British Journal of Criminology - current issue

THE RADZINOWICZ MEMORIAL PRIZE

Pratt, J. — 2009-06-17

Restorative Justice for Banks Through Negative Licensing

Braithwaite, J. — 2009-06-17

The most general lesson of the crime prevention literature is taken to be that repeat victimization and repeat offending are concentrated in time and space; early intervention to prevent wider inflammation of such hot spots is more effective than reactive general deterrence (as in economic models of crime). That prescription is applied to how the 2008 financial crisis might have been prevented and how the crimes of Enron and Arthur Andersen might have been tackled to ameliorate the 2001 crisis. Negative licensing based on walking the beat and kicking the tyres at financial hot spots, with reduced reliance on economic models of risk, is one remedy advocated. Then, the threat of negative licensing might be used to motivate restorative justice that transforms the ethical culture, particularly the bonus culture, of banks.

The International Ban on Ivory Sales and its Effects on Elephant Poaching in Africa

Lemieux, A. M., Clarke, R. V. — 2009-06-17

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) secured an agreement in 1989 among its member states to ban the international trade in ivory. This disruption of the international ivory market was intended to reverse a sharp decline in the African elephant population, which resulted from widespread poaching for ivory in the previous decade. The continent's overall population of elephants increased after the ban, but an analysis of elephant population data from 1979 to 2007 found that some of the 37 countries in Africa with elephants continued to lose substantial numbers of them. This pattern is largely explained by the presence of unregulated domestic ivory markets in and near countries with declines in elephant populations.

Guanxi and Fear of Crime in Contemporary Urban China

Zhang, L., Messner, S. F., Liu, J., Zhuo, Y. A. — 2009-06-17

Western research has investigated individual correlates of fear of crime with a primary focus on people's vulnerability. This vulnerability model examines the possible effects on fear of indicators of people's physical vulnerability (e.g. age and gender) and social vulnerability (e.g. income and education). As is well documented in the research on China, guanxi is a unique aspect of social capital in Chinese society. The present study argues that guanxi in the immediate neighbourhood is an important indicator of the social vulnerability of individuals in urban China. We accordingly hypothesize that residents who have strong neighbourhood guanxi are less likely to be fearful of crime. This hypothesis is assessed with data collected from a recent survey in the city of Tianjin, China. The results of multilevel analysis show that guanxi in the neighbourhood is a significant predictor of fear of crime in contemporary urban China when other important factors are controlled.

The Robbery of Motorcycle Taxi Drivers (Dake Zai) in China: A Lifestyle/Routine Activity Perspective and Beyond

Xu, J. — 2009-06-17

Using official police records, interviews with motorcycle taxi drivers and the participant observation of their working activities in Tianzhi city, China, this paper examines how and why a dimension of social stratification—household registration (hukou)—is related to the risk of robbery victimization and attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of applying lifestyle/routine activity theory to contemporary urban China. It discloses that migrant motorcycle taxi drivers are highly overrepresented in robbery victimization. Their night-time working practices enhance their chances of being robbed by both increasing exposure to likely offenders and reducing the presence of capable guardians. The study further explores how a structural factor—motorcycle ban policy—shapes different routine activities between migrant and resident motorcycle taxi drivers and, by extension, differential risks of robbery victimization. The paper concludes by pointing out the importance of locating lifestyle/routine activities in a larger Chinese macro-social structural context. The outcome is one of the very first ethnographic analyses of crime conducted in situ in China.

The Causal Connection Between Drug Misuse and Crime

Bennett, T., Holloway, K. — 2009-06-17

One of the most influential accounts of the causal connection between drug use and crime was developed by Paul Goldstein in a tripartite conceptual framework that divided explanations of the connection into ‘economic-compulsive’, ‘psychopharmacological’ and ‘systemic’ (Goldstein 1985). The aim of this paper is to examine the validity of the taxonomy in explained drug-related crime across different crime types and to identify some of the mechanisms involved. This was done by interviewing drug-misusing offenders currently serving sentences of imprisonment in the United Kingdom about the role of drug use in their recent crimes. The paper concludes that Goldstein's taxonomy should be refined to take into account the wide range of factors that influence the connection between drug use and crime.

Under These Conditions: Gender, Parole and the Governance of Reintegration

Turnbull, S., Hannah-Moffat, K. — 2009-06-17

Despite the widespread use of conditions in various phases of the criminal justice system (e.g. bail, probation, parole), there has been little theoretical examination of their purposes or the implications associated with their use. This paper extends the theoretical discussion of women prisoners’ reintegration by focusing on parole conditions as a form of ‘targeted governance’. Using national data on federally sentenced female offenders in Canada, it shows how parole boards constitute the female parolee as a fractured subject consisting of various ‘risk/need factors’ to which parole conditions are applied. It also considers how conditions are techniques of targeted governance that exemplify an integrated exercise of penal power, which is simultaneously productive and repressive: conditions help prepare women prisoners for ‘freedom’ on parole by mobilizing particular techniques of self-governance, while at the same time operate as modes of surveillance that police the boundaries of acceptable conduct.

Co-Offending, Age, Gender and Crime Type: Implications for Criminal Justice Policy

van Mastrigt, S. B., Farrington, D. P. — 2009-06-17

It has long been reported that many crimes are committed in groups, yet few studies of co-offending exist. In this paper, we argue that large-scale information on the prevalence of co-offending and its variations across age, gender and crime type is essential for the development of criminological theory and for the accurate estimation of important criminal justice measures like the probability of conviction and the incapacitative effects of imprisonment. To this end, we present results from the most extensive multivariate analysis of co-offending available in the United Kingdom to date. Findings indicate that a minority of detected crime implicated multiple offenders, and that co-offending decreased with age, was greater for females and was most common for robbery and burglary. Age, gender and crime type independently predicted co-offending. Implications for criminal justice policy and theory are discussed.

Cultural Criminology: An Invitation. By Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward and Jock Young (London: Sage, 2008) * Criminal Identities and Consumer Culture: Crime, Exclusion and the New Culture of Narcissism. By Steve Hall, Simon Winlow and Craig Ancrum (Cullompton: Willan, 2008, 248pp. {pound}19.50 pb)

Carlen, P. — 2009-06-17

Violence and Sex Work in Britain. By Hilary Kinnell (Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing, 2008, 290pp. {pound}19.50 pb)

Self, H. J. — 2009-06-17

Police in the Age of Improvement: Police Development and the Civic Tradition in Scotland, 1775-1865. By David G. Barrie (Uffculme, Devon: Willan Publishing, 2008, xii + 307pp. {pound}45.00)

Dodsworth, F. — 2009-06-17

Victims' Rights, Human Rights and Criminal Justice. By Jonathan Doak (Oxford: Hart Publications, 2008, 325pp. {pound}30.00 pb)

O'Mahony, D. — 2009-06-17

ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance. Edited by Peter Squires(Bristol: Policy Press, 2008, 383pp. {pound}24.99 pb)

Rodger, J. J. — 2009-06-17

Sexual Assault and the Justice Gap: A Question of Attitude. By Jennifer Temkin and Barbara Krahe (Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2008, xi + 257pp. {pound}30.00 pb)

McAlinden, A.-M. — 2009-06-17

The Prisoners' Dilemma: Political Economy and Punishment in Contemporary Democracies (The Hamlyn Lectures 2007). By N. Lacey (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, 235pp.)

Morgan, R. — 2009-06-17

Restorative Justice, Self-interest and Responsible Citizenship. By Lode Walgrave (Cullompton: Willan Publishing, 2008, 240pp. {pound}25.99 pb)

Karstedt, S. — 2009-06-17

Reluctant Gangsters: The Changing Face of Youth Crime. By John Pitts (Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing, 2008, 176pp. {pound}22.00 pb)

Muncie, J. — 2009-06-17

A Deafening Silence: Hidden Violence against Women and Children. By Patrizia Romito (Bristol: Policy Press, 2008, 223pp. {pound}52.00 hb, {pound}19.99 pb)

Westmarland, N. — 2009-06-17