From fiddle factors to networks of collusion: Charting the waters of small business crime

Small business crime has been largely ignored in American criminology; studies of nontraditional crime have focused mainly on corporate crime or on the misdeeds of employees pursuing personal gain. This paper calls for criminologists to redirect their efforts toward the systematic study of small business crime. In particular, it advocates in-depth qualitative studies that explore small business culture and opportunity structures, and that examine the networks of collusion that subvert the legitimate economy. The paper concludes with illustrations from an own story currently being shared with the author by a small businessman who participated for five years in an urban crime network that infiltrated the redistributive economy.     

Democracy and the Violation of Human Rights: A Statistical Analysis from 1976 to 1996

Most studies posit and identify a linear and negative relationship between democracy and the violation of human rights. Some research challenges this finding, however, suggesting that nonlinear influences exist. Within this article, we examine the structure of the relationship between democracy and repression during the time period from 1976 to 1996. To conduct our analysis, we utilize diverse statistical approaches which are particularly flexible in identifying influences that take a variety of functional forms (specifically LOESS and binary decomposition). Across measures and methodological techniques, we found that below a certain level, democracy has no impact on human rights violations, but above this level democracy influences repression in a negative and roughly linear manner. The implications of this research are discussed within the conclusion .     

France and the Information Superhighway: Making Haste Slowly Towards A New Role for the State?

In the 1970s and 1980s the French state was closely involved in dirigiste policies of technological development in the telecommunications sector, but in the 1990s the challenge of planning France's entry to the Information superhighway is throwing up questions for traditional strategies of organising the production of infrastructures and services. Although official reports on 'les autoroutes de l'information' stress the need for immediate action, the complexities of reconciling traditional dirigiste policies with the free-market recommendations of the European Commission and the uncertainties of the Presidential elections of 1995 have hindered France's ability to act quickly.