Crime and Sex in South Australia

Policing Images: Policing, Communication, and Legitimacy. Rob C. Mawby. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240 71–9. Hardback US $55.00. 214 pages.

Armed Robbery. Roger Mathews. Portland, OR: Willan Publishing, 2002. ISBN 1–903240–61–1. 162 pages.     

The Application of Dynamic-Analytic Techniques to Criminal Justice Planning and Evaluation

The general inadequacy of the sources of data in criminal justice for evaluation and planning has been apparent for some time. Among those factors which contribute to the inadequacy of much crime data are the following: (1) generally it is limited to one particular stage of criminal processing; (2) measurements are in the form of summary statistics; (3) it is specific to one agency in that each collects and reports its own summary tabulations; (4) the unit of count changes with different organizational structures. In sum, existing sources of data frequently measure only one temporal point and this fails to reflect the dynamic aspects of criminal processing. Similarly, many of the analytic techniques used for evaluation are static and do not reflect the dynamic aspect of the system.

In light of such considerations, this paper explores the utility of various dynamic-analytic techniques in conjunction with longitudinal sources of data. The following include some of the more important implications for future evaluation. First, the development of a sophisticated systems model to assist in the selection and verification of outcome measures. Second, a reconceptualization of the outcome measures normally used in evaluation studies in order to conceive of the total system as a critical outcome measure in evaluative studies. Third, the development of a model to assist in the planning process that precedes evaluation. This may be accomplished by providing a mechanism for the simulation of change, thus predicting the future impact of changes in the system.     

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.     

Looking for the Pattern: Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia--The Genealogy of a Terror Network

The aim of this study is to analyze the process by which Al Qaeda has sought to co-opt essentially localized struggles in Southeast Asia into an evolving network of worldwide jihad. The article illustrates how, long before it was appropriate to speak of an entity called Al Qaeda, Islamists have been thinking transnationally since the 1980s. The argument attempts to piece together available evidence to reveal a plausible explanation of the origins, growth and direction of the main Islamist grouping in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah, and its deepening relationship with Al Qaeda. The article suggests that the roots of a Southeast Asian terror network can be traced to two geographically separate ethno-religious struggles in the Philippines and Indonesia. The analysis demonstrates that these guerrilla groups orchestrating their distinct struggles were eventually combined through the auspices of Al Qaeda and the globalized franchising opportunities it exploited from the early 1990s.‐     

Party Differentiation in Congress

Abstract At times, the American political parties are so close in terms of policy positions that critics denounce the lack of a “dime's worth of difference” between them. At other times, the gap between them on a left‐right dimension is huge. How can we explain this variation? We argue that parties can behave rationally as collective units, and that shifts in divergence and convergence can be explained as rational responses to changes within governmental institutions and to shifts in conditions outside. We analyze this argument using adjusted ADA scores (Groseclose, Levitt, and Snyder 1999) to compare voting score differences between the Democratic and Republican parties in Congress from 1952 to 1996. We pose specific hypotheses for potentially important factors shaping party behavior and test them with a multivariate model. Our results support the argument that the variation in the behavioral gap between the two parties in Congress can be explained as rational party responses to internal and external stimuli.