Environmental crime prosecutions in Ireland, 2004–2014

Despite increased interest in environmental crime and green criminology, few studies address the use of criminal penalties in response to environmental crimes. A handful of published examples employ data from the United States or the Flanders court system, and little is known about how other nations punish environmental violations. Addressing this issue, the current study examined the use of criminal environmental penalties in Ireland from 2004 to 2014. Few criminal environmental cases (N = 147) and few environmental offenders (N = 154) were represented in these data over time. Consistent with the expectations of green/environmental crime researchers, mean penalties for environmental violations, which in Ireland only include fines and investigative cost recovery penalties, were rather small. Unlike in the US or Flanders, the majority of offenders were corporate offenders as opposed to individuals. Contextual factors related to Ireland’s economy, history and use of criminal sanctions should be used to interpret these factors, and prevent generalising from these data.     

Rape Crisis Centers and Programs: “Doing Amazing,Wonderful Things on Peanuts”

Even though the anti-rape movement began more than 30 years ago and there is greater awareness of sexual violence, are rape crisis centers or programs financially secure? Data from interviews with 63 rape crisis workers and volunteers from 6 rape crisis centers or programs located in 4 East Coast states indicate not only that rape crisis centers/programs continue to struggle financially but also that lack of funding continues to present challenges. When rape crisis centers/programs experience reductions in funding, staff positions are eliminated, remaining staff and volunteers are overworked, efforts to recruit and train volunteers are compromised, services for victims are reduced, and education and outreach to the communities become less available. Lack of funding negatively affects rape crisis centers/programs and jeopardizes their future.     

Can markets be expected to prevent themselves from self‐destruction?

Even if competitive markets have shown themselves to be the most efficient organizational form for creating economic efficiency, the question of how they can avoid destructive influence from agents with opportunistic motives remains unresolved. Different institutional approaches have argued that to be efficient, markets need to be embedded in a set of formal and informal institutions. Because such institutions will in the long run make all market agents better off, they are labeled efficient institutions. Contrary to what is argued in neoclassical economics, it is unlikely that such institutions will be created endogenously by market agents because the institutions are to be understood as genuine public goods. Moreover, if such institutions have been established, we should expect market agents to face a collective action problem when sustaining them, leading to the destruction of the institutions. The conclusion is that if left to themselves, markets should be understood as inherently self‐destructive.     

论全球金融危机下的中美经济关系失衡及其调整

20世纪90年代以来,中美经济关系日益紧密;但与此同时,两国贸易关系与投资关系失衡也不断加剧。全球金融危机的爆发对中美贸易关系失衡与投资关系失衡产生了不同的影响,并导致二者的调整路径明显分化。在后危机时代,美联储的宽松货币政策及退出时机、中美两国的经济结构调整、现行国际货币体系的改革以及人民币国际化进程的加速都将影响中美经济关系失衡的调整。从长期来看,中美投资关系失衡的调整将慢于贸易关系失衡的调整,但二者最终都将向均衡水平回归。     

Financial transitions in the PRC: banking on the state?

The reappearance of substantial debt in China after 2008 has refocused attention on the sustainability of the existing financial ‘model’. It’s not just that ‘traditional’ forms of bank-centred debt have re-emerged, but that the informal ‘shadow banking’ sector also seems increasingly fragile, generating debts that do not seem easy to repay. Explanations for the current situation focus on the way in which China responded to the global financial crisis, and on the incentives that exist to go outside the formal and more regulated banking system into often riskier activities. But there are more fundamental structural issues. The current financial system contains within it some of the dna of its predecessor, while the spatial distribution of power and authority is inextricably linked to the way the financial system functions. While it might be possible to tinker with some elements of current financial problems, the relationship between local government financing, land, the banking system and key economic sectors makes it difficult to resolve more structural issues without taking a holistic approach; one that would have fundamental consequences for the nature of the Chinese state, and the distribution of power within it.