Mexican American Attitudes Towards Crime

Abstract

The study seeks to determine (1) whether the crime seriousness ranking hierarchy identified by Rossi et al. in 1974 persists and (2) whether intra-group agreement on the relative ordering of crimes exists within a Mexican American sample stratified by age and sex. A self-administered survey questionnaire surveyed a sample of 525 college students and 426 parents. Respondents were asked to rank 20 crime offenses according to perceived seriousness. The analyses indicate that the older cohort of respondents is more conservative than the college students and that female students have lower tolerance for crime than their male counterparts. Among Mexican Americans, significant generational and sex differences exist in how serious certain behaviors are perceived.     

White and Mexican Heritage Elders' Crime Victimization Perspectives

Abstract

Prior research on the fear of crime among the elderly has shown that elders are more afraid of being a victim of crime than are younger persons and that such fears may vary depending upon where people reside. This study compares the level of fear of criminal victimization of elders living in three adjacent southwestern communities. White elders live in an age-restricted community within two of the studied communities. The third community is not age-restricted, and the elders who reside there are primarily of Mexican heritage. This study found that Mexican heritage elders expressed more fears associated with crime and victimization than did white elders. In studying gender differences, this study found no significant differences between the expressed level of fear of crime between male and female respondents. Nonetheless, most elders will undertake a variety of reasonable measures to protect themselves when they are home or go out, a finding that is consistent with previous research that studied white elders.     

Perceptions About Changing the MirandaWarnings Among Police Chiefs

Abstract

A number of studies have considered whether the race of a police officer influences police decision-making processes. The current study assesses whether a police chief's race influences perceptions about the Mirandawarnings. Police chiefs from the Commonwealth of Virginia completed questionnaires assessing various aspects about the Mirandawarnings when the fate of the warnings was to be determined by the Supreme Court. Results suggest that race only moderately influenced chiefs' perceptions. Implications are provided.     

世界老年犯罪研究特点综述

老年犯罪研究是犯罪学研究领域中一个相当重要但又相对薄弱的环节,是一个多层面、十分复杂的研究课题。随着各国高龄化社会的到来,老年人犯罪问题成为世界范围内普遍存在的问题,成为各国犯罪学者、社会学者、心理学者、医务工作者等的潜心研究对象。“从世界范围看,使用德语的地方从20世纪开始,以埃克斯纳的《犯罪学》中关于老年人犯罪的论述为起点,已经出现了许多优秀的研究成果。以美国、英国为中心的使用英语的地方,对老年人犯罪问题也做了一些有益的探索。”。老年犯罪问题在当今社会集中的犯罪领域具有一定的特征类型,老年犯罪与其他人犯罪在性质上是相同的,但由于违法犯罪主体的特殊性,形成不同于其他人犯罪的特点和社会危害,这就决定了对这类犯罪进行深度研究的特殊意义。     

恐怖犯罪中的推定

恐怖犯罪属于故意犯罪,按照我国法律规定,故意犯罪必须证明犯罪嫌疑人主观上具有明知、故意或目的,而明知、故意、目的属于内部证明对象,很难用证据证明。为了依法打击恐怖犯罪,必须借助推定的方法,根据犯罪嫌疑人携带的物品、接近的地点、是否受过恐怖组织培训等因素,综合推定其是否意图实施恐怖犯罪。     

Changing Typology of Organised Crime in a Post-Socialist Lithuania (the Late 1980s–Early 2000s)

This paper analyzes the dynamics of organised crime in post-socialist Lithuania. Three overlapping periods in evolution of organised crime are discerned. During the mid 1980s organised crime emerged with the attempts to liberalise the state socialism by legalizing cooperative and individual property as a basis for economic activities. By the early 1990s organised crime in Lithuania began to metamorphose from illegal manufacturing to opportunistic criminality associated with the privatisation of state property. Since the mid 1990s organised crime has again undergone change. It has entered what could be termed a maturation phase. This maturation was influenced by a number of factors including; the end of the privatization process, resumed growth of the economy, development of the legal and fiscal infrastructure to regulate a market economy, and increasing effectiveness and successes of policing in Lithuania [1] [1] Johnstone, Peter 2005. ‘Commissar-General Vytautas Grigaravièius, Lithuania national police’. Police Practice and Research, 5(4–5), September–December, pp. 357–370. . In this article the political, socio-economic, organisational and cultural factors that influenced the dynamics of change in organised crime are analyzed.     

Territorial features,disorder and fear of crime in residential neighbourhoods in Malaysia: testing for multigroup invariance

This research examined the relationships between territoriality, disorder, crime, perceived risk and fear of crime and determined whether these relationships are constant between neighbourhoods. Questionnaire surveys and on-site observations were conducted on a sample of 320 residents from two neighbourhoods in Malaysia. Tests for invariance were conducted to determine whether coefficients differed across neighbourhoods. Confirmatory factor analytic models of the constructs exhibited adequate fit following multiple criteria within each and across samples. Results from these analyses suggested that the relationships between disorder and perceived risk, victimisation, and fear of crime were significant in both samples. Although high territoriality was associated with low-crime experiences in the low-crime area, no significant relationship was observed in the high-crime area. The findings illustrated the importance of examining territoriality and perceptions of disorder within the neighbourhood contexts.     

The Camorra closely observed

An article that discusses how information and communications technology (computer systems and data transmission) are used as ‘cyber weapons’ for criminal purposes. It canvasses a number of legislative policy options for controlling their misuse. The paper concludes with the view that implementing some form of cyber weapons laws – in the same vein as firearms legislation – would not only help ensure society's domestic well-being, but would also aid national security.     

Trafficking in Nuclear Materials: Criminals and Terrorists

The essay examines the networks that facilitate the transport of nuclear materials from the source to their possible purchasers. Analyzing the role of prisons in criminal operations, the interaction of criminals and terrorists, and the character of new organized crime groups, the author concludes that some of the most serious nuclear smuggling is not random or opportunistic. Rather, the most serious trafficking is rarely detected because it is run by professionals whose well established smuggling networks, facilitated by corruption, have the capacity to move significant quantities of diverse contraband without apprehension. Technical solutions to address this problem are not sufficient because detectors cannot identify well guarded HEU. Rather, much more attention needs to be paid to the crime and terror networks that can facilitate this trade.     

Are there Emerging West African Criminal Networks? The Case of Ghana

This paper situates discussions about emerging African Criminal Networks (ACN) within Ghana specifically, and West Africa generally, and seeks to present the initial results of an empirically based study on the activities of transnational organised criminal (TOCs) groups in Ghana. The paper argues that the nature of state and statehood in Africa and its inability to establish effective regulatory mechanisms contributes to the rise of these particular types of criminal groups. It begins by conceptualising the place of Ghanaian and West African criminal groups within the framework of international crime. Furthermore, it undertakes an in-depth analysis of three types of crimes; namely computer and internet crime, drug trafficking and (artisanal) small arms manufacture and smuggling in Ghana. By applying a set of standard variables and criteria, the paper evaluates the growth of TNCs in these three issue-areas and how such activities potentially undermine public institutions like the Ghana Police Service (GPS), customs, excise and preventive services (CEPS), judiciary, banking and political parties and political institutions in Ghana. Finally, it seeks to offer an explanatory framework for the growth and acceptance by local communities of the activities of organised crime in Ghana by situating this within a cultural ethos and the social welfare roles played by those involved in such crimes.