locations in the city 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Interrupted time series (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average) models on weekly data isolated citywide and local program impacts on all violent crimes, murder, and reported drug crimes. Results showed no significant impacts on citywide weekly counts for drug crimes, homicides, or all violent crimes. Geographically focused analyses showed significant localized intervention impacts for both violent and drug crimes. Analyses of high‐drug‐activity non‐intervention sites suggest: the program impacts seen were not an artifact of history or local history; significant spatial diffusion of preventive benefits for violent crime; and probably significant spatial displacement for drug crime. Stationary targeted drug‐enforcement interventions like Operation Safe Streets may differentially affect the locational selection processes behind violent crime versus drug crime.     

广东街面犯罪常见防治措施与创新思路分析

街面犯罪是广东刑事犯罪中最主要的类型。近年来，广东警方通过公开巡逻、便衣伏击、端窝断腿等多项措施，在防治街面犯罪方面取得了一定成绩，但发案态势依然居高不下。警方宜转变思路，从截断犯罪链条、取证社会化、进一步解放警力、成立对抗犯罪的公益法律援助中心等多方面着手，全面深入地防治街面犯罪。     

The collation of forensic DNA case data into a multi-dimensional intelligence database

The primary aim of any DNA Database is to link individuals to unsolved offenses and unsolved offenses to each other via DNA profiling. This aim has been successfully realised during the operation of the New Zealand (NZ) DNA Databank over the past five years. The DNA Intelligence Project (DIP), a collaborative project involving NZ forensic and law enforcement agencies, interrogated the forensic case data held on the NZ DNA databank and collated it into a functional intelligence database. This database has been used to identify significant trends which direct Police and forensic personnel towards the most appropriate use of DNA technology. Intelligence is being provided in areas such as the level of usage of DNA techniques in criminal investigation, the relative success of crime scene samples and the geographical distribution of crimes. The DIP has broadened the dimensions of the information offered through the NZ DNA Databank and has furthered the understanding and investigative capability of both Police and forensic scientists. The outcomes of this research fit soundly with the current policies of 'intelligence led policing', which are being adopted by Police jurisdictions locally and overseas.     

以罪名为讨论平台的反思与纠正

我国刑法学界存在以罪名作为问题讨论平台的现象,但是,由最高司法机关确定的罪名与刑法规定的犯罪构成之间大多并非一一对应的关系,“多罪一名”是我国罪名体系的显著特征,以罪名作为问题讨论平台会带来诸多理论上难以妥善处理的问题。在刑法学研究中,应当严格区分罪名和犯罪这两个概念。刑法学的研究对象是犯罪,讨论刑法问题的基本平台只能是犯罪构成而不是罪名,分析刑法问题的基本单元是“一个犯罪构成”而不是“一个罪名”。罪数中的“罪”是指犯罪构成而不是罪名,具体的事实认识错误是指“同一犯罪构成”内的事实认识错误而非“同一罪名”内的事实认识错误,罪过是犯罪构成的罪过而非罪名的罪过。     

The Dark Figure of Online Property Crime: Is Cyberspace Hiding a Crime Wave?

A pronounced drop in crime, since the early 1990s, has encompassed every crime category tracked by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, including property crime. However, over the same period, the rates of online property crime (OPC) have been on the rise according to available evidence. We delineate the extent of our knowledge and data concerning cybercrime and identity theft and, using data from several nationally representative victimization surveys, offer an alternative view of property crime trends while pointing out the glaring gap in crime reporting and accounting in relation to the growing category of property crimes perpetrated online. In addition, we compare estimated costs of traditional property crime vs. OPC. Finally, we identify the main challenges for obtaining reliable data on OPC and discuss their implications, especially when applying the traditional methods of compiling crime statistics.     

网络犯罪及犯罪地的确定

网络犯罪是信息时代特有的社会现象,它与传统的犯罪形式有明显的区别,并且随着计算机和网络的普及呈加剧的趋势。为了打击网络犯罪,我们首先要确定网络犯罪地点,包括行为地、结果地,这是正确行使司法管辖权的前提。由于网络空间的特殊性,网络犯罪给犯罪地理论和法律制度带来挑战。     

‘Inappropriate but not crime’? Policing racial hatred in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Racial bias afflicts police practices across the globe. Police discrimination against and mistreatment of racial and ethnic minorities is indeed difficult to underestimate. While much attention has been thus paid to racially biased policing, fewer studies examine the question from the reverse angle, namely how the police themselves combat racist offences. This article offers empirical insights into the policing of racial hatred in Sweden, a relevant yet relatively understudied case. Drawing on interviews with police officers and crime investigators, I discuss law enforcement perspectives, e.g. perceptions and reasoning in relation to the investigation of racist offences. Findings evince a rather narrow approach as regards the constructions of racist motive that involves a relatively restricted use of bias labelling in identifying hate incidents, especially when the boundaries of racial hostility are perceived as blurred. I argue that while such an approach may reflect a legitimate effort to demonstrate the existence of a motive behind an offence, it may also lead to an underestimation of more mundane forms of racism and their harms inflicted upon racialized individuals and communities. The results have implications for ‘recognition’ and ‘belonging’ as benchmarks of democratic policing, and ‘the promise of inclusion’ associated with combatting hate crimes.     

经济犯罪原因剖析与预防对策研究

经济犯罪已经成为我国市场经济环境下频发的一种犯罪类型。任何犯罪都不是一个犯罪原因简单造成的,而经济犯罪更应从社会、人的本性以及经济运行机制等方面去分析;同时,对经济犯罪的预防也应该从整体、根本上着手,在预防手段的现代化、转变立法思想、建立诚信社会等方面打防并举。     

A step towards improving workflow practices for volume crime investigations: outcomes of a 90-day trial in South Australia

The provision of forensic science services in volume crime investigations works most successfully as a partnership between police agencies and external forensic laboratories as opposed to a client/provider model where unlimited demand ignores finite resources. The principles of Lean Six Sigma have been applied in various laboratories to improve workflow through identification of wasteful work practices. These strategies are aimed at process optimisation through the application of triaging, a concept that has rarely been studied yet referenced strongly in the literature. The South Australia End to End 90-Day Trial: facilitating quicker justice through timely evidence processing, is a collaborative approach between South Australia Police and Forensic Science South Australia. This trial applied evidence-based policing principles, a law enforcement philosophy that uses research undertaken with scientific processes to inform law-enforcement decision-making. The results demonstrate how a review of processes and the removal of non-value adding activities can improve service delivery while not exhausting those ‘finite resources’.     

Gender ‘Hostility’, Rape,and the Hate Crime Paradigm

This article examines whether crimes motivated by, or which demonstrate, gender ‘hostility’ should be included within the current framework of hate crime legislation in England and Wales. The article uses the example of rape to explore the parallels (both conceptual and evidential) between gender‐motivated violence and other ‘archetypal’ forms of hate crime. It is asserted that where there is clear evidence of gender hostility during the commission of an offence, a defendant should be pursued in law additionally as a hate crime offender. In particular it is argued that by focusing on the hate‐motivation of many sexual violence offenders, the criminal justice system can begin to move away from its current focus on the ‘sexual’ motivations of offenders and begin to more effectively challenge the gendered prejudices that are frequently causal to such crimes.     

Examining state and state-corporate crime surrounding major sporting events

Although prior criminological research has examined sport, most of the attention has been focused on crimes perpetrated by athletes or by fans. Potential examples of state and state-corporate crime as they relate to the bidding process, hosting, and legacy of sport mega-events is the current focus. Drawing on sport and criminology scholarship, the study focuses on Olympic Games and World Cups since the late 1990s, discussing the issues of selection of host sites, police abuse, under-enforcement of street crimes, limitations on civil liberties, removal of ‘undesirables,’ and labor-related concerns.     

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.     

Alcohol-related crime among college students: a review of research and fruitful areas for future work

College and alcohol are a potent mix. This paper reviews what is known and unknown about college students’ involvement in alcohol-related crime as both offenders and victims. There are three types of alcohol-related crime: psychopharmacological; economic compulsive; and systemic. Research on college students, however, has focused entirely on the first type. Why are the latter two types untouched in the literature? After reviewing research on alcohol-involved psychopharmacological crime among college students, we address this question by drawing on Lewis & Lewis’ taxonomy of ‘negative evidence.’ We outline and assess reasons for the dearth of information on these topics, and draw on these explanations to suggest fruitful areas for future research.     

Organised property crimes in Belgium: the case of the ‘itinerant crime groups’

The phenomenon of the so-called ‘itinerant crime groups’ is receiving increasing attention within Belgian and Western European law enforcement agencies. This interest stems from a variety of perceptions about these groups, and has led to a number of definitions about who and what they are, and policy measures in response to them. In this paper, the phenomenon and the characteristics ascribed to it in Belgium are empirically tested. This research finds that the features of mobility and nationality emerge as useful characteristics by which to study these crime groups. There are no indications that the special character of these groups is the consequence of policy-related attention, but rather it functions as a catalyst for this interest.     

论网上交易犯罪原因

网上交易犯罪是一种经济利益驱动型犯罪，其犯罪成因可通过经济犯罪基本模型进行研究。作为常见的经济犯罪成因分析模型，犯罪成本收益理论认为：网上交易犯罪与犯罪预期收益有关，犯罪预期收益越大，犯罪越可能发生；与直接成本、心理成本、道德成本、竞争成本等间接成本有关，成本越小，犯罪越可能发生：与犯罪被惩罚的概率有关，概率越小，犯罪越可能发生；与被发现犯罪被惩治因数有关，已发现犯罪受到惩罚的概率小，其犯罪可能性也越大；还与个人心理恐惧常数有关，心理恐惧常数越小的个人，其犯罪概率越大。所以，可通过犯罪收益、直接成本、间接成本、机会成本、侦查措施、个体控制等几个方面进行控制犯罪。