British Journal of Criminology - Advance Access

TERRORIST THREATS AND POLICE PERFORMANCE: A Study of Israeli Communities

Weisburd, D., Hasisi, B., Jonathan, T., Aviv, G. — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:28:30 PST

In recent years, scholars and police practitioners have become increasingly concerned with the possible impacts of terrorism on police performance. Some scholars have argued that increased terrorist threats will reduce resources that are devoted to ordinary policing functions such as solving crimes, and that anti-terrorism functions may overshadow traditional police activities. Others have suggested that heightened surveillance due to terrorist threats could have unintended crime prevention benefits. In this study, we examine the impacts of terrorist threats on one aspect of police performance—the clearance of police files. Using Israel during the Second Intifada (2000–04) as a case study, we analyse the impact of level of terrorist threat, while controlling for other possible confounding factors, separating out communities that are primarily Jewish or Arab. Our analyses suggest that terrorist threats have a significant impact upon police performance, though that impact varies strongly by type of community. Higher levels of threat are associated with lower proportions of cleared cases in the majority Jewish communities, and higher proportions in the majority Arab communities.

Exploring Paradigms of Crime Reduction: An Empirical Longitudinal Study

Soothill, K., Christoffersen, M. N., Hussain, M. A., Francis, B. — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:23:42 PST

Using Danish registers for a 1980 birth cohort of 29,944 males with parental information and following up these cases for 25 years, the study considers four paradigms of crime reduction (parental child rearing, structural factors around adolescence, locality and individual resources). Focusing on offenders with first-time convictions for shoplifting (n = 1,989), for burglary (n = 1,324) and for violence (n = 1,901), all four paradigms made a contribution to risk of first-time offending for all three crimes. The counter-factual analysis indicated that a focus on structural issues within a society may have more widespread benefits, but the assumed causal links need to be further explored. The use of population registers, under controlled conditions, provides an important window on criminal careers.

The New International Policing. By B. K. Greener (Houndmills, Basingstoke, New Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, 192 pp. {pound}50)

Lippert, R. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:53:38 PST

Prevention and Youth Crime: Is Early Intervention Working? Edited by M. Blyth and E. Solomon (Bristol: The Policy Press, 2009, 136pp, {pound}14.99)

Kelly, L. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:00:58 PST

'THE DRAGON BREATHES SMOKE': Cigarette Counterfeiting in the People's Republic of China

Shen, A., Antonopoulos, G. A., Von Lampe, K. — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:00:58 PST

This article aims at providing an account of the social organization of the cigarette counterfeiting business in the People's Republic of China—a business that has been feeding the cigarette black markets around the globe. Specifically, we aim to exhibit the scale and nature of cigarette counterfeiting in mainland China, describe the practices and actors in the different phases of the trade, and examine the role of corruption and violence in the particular business. We argue that cigarette counterfeiting is one of the side effects of China's reform and ‘opening up’ policy, and a feature of the country's economic development process.

Controlling Crime, Controlling Society: Thinking about Crime in Europe and America. By Dario Melossi (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008, 310 pp. {pound}21.30 hb and {pound}16.99 pbk)

Hudson, B. — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:26:24 PST

Why Do The Police Use Deadly Force?: Explaining Police Encounters in Mumbai

Belur, J. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:50:34 PST

This paper attempts to answer the question: why do the police use deadly force in a democratic country? Police shootings in India are better known as encounters, a term that refers to a specific type of police contact—a spontaneous, unplanned ‘shoot-out’ between the police and alleged criminals, in which the criminal is usually killed, with few or no police injuries. The police use of deadly force remains largely unquestioned or unaccountable. This paper explores the wider structural and systemic factors that create conditions in which killing ‘hardened’ criminals seems to be the last resort for the police to gain some control in the fight against crime. Wider cultural and specifically police sub-cultural factors that make police killing of alleged criminals both feasible and acceptable in a democratic country are discussed. Based on a qualitative study of Mumbai police officers’ narratives accounting for use of deadly force, the paper draws upon wider policing literature in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, South Africa and certain Latin American countries to explain why this form of police violence occurs.

Cross-National Patterns of Terrorism: Comparing Trajectories for Total, Attributed and Fatal Attacks, 1970-2006

LaFree, G., Morris, N. A., Dugan, L. — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:50:33 PST

Despite growing international concern about terrorism, until recently, very little was known about worldwide risk patterns for terrorist attacks. In this paper, we are especially interested in determining the extent to which terrorism is concentrated at the country level over time and whether different measures of terrorism (total, attributed and fatal attacks) yield similar results. Traditional sources of crime data—official police records and victimization and self-report crime surveys—typically exclude terrorism. In response, there has been growing interest in terrorist event databases. In this research, we report on the most comprehensive of these databases to date, formed by merging the Global Terrorism Database maintained by the START Center with the RAND-MIPT database. We use a statistical method called semi-parametric group-based trajectory analysis to examine 73,961 attacks in 206 countries and territories from 1970 to 2006. Our results confirm that terrorist attacks, like more common crimes, are highly concentrated across specific countries and these concentrations are fairly stable over time. Ten countries account for 38 per cent of all terrorist attacks in our data since 1970; 32 countries account for more than three-quarters of all attacks. The trajectory analysis also reveals a rapidly rising new terrorist threat concentrated especially among countries in South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Existentialist Criminology. Edited by Ronnie Lippens, and Don Crewe (Routledge-Cavendish, 2009, i-vii + 296 pp. {pound}70.00)

Stenson, K. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:24:54 PST

The Hounding of David Oluwale. By K. Aspden (London: Vintage, 2008, 255 pp. {pound}7.99 pbk)

Sim, J. — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:24:54 PST

Criminal Trajectories in Organized Crime

van Koppen, M. V., de Poot, C. J., Kleemans, E. R., Nieuwbeerta, P. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:19:42 PST

This paper investigates criminal trajectories of individuals who are involved in organized crime. A semiparametric group-model is used to cluster 854 individuals into groups with similar developmental trajectories. The most important findings of the study relate to the substantial group of adult-onset offenders (40 per cent) and a group without any previous criminal records (19 per cent), next to a group of early starters (11 per cent) and a group of persisters (30 per cent). Up to date, no trajectory study has discovered such a vast share of adult-onset offenders. Furthermore, the findings turn out to be quite robust, if trajectory analyses are applied to different kinds of criminal activities and to different roles in criminal groups.

La Mafia Devota: Chiesa, Religione, Cosa Nostra. By Alessandra Dino (Rome/Bari: Editori Laterza, 2008, 304 pp. 16 euros)

Ruggiero, V. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:34 PST

Understanding Illicit Drug Markets in Australia: Notes towards a Critical Reconceptualization

Dwyer, R., Moore, D. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:57:15 PDT

The dominant Australian approaches to the study of illicit drug markets are surveillance and criminological research. In this paper, we outline the main features of these approaches before presenting a critical discussion of some of their methods, assumptions and modes of analysis. We argue that these approaches are limited in terms of their methods; reliance on neo-classical economic models; abstraction from local contexts; oversight of social, cultural and political processes; exclusive focus on commercial transactions; under-theorizing of the market; and narrow conceptions of drug market subjects. We conclude by beginning to outline an alternative framework that draws on the anthropology and sociology of markets and that may lead to more nuanced understandings of illicit drug markets.

A Deadly Consensus: Worker Safety and Regulatory Degradation under New Labour

Tombs, S., Whyte, D. — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:33:44 PDT

This paper documents the vulnerability of the UK workplace safety regime to ‘regulatory degradation’. Following a brief overview of this regime, the paper examines the dominant arguments within academic literature on appropriate and feasible regulatory enforcement, arguing that the approaches to regulation thereby advocated have been easily degraded as a result of their compatibility with neo-liberal economic strategy. A subsequent analysis of empirical trends within safety enforcement reveals a virtual collapse of formal enforcement, as political and resource pressures have taken their toll on the regulatory authority. Finally, the paper indicates that the increasing impunity with which employers can kill and injure is particularly problematic as we enter sustained economic recession, and underlines the urgent need for regulatory alternatives.

The Governance of Securities: Ponzi Finance, Regulatory Convergence, Credit Crunch

Dorn, N. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:40:43 PDT

The unfolding market crisis reveals evasions of regulatory controls and frauds that were less visible in buoyant markets. International networking of regulators and those they regulated resulted in convergence of regulatory standards—and creation of common ‘blind spots’—corresponding to private sector assumptions, ‘models’, data and mood. Moving forward, this paper suggests that the literature on security governance can be used to re-frame market regulation. Going against calls for a tightening of convergence between regulatory regimes, the paper argues for regulatory diversity as a means for reducing market ‘herding’ and the consequent systemic risks. Regulatory diversity would correspond to a political strategy of democratic steering of regulatory agencies, diluting, if not displacing, the currently dominant notion of financial market regulation as a purely ‘technical’ discourse. In concrete terms, this implies shifting systemic regulatory oversight responsibilities away from ‘independent’ agencies, to government bodies and/or departments that are held accountable to their parliaments and electorates.

Identity, International Terrorism and Negotiating Peace: Hamas and Ethics-Based Considerations from Critical Restorative Justice

Arrigo, B. A. — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:40:42 PDT

This paper conceptually examines one specific case of international terrorism, including the emergence and maintenance of membership-allegiance in its militant extremist group. This is the case of the Islamic Resistance Movement (or Hamas) and the manifestation of its corresponding Palestinian identity. Although the social person is constituted by symbols and objects, acts and social acts, meanings, and role-taking and role-making, questions persist about how best to promote peaceful coexistence, advance the interests of non-violence and ensure the protection of basic human rights. These practices constitute an ethic grounded in Aristotelian virtue. The delineation of key principles emanating from critical restorative justice helps to specify this brand of moral reasoning. The integration of these principles with the proposed symbolic interactionist framework demonstrates how extremist violence can be mediated. Suggestive examples of the same involving Hamas and those with whom it struggles (Palestine, Israel and the United States) are used to guide the analysis. The proposed conceptual framework is then briefly assessed for its overall explanatory capabilities, especially in relation to furthering terrorism studies.

Functional Fear and Public Insecurities about Crime

Jackson, J., Gray, E. — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:33:49 PDT

Fear of crime is widely seen as an unqualified social ill, yet might some level of emotional response comprise a natural defence against crime? Our methodology differentiates between a dysfunctional worry that erodes quality of life and a functional worry that motivates vigilance and routine precaution. A London-based survey shows that one-quarter of those individuals who said they were worried about crime also viewed their worry as something akin to a problem-solving activity: they took precautions; these precautions that made them feel safer; and neither the precautions nor the worries reduced the quality of their lives. Fear of crime can therefore be helpful as well as harmful: some people are both able and willing to convert their concerns into constructive action.

Criminalising Social Policy: Anti-Social Behaviour and Welfare in a De-Civilised Society. by J. J. Rodger (cullompton: willan, 2008, 235pp. pb {pound}19.50, hb {pound}55.00)

Morgan, R. — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 02:06:06 PDT

Introducing Conservation Criminology: Towards Interdisciplinary Scholarship on Environmental Crimes and Risks

Gibbs, C., Gore, M. L., McGarrell, E. F., Rivers, L. — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 05:53:00 PDT

Environmental crimes, noncompliance and risks create significant harm to the health of humans and the natural world. Yet, the field of criminology has historically shown relatively little interest in the topic. The emergence of environmental or green criminology over the past decade marks a shift in this trend, but attempts to define a unique area of study have been extensively criticized. In the following paper, we offer a conceptual framework, called conservation criminology, designed to advance current discussions of green crime via the integration of criminology with natural resource disciplines and risk and decision sciences. Implications of the framework for criminological and general research on environmental crime and risks are discussed.

POLICE INVOLVEMENT IN COUNTER-TERRORISM AND PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE POLICE IN ISRAEL--1998-2007

Jonathan, T. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:43:22 PDT

Public attitudes towards the police are considered one of the important outcomes of policing in democratic countries. However, it is not clear how policing terrorism may affect these evaluations. The ‘Rally Effect’ provides a context for examining this question, and suggests that when faced with severe terrorism threats, public perceptions of the police will rise in the short term but decline over time. Utilizing this framework, this article examines fluctuations in attitudes of Jewish adults in Israel towards the police over the past decade, within the context of legitimacy and procedural justice. The results lend support for the hypothesized model, and suggest that in addition to police conduct, public attitudes toward the police may be influenced by larger social forces.

The Impact of Co-Offending

Andresen, M. A., Felson, M. — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:25:02 PDT

Co-offending has a major impact on the arithmetic of crime rates and the burdens on the justice system. This paper studies co-offending by single year of age using data that comprise 750,000 negative police contacts (those charged, chargeable and suspected in criminal offenses) in a largely metropolitan dataset from British Columbia, Canada, 2002–06. We find that shifts in co-offending rates within teenage years are extremely rapid and highly sensitive to sample age ranges, such that a single co-offending rate for all teenagers is misleading. Co-offending opens a range of policy options and issues concerning the presence of youth hangouts and offender convergence settings that can assist the search for suitable co-offenders.