Addressing the Victim–Offender Overlap: Advancing Evidence-Based Research to Better Service Criminally Involved People with Victimization Histories

ABSTRACT

We studied a representative sample of male and female inmates (N = 266) in two prisons (remand and sentenced) in Western Canada. Our research asks: what are the self-reported victimization histories of currently incarcerated men and women prior to first charge (i.e., before becoming known offenders) and during their life-course? As a second objective, we discuss how we sought to mobilize our findings to change relevant policy and police practice. We found that the overwhelming majority of our female participants had experienced violent, sexual, or property victimization throughout their life course; the majority had experienced victimization prior to first charge. Based on our findings, the local police service introduced victim services for the incarcerated population as well as made changes to their recruit training program to make new police officers aware of the victim–offender overlap and its effects. If replicated, the introduction of victim services for inmates in other jurisdictions and the education of police officers on the victim–offender overlap would emphasize the humanitarian recognition of supporting victims who need help, while also having a series of subsidiary benefits with respect to re-offending, resiliency, and police legitimacy.     

Another path to customs reform: Mexico's second inspection

This paper presents two theses about reforming customs administration in developing countries. First, that modern customs systems increasingly rely on documentary audit rather than physical control and that the private sector can improve the information needed to strengthen audit. Second, that reform of customs administration in developing countries requires building both accountability and efficiency. The widespread use of Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) services by developing countries and Mexico's innovative privatized second inspection supports the first thesis and Mexico's experience with privatizing a key layer of its customs administration supports the second thesis.

This paper examines Mexico's recently introduced Second Customs Inspection which is a novel approach of using private firms to improve the accountability of a customs system. The Second Inspection is uniquely poised to improve both physical control and documentary audit in Mexico's customs by clearly defining the inspection as “rough justice.” “Rough justice"” is an approach to physical customs inspection that recognizes the limitations oftime and space of customs inspections prior to detailed documentary audit. Rough justice is an approach to customs administration that promotes systematic but selective review of contents and documents in the front end of the customs process (inspection) that can be done within reasonable time limits that do not unduly delay trade.     

SUV Advertising: The Detroit Project

Since the attacks of 9/11, the issue of global terrorism has been on many people's minds. The paramount goals for governing powers and concerned organizations are how to effectively protect national borders and citizens. Many organizations, such as The Detroit Project, have been very vocal about their decision not to consume certain goods or use certain services that may be from countries that pose a grave risk to the United States.     

Gag orders: Shields or swords in the constitutional conflict between fair trial and free press?

In 1976, in Nebraska Press Association v. Stuart, the Supreme Court characterized gag orders as the “most serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amendment rights.”; Yet courts impose gag orders that restrict media coverage of courts and trial participants. Many groups believe the use of gag orders is increasing. However, no previous study has attempted to quantify the frequency of gag orders or to explore judicial attitudes about the issuance of such orders. This analysis of the case law and exploratory survey of judges in Florida suggests that courts issue gag orders to protect fair trials, participant safety and privacy, and the sanctity of the courtroom.

This article also suggests that conflict over gag orders arises because judges disagree about the core meanings of the First and Sixth Amendments. This research indicates that judges' individual interpretations of the Constitution color their determinations of whether indirect gags on trial participants, rather than on the media, are impermissible assaults on the First Amendment or are permissible shields of fair trials. Judges tend to be either First Amendment apostles or Sixth Amendment followers, and Sixth Amendment judges are more likely to impose and uphold gag orders. The authors suggest that this schism is unlikely to be resolved without guidance from the Supreme Court.     

Research note: The founders and survivors project

This paper describes the multidisciplinary project Founders and Survivors: Australian Life Courses in Historical Context. Individual life courses, families and generations through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are being reconstituted from a wide range of data including convict records; birth, death and marriage registrations; and World War I service records. The project will result in a longitudinal study of Australian settlement, the long-run effects of forced labour and emigration on health and survival, family formation, intergenerational morbidity and mortality, and social and geographic mobility.     

The US SOPA and PIPA − a European perspective

According to US House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, ‘the theft of American intellectual property costs the American economy over $100 billion annually?…?and thousands of jobs’. Both houses of the US congress have been working on corresponding bills intending to give the US government and copyright holders more effective tools to curb access to so-called rogue websites that disseminate copyright-infringing content, especially those registered outside the US. Following a wake of protest, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) by the Senate and its counterpart in the House of Representatives, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), were postponed ‘until there is wider agreement on a solution’. This paper examines how the bills tried to strengthen the ability of US law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. It will also outline the recent developments and assess the implications that the bills have for freedom of speech online and cybersecurity, not only in the US but also in Europe.     

From Great Britain to Sweden—The Import of Reassurance Policing. Local Police Offices in Metropolitan Stockholm

Martin Innes (2006) has called attention to a recent revitalization of community policing in the Anglo-American policing sphere, albeit in new forms and variations. The discursive and concomitant policy shift in Britain away from ‘community policing’ towards notions of ‘reassurance’ and ‘neighbourhood’ policing has not gone unnoticed in Sweden. Good ideas appear to travel readily eastwards from their British contexts to find translations in the Swedish context. Subsequently, in 2006 the regional police commander in the Stockholm metropolitan area initiated a new community policing programme with the establishment of 10–15 so-called local police offices in targeted depressed areas of the region, and by the end of 2009 there will be a total of 27. The overall goal of the programme is to create a sense of security among residents in these areas and to build upon and sustain the residents' trust and confidence in the police, while at the same time working towards achieving a reduction in crime and maintaining respect for law and order. In this paper I interrogate the translation processes whereby the notions of ‘reassurance’ and ‘neighbourhood’ policing have been partially adopted, adapted, and implemented in a Swedish policing context—collective translation processes that have been wrought with points of friction, i.e. both creative and unproductive resistance.     

Who ‘Owns’ the Streets? Ritual Performances of Respect and Authority in Interactions Between Young Men and Police Officers

Joining insights from the work of Richard Sennett and Erving Goffman, I probe the power relations which underlie the performances and negotiations of respect and authority in interactions between young men and police officers. Two cultures or codes of conduct most often clash in these confrontations, which interestingly enough bear some key similarities. The officers from the local police office that I observed attempted to avoid unnecessarily engaging youths in confrontations and thereby evaded contests of face. Their assignment in the field was to make their presence felt in the area they were patrolling and to bring the youth to an understanding that they were sharing this territory with them. The officers from the ‘street peace group’ had a different agenda and sought out confrontations with youths and thereby engaged them in public show‐downs over face. Their assignment in the field was to bring respect among the youth for the authority of the police, that is, to force a submission to their authority, and this is most readily accomplished through contests of face—contests in which they had the upper hand and through which they demonstrated time and again that they (the police authorities) controlled the streets (at least momentarily).     

‘We care about you,but …’: the politics of EU trade policy and development

The European Union (EU) is one of the most important markets for developing countries, and trade policy has long been one of its most important instruments for promoting development. There is, however, a paradox at the heart of the relationship between the EU's trade policy and development. On the one hand the EU's trade as development policy has undergone a paradigm shift, the objective shifting from supporting the former colonies of the EU's member states to addressing poverty and with a greater emphasis on reciprocal liberalization. On the other hand, the EU's conventional trade policy initiatives—particularly its market access objectives in the Doha Round and in commercially motivated bilateral trade agreements—have adverse consequences for developing countries, as does its tendency to adopt stringent product regulations. We argue that this paradox is explained by differences in how much traction the emphasis on the development implications of trade has had in the EU's various trade policy subsystems.