Crime in Central and Eastern European Countries in the Enlarged Europe

An enlarged European Union not only means more territory and a greater population, but also more crimes and perpetrators of crimes. The European integration brings a new challenge to criminology. Comparison of crime statistics across countries is still one of the most difficult methodological problems in criminological analyses. Countries differ in respect of their penal systems and penal policies. Reporting and statistical systems are also different. How, then, can one compare crime between European countries? Can one say where it is safer or where the police work better? Can one determine what the manner of data collection should be so that it reflects reality accurately? This article concentrates on a representation of some trends of crime in Central and Eastern European countries. A main source of information about crime are official crime statistics collected according to the methodological rules worked out by the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics. In the case of homicide, police data are confronted with vital statistics gathered by the World Heath Organization (WHO). The statistics on assault and robbery were compared, as much as possible, with the victimization data from the International Crime Victims Survey (ICVS). The socio-economic context of the crime, the main circumstances of the crime statistics, which affected the interpretation of the crime trends for Central and Eastern European Countries, is presented.     

论抢劫罪的加重犯

对构成抢劫罪加重犯的严重情节应该作严格的限制解释。“入户抢劫”应理解为非法侵入住宅抢劫。“在公共交通工具上抢劫”是发生在公共交通工具上并危及交通运输安全的抢劫。把“多次抢劫”规定为抢劫罪的加重犯不够妥当。“抢劫数额巨大”不包含抢劫未遂的情形。抢劫 (过失 )致死与抢劫 (故意 )杀人有必要分开作规定 ,并且对后者应规定比前者更重的法定刑。“冒充军警人员抢劫”比真正的军警人员抢劫有更严重的危害性。“持枪抢劫”不包括持假枪抢劫。     

谈对传统侦查方法的拓展——关于抢劫杀人案件侦查过程的研究

通过对近几年抢劫杀人案件侦查过程的研究发现,传统侦查方法在使用范围和方式上都有了拓展.快速反应机制的日益健全,使侦查人员在第一时间抓获犯罪嫌疑人的概率更大;指纹和DNA技术的发展,使侦查人员在现场勘查中更注意对它们的发现、提取和使用;手机、固定电话信息和监控录像信息是现代调查访问中的一个重要部分;公布案情、悬赏搜集情报、并案、特情等措施的综合运用能更有效地预防和打击抢劫杀人犯罪活动.     

论缉捕持枪抢劫犯罪团伙的战术

持枪抢劫犯罪团伙具有组织严密、预谋性强、智能化程度高、犯罪能量大、作案快捷、手段凶狠残忍、社会危害性严重等特点，警察必须注重持枪自卫，注重充分运用战术和注重战斗预感，尽早进入战时心理状态，并在接近现场、处置对方警戒人员、战斗中的协同与配合、被动情况下的反击、接近持枪犯罪嫌疑人等环节注意战术的运用。     

民国时期土匪恐怖活动研究

土匪恐怖活动分析是一个非常复杂的问题，民国时期的土匪是中国社会转型的一个畸形产物，其活动范围之大，地域分布之辽阔，人数规模之多，危害性甚重都是空前绝后的。造成这种情况，因素和条件多种多样，细细的考察对于现代恐怖活动研究有很大的益处。     

敲诈勒索罪与抢劫罪之暴力行为辨析

敲诈勒索罪与抢劫罪同属财产型犯罪,而目前司法实践中,由于两种罪在实施时一般均有暴力行为存在,使得司法部门在定罪上困难重重。敲诈勒索罪与抢劫罪区分的关键在于"暴力行为"的内涵。     

Cognitive biases in the peer review of bullet and cartridge case comparison casework: A field study

ObjectiveForensic judgments and their peer review are often the result of human assessment and are thus subjective and prone to bias. This study examined whether bias affects forensic peer review.HypothesesWe hypothesized that the probability of disagreement between two forensic examiners about the proposed conclusion would be higher with “blind” peer review (reviewer saw only the first examiner’s comparison photos) than with “non-blind” peer review (reviewer also saw the first examiner’s interpretation and proposed conclusion). We also hypothesized that examiners with a higher perceived professional status would have a larger effect on the reported conclusion than examiners with a lower status.MethodWe acquired data during a non-blind and a blind peer review procedure in a naturalistic, covert study with eight examiners (3–26 years of experience). We acquired 97 conclusions of bullet and cartridge case comparisons in the blind and 471 in the non-blind peer review procedure.ResultsThe odds of disagreement between examiners about the evidential strength of a comparison were approximately five times larger (95%-CI [3.06, 8.50]) in the blind than in the non-blind procedure, with disagreement about 42.3% and 12.5% of the proposed conclusions, respectively. Also, the odds that their proposed conclusion was reported as the final conclusion were approximately 2.5 higher for the higher-status examiners than for lower-status examiners.ConclusionsOur results support both the hypothesis that bias occurs during non-blind forensic peer review and the hypothesis that higher-status examiners determine the outcome of a discussion more than lower-status examiners. We conclude that blind peer review may reduce the probability of bias and that status effects have an impact on the peer reviewing process.     

Not ‘Islands,Entire of Themselves’: Exploring the Spatial Context of City-level Robbery Rates

The current study examines spatial dependence in robbery rates for a sample of 1,056 cities with 25,000 or more residents over the 2000–2003 period. Although commonly considered in some macro-level research, spatial processes have not been examined in relation to city-level variation in robbery. The results of our regression analyses suggest that city robbery rates are not spatially independent. We find that spatial dependence is better accounted for by spatial error models than by spatial lag models. Further exploration of various spatial weights matrices indicates that robbery rates of cities within the same state are related to robbery rates of other cities within the same state, regardless of their proximity. Our analyses illustrate how systematic inquiry into spatial processes can alert researchers to important omitted variable biases and identify intriguing problems for future research.

Motives in a Triple Spree Homicide

Juries, criminologists, prosecutors, law enforcement officials, and the lay public like to know the motive for a murder—especially when there are unusual features such as multiple victims, extensive injuries, or unexplainable acts to the bodies. However, many times the motive is not readily available from the murderer because he does not confess or he does not consciously know why he killed. The following case describes the analysis of multiple motives in a triple spree homicide committed in a very short time frame. Robbery was the primary motive for the first victim and sexual homicide was the motive for the second and third victims.     

Estimating the shooting distance of a 9-mm Parabellum bullet via ballistic experiment

We demonstrate here how the shooting distance of a 9-mm Parabellum FMJ bullet (115gr) has been estimated via shooting experiments. Such a bullet was found by investigators near a concrete wall, fairly distorted at its tip. The bullet carries no evidence of multiple impact and no evidence of ballistic impact on the wall has been reported. We estimated the impact velocity by comparing the questioned bullet with a set of comparison bullets hitting a wall (rigid target) with different velocities. The shooting distance was recovered from the impact velocity by studying the typical behavior of a manufactured 9 mm bullet weighting 115 g (7.45 g), shot in pistol or a sub-machine gun. The results demonstrated that the questioned bullet was a lost bullet. The shooting distance also helped the investigators, narrowing the range of the estimated positions of the shooter.