Improving neighborhood quality: A hierarchy of needs

Abstract

A sample of 306 residents of New Jersey stratified by type of neighborhood was gathered in order to measure the association of residents’ ratings of neighborhood quality with neighborhood attributes and residents’ characteristics. Poor neighborhood quality was strongly associated with crime/vandalism and physical decay, as well as with mistrust of authority, negative emotions, pessimism, and a lack of sense of mastery of the environment.

The policy implications of these findings are important. First, improving schools, controlling locally unwanted land uses, and improving other neighborhood conditions will help improve neighborhood quality only if crime and blight are controlled. Second, many residents of poor and fair quality neighborhoods mistrust authority, including the local officials and potential investors who will spearhead neighborhood redevelopment. This destructive form of mistrust must be addressed.     

Indians are drunks and drunks are Indians: alcohol and indigenismo in Guatemala, 1890–1940

This article explores the ways in which the use of alcohol articulated with the discourse of indigenismo in Guatemala between the late 1890s and the late 1930s. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the public language of alcoholism merged with that of indigenismo. By the early 1930s, during presidency of Jorge Ubico (1931–1944), the theoretical conflation of alcoholism and indigenismo was fully evolved, providing a seamless paradigm for those who would place the credited Guatemala's‘drunken’and‘racially degenerate’indigenous majority with the nation's underdevelopment. The article utilises indigenista literature, newspapers, contemporary legislation and judicial records on the alcohol contraband trade and drunkenness to construct this argument.     

论公司、企业高层管理人员职务侵占犯罪案件的特点及侦查对策

当前职务侵占犯罪中，犯罪主体身份为公司、企业高层管理人员的案件较为突出，这类案件的案源大多来自于其他股东或出资人的举报，犯罪手段隐蔽，智能化程度高，共同犯罪或指使手下操作的较多，案情复杂，侦查难度大。对此，侦查机关应缜密初查，准确定性，在侦查中立足证据调查，恰当运用询问策略，通过查证书证材料寻找犯罪痕迹，并利用证据突破口供，最终查清犯罪行为的各个环节。     

我国东西部地区毒品犯罪比较研究

毒品犯罪是一个全球化的问题。在我国 ,毒品犯罪的重灾区有六个 ,其中五个在西部。本文从我国东、西部受国际环境影响、城市化进程 (区域化经济发展 )的不同着眼 ,通过研究东、西部毒品犯罪人员、吸毒人群的差异 ,研究东、西部毒品犯罪方法手段的异同 ,旨在为国家有关部门和实战一线的辑毒工作提供决策依据。     

制作、传播计算机病毒犯罪案件的侦查

制作、传播计算机病毒犯罪案件具有制作主体的智能性,传播方式的多样性,病毒来源的不明性,犯罪黑数的高值性,社会危害的严重性,侦查取证的困惑性等特点。侦查工作主要以协同作战,组建侦查力量;勘查现场,搜集证据线索;分析线索,寻找病毒源头;跟踪监视,抓捕嫌疑人员;建立特情,控制网络犯罪;架网守候,减少病毒危害等措施为对策。     

关于犯罪客体问题的一些思考

实践的发展、理论的深入,已经对犯罪客体作为犯罪构成要件之一的理论提出了挑战。犯罪客体概念自身的缺陷,法理基础的缺失及其在司法实践中的实然地位已经将犯罪客体事实上“剔除”出了犯罪构成要件的行列。犯罪客体一语的实有内涵与犯罪本质异曲同工。     

采集、供应血液、制作、供应血液制品事故罪的客体特征研究

本罪的犯罪客体是复杂客体，即国家对于采集、供应血液、制作、供应血液制品的管理制度和他人的健康权、生命权。     

“线人”的问题及其在我国刑事诉讼中的考量

利用线人破案已成为各国侦查实践中的重要手段。我国在打击重大犯罪领域也普遍使用线人，但至今仍无“线人”立法，在线人的使用中存在着诸多问题。实现契合线人的使用与我国刑事诉讼之间的逻辑关联至关重要。     

掩饰、隐瞒犯罪所得及其收益罪的行为样态分析

本文从民法的角度界定了掩饰、隐瞒犯罪所得及其收益罪的犯罪对象和行为样态:前者包括犯罪所得及其收益,犯罪所得为民法上的原物,犯罪所得收益为原物产生的孳息;后者包括隐瞒行为和掩饰行为,隐瞒行为包括窝藏、转移、收购、代为销售以及其他隐瞒行为,掩饰行为包括加工等。     

SELF‐CONTROL THEORY AND THE CONCEPT OF OPPORTUNITY: THE CASE FOR A MORE SYSTEMATIC UNION*

The purpose of this study is to advance the idea that low self‐control—one of the strongest known predictors of crime—likely has effects that are conditional on the supply of criminal opportunities. Some scholars initially interpreted the theory to make this exact prediction, but Gottfredson and Hirschi (2003) have rejected this interpretation. They have insisted that the simplistic nature of most crimes ensures that opportunities are limitless and that variation in opportunity simply reflects variation in self‐control. We trace the history of this uncertain position of opportunity in self‐control theory and argue that it should play a significant role in the theory, even if Gottfredson and Hirschi did not originally envision this. Next, we draw on routine activities theory and applications of it to individual offending to offer a theoretical statement of how opportunity should be incorporated into self‐control theory. Last, using data from a national sample of juveniles, we test the arguments that have been made. The analysis suggests that the effects of low self‐control on delinquency partially depend on the availability of criminal opportunities, as indicated by the time juveniles spend with their friends or away from the supervision of their parents.