When Public Protection Becomes Punishment? The UK Use of Civil Measures to Contain the Sex Offender

In keeping with many countries the UK has moved the problem of sexual offending up the political agenda. On the criminal justice side sentences have been increased and supervision periods extended. On the civil side a raft of new measures have been put in place to regulate the behaviour of sex offenders in the interest of community safety and child protection; this paper examines these measures and, in particular takes the sex offender ‘register’ as a case study to show how political imperatives have been brought to bear with little reference to the research or professional views of practitioners in this area. It is contended that under these political pressures, what starts life as a preventive, regulatory measure can easily become a more punitive measure in its own right; as such it may be liable to challenge by those subject to it for failing to fulfil its primary purpose and for straying across a line between the civil and criminal aspects of intervention.     

Digital Realism and the Governance of Spam as Cybercrime

Spamming is a major threat to the formation of public trust in the Internet and discourages broader civil participation in the emerging information society. To the individual, spams are usually little more than a nuisance, but collectively they expose Internet users to a panoply of new risks while threatening the communications and commercial infrastructure. Spamming also raises important questions of criminological interest. On the one hand it is an example of a pure cybercrime – a harmful behaviour mediated by the Internet that is the subject of criminal law, while on the other hand, it is a behaviour that has in practice been most effectively contained technologically by the manipulation of ‘code’ – but at what cost? Because there is not an agreed meaning as to what constitutes ‘online order’ that renders it simply and uncritically reducible to a set of formulae and algorithms that can be subsequently imposed (surreptitiously) by technological processes. The imposition of order online, as it is offline, needs to be subject to critical discussion and also checks and balances that have their origins in the authority of law. This article deconstructs and analyses spamming behaviour, before exploring the boundaries between law and code (technology) as governance in order to inform and stimulate the debate over the embedding of cybercrime prevention policy within the code itself.     

法律基础课教学存在的问题与对策

法律基础课教学的核心任务是培养大学生法律意识.随着依法治国方略的确立和中国加入WTO,法律基础课教学诸多方面的问题与不足逐渐显现,找出解决问题的办法与对策,是法律基础课教学实践与改革的需要.     

云南农业产业化经营中面临的主要困难及对策

云南农业产业化实施进程中遇到的困难和问题,成为发展现代农业的“瓶颈”。采取有效措施,促进云南农业产业化经营,是云南农业发展的必然要求。     

试析绑架杀人案件的新特点及侦查对策

昆明“6 0 6”绑架杀人案件的侦破 ,反映了近年来此类案件的新特点。公安机关在侦破绑架杀人案件中 ,要分析犯罪人作案规律及新特点 ,采取相应措施、手段和策略 ,以降低绑架案件对社会带来的恶劣影响及对人民群众生命财产安全带来的威胁     

论刑讯逼供

我国现行的法律明文规定禁止刑讯逼供 ,但实践中刑讯逼供的现象屡禁不止 ,严重侵害了公民的人身权利和民主权利 ,是一种与社会文明、进步相悖的行为。对策 :1 建构以“正当程序”为核心的现代诉讼观念和以人为本的司法改革理念 ;2 实现程序法定 ;3 提高公安司法干部队伍的素质 ;4 加强检察机关的法律监督作用。     

对"重典治乱"提高广州市打击刑事犯罪效率和质量的对策思路

当前影响我市打击犯罪质量与效率的因素是转型期社会经济发展和城市建设加快,各种诱发和产生犯罪的负面因素增多,打击犯罪的难度增大;法制工作各有关环节均存在不适应形势要求的情况,影响打击犯罪的力度;公安机关执法整体水平不高、治安控制整体实力不强."重典治乱"是当前社会治安形势的客观要求;提高打击犯罪效率与质量是其关键环节.当前的主要工作思路主动进攻,形成持续"严打"社会声威;快侦快破,提高打击破案时效;最大限度地把警力安排到街面,提高发现抓获现行犯罪的能力.     

新形势下治安管理社会化的新探索

组织和发动群众参与治安工作,是我国公安工作的特色和优势所在,是适应治安形势变化、改变群防群治弱化状态、缓解治安管理任务繁重与警力不足的需要.可采取聘用"联防钟点工",吸引群众直接参与治安工作;将现有的专职联防队逐步过渡到理顺体制的保安队,改善群防群治队伍的成员结构,提高治安管理辅助力量的个体素质等措施,以提高整个治安主体的战斗力.     

Belgium's Anti-Sect War

Since the suicide—homicide of 53 members of the Order of the Solar Temple in 1994 and the gas attempt by Aum Shinrikyo in Tokyo's subway in 1995, a number of European states have decided to fight against sects. France and Belgium are in the forefront of this battle. Both countries have set up official observatories of sects and state agencies involving various ministries to combat them. Preventive policies targeting sects are being carried out. In Belgium, the Anthroposophic Society, a philosophical movement listed as 1 of 189 sects suspected of being dangerous, has sued one federal entity that printed unfounded accusations against their movement in a widely distributed brochure against sects. The same Anthoposophic Society has also petitioned the Court of Arbitration to have the law establishing an observatory of sects annuled. This report deals with both legal actions.     

Questioning Appeals to Community within Crime Prevention and Control

This article casts a critical eye over some of the (often ignored) assumptions which underlie recent appeals to community in crime prevention and control. The article considers the philosophical origins, ambiguities and tensions within such appeals. In so doing, it draws explicitly upon the growth of community safety and to a lesser extent restorative justice in Britain and considers some of the implications to which this shift may give rise. In particular, it focuses upon the manner in which appeals to community converge and collide with changing social relations which may undermine their progressive potential. Specific attention is given to the implications of: increasing social and spatial dislocation; the commodification of security; and policy debates about a growing underclass. It is argued that there is much confusion as to how, and to what extent, communities can contribute to the construction of social order. Within the dynamics of community safety and crime control practices there are dangers that security differentials may become increasingly significant characteristics of wealth and status with implications for social exclusion. This questions the extent to which crime is an appropriate vehicle around which to (re)construct open and tolerant communities.