Comparative Criminological Research Research Articles

Translational and Transnational Approaches in Comparative Criminological Research: A Content Analysis Focused on Asian Countries

Translational and Transnational Approaches in Comparative Criminological Research: A Content Analysis Focused on Asian Countries

Comparative Criminology of Modern View

An overview of the recently revived discipline of comparative criminology is the aim of this chapter. It starts by going over the background and context of comparative criminology then moves on to describe the modern comparative viewpoint. The chapter outlines the typical methods for doing comparative criminological research after outlining several frequently advanced goals for the field, such as theory development and testing and policy review and critique. The primary theoretical traditions of comparative criminology are first reviewed, with a focus on structural theories rooted in culture, social bonds, and the distribution of economic resources, as well as metanarratives like modernization, civilization, opportunity, and world system theories. Next, the chapter addresses methodological issues by summarizing some of the more popular dependent variables that comparative criminologists have studied and noting how these variables have been operationalized in the literature. It then examines the three methodological approaches metalevel, parallel, and case studies that are most frequently used in the field. Data regarding crime and justice worldwide are now more available than ever because of the expansion of international "transparency" and the World Wide Web's information-dissemination capabilities. The three most prevalent forms of data on international crime and justice officials, victimization, and self-report data are covered in this chapter along with the risks to each type's validity and dependability. Interested readers are directed to current sources of information pertinent to commonly used explanatory concepts. The chapter concludes by noting that although globalization and worries about transnational crime have contributed to the growth of comparative criminology as a field of study, the discipline is still in its infancy because systematic comparative work in criminology was largely neglected during the 20th century. Renaissance, in theory, is needed to support growth in this promising field of study so that theory drives research rather than just additional data.

Crime prevention research: How can it be shared across language barriers?

This is the first of two papers addressing language barriers in criminological discourse. The present paper rehearses arguments for comparative criminological research and identifies the administrative processes of journals leading to acceptance or rejection role of language as a contributory factor acting against the interests of those lacking fluency in a journal’s specified language of submission. Revisions of the common editorial practices of peer-reviewed journals are suggested. The potential contribution of machine translation is discussed.

CRIMINOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF CRIME IN THE USA

Some components of crime prevention strategies are a thing of the past, others have undergone significant metamorphoses, and still others have emerged in the last ten years, but in general the state and dynamics of crime as a result of the evolving model of preventive criminal policy and law enforcement remain stable. certain parameters that characterize modern crime, "suddenly" change the course (annual "minuses" are replaced by "pluses" and vice versa) and such fluctuations are sporadic. The mention of the "surprise" of such changes is primarily due to the fact that all these years in the United States there is an annual and significant increase in population, which for obvious reasons changes the crime rates (levels) in general and its types. The article is devoted to the problem of objective assessment of crime in the United States and the interpretation of the changes - absolute and relative indicators at a particular time. The indicators of crime in the USA are investigated; statistical data are presented; the structure and prevalence of crime is described. Criminal statistics data in the United States draw a meaningful and informative, but largely diagnostic picture of the phenomenon of modern crime in this country. The presented data of criminal statistics point to the prospect for more detailed, including comparative criminological research with the obligatory account of the requirements for the comparability of certain national indicators of crime statistics. The prevalence of homicide in any country has been found to be the most common and visible indicator of crime. In general, it should be noted that in absolute terms, the prevalence of homicides in the United States, as in several other countries, has remained quite stable for many years. Note that stable prevalence is generally one of the characteristics of this category of crimes. In Japan, for example, in the past 12 to 15 years, the number of murders has decreased annually by only a few (no more than 10 to 12) statistical units. From this point of view, the rapid rate of decline in the number of murders in Ukraine does not look at all convincing, as many studies of domestic criminologists have long and quite clearly indicated. As can be seen from the above data, the dynamics of relative homicide rates in the United States are outwardly less distinct, since, as noted, it is offset by annual and very significant population growth (over the past three years, it has grown by 7 million people).

Theoretical Foundations of Comparative Criminology in a Global Dimension

Comparative criminology is becoming a topical trend in the modern globalized world. The authors present definitions, methods of comparative criminology, they discuss the organizations and agencies that are involved in comparative criminological research. They also show the relevance of conducting international, regional, continental comparative criminological research. It is believed that the goal of comparative criminology is not just the collection of statistical material in several countries, but rather the development of mutually dependent criminological theories. The goals of research conducted within the framework of comparative criminology are, primarily, the extension of criminological theories beyond cultural and national boundaries, the assessment of the national systems of criminal justice and national criminal policies, as well as the coordination of efforts in counteracting transnational crime. As for the methodology of research within the framework of comparative criminology, the authors describe the use of micro-, macro- and meta-analysis. The topics of comparative criminological research are dictated by globalization. In particular, the following topics are relevant: the legality of the work of law enforcement and criminal justice bodies, human rights and some new forms of crime — with an emphasis on environmental protection, consumer rights, food security, as well as cybercrime. The authors present examples of relevant research in comparative criminology at the global, continental and regional levels. Books in comparative criminology, as well as research journals, are mainly published in English, but national criminology textbooks, as rule, summarize the results of comparative criminological research, so some material in criminology textbooks could, in fact, be categorized as comparative criminology. The authors then describe the problems that hinder the development of comparative criminology in Russia. On the whole, the task of the authors is to present the instruments of comparative criminology to Russian researchers, which could contribute to the development of comparative criminological studies in Russia.

Crime and Safety in Suburbia

Criminologists have long focused their attention on the inner-city street corner and neglected the suburban cul-de-sac. Crime in the suburbs should be of greater criminological concern. Cities are no longer centrally located. Suburbanization has impacted not only where most Americans live but also the types and reasons for crime. We begin this review with an overview of the unique structures of the suburb and the rise of the suburban city. We complicate the image of the dangerous city and the safe suburb and examine broad trends in crime and safety within each. The reasons and types of suburban crimes are further related to the decentered, diffused, and less public places of suburbia. Types of crime are described and prospects for future research into the structure and culture of suburbanization as they relate to comparative criminological research are discussed.

The International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes: A new instrument to improve comparative criminological research

This article presents the International Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The aim of the ICCS is to provide a common ground for the production of criminal statistics around the world. The article describes the process that led to the development of the ICCS, and explains its rationale and its structure. In particular, it presents the way in which intentional homicide offences are classified, showing the potential that such classification could have for international comparisons of crime. The article describes also the results of the tests of the ICCS that were conducted in 41 countries, and briefly discusses the possibilities of implementing that classification across the world.

The Revival of Comparative Criminology in a Globalised World: Local Variances and Indigenous Over‐representation

In this article, I first examine the viability of comparative criminological research in a globalised world. Further, I test the validity of some global explanatory models against the local situation in countries that appear to resist the dominant trend, such as the Netherlands and Canada. I then zoom in even further to the intra-national differences in some federal nations, such as Canada and Australia, where this situation is often linked to the overrepresentation of Indigenous people and the consequences of colonialism. Finally, I discuss the future of comparative criminological research.

Social Institutions, Theory Development, and the Promise of Comparative Criminological Research

This paper highlights the ways in which recent comparative criminological research has begun to advance theory development by directing systematic attention to the role of institutional structure. The overarching thesis is that sensitivity to the institutional context in recent criminological studies, especially those conducted in Asia, has paved the way for the productive elaboration of two highly influential theories: Routine Activities Theory and the General Theory of Crime (or self-control theory). Such theoretical elaboration promises to enhance the explanatory power of these theories by placing individual behavior in a multilevel, institutional context. The paper also outlines a transformed variant of self-control theory that posits two distinctive forms of self-control, which are likely to have differential impacts on criminal offending depending on features of the institutional structure of societies.

Explaining Differences in Comparative Criminological Research: An Empirical Exhibition1

This manuscript examines the correspondence between unofficial and official measures of cross‐national crime for two violent and two non‐violent offenses. More specifically, we report on the convergence of two official measures of cross‐national crime, derived from the European Sourcebook and Interpol, and one unofficial measure of cross‐national crime, provided by the International Crime (Victim) Survey, in terms of their depiction of sexual assault, robbery, domestic burglary, and motor vehicle theft. We evidence strong correlations between the official measures of crime with an expanded sample, but the official data and victimization data were not consistently associated with one another regardless of sample size. This intriguing pattern may be explained by sample size and sample composition. A small number of countries exerted a considerable influence on our findings when we used an expanded sample of countries. We conclude that future researchers using cross‐ national data must attend to the contextual features of the specific countries that they include in their research.

CONTEXT AND LINKAGE

Comparative criminology has recently become a growth area, with the publication of several major books.1 With this in mind, I would like to present an argument about the current concerns and possible future directions of comparative criminological research. The argument begins with a consideration of how far we can detach crime and criminal justice data from their social, political, and economic contexts. This is treated as a matter of whether bodies of prima facie comparable data can be seen as addressing similar issues, given the context from which they come. My thesis is that both in terms of the crimes we seek to understand, and the theories we use to address them, we need to think much more carefully about the kinds of linkages that can be made between various aspects of criminal activity in different societies, about the relevances we are prepared to entertain, and what they are likely to mean in the context of any individual society. When we consider comparative data in this light, the nature of the crime and criminal justice problems under investigation may change in rather important ways. Reflection on those changes might offer some new directions for what I have termed a more internationalist' criminology. The kinds of directions that might flow from such a re-orientation are illustrated towards the end of this paper, with an admittedly eclectic set of examples.

Nation Building and Social Control: Observations from Ivory Coast and Tanzania

Crime control is but one of many areas of life where governments attempt to influence the lives of their citizens through formal state institutions. Within the context of Third World countries, the ‘reality’ of government as nation is something which must be tested if we are to interpret more accurately comparative crime and crime control information. Utilizing Eckstein's distinction between ‘social-polity’ and ‘political society,’ this paper analyzes observations from the Ivory Coast and Tanzania and attempts to demonstrate the practical utility of viewing crime control efforts within the more general context of the nation-building process. Within the context of nation-building, we can 1) better understand the implications of the “nationhood assumption” for comparative criminological research; 2) better interpret “social defense” efforts in the Third World context; and 3) better see the implications of government penetration into private decisions in the developed world.

Toward a Refinement of Purpose in Comparative Criminological Research: Research Site Selection in Focus

This paper draws on a distinction between two purposes of comparative research: (1) testing the universality of a proposition (theory testing) and (2) specification of a proposition (theory construction). These two distinct activities have been inadvertently mixed in comparative criminology thereby causing a great deal of confusion. The present paper argues that attention by comparative researchers to this distinction between theory testing and theory construction will contribute to the resolution of one major methodological problem: that of research site selection. We suggest that in light of the distinction drawn, the testing of the universality of a proposition is most appropriately done in research comparing Western and non-Western nations (“dissimilar design”). But comparative research aimed at the specification of a proposition is best conducted by comparing Western nations (“similar design”).

Historical Trends in Moscow and Leningrad Crime

AbstractMoscow, Leningrad, and Kiev, the major Soviet cities, presently have lower rates of criminality than other urban areas in the USSR,1 thus defying the generally observed correlation between the level of urbanization and the crime rate.2 The Soviet Union has not always been the exception to this internationally observed phenomenon, for in the period directly after the 1917 revolution these three cities had exceedingly high rates of criminality.3 The crime trends of all three major Soviet cities is not coincidental but, as the author shows, this change is a direct result of government policies intended to make these urban areas showcases of the Soviet state. As a result of this governmental decision, population policies have been introduced in the last fifty years of the Soviet period to insure that only the most "desirable individuals" reside in major urban centers. Consequently, the favored cities have experienced a significant decline in criminality, while the regions not favored by government population policies have suffered measurable increases in criminality. This article will focus on the changes that have occurred in the criminality of the major urban centers of the USSR, in particular, Moscow and Leningrad, in the years since the 1917 revolution. The crime trends of Moscow have been documented in a recent Soviet collection (Comparative Criminological Research in Moscow in 1923 and 1968-1969),4 but evidence also exists from other criminological sources to assert that such a dramatic transformation has occurred in the level of crime of all major Soviet cities.