The Chinese Dream

At the end of 2014,Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward the strategic layout of the Four Comprehensives—comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society,deepening reform,advancing the rule of law,and strictly governing the Communist Party of China.Later,the new guideline for development became the overall framework for the current leadership's work and has aroused interest at home and abroad.From Issue No.17 onward,Beijing Review publishes a series of commentaries by foreign researchers commissioned by Renmin University of China’s Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies.     

Predicting law enforcement confidence in going ‘hands-on’: the impact of martial arts training,use-of-force self-efficacy,motivation, and apprehensiveness

ABSTRACT

In law enforcement, there are situations allowing officers to gain control of suspects by going ‘hands-on,’ or physically placing someone in custody beyond simple handcuffing. While much empirical attention is placed on more lethal use-of-force (UOF) measures, little is known about going hands-on. This is concerning considering when force is used, it is almost always with the use of hands, fist or feet only. The purpose of this pilot study is to examine whether martial arts training (MAT) and UOF self-efficacy predict confidence in going hands-on, after accounting for perceived motivation and apprehensiveness. It draws from an online survey, and a non-random subsample of 1,064 un-ranked patrol duty officers in the USA. Results indicate that MAT and high perceived UOF self-efficacy safely predict confidence in going hands-on, even after accounting for perceived motivation and apprehensiveness. Nonetheless, apprehensiveness, but not motivation, remains a strong predictor of not being confident in going hands-on.     

Civilizing Space or Criminalizing Place: Using Routine Activities Theory to Better Understand How Legal Hybridity Spatially Regulates “Deviant Populations”

Critical Criminology - The combining of administrative, civil, and criminal law has broadened modern crime control mechanisms and greatly increased the legal authority and discretion of law...     

Slovene commercial diplomacy in the Western Balkan countries

The aim of the article is to present activities of Slovene commercial diplomacy in the Western Balkan markets. The result of the analysis proves that Slovene commercial diplomacy in the Western Balkan markets followed enterprise preferences. Thus, in the first decade of transition (1991–2000) commercial diplomacy focused only on ex-Yugoslav markets, while non-ex-YU (Western Balkan) markets became interesting only after the year 2000. The article argues that this can be explained by the reactiveness (instead of proactiveness) of Slovene enterprises, which stems from the Slovene national character.     

Cows and Conquistadors: A Contribution on the Colonial Origins of Comparative Development

Identification of the impact of political and economic institutions on economic development requires the use of valid instruments for institutional quality. Recent empirical studies use colonial settler mortality rates as such an instrument. Our paper develops a more eclectic theory of colonial development, and compares the performance of the settler mortality model to alternatives incorporating instruments reflecting the factor endowments of colonial economies. Ceteris paribus, colonies with a natural comparative advantage in pastoral agriculture were more likely to experience European settlement that led to non-extractive institutions.     

Implementing Global Nature Protection Agreements in Russia

The article discusses Russian implementation of the Ramsar Convention, the World Heritage Convention, CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The country's international obligations are part of Russian law, but little has been done by Russian authorities to implement the agreements on the ground. Compliance with the international agreements is the result of Russian protection measures that exist independently of the conventions. Environmental concerns have been given reduced priority since the early 1990s. An independent environmental protection agency no longer exists, and the number of inspectors has been drastically reduced. Implementation activities are undertaken primarily by international NGOs, and partly by regional authorities.     

Identification of Human Remains by DNA Analysis of the Gastrointestinal Contents of Fly Larvae

Dipterous fly larvae (maggots) are frequently collected from a corpse during a criminal investigation. Previous studies showed that DNA analysis of the gastrointestinal contents of maggots might be used to reveal the identity of a victim. However, this approach has not been used to date in legal investigations, and thus its practical usefulness is unknown. A badly burned body was discovered with its face and neck colonized by fly larvae. Given the condition of the body, identification was not possible. Short tandem repeat (STR) typing was performed using the gastrointestinal contents of maggots collected from the victim and was compared to STR profiles obtained from the alleged father. The probability of paternity was 99.685%. Thus, this comparative DNA test enabled the conclusive identification of the remains. This is the first reported case of analysis of human DNA isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of maggots used to identify a victim in a criminal case.     

Analysis and Evolution of the Global Jihadist Movement Propaganda

The Global Jihadist Movement (GJM) has a series of well-defined objectives, which constitute the central points of their ideology. In the realization of these goals, propaganda and public communication play a central role. This article studies the evolution of the principal characteristics of GJM propaganda, analyzing over 2,000 documents issued by the GJM between 1996 and 2005.