Causes Of Crime Research Articles

Crime among young Moroccan men in the Netherlands: Does their regional origin matter?

High crime rates among second-generation immigrants are usually attributed to the ethnic group’s weak socioeconomic position in the host society. The causes of crime can, however, also be sought in their native countries or regions. Owing to a lack of empirical data, this has rarely been tested. The Netherlands is an exception: small-scale ethnographic case studies among young Moroccan men in Dutch cities suggest that their regional background and culture, particularly if they are from the less developed Rif Mountains area, may explain their high crime rates. In this article we examine whether this applies to the results of a quantitative study on all the Moroccan male juveniles in the Netherlands. At the individual level, our unique dataset is a combination of their native regions, criminal records (ever suspected of a crime) and demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Logistic regression analysis shows that current socioeconomic position is a strong predictor of ever having been suspected of a criminal offence, and the impact of geographical descent, directly or indirectly via socioeconomic position in the Netherlands, is negligible. Accordingly, our findings on Moroccans in the Netherlands do not warrant our questioning the common explanation of the immigrant–crime connection in criminology and suggest further research to determine the specific host society’s features that explain the overrepresentation of ethnic groups in crime statistics.

Local Crime Prevention: ‘Breathing Life (Back) into Social Democratic and Penal Welfare Concerns’?

Fieldwork in the inner-Sydney postcode area of Glebe (New South Wales, Australia) sought to understand how local community workers conceptualise crime causation and the approaches adopted to prevent crime. Observation of more than 30 inter-agency meetings, 15 interviews and two focus groups with diverse local workers revealed that social-welfare or ‘root’ causes of crime were central to explanations of local crime. Numerous crime prevention measures in the area respond directly to these understandings of crime (a youth diversion program on Friday and Saturday evenings, an alternative education program, a police-youth exercise program, and so on). While other more surveillant forms of crime prevention were evident, the findings of this research suggest a significant social-welfare orientation to crime prevention. These findings echo Brown’s (2012) observations of the resilience of penal-welfarism in Australia.

GENERAL ASSESSMENTS AND THRESHOLDS FOR CHRONIC OFFENDING: AN ENRICHED PARADIGM FOR EXPLAINING CRIME

General assessments refer to individuals’ overall judgment of their standing on broad dimensions that have special relevance for the explanation of crime, such as their overall bond to society or their prospects for success. These assessments are partly a function of the independent variables that are commonly considered in contemporary crime theories and quantitative research. But these standard etiological variables are far from fully determinative of general assessments because individuals differ in how they interpret, weigh, and combine their standing along these variables. The social–psychological factors that affect the subjective judgments underlying general assessments have yet to be theorized in any comprehensive, systematic manner. Nevertheless, we hypothesize that the incorporation of general assessments in models of offending will greatly enhance their explanatory power because these assessments are the most proximate, comprehensive, and personally relevant causes of crime. Moreover, we anticipate that once these assessments reach certain threshold levels, such as the view that bonds to society are severed irreparably or success is beyond reach, they result in a nonlinear jump in the frequency, seriousness, and duration of offending (i.e., chronic offending). A consideration of general assessments and their associated thresholds should therefore substantially improve efforts to explain crime.

Typologies in Canadian Securities Fraud: An Impact Assessment on Investor Protection, Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT), and Risk Management Through Problem-Oriented Policing (POP)

A comprehensive foray into criminology of investment fraud in Canada is an elusive evaluation given the efficacy of the disparate current system to combat it. Surely, no authoritative source provides a measure of the size of the problem or its scope. This warrants an all-rounded initiative within the securities industry, and between the industry, government regulators, and policy thinkers to develop a robust what can be termed as problem-oriented policing (POP) to address tactical, strategic and ideological aspects of security fraud to protect investor rights, structure efficient and effective compliance management of the dynamic of ‘unclean’ and illicit money catalyzed through commingling with licit capital market, advancing cause of crime and terrorism. POP identifies pattern within a typology of securities fraud through analysis; developing a response; implementing the response; and monitoring and evaluating the program. Part I walks through the conceptual dimensions of fraud under Criminal Code and Securities Act fraud provisions, types and the extant structures to combat them, besides introducing notions and principles of POP as improvising the manner to combat this. Part-II discusses the scope of problem, the almost-symbiotic equation between organized crimes and securities fraud with malignant consequences for investor protection and money-laundering crimes. Part-III takes a resume of categories of enforcement cases chronicled in the 2014 Enforcement Report of Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) as a barometer as to what ails the securities market in Canada having monstrous impact economically, socially, and politically. Part-IV underscores criticality of enforcement to shape up a robust securities regulatory framework. In conclusion, I have flagged recommendations stating that POP is a must to have a coordinated approach to this problem of securities fraud with probably, an optimal national fraud enforcement agency workable through a dynamic data-base based on psychometric analysis of demographic, psychological and behavioral attributes of investors with lateral inputs from other programs like FINTRAC system, investors’ tools, deterrence, whistleblower program, multi-agency co-operation and international enforcement co-operation.

Race and Youth Crime

Criminologists have devoted much effort to explaining why African American youth have higher rates of serious offending than Whites. But data suggest that African American youth have similar rates of minor offending than Whites and that the large share of African American youth are no more likely to engage in serious crime than Whites. This is the case even though African American youth are much more likely than White youth to be exposed to many of the leading causes of crime, including discrimination, poverty, and residence in very poor communities. This raises a major question that has been neglected by criminologists: Why isn’t the relationship between race and youth crime stronger? Drawing on limited criminological research and several literatures outside criminology, this article describes a range of protective factors that may reduce the likelihood that African American youth respond to discrimination and its negative consequences with crime. These factors fall into four groups: skills in coping, strengths in the face of adversity, social supports, and social controls (the four “S”s).

“Beyond the Pale of Mercy”: Victorian Penal Culture, Police Court Missionaries, and the Origins of Probation in England

One of the most striking changes in the penal culture of fin-de-siècle Europe was England's reform of adjudication and punishment. In this “de-moralization of criminality,” the system began to shed its punitive sentencing, which often saw minor offenders imprisoned with hard labor for weeks or months, to adopt a more moderate system of penalties. These concrete changes were intertwined with a broader shift in British criminological thinking from a “classical” view to a “positivist” one. The former held offending to be a rational, individual choice that required severe deterrents, whereas the latter saw criminality as a product of harsh economic and social conditions. This shift in dominant understandings of criminality prompted reformers, judicial officials, police, and policymakers to refocus on the causes of crime and its prevention, the offender as a subject, and the potential for treatment and rehabilitation through state intervention. A central practice of the resultant “penal-welfare complex” was supervised probation as a substitute for imprisonment. Scholars of penal reform have argued that the passage of the Probation of Offenders Act 1907, which initiated the professionalization of the probation service, was a key moment in this transition. With it, such arguments hold, England took a substantial step from having a discretionary, moralized criminal justice system toward having a standardized, bureaucratic one.

A Criminological Review of Issues Related to Game Addiction

In the modern society, an action related to addiction or overindulgence, in many cases, become the Criminal Law issues. Typically an action that has addictive qualities as in the case of drug and gambling addiction is classed actus reus(elements of a crime), or become the Excuse in the Criminal Law(exemption reason of a criminal responsibility) of other crimes, or is considered as the motive of a crime for aggravating circumstances in the assessment of the culpability. Many people are exposed a lot of time in the game from an early age, which means that the growing possibility that many people who get addicted to games. In order to continue the game which is played by someone, damage case on cyber space is generated that swindles game money or illegally trade game items or gives damage to other account. And it may be placed on the extension of the school violence including forcibly raising the character level in games by treating the weak students harshly in order to further strengthen its position in the game. Beyond the type of initial crime in cyberspace that the data manipulation of the bank``s computer network and stealing and injury of information of files in the personal computer that came down from the past, recently crime in cyberspace has been expanding in many ways such as an infringement of personal information through searching for all of the information in circulation on the Internet, an infringement of personal rights in network, fraud and violence using anonymity, an infringement of copyright, dissemination of obscene materials, such as cyber-terrorism, and it can also belong to the kind of extended crime in cyberspace by game addiction such as fraud, words of violence, personal information cheating and so on. Currently we located on conflicting situation with the side of game industrial development and the side of prevention of game addiction. In fact, it can be also understood if the criminal policy responses only to the combined focus on the harmful effects of game addiction, reciprocal value of the game industry promotion can be collide with the policy. As part of this matter, the Four Major Addiction Bill was made the point at issue, in fact, is not a state such a disputed point were completely concluded, we also required to specify the coding education in the basic education curriculum referring to coding education fever in Northern Europe. And as in the case of Germany, we try to give a impression that game is also one of the achievements of development using IT technology by parallel to the coding education from childhood, and focus on to foster the healthy game cultural and social recognition that not a target of addiction issue, so that we will be able to take all of the utilitarian of prevention of game addiction and game industrial development. It is easy to analyze the cause of crimes related to the game addiction by using the Social Learning Theory and the Social Bonding Theory in criminological theories. As it can be seen from the above theories, a crime before it happens, we can know that human is ultimately formed social relationships, and it is most important to understand the existence that human has a character will be made through education. This is suggestive of the possibility to improve learning action through education policy. Therefore, because the fundamental reason of the collision with each side is ultimately based on social-psychologic recognition, making social relationships and educating are, but the work takes time, the most desirable direction of social policy for improving the recognition, that is the best penal policy.

Governing through Crime in South Africa: The Politics of Race and Class in Neoliberalizing Regimes. By Gail Super. Dorchester: Ashgate, 2013. 182 pp. $98.96, cloth.

Governing through Crime in South Africa: The Politics of Race and Class in Neoliberalizing Regimes. By Gail Super. Dorchester: Ashgate, 2013. 182 pp. $98.96, cloth.In ways more similar than different, crime policies in South Africa after end of formal apartheid play out in a field where poor are not well represented and indeed where punitive penal policies absurdly reinforce inequality of society. So argues Gail Super in Governing through Crime in South Africa. Super's raw material in this well-researched book comes from her focus on official criminology-state discourses about crime and criminality (pp. 6-7). These discourses are a form of communication and are themselves performative. Using this material, Super shows how politics of race and class in post-apartheid South Africa under conditions of neo-liberalism have led to a place where criminal justice and prisons policy appear to exhibit more continuity than change-despite new democratic government led for more than twenty years now by former liberation movement, African National Congress (ANC).As a historical case study spanning late apartheid, transition, and post-apartheid South Africa, Super's work perhaps is inherently inclined toward examining continuities of new with old. While this fits with much of best recent scholarship on crime and policing in South Africa (Altbeker 2005; Hornberger 2013), others call for an emphasis on discontinuity (Steinberg 2014). In any case, Super's analysis is nuanced and careful. It is not simply old wine in new bottles. Working at messy and fertile intersection of crime and governance, Super refreshes and complicates simple distinction that sees apartheid as bad and post-apartheid as better (or perhaps just not-sobad).As even a casual reader of major newspapers in South Africa would be aware, crime and its management have become a central issue in governance of post-apartheid South Africa. Productively drawing on Foucauldian themes, one chapter follows directly on Super's previously published work on spectacle of crime in post-apartheid South Africa (Super 2010). She details how relationship between crime and politics changed as African National Congress went from a liberation movement to a ruling party. Likewise, relationship between crime and race changed as blacks moved from oppressed to governing majority-Super has less to say about gender. In new South Africa, crime has become subjected to more intensive measurement techniques but simultaneously has become an object through which governing occurs. Thus halt to publication of crime statistics directed by ANC Minister of Safety and Security in 2000 justifies Super's contention that the ANC government used denial and refusal to divulge information as a tactic of rule-just as NP [National Party] government had done before it (p. 39).Continuity also figures in discussion in Governing through Crime in South Africa about country's shift to neoliberal macroeconomic policies. Super dates start of neoliberal policies in South Africa to early 1980s, under white National Party government: a shift from racial Fordism to privatization (p. 9). Post-apartheid, Super describes how new democratic government has unexpectedly taken stances in favor of imprisonment and without mention of or attention to structural causes of crime. In this engagement with neoliberalism and its effects, Super follows Jonathan Simon in seeing not only repressive side of crime control but also its softer and enabling effects (Simon 2007).Indeed, for Super, continuities continue. Where others have depicted a shift from early post-apartheid days of community based crime prevention to a later (from late 1990s or 2000) era of getting tough, she emphasizes linkages and points of intersection in both language about criminals and in penal complex. …

Is There a Relationship Between Imprisonment and Crime in Western Europe?

This article examines the evolution of prison populations in Western Europe from 1982 to 2011 and its relation with recorded crime trends in the region. Data are taken mainly from the Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics in the case of prison statistics and the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics in the case of police and conviction statistics, both complemented with the Nordic Criminal Statistics and Eurostat Crime Statistics. The results show that prison populations rates (stock) rose constantly until 2005 and seem relatively stable since then. On the contrary, the annual flow of entries into penal institutions has decreased almost continuously since 1987. This apparent paradox is explained by the fact that the average length of detention has steadily increased during the whole period under study. In brief, less people are sent to prison each year, but they remain in prison for longer periods of time. The upward trend in the average length of detention is related to the development of tough on crime policies across Western Europe and to the increase of drug offences and non-lethal violent crime until the mid-2000s. In that context, an analysis by offence shows similar trends in police, conviction, and prison statistics. These results falsify the hypothesis of total independence between crime trends and imprisonment rates. They also suggest that the deterrent effect of imprisonment has often been overestimated, and they cast a shadow on the validity of criminological theories that place property as the main cause of crime.

CYBERCRIMINOLOGY TRANSITION FROM TRADITIONAL CRIMINAL TECHNIQUES TO CYBERCRIME

In the last decade innumerable profound analyses of the cybercrime phenomenon were carried out that have led to predicting a future cyber-attack called the cyber war. Until now there hasn't been a real threat of this kind. From a criminology point of view, these two worlds, the real one and the virtual one, are totally different, so it's up to us, the observers, theoreticians and practitioners to elucidate the connection between these two worlds. The transition to cybercrime by law breakers, made with a minimum effort, minimum investment and resources offered by the wide world users, sees that they could launch themselves into a no limits race.Investigating methods and techniques for traditional crime improved because of the technological evolution within the last years. Unfortunately the phenomenon of transition from traditional crime techniques to cybercrime has not been studied enough. Measures were taken regarding the law breaker and the crime but the research area of studying the cause of crime, remained untouched, which is a great disadvantage for the justice system, both for authority structures and civil ones, leaving behind an opened door for a new superior level of crime.

Co-ownership and Collaboration: Insights into the Measurement of Impact and Change from Evidence-Based Community and State Violence Prevention Partnerships

Effective partnerships in community crime and violence prevention interventions are challenging to foster. While this may be the case, their merits cannot be denied, thus it is necessary to involve diverse stakeholders in processes that aim to address violence and crime prevention in order to better approach the causes of crime. However practical experiences have identified the challenges of crime prevention partnerships, particularly in developing indicators that appropriately measure and work to monitor and evaluate progress. It has also been noted that it is difficult to discern which interventions yield success, particularly in partnerships with various stakeholders. This article therefore encourages joint assessments from the onset of crime prevention projects with the development of indicators that are relatable to all partners. The paper will draw on three violence and crime prevention pilot projects, conducted in South Africa. The discussion will focus on the processes of developing performance measurement frameworks and the challenges and successes experienced throughout the monitoring, evaluation and learning process.

Starting from the End: A Plea for Focusing on the Consequences of Crime

Since its institutionalization as an autonomous discipline in the late 19th century, criminology’s main project has been identifying the causes of crime. The project began when Cesare Lombroso, the “father” of criminology, applied the methods of the natural sciences to explain why some individuals commit crime (e.g., Fijnaut, 2014). Building on L’Uomo Delinquente (Lombroso, 1876), the ensuing literature has greatly enhanced our understanding of the problem of crime, its causes, and its links to the broader societal context (e.g., Merton, 1938; Hirschi, 1969; Sampson, 2013; Wikstrom et. 2013). Nonetheless, it is fair to say that the “Lombrosian project” (Garland, 2002) remains unfulfilled. A quick skim of any criminological handbook aptly demonstrates a lack of consensus on the causes of crime (e.g., Newburn, 2007; Cullen, Agnew and Wilcox, 2013 and Fijnaut, 2014).

Infanticide in Women Who Are Victims of Domestic Violence

Infanticide is a worldwide troubling phenomenon as well as in Russia. Forensic psychiatrists found out that domestic abuse against women is often one of the main causes of crimes of violence in women. Aims To find out clinical and social factors contributing to specific female crime – infanticide. Methods clinical, psychological, statistical. Results A cohort of 12 females who had killed their children was examined. All women were victims of violence by their husbands or partners. Domestic abuse resulted in long-term mental problems of women. Clinical assessment has revealed depression, anxiety, fear, post traumatic stress disorder, alcohol abuse. Women of the sample who had committed infanticide displayed pathological altruistic motivation of the crime. Alongside with clinical factors the research had revealed also social factors of infanticide. Women were often exposed to psychogenic situations with high level of stress (financial and housing problems, violence of the partner). In accordance with the Criminal Code of Russia the special article (106) governs infanticide. This law takes into account the psychogenic situation which caused the crime (battered women syndrome) and the fact that at the time of the child murder the mental state of mother was affected by childbirth. Conclusion In cases of infanticide the court is free to make verdict more lenient and its reflects more humane approach to such complicated phenomenon as child murder. The study is supported by the grant 13-06-00127 of the Russian Humanitarian Scientific Fund

The Return of Lombroso? Ethical Aspects of (Visions of) Preventive Forensic Screening.

The vision of legendary criminologist Cesare Lombroso to use scientific theories of individual causes of crime as a basis for screening and prevention programmes targeting individuals at risk for future criminal behaviour has resurfaced, following advances in genetics, neuroscience and psychiatric epidemiology. This article analyses this idea and maps its ethical implications from a public health ethical standpoint. Twenty-seven variants of the new Lombrosian vision of forensic screening and prevention are distinguished, and some scientific and technical limitations are noted. Some lures, biases and structural factors, making the application of the Lombrosian idea likely in spite of weak evidence are pointed out and noted as a specific type of ethical aspect. Many classic and complex ethical challenges for health screening programmes are shown to apply to the identified variants and the choice between them, albeit with peculiar and often provoking variations. These variations are shown to actualize an underlying theoretical conundrum in need of further study, pertaining to the relationship between public health ethics and the ethics and values of criminal law policy.

Statistical Analysis on the Trend and Causes of Crime in Ho Municipality

This research work sought to estimate and analyze the causes and trend of crime in Ho Municipality. The research was carried out in Ho central of the Municipality where 102 respondents made up of police officers and prison officers were selected to complete a questionnaire asking them to indicate the level of importance attached to listed original factors considered to be the causes of crime in the Municipality. The raw data consists of 13 original factors subjected to correlation analysis to identify new composite factors that can explain the causes of crime in the Municipality. Using time series data (total quarterly crime for the major crime categories) covering the period of 2004 to 2014 obtained from the Regional crime unit of the Volta Regional command of the Ghana police service, and the prison service, an impact assessment model was obtained to determine the trend of crime in the municipality using time series analysis, the data was also used to forecast for the next six years. Information obtained from the field data was also used to determine the sex and age group that mostly engaged in crime in the Municipality. At the end, five factors were identified to be the major causes of crime, these are; parental neglect, poverty, unemployment, peer pressure and drug abuse. It has also been revealed that trend of crime is in the increase in the Municipality. Males and the age group of 16-35 years are found to engage in crime in the Municipality. Finally, we propose an alternative strategy to control crime by enhancing police efficiency that is by introducing volunteer reinforcement either by enlarging its size or by updating its technology, it is hoped that the findings of this research would prompt society to be mindful of criminal activities in the Municipality.

Using General Strain Theory to Explain Crime in Asian Societies

This paper provides an overview of general strain theory (GST) and argues that the theory can shed much light on the causes of crime in Asian societies. The paper is in five parts, with these parts describing (1) the strains most likely to cause crime; (2) why these strains cause crime; (3) the factors influencing whether strained individuals cope through crime; (4) how GST explains group differences in crime, such as the higher crime rate of males; and (5) how GST explains changes in crime over time, such as the recent increase in delinquency in certain Asian societies. Each section begins by describing the key arguments of GST and the research on these arguments. This is followed by a discussion of the extent to which these arguments apply to Asian societies. GST is said to be quite applicable to Asian societies. For example, most of the strains that cause crime in Western societies also cause crime in Asian societies. At the same time, it is argued that GST should be revised somewhat in order to best explain crime in Asian societies. Researchers, for example, should take account of the greater emphasis on collectivistic values in many Asian societies, including the value placed on social harmony and self-restraint. These values influence the events and conditions that function as strains and the reaction to strains. In making these arguments, the paper draws heavily on the research that has applied GST to Asian societies, most commonly to Chinese, Taiwanese, and South Korean communities.

Understanding police crime prevention through the prism of social disorganization theory

The intention of this article is to analyze the underlying assumptions and perspectives of social disorganization theory, in order to highlight the possibility of its practical application in guiding police preventive actions. Some aspects of preventive police proceedings are presented, as well as insights into perspectives and empirical testing of social disorganization theory. The author hypothesized that social disorganization theory has its pragmatic social value within the context of preventive police work. Applied methodology refers to the use of comparative and inductive deductive method, as well as content analysis. Findings indicate that an understanding of theory of social disorganization is relevant for police crime prevention, especially within community policing model. Specifically, as community policing implies identifying the causes of crime in the community, as well as the component of oriented policing, social disorganization theory thus allows insights into the causes of disorganization of communities and their contribution to crime and other socially undesirable behaviors. Additionally, the author concludes that there are certain limitations of social disorganization theory that certainly should be consulted when planning police prevention activities. This primarily concerns reliance on official statistics as one of the main critical remarks addressed to the theory of social disorganization, as well as the view that the crime is a phenomenon unique to a lower social class.

The space-time budget method in criminological research

This article reviews the Space-Time Budget method developed by Wikström and colleagues and particularly discusses its relevance for criminological research. The Space-Time Budget method is a data collection instrument aimed at recording, retrospectively, on an hour-by-hour basis, the whereabouts and activities of respondents during four days in the week before the interview. The method includes items about criminologically relevant events, such as offending and victimization. We demonstrate that the method can be very useful in criminology, because it enables the study of situational causes of crime and victimization, because it enables detailed measurement of theoretical concepts such as individual lifestyles and individual routine activities, and because it enables the study of adolescents’ whereabouts, which extends the traditional focus on residential neighborhoods. The present article provides the historical background of the method, explains how the method can be applied, presents validation results based on data from 843 secondary school students in the Netherlands and describes the methods’ strengths and weaknesses. Two case studies are summarized to illustrate the usefulness of the method in criminological research. The article concludes with some anticipated future developments and recommendations on further readings.

Conceptual Remixing in Criminology: Tracing Durkheim and Marx's Influence on Etiological Theories of Crime

AbstractSociologists have previously argued that our current knowledge and inquiries stem from our standing on the shoulders of giants. Exactly how this occurs, however, may be less clear. This paper identifies how the works of two of the most valued classical social theorists – Durkheim and Marx – have influenced theories of crime causation. In doing so, I reveal that classical social theory continues to be relevant in the advancement of criminological thought. Identifying this lineage is crucial in developing more informed research and policy on crime and social control, which is especially important given the widespread interest in crime and delinquency among students (and citizens more generally).

Crime Specialization in Rural British Columbia, Canada

The article presents an argument for supplementing traditional crime rates with crime location quotients (LQC) for purposes of explaining crime patterns within rural environments. Although largely ignored in the past, the over-representation of rural violence requires assessment for crime reduction purposes. Focusing on property and violent offences distributed across the Canadian province of British Columbia, there is a sharp divide in terms of the distribution of specific types of crime that reflects the possibility of an urban–rural difference in terms of crime causation. This article demonstrates that, in British Columbia, rural areas might be considered to be areas that specialize in violent offending.