THE IMPACT OF ORDER‐MAINTENANCE POLICING ON NEW YORK CITY HOMICIDE AND ROBBERY RATES: 1988‐2001*

Local officials and national observers have attributed the New York City drop in violent crime during the 1990s to the aggressive enforcement of public order, but relevant research is limited and yields contrasting conclusions regarding the effects of order‐maintenance policing (OMP) on violent crime trends in New York City. The current study investigates the effects of order‐maintenance arrests on precinct‐level robbery and homicide trends in New York City with more reliable crime and arrest data, longer time series, and more extensive controls for other influences than used in prior research. We find statistically significant but small crime‐reduction effects of OMP and conclude that the impact of aggressive order enforcement on the reduction in homicide and robbery rates in New York City during the 1990s was modest at best.     

日本青少年违法犯罪的动向

要了解日本青少年犯罪的动向,首先要了解日本青少年犯罪的社会背景。要正确地分析日本青少年犯罪的现象主要有两种方法:一是从量的观点上观察少年犯的动向;二是从质的观点上对少年犯的资质、家庭关系的变化和安置困难等进行观察。同时还要分析日本市民对青少年犯罪的认识;分析对青少年犯罪的报告和青少年所处的社会背景才能更好地了解和掌握日本青少年犯罪的动向。     

AN ASSESSMENT OF RECENT TRENDS IN GIRLS' VIOLENCE USING DIVERSE LONGITUDINAL SOURCES: IS THE GENDER GAP CLOSING?

Applying Dickey-Fuller time series techniques in tandem with intuitive plot-displays, we examine recent trends in girls' violence and the gender gap as reported in four major sources of longitudinal data on youth violence. These sources are arrest statistics of the Uniform Crime Reports, victimization data of the National Crime Victimization Survey (where the victim identifies sex of offender) and self-reported violent behavior of Monitoring the Future and National Youth Risk Behavior Survey. We find that the rise in girls' violence over the past one to two decades as counted in police arrest data from the Uniform Crime Reports is not borne out in unofficial longitudinal sources. Several net-widening policy shifts have apparently escalated girls' arrest-proneness: first, stretching definitions of violence to include more minor incidents that girls in relative terms are more likely to commit; second, increased policing of violence between intimates and in private settings (for example, home, school) where girls' violence is more widespread; and, third, less tolerant family and societal attitudes toward juvenile females. These developments reflect both a growing intolerance of violence in the law and among the citizenry and an expanded application of preventive punishment and risk management strategies that emphasize early identification and enhanced formal control of problem individuals or groups, particularly problem youth.     

PARTISAN POLITICS,ELECTORAL COMPETITION AND IMPRISONMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF STATES OVER TIME*

The now well‐documented explosion in prison populations over the last 30 years has spurred significant attention in the literature. Early research focused primarily on economic explanations. More recently it has focused on political explanations of prison growth. Here we extend research on political explanations of imprisonment by drawing on the literature on state politics and public policy. We argue that the effect of partisan politics on punishment is conditional on how much electoral competition legislators face. We test this hypothesis using annual state level data on imprisonment from 1978 to 1996. Our findings show that the effect of Republican state legislative strength on prison admissions depends on time and the level of competition in state legislative elections. We argue that these findings suggest the need for a more nuanced understanding of the link between partisan U.S. politics and imprisonment.     

湖南省涉黑犯罪现状和思考

涉黑犯罪是随着我国经济形式的发展和社会生活的变化而逐渐形成、演变的新型犯罪组织。当前湖南涉黑犯罪现状不容乐观 ,涉黑犯罪有四种基本类型 ,呈现出严密的组织性、贪婪的攫利性、凶残的暴力性、极强的渗透性、明显的地域、行业垄断性、鲜明的反社会性等特点 ,其犯罪原因既有历史、市场经济的负面效应、基层基础工作薄弱等因素 ,又有境外黑社会和腐败问题的影响。制定有效的打击对策 ,需建立在对犯罪类型、犯罪特点及犯罪趋式准确把握的基础上。     

38例精神分裂症患者凶杀行为研究

目的　探讨精神分裂症患者的凶杀犯罪行为各个方面的特点。　方法　对 38例具有凶杀行为的精神分裂症患者 ,在心理学、生理学、社会学等各方面进行实例分析。　结果　这些患者在犯罪动机、行为特点、犯罪工具、被害人等诸多方面与正常人的凶杀犯罪有明显的差异。　结论　应加强对精神分裂症患者的诊治 ,普及精神卫生的知识 ,从而预防、控制犯罪。     

网络时代档案利用工作的新走向

随着社会的不断进步和科学技术日新月异的发展,档案利用工作也出现了一些新的发展趋势。从影响档案利用的社会环境因素、档案部门因素和档案用户因素三方面,分析网络环境下档案利用工作的发展走向,即档案利用的社会化和平民化、档案利用服务的个性化、档案的休闲利用和档案利用的数字化十分必要。     

LONG‐TERM TRENDS IN CRIMES OF VIOLENCE (COMMENT ON COONEY, 2003)*

Empirical and theoretical issues posed by Mark Cooney's (2003) analysis of long‐term trends in crimes of violence are discussed.     

Association between homicide injury severity and benzodiazepine influence

There are case reports of offenders inflicting excessive injuries on their victims when under the influence of benzodiazepines. However, the potential association between benzodiazepine influence on the offender and victim injury severity in a general homicide population has not been studied. We investigated associations between offender positive testing for benzodiazepines or z-drugs (zolpidem, zopiclone and zaleplon) and victim injury severity. Data were drawn from 95 Swedish homicide cases from 2007–2009 in which offenders had known toxicology. There were no significant differences in injury severity between cases in which the offender tested positive vs. negative for benzodiazepines/z-drugs. Thus, the findings do not support the hypothesis that there is an association between benzodiazepine influence on the offender and victim injury severity in a general homicide population.

Key points

• Some previous studies have linked benzodiazepines to aggression, violence and excessive homicide injuries.
• The present study analysed the association between homicide injury severity and benzodiazepine status of the offender.
• Offenders who tested positive for benzodiazepines did not inflict more severe injuries on their victims.
• These findings do not support the hypothesis that benzodiazepine influence generally causes offenders to inflict more severe injuries on homicide victims.

     

Homicide Trends and Illicit Drug Markets: Exploring Differences Across Time

Ample speculation and some evidence suggests that the decline in homicide rates since the early 1990s was partially attributable to declining levels of drug market activity. This analysis explores that explanation, along with an alternative: the strength of the drug market–lethal violence relationship has weakened over time. We outline several conceptual reasons to expect period‐specific differences in the drug market–homicide relationship. These include the aging of market participants, shifts in the normative and transactional climate of markets, and changes in structural factors affecting the magnitude of the relationship between drug market indicators and homicide rates (such as socioeconomic disadvantage). These arguments are evaluated for a sample of large US cities. The results generally show a pattern of attenuation in the drug market–homicide relationship and lead us to conclude that part of the homicide decline is likely due to a drop in the amount of drug market activity, some of it is attributable to the aging of drug market participants, and some appears to be due to unmeasured factors which may have created a “kinder and gentler” drug market.