Criminal street gangs and domestic sex trafficking in the United States: evidence from Northern Virginia
AbstractThe last decade witnessed increasing involvement of criminal street gangs in domestic sex trafficking in the United States. This paper analyzes business models and practices of gang-controlled sex trafficking in Northern Virginia, based on the cases available from PACER, an electronic public access service of the United States federal court. This analysis shows that business models of gang-controlled sex trafficking have become more sophisticated, taking advantages of the globalized financial system, new technology, social media, and the increasing prevalence of illicit commerce in a digital world with greater conn...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 24, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Silencing Paritutu
AbstractThis paper exposes the New Zealand (NZ) government ’s longstanding campaign to silence evidence of health impacts from dioxin-containing emissions during the production of the herbicide 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) in New Plymouth in the 1960s. Our analysis of official documentation and related literature between 1960–2005 reveals a series of investigations engaging various silencing mechanisms that have culminated in a case of historical pollution. By doing so, they have intensified the acute injuries, chronic disease and multigenerational impacts stemming from the emissions, while discounting t...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 21, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Do oil price fluctuations influence criminal activity in energy rich regions? Evidence from California ’s Central Valley
AbstractThis paper investigates whether shocks in oil prices affect the level of crime in Kern County, California ’s top oil producing county. Monthly data from 2003 to 2018 is employed using a nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model to test the asymmetric effects of these changes. Results for Kern County indicate that in the long-run, a negative shock in oil prices increases criminal activity while sh ort-run oil price changes have no effect on criminal activity. Results from neighboring counties indicate that positive shocks to oil prices increase criminal activity in wealthy regions. Findings from generalized i...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 15, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Idleness as work? How public defenders do their job by waiting
AbstractHow can public defenders provide adequate legal representation when they are underbudgeted and overworked? Mexican public defenders represent 75-90% of those facing a judicial process (either through the entire process or at some points of it) and receive around one tenth of the budget allocated for their counterparts, prosecutors orfiscal ías. Drawing from fieldwork conducted in Oaxaca city, Mexicali, and Tijuana, I find that the public defenders spend a considerable amount of time waiting: waiting in the office for their next case to be assigned, waiting to receive a file, or waiting for the judge to show up in ...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 13, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Access to justice in prisons or the limitations of prison defense
This article sought to understand the adequacy of criminal defense services within prisons. By analyzing secondary data and interviews, it describes the justiciable problems and legal needs, the lines of action, and the obstacles that the adult prison population encounters. The results show that the experience and needs that arise in prison surpass the institutional capabilities of the chilean Public Defender’s Office. Therefore, a new institutional framework must be created to meet the justice claims of prisoners. (Source: Crime, Law and Social Change)
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 13, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
“This is where I belong:” a narrative study of professional commitment to a new criminal justice agency
AbstractScholars of penal change have established a rich theoretical understanding of the macro- and meso- level processes that explain the emergence, diffusion, and success of penal developments. Similarly enthusiastic examinations of the agentic aspects of professional commitment to criminal justice institutions are necessary to better understand the relationship between micro-level individual processes and the endurance and success of penal projects. The present study builds on existing analyses of cause lawyering and indigent criminal defense to examine the personal narratives of penitentiary defenders, lawyers working...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 11, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
“We’re led by stupid people”: Exploring Trump’s use of denigrating and deprecating speech to promote hatred and violence
AbstractIn response to a call for criminologists to consider the impact of former President Donald Trump ’s presumed criminality, we analyze verbal-textual hostility (VTH) in Trump’s campaign speeches. Politicians have particular power and reach with their speech and their use of VTH is an important part of the trifecta of violence. Using a framework informed by linguistic theory and previous analy sis of hate speech in recorded hate crimes, we present the categories of deprecation and denigration, and discuss their relationship to domination. In context, these forms of VTH enhance and serve as precursors to more viole...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 9, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
The rural enterprise crime complex: ‘undefendable rural space’ and the threat from the fortress farm
AbstractIn respsonse to the concept of the ‘fortress farm’ and its appropriation of traditional defensible space theory, this article introduces the conditions of undefendable rural space and the rural enterprise crime complex. Perspectives that invert traditional theory to determine contexts conducive to the incidence of rural enterpris e crime. Empirical data from extensive fieldwork on crimes against wild animals in rural England is used to argue that the fortress and undefendable rural space can in effect serve to ‘design-out’ crime control and lock crime in. A dichotomous outcome, which creates a fortress for ...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 7, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Criminal defense work in a sample of arrest hearings in three states of Mexico: the micro-dynamics of case-level engagement, influence, and strategy
AbstractWe examine variation in criminal defense work in a sample of arrest hearings in three states of Mexico (N = 186). Specifically, drawing on systematic observations, we map the explicit challenges voiced by counsel to oppose motions by prosecutors supporting the legality of detentions. We find that “instrumental” challenges are more likely when defendants are accompanied by friends/relatives, and in the presence of more proactive judges; moreover, these challenges increase the likelihood of a ruling of illegality, controlling for other factors. However, defense practices also rely on more “expressive” cha...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 6, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
International connections within the national government: Brazilian public legal careers and international circulation (2008 –2018)
AbstractTaking into account the relation between the international circulation of legal elites and the legitimization of institutional models in Brazil, this study comparatively analyzes international leaves of three categories of legal careers between 2008 and 2018: Federal prosecutors, attorneys for Brazil and federal agencies, and federal commissioners. Analysis of the international destinations of these categories allowed us to identify associations established with foreign agencies that disseminate different models of law and contribute to the reinforcement of autonomous corporations in the national space. Our data is...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 4, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Nelen, H. (2022) Ostrageous: How greed and crime erode professional football and we all look the other way
(Source: Crime, Law and Social Change)
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - February 1, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Decreasing corruption in the field of disaster management
AbstractCorruption has always existed in the field of national disaster management. Although many case studies on (anti)corruption have been carried out, these works have not dealt sufficiently with the evidence. The present research aims to study how to shift from corruption to anti-corruption, or simply, how to decrease corruption within the system. The comparative perspective is applied as the major methodology. The “damp-ground” style is where corruption breeds, whereas the “sunshine-based” style is where disaster management ethics, structure, transparency, and regional characteristics are established, sustaine...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - January 24, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Female violence in terror attacks: a phenomenological analysis based on evidence from the “Intifada of the Individuals”
AbstractThis research focuses on violence by females who were involved in terror attacks in Israel during theIntifada of the Individuals between September 2015 and October 2016. Videos of encounters during this conflict present a sample of females perpetrating terror attacks, responding as armed security personnel, or participating (or not) in mob violence following the attack. Using theThree Agent Model of terror attacks, we sorted female modes of participation into “Aggressor,” “Disruptor,” and part of “Crowd.” We analyzed 20 terror attacks with female aggressors and 8 terror attacks with female disruptors, e...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - January 21, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Who steals? Who bribes? Multilevel determinants of corruption types in China
AbstractNumerous studies have pointed out that as the political and economic environment changes, the structures of corruption in China are constantly evolving. Specifically, the transaction-type corruption has surged and the auto-corruption ( non-transactional administrative corruption) has receded. As such, what kind of structural characteristics does China ’s corruption types present today? What factors can help us explain the variances of these structural characteristics? Drawn on the quantitative analysis of a novel dataset, this study found that: in terms of personal traits, the gender of the defendant and urban–...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - January 13, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
Hate in the time of the Covid-19 pandemic: dehumanisation as a side effect; re-humanisation as a remedy
This article is about denouncing the dehumanisation process that took place in the time of Covid-19. It recognises that governments have a vital role to play in setting national directions to tackle racist violence and that the value of having hate crime laws should not be underestimated. However, it argues that a broader approach is needed to embark upon are-humanisation initiative and effectively combat racist violence. It emphasises that, to get people truly devoted to a course of action, they must develop a greater understanding of the sources of the problem. Accordingly, this article suggests that academia has a key r...
Source: Crime, Law and Social Change - January 13, 2023 Category: Criminology Source Type: research
