Governance and disorder: neoliberalism and violent change in Jamaica

Structural adjustment policies (SAPs) facilitate the hollowing out of the traditional roles performed by states. As a consequence, private entities (some perverse) offer services the state is incapable of or unwilling to provide. Beginning in the 1980s, SAPs plunged neighbourhoods in Latin America and the Caribbean into socioeconomic, and political disorder. This paper assesses the relationship between neoliberal reforms to the Jamaican state and the metamorphosis of violence since the mid-1980s. Neoliberalism transformed violence in Jamaica by increasing inter-gang conflicts, shootings and gang-related murders in Kingston’s garrisons. It also transformed political enforcers into community dons who use violence as a tool for business transactions in the international drug trade, and as a method of gaining local respect and authority.     

International and African Regional Instruments to Protect Rights of Child Victims of Transnational Trafficking

Abuse against children and the exploitation of children worldwide has become a growing concern. Child trafficking threatens children’s protection; and their right to survival, development and participation are violated. This article reviewed international and regional conventions and action plans that protect child victims of trafficking in Africa. It concludes that to fight trafficking, cross-border cooperation should be enhanced through bilateral, multilateral and sub-regional agreements. Furthermore, counter trafficking policies and measures targeting children should reflect a child-rights approach and children should be placed at the center of all initiatives and their best interest given primary consideration.     

THE SEXUAL SUBALTERN IN CONVERSATIONS “SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN”: LAW AND THE OLD POLITICS OF COLONIALISM

Ratna Kapur’s recent book entitled Erotic Justice proposes a new politics of postcolonialism whereby the sexual subaltern disrupts the normative principles of the universal, liberal, legal domain. Kapur traces legal strategies regarding censorship, sex-work, homosexuality, sexual harassment, trafficking and migration which travel a treacherous path, countering allegations of ‘unIndian’ and Western practice with cultural histories of ‘authentic’ sexual legitimacies, towards a new politics of desire. Kapur frames her analysis through postcolonial feminist theory as providing a tool for feminist struggle, yet distinct from and disruptive of a liberal project of global sisterhood. This review deeply values the role of the sexual subaltern which disrupts the tenets of a linear, progressive liberalism. Drawing upon Indian feminist and Western feminist perspectives, the review considers how the distinct position of the postcolonial sexual subaltern subject informs the generic role of law as a tool constructing relations of domination regarding gender, sexuality, caste, property and religion. Kapur observes that both the West and the Hindu Right have engaged with liberal legal principles. This engagement, I argue, exposes and informs law as a historical and contemporary tool of gendered legal colonialism, for sisters to disrupt across the Western and Eastern terrains.Review of Ratna Kapur’s Erotic Justice, Law and the New Politics of Postcolonialism, London: Glasshouse Press, 2005, 219 pp., ￡26, ISBN 1-90438-524-9     

Secondary Precarity in Asia: Family Vulnerability in an Age of Unfree Labour

ABSTRACT

Scholarly discussions of precarious work have identified and analysed the conditions and structures that produce precarity, the contextual nuances that characterise worker relations across a range of sites and sectors and the possibilities of resistance by the precariat. In these studies, workers are often discussed with inadequate attention to their social embeddedness. Taking workers’ embeddedness in social relations and norms as a starting point for analysis, this article explores a secondary aspect of precarity amongst families of exploited workers. This aspect is analysed according to three registers of vulnerability and risk: economic (household and livelihood), intimate (anxiety and negative emotional relations) and physical (mobility and movement). The article outlines this framework through a case study of trafficked fishers and their families from Cambodia and the Philippines. Human trafficking is an extreme form of precarious labour, characterised by unfreedom and hyper-exploitation. The article contributes to the understanding of the trafficking of migrant fishers, which has not seen rigorous academic documentation and is relatively poorly understood in comparison to other forms of trafficking.     

Cultivation and Use of Opium in Rural India: Bottom-Up Insights Into Anti-Drug Efforts

Although India is a major supplier of licit (i.e., legally grown) opium, it is also a leading producer of illicit (i.e., illegally grown) opium. To learn who might be involved in both types of production, the researchers interviewed 50 licensed opium farmers in Madhya Pradesh. Those interviews covered, among other aspects, farmers’ opium use, community attitudes towards addiction and trafficking, and knowledge of government-set opium prices and regulations. In general, some of those interviewed outlined both informal social controls and shunning, used against rural addicts, and support, even if grudgingly given, for government regulation. Those same interviews, however, revealed evidence of important social/economic changes that are undercutting the limited efficacy of extant formal controls in curtailing opium use, addiction, and trafficking.     

论广东有组织制贩毒品犯罪的历史、现状与发展趋势

广东有组织制贩毒品犯罪猖獗局面是国际毒潮压力下形成的，是世界毒品生产和贩运转移的结果。其现状表现为大要案频发，内外勾结、跨区域作案，科技性增强。受国内外毒品犯罪形势的影响，在相当长的时期内，广东毒情可能会继续恶化下去，其中有组织制贩毒品犯罪因素将起到推波助澜的作用。     

Rapid and non-destructive differentiation of Shahtoosh from Pashmina/Cashmere wool using ATR FT-IR spectroscopy

Shahtoosh, the most expensive and sought-after wool in the illegal wildlife trade is obtained from the underfur of a critically endangered species-the Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii). It is often adulterated or mixed with the wool of Pashmina goat (Capra aegagrus hircus) for making shawls, scarves and other woolen articles to maximize the profit. The comparable fineness, color and texture, makes it a challenging task in wildlife forensics to differentiate them. In this study, an attempt has been made to differentiate 50 reference unprocessed underfur hairs from five individuals of each species using ATR FT-IR spectroscopy in combination with chemometric tools such as PCA, and PLS-DA. Results of PCA model demonstrated slight overlap and thus failed to distinguish hairs of these two species. Subsequently, PLS-DA model was employed, and also validation tests (external and blind testing) were carried out to ensure the predictive ability of the model, which resulted in 100% accuracy. The results of PLS-DA model exhibited complete differentiation between Shahtoosh, Pashmina and Angora (Oryctolagus cuniculus domesticus) wool used for external validation study with highly significant predictive ability (R-square value 0.99). This proof-of-concept study illustrates the potential of ATR FT-IR spectroscopy to complement current forensic microscopic and DNA based technique to analyze hair evidence in wildlife investigations owing to its rapid and non-destructive nature with high degree of confidence, and its ease-of-use with minimal to no sample preparation.     

贩卖毒品的控制下交付若干问题探析

控制下交付是打击贩卖毒品犯罪的一种有效的秘密侦查手段，目前这一手段得到了众多国家的肯定。在毒品的全球化程度日益加剧下，我国也深受毒品危害，虽未在法律上规定控制下交付这一手段，但在实际中却得以运用。目前，由于对这一侦查手段理论探讨的不足和法律规定的缺失，贩卖毒品的控制下交付手段的运用遇到了从理论到实践的很多困境，因此我们应对这些问题进行关注，以切实为公安执法实践服务。     

试论非法制贩枪支案件的特点及侦查对策

非法制贩枪支案件是指违反国家枪支管理规定（主要指违反《枪支管理法》），私自制造、贩卖枪支的行为构成犯罪的案件。非法制贩枪支是“黑枪”的主要来源。也是非法枪支流向社会的重要渠道。当前，非法制贩枪支案件具有团伙化、网络化、分散化趋势明显、隐蔽性强的特点。公安机关应当树立“情报先行、情报导侦”的理念、通过获取情报、加强阵地控制，实施控制下交付等手段来侦破案件，打击制贩枪团伙，端掉制贩枪窝点、收缴非法枪支，以有效维护安定的社会秩序。     

论加强海关缉毒国际合作

全球性的毒品泛滥愈演愈烈,对人类的生存和社会的发展构成了严重的威胁。尽管各国海关国际缉毒执法合作已取得了很大的成绩,但其中也存在不少问题。面对世界性的毒品危机,必须采取全球性禁毒战略,加强各国政府,尤其是加强海关之间的禁缉毒合作。