Participation of Victims in Pre-Trial Proceedings of the ICC

Victims’ participation is usually celebrated as one ofthe major innovations of the International Criminal Court (ICC)system. It has been regulated in great detail by the draftersof the Rome Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidenceof the ICC in relation to trial proceedings. However, few thoughtshave been devoted to the question of how victims’ issuesare dealt with before the commencement of the trial. This contributionseeks to close this gap. It argues that victims have a roleto play in the ICC process from the very beginning of proceedings.Moreover, it seeks to clarify how some of the participatoryrights of victims may be addressed in practice.     

The project‐funding regime: Complications for community organizations and their staff

Abstract: Various levels of government contract‐out the provision of public services such as health and education to community organizations, which have traditionally received core funding for these services. In recent years, however, with the adoption of neoliberal policies and New Public Management ideals, Canadian federal and provincial governments have increasingly off‐loaded the provision of social services to community organizations through a project‐funding regime. Community organizations and their workers now find themselves facing new challenges created by this new funding regime. This article explores the ways in which the daily lives of these workers have been organized and influenced by project‐funding regime procedures and rules, which benefit the state but create hardships for workers. This analysis draws on staff interviews and focus group data collected from three community organizations in three provinces across Canada. The qualitative analytic approach includes both a thematic analysis and the identification of practices that benefit the institution but complicate worker activities, as identified by the Psycho‐Social Ethnography of the Common‐Place method, which borrows from Institutional Ethnography. Through the analysis of procedures of increased accountability, short‐term funding, hiring on contract, use of information and communication technologies, and forced partnerships, the authors delineate the ways in which a neoliberalized ruling system benefits and manages staff activities while complicating the lives of the workers. Recommendations and responses to this situation are discussed. Sommaire: Differents paliers de gouvernements donnent la prestation des services publics comme la santé et l'education en soustraitance B des organismes communautaires, qui recevaient traditionnellement leur financement de base pour la prestation de ces services. Ces dernières années, cependant, avec l'adoption des politiques néolibérales et les idéaux de la nouvelle administration publique, le gouvernement fédéral et les gouvemements provinciaux canadiens se sont de plus en plus déchargés de la prestation des services sociaux sur les organismes communautaires, grâce à un régime de financement de projets. Les organismes communautaires et leurs employés se trouvent maintenant confrontés à de nouveaux défis Créés par ce nouveau régime de financement. Le présent article explore la manière dont la vie quotidienne de ces employés a été organisée et influencée par les procédures et les règles du régime de financement de projets, qui profitent à l'État mais créent des complications pour les organismes communautaires. Cette analyse est basée sur des interviews des membres du personnel et sur des données de groupes de discussion recueillies auprès de trois organismes communautaires dans trois provinces du Canada. L'approche analytique qualitative comprend à la fois une analyse thématique et l'identification de pratiques qui profitent aux institutions mais qui compliquent les activités des employés, comme l'a démontré la méthode Psycho‐Social Ethnography of the Common‐place, qui emprunte à l'ethnographie institutionnelle. Par le biais de l'analyse de procédures d'imputabilité accrue, de financement à court terme, d'embauche par contrat, de l'utilisation de technologies de l'information et de la communication, et de partenariats forcés, les auteurs délimitent la manière dont le système néolibéral actuel profite des activités du personnel qu'il gére tout en lui compliquant la vie. Des recommandations et des solutions sont offertes pour faire face à cette situation.     

Juvenile Drug Court Program Admission,Demeanor and Cherry-Picking: A Research Note

The influence of demeanor in criminal justice research has predominantly centered on arrest and sanctioning outcomes. This study examines demeanor at the juncture of juvenile drug court admission by attributing behavior perceived to be favorable or unfavorable to program compliance and success to either juveniles or their parents/guardians. Analysis of 76 juvenile drug court case files enabled examination of how parent and child demeanor impacts specialty court admission. Findings suggest that program admittance (i.e., system leniency through diversion) is largely a function of projected attitude and behavior during screening interviews, but selection decisions are made irrespective of demeanor source. Implications of the findings for drug court processes and continued system involvement are discussed.     

Reaffirming the significance of context: The Charlotte School Safety Program

This study reexamined the Charlotte School Safety Program, a school resource officer-delivered fear of crime reduction initiative. Initial evaluation of the program (Kenney & Watson, 1998) found increased perceptions of safety and reduced fear of crime for school youth, although structural properties of the study setting were not considered. Reanalysis of the data with a multivariate model generated qualifying findings that suggested the program may be less effective than previously determined. Minimal attention to environmental factors and the social setting reaffirmed the importance of addressing context in the criminological enterprise and the related issue of delivering empirically sound policy recommendations.     

Toward a Green-Cultural Criminology of “the Rural”

There are many connections between the various strands of critical criminology. Previously, we highlighted common issues between green and cultural criminology, while also noting some of the ways that each perspective could potentially benefit from cross-fertilization (Brisman and South in Crime Media Cult 9(2):115–135, 2013, Green cultural criminology: constructions of environmental harm, consumerism and resistance to ecocide. Routledge, Oxford, 2014; McClanahan in Crit Criminol. doi:10.1007/s10612-014-9241-8, 2014). In this article, we extend our analysis to consider green, cultural and rural criminologies through the exposition of several key issues, including “the rural” as local context in which exploitative global forces may exercise power; agribusiness and the food/profit chain; farming and the pollution of land, water and air; and finally, cultural/media images and narratives of rural life. We focus more specifically on this final intersectionality through an analysis of Jonathan Franzen’s novel Freedom (2010), analyzing his depictions of rural people, environmental activists, and the rural environment through the issue of mountaintop removal. We conclude our article by identifying several examples of key directions in which the intersectionality of green, cultural and rural criminologies might proceed, including trafficking and abuse of farmworkers, harms associated with the cultivation of quinoa, and a critical interpretation of media and popular narrative depictions of environmental issues within rural contexts.     

German parties and internet campaigning in the 2002 federal election

This article examines German national parties' use of the Internet in the 2002 federal election. Its main goals are to determine what the parties were doing in their online campaigns and how far their use of the Internet can be understood in terms of two party-specific variables – organisational size and primary goal. These questions are of significance given the relatively limited study of parties' use of the net in Germany in the comparative literature on this topic. Also, research on parties' use of the Web across countries has suggested that while context does produce differences in approach, partyspecific factors also play a major role in determining online strategy. The article attempts to investigate these questions systematically by examining nine German parties' use of the Internet (specifically websites, e-mail, and intra-nets) using questionnaire data from national party personnel and content analysis of web pages. Our findings show that while the divide between major and minor parties can be seen quite clearly in the German context in terms of website quality and visibility, evidence to support the impact of party outlook in shaping parties' online strategy can also be found. In addition, the study reveals that major parties are now beginning to take the Internet very seriously as a communication tool, particularly in terms of election campaigning.