Crime Trends Research Articles

INFLUENCE OF SECURITY MANAGEMENT MECHANISM IN ADDRESSING EMERGING BODA-BODA SECURITY THREATS IN CHANGAMWE SUB-COUNTY, MOMBASA COUNTY, KENYA

This paper uses data collected for an MA Thesis on the influence of security management mechanism in addressing emerging Boda-Boda security threats in Changamwe Sub-County in Mombasa County, Kenya. The study has been necessitated by the conception that management of Boda-Boda security threats will significantly lower Annual crime patterns like terror attacks, kidnappings, robberies, target violent crimes among others. According to this study, the sector operated without proper regulation and or control. The study was guided by three specific objectives; to establish the types of emerging Boda-Boda security threats prevalent in Changamwe Sub-County, to examine perceptions of security personnel on emerging Boda-Boda security threats, and to establish security management mechanism adopted by security personnel in addressing Boda-Boda Security threats in Changamwe Sub-County in Mombasa County. This study was focused by crime pattern and Routine Activity Theory. The study comprised of 144 respondents. Stratified random sampling method and purposive sampling techniques were used to select respondents and descriptive statistics used in data analysis. According to the study, the main types of Boda-Boda related crimes prevalent in Changamwe Sub-County were robberies, thefts, kidnappings, murders and other forms of gun violence. One of the major perceptions of emerging security threat is that of motor bike related gang that has increased vulnerability of many businesses and targets due to their disguised surveillance on unsuspecting victims and targets. According to the study Boda-Boda related crimes are largely under regulated. As one of the major policy concerns, concerted efforts by the Government and the Private sector to come up with preventive social programmes such as economic empowerment and alcohol and drug control programmes that will potentially avert the identified pushing factors responsible for rampant Boda-Boda sector related crimes; Poverty and alcohol consumption and drug use. Social programmes may also come up with mechanisms of social justice to supplement government enforcement mechanisms. Finally, National Police Service should increase intelligence and surveillance of the sub-sector to identify crime patterns, trends and hot spots in order to cut this problem at the nib.

Criminological Characteristics of a Repeat Offender's Personality: Key Contemporary Trends of Changes in Parameters

A high level of recidivism is a dangerous trend in contemporary Russian crime. Of all offenders registered in 2021, 60 % had committed crimes earlier. This testifies to a strong criminal orientation of offenders, the drawbacks in the legal regulation and the practice of prevention, and a low effectiveness of punishments and other measures of criminal law impact. A criminological study of the personality of a repeat offender will make it possible to identify its characteristics and specific features which, in their turn, will help to gain a better understanding of the causes of recidivist criminal conduct and contribute to the improvement of measures of individual prevention. In spite of a considerable interest to the personality of a repeat offender in criminological publications, there is no unified approach to the definition of this concept. Authors analyze different groups of repeat offenders that are formed using certain characteristics. Some scholars believe that a repeat offender is a person who commits another crime after being sentences to the deprivation of liberty for the previous one. For the purposes of this article, the personality of a repeat offender is understood as an aggregate of socio-demographic, social role and moral-psychological features typical of people who commit repeat offences while already having a criminal record. The author analyzed the published statistical data of the Court Department of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on socio-demographic, social role and moral-psychological features of convicts with unexpunged or unexpired convictions who committed a new crime, and outlined some contemporary changes in the group characteristics of repeat offenders. It is shown that the share of women-recidivists is growing, as well as the specific weight of persons who are 30-49 years of age. The author notes a rising level of education of convicts with a previous criminal record which, however, did not affect the number of repeat offences. As a rule, repeat offences happened when the convicts did not have a source of stable income, besides, in recent years the situation in the employment sphere worsened and the share of unemployed repeat offenders rose. The identified trend of lower gravity of repeat offences could testify to a rising level of latent recidivism. It is shown that persons convicted to punishments without isolation from the society pose a higher recidivism danger, which leads to the necessity of improving the practice of imposing and enforcing such punishments.

Digital Crime in the Context of a Pandemic: Main Trends

On January 30, 2020, a group of experts from the world health organization announced an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, which caused the coronavirus disease COVID-19. On March 11, 2020, the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus infection was declared a pandemic, which led to a huge number of new vectors of digital crime attacks. Cybercriminals did not shy away from the situation and used the pandemic to commit various digital scams and cyber-attacks. Due to the fact that a large number of people were working from home and using online services during the pandemic, the capacity of cybercriminals to exploit emerging opportunities and vulnerabilities increased significantly. In most cases, citizens have outdated cybersecurity systems in their homes, or they do not have them at all. Cybercriminals are preying on the opportunity to take advantage of this situation and are focusing even more on cybercrime activities. The study contains data from global reports and press releases on digital threats during the pandemic. The work identified sustainable trends in digital crime in the period of the pandemic, among them: 1) mass cyber-attacks on recently (and often quickly) deployed remote access infrastructure or remote work infrastructure; 2) the growth of phishing attacks and malware distribution due to the growth of the digital audience; 3) adaptation of «classic» fraud schemes using social engineering methods; 4) attacks and hacking of digital communication platforms («Zoombombing»); 5) the growth of criminal phenomena in online games; 6) increased demand and distribution of pornographic materials through social networks, encrypted applications and the DarkNet. A number of preventive measures to reduce the impact of digital crime during the pandemic are proposed.

Do sanctuary policies increase crime? Contrary evidence from a county-level investigation in the United States

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has rolled out a series of programs that leverage local and state resources to detain and deport undocumented immigrants. There is little understanding, however, about the public safety consequences of mobilizing local police to enforce immigration law. I use ICE administrative records, Uniform Crime Reports, and American Community Survey population estimates to investigate whether and under what circumstances local immigration enforcement is associated with property crime and violent crime. Results show that crime trends in sanctuary and non-sanctuary counties were not significantly different in the first decade of the 2000s. However, after the proliferation of sanctuary practices around 2014, both property crime and violent crime decreased more in sanctuary counties than non-sanctuary counties, net of other predictors of crime. Further, a pooled cross-sectional analysis of 2013–2016 data shows that sanctuary practices strengthen the inverse relationship between proportion foreign-born Latino and property crime, and reverse the positive relationship between proportion native-born Latino and property crime. I theorize that this occurs because sanctuary practices encourage immigrant political integration, have positive spillover effects to non-immigrant Latinx communities, and increase social harmony.

Do Vigilante Groups Reduce Cartel-Related Violence? An Empirical Assessment of Crime Trends in Michoacán, Mexico

When the Knights Templar cartel targeted the people of Michoacán, vigilantes formed for protection. This study uses a paired sample t-test to investigate the effect that the emergence and subsequent removal of the vigilantes and their confrontational approach against the Knights Templar had on cartel-related crimes. Initially, homicides increased in vigilante areas, while kidnappings and extortions decreased. After vigilantes were removed, homicides and kidnappings increased, while extortions decreased. Government removal of vigilantes allowed for a power vacuum to ensue, allowing violence to increase. Therefore, violence initially increases with vigilante presence, then decreases, while increasing again once the group is removed.

CRIME ANALYSIS USING MACHINE LEARNING

Crimes are the significant threat to the humankind. as crimes are increasing at a rapid rate approach for identifying trends in crime. Our project can predict regions which have high probability for crime occurrence and can visualize crime prone areas by visual representation of data by bar graphs, pie charts etc. It speed up the classification of criminal activities by calculating the average accuracy rate .It uses crime data set and predicts the types of crimes in a particular area which help in Accurate results based on the predictive analysis of logistic regression. The objective would be train a model for prediction using logistic regression classification algorithm. Logistic regression used for classification problems and it is a predictive analysis algorithm based on concept of probability. Crime analysis project is a systematic approach for identifying trends in crime. .It uses crime data set and predicts the types of crimes in a particular area which help in Accurate results based on the predictive analysis of logistic regression.

Digitalization of Crime and Criminal Law

Russia's entry into the era of the information society entailed a significant transformation of the economy, the ways people communicate, the nature of social ties, which could not but affect crime. Representatives of the criminal community adopted quickly new information and communication technologies and moved a significant part of their illegal activities to the online space, as a result of which crime acquired qualitatively new characteristics. Digitalization has changed not only the qualitative parameters, but also the scale of crime. Crimes in the field of computer information in their volumes are many times higher (by how many orders of magnitude) than all other types of crimes taken together. Digitalization processes have had a significant impact on traditional segments of crime, including mercenary crime. In most cases, the object of mercenary encroachments is no longer things (including cash), but non-cash funds. And with the development, complexity and diversification of digital financial and quasi-financial turnover, new types of "disembodied" assets are becoming increasingly the subject of theft - cryptocurrency, consumer loyalty bonuses, virtual objects used by players in multiplayer online games. In accordance with this, the methods of theft are transformed inevitably. Illegal access to legally-protected computer information, malicious computer programs, and social engineering methods are used to steal non-cash money and intangible financial assets. Thus, the digitalization of the global economy and Russian society has changed radically the criminal landscape, the scale, structure and qualitative characteristics of crime. In fact, the criminal law should respond promptly to the ongoing transformations, properly take into account the new criminal reality, adapt to it, create new and adapt existing tools to counter illegal activities. However, the current criminal legislation clearly lags behind modern crime trends, which reduces its preventive and protective potential. The author comes to the disappointing conclusion that the adaptation of criminal legislation and law enforcement practice to counteract digital crime is slow, inconclusive and contradictory, showing the relevant problems on exact examples. From the author's point of view, modern criminological reality requires a change in the vectors of criminal policy, transformation of basic criminal law provisions and institutions, clarification of existing criminal law prohibitions and criminalization of new socially dangerous acts, i.e. a full-scale reform of criminal law.

Administrative data deficiencies plague understanding of the magnitude of rape-related crimes in Indian women and girls

BackgroundThis paper investigates trends in rape-related crimes against women and girls reported in the Indian administrative data from 2001 to 2018 to assess the burden of crime, describe sub-national variations, and highlight data gaps to address sexual violence effectively in India.MethodsData on five rape-related crimes were extracted from the annual reports of National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB), and included assault with the intent to outrage modesty of woman, rape, insult to the modesty of women, attempt to commit rape, and murder with rape/gang-rape. Rates for all categories combined, and for each crime were estimated for women and girls for India and its states. Trends for type of offender for rape, mean number of people arrested, and legal status of the cases was also assessed.ResultsThe rate of all rape-related crime increased from 11.6 in 2001 to 19.8 in 2018 per 100,000 women and girls. Most of the 70.7% increase in rate between 2001 and 2018 was post 2012 following a gang-rape and murder case in India’s capital. The largest proportion of crimes was recorded as assault with the intent to outrage modesty of the woman, followed by rape. The cited offender in rape cases was for the majority a close known person (44·3%) or other known person (43·1%). By the end of 2018, only 9·6% of the cases had completed trials, with acquittals in 73% cases.ConclusionsThe wide variations in the yearly crime rates at state-level highlighted significant issues in data quality including under-reporting, non-comparability, possible bias in data reporting in NCRB, definition of rape-related crime in India, and access in reporting of crimes. Addressing barriers to reporting, improving quality and scope of administrative data recorded on sexual violence is urgently needed for India to meet SDG targets of eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls.

PROPERTY CRIME INCIDENCE AND PATTERNS IN MALAYSIA FROM 2007 TO 2017

Crime is a social problem faced by all communities and ranges from property loss or damage to violent events such as murder and robbery. Crime trends are associated with many factors including mental health, unemployment rates, educational status and policing strategies. In this article, we provide property crime datasets for Malaysia from 2007 to 2017. The data were gathered from all reported cases at district police stations and contingent (state and federal territory levels) headquarters. This information was extracted from the Malaysian Police Reporting System (PRS) and divided into five categories; theft, car theft, motorcycle theft, van/lorry/heavy machinery theft and housebreaking. Overall, there were 1,361,320 property crime cases were reported from 2007 to 2017. Theft and motorcycle theft were observed to be the most common types of property crime in Malaysia. In general, property crime cases continue to decline from 163,317 cases in 2007 to only 77,562 in 2017 due to government initiatives and a proactive policing policy. The same downward trend in overall property crime was also observed at state and federal territory levels and is mainly due to a drop in the volume of theft and motorcycle theft cases.

“The darkest time in our history”: An analysis of news media constructions of liquor theft in Canada’s settler colonial context

In September 2018, there was a surge of news stories about liquor store theft in Winnipeg, Canada that resulted in public and political calls for action, and ultimately led to the introduction of a range of new security and surveillance measures at government owned liquor stores. This brief news cycle provided opportunities for various social actors, politicians, and authorities to make claims about the nature of crime and society more broadly. This article analyzes recent news media coverage of liquor store theft in Winnipeg, Canada and the social construction of an ostensibly new crime trend in the city: “brazen” liquor store thefts. We employ a qualitative content analysis of news articles about liquor store theft published in local Winnipeg news media between 2018 and 2020 (n = 147). Drawing on the social constructionist paradigm, and Fishman’s conceptualization of “crime waves,” we argue that the framing of liquor theft via news media reflects longstanding cultural tropes and myths about crime, as well as hinting at but never fully confronting, deeply engrained colonial and racialized stereotypes. This paper contributes to our understanding of the ways putative social problems are made intelligible in the media. We demonstrate how “crime waves” are shaped by and shape dominant tropes about crime, safety, and citizenship. We argue that something as mundane as liquor theft reveals much about the historical, colonial and social roots of crime in local and national contexts.

Stealing tires or copper wires? How the national incident-based reporting system changed how the Arlington, Texas, Police Department addresses larceny-thefts

ABSTRACT When the Arlington, Texas, Police Department (APD) began using the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), its understanding of local crime trends and the factors driving them was transformed. NIBRS has allowed APD to better identify the precise offences driving changes in more aggregated offence categories and to respond to crime more effectively. With larceny-theft as an example, we describe APD’s NIBRS transition, how it altered crime control strategy , and how it impacted APD’s responses to crime. This description serves as an example to the field of the value of NIBRS for developing effective crime prevention strategies and tactics. We also analyse APD’s NIBRS data for the years 2017 and 2018 to demonstrate other possible uses of these data that would allow law enforcement agencies to better understand the factors driving crime in their jurisdiction. We explain how this understanding can lead to more targeted and effective policing strategies and tactics.

The Implementation of Environmental Law Protection in Indonesia

The current condition of environmental law enforcement is not as expected. Environmental problems tend to accumulate, become complicated and even lead to threats to peace. Environmental law enforcement is still a bureaucrat/government discourse, not yet leading to concrete action. The government has also not synchronized economic, social and ecological elements in every development policy, so it is seen that many policies issued by the government are detrimental to environmental interests, such as the issuance of Government Regulation No. 1 of 2004 concerning the policy of granting mining concessions in protected forests, to 13 mining companies, where this provision is contrary to Law no. 41 of 1999 concerning Forestry which prohibits mining activities in protected forests. The lack of success in enforcing environmental law is also due to irregularities in the process of enforcing environmental law, this can be seen in the application of Article 30 (2) of Law no. 23 of 1997 concerning Environmental Management which states that the settlement of disputes outside the court as referred to in paragraph (1) does not apply to environmental crimes as stipulated in this law or in other words to environmental crimes cannot be resolved through ADR , but in practice the provisions of Article 30 (2) of Law no. 23 of 1997 concerning Environmental Management is often violated or deviated. From criminal politics, the increase in criminal acts in the environmental sector is due to, among other things, development projects and programs that are planned and implemented at the local, regional and national levels, ignoring/not paying attention to environmental factors, not based on accurate research and estimates of developments or crime trends both now and in the future. the purpose of this research is to find out how far the implementation of environmental protection laws is.

Crime, justice and criminology in the Republic of Ireland

This country survey examines the core Irish criminal justice institutions; basic trends in crime and punishment over the last 50 years; and critical junctures in the debate over law and order in recent decades. Using an earlier country survey by O’Donnell (2005a ) as a baseline, it charts the significant growth of the discipline of criminology within Ireland. The article argues that Irish criminal justice retains a distinctively local flavour and highlights the promise of Irish criminology in many key areas of contemporary interest.

A Study on the Analysis of Foreigner’s Crime Trends and Improvement Measures

이 연구는 한국 사회의 지속적인 경제성장과 더불어 대외개방 정책에 의해 본격적인 국제화·세계화 시대의 국가 간 교류 협력 다변화에 따른 세계적인 추세에 한국 사회도 빠르게 변모하여 다문화적인 사회형태가 나타나게 되었다. 이를 보여주듯 외국인 비율이 전체 인구의 5%대에 육박하고 있고 당분간 외국인 유입은 지속적으로 증가할 것이다. 전 세계적인 동향으로 다양한 외국인들의 국내외 출입과 이주 노동자와 체류자·불법체류자의 증가, 국적취득과 영주자격자의 증가 및 다문화사회 전환으로 인한 외국인 범죄가 속출하고 있으며, 이러한 흐름에 바람직한 사회통합을 위한 정책과 방안에 대해 논의가 진행되고 있으나 혼란과 갈등을 겪고 있다. 이에 증가하는 외국인 범죄에 대한 개선방안을 제시하고자 한다. 이를 위해 외국인 범죄에 관한 선행연구와 통계, 분석자료를 연구에 활용하였다. 세계화 과정 속에서 지속 증가될 외국인과 이들에 대한 범죄 감소와 예방을 위한 정책과 관리기관의 적극적인 활동을 통한 대응이 절실히 필요하다.

Crime and deviance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID‐19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world and inevitably influenced people's behaviors including the likelihood of crime and deviance. Emerging empirical evidence suggests a decline in certain crimes (e.g., theft, robbery, and assault) but also proliferation of different violent behaviors and cybercriminal activity during the pandemic. To explain those trends, we draw on existent theories and elaborate on how crime and violence have been affected by the changes in people's daily routines and accumulated stressful conditions. However, as recent crime trends appear to be largely inconsistent and vary across social groups and contexts, we argue that social scientists need to pay particular attention to the differential experiences related to crime and violence during this global crisis. Specifically, because of the disproportionate experience of violence by vulnerable groups including minorities and women as well as the unique cross‐national variations in deviance, more nuanced approaches to understanding causes of crime are warranted. We also discuss the limitations of present research and provide recommendations for the development of comparative and multi‐disciplinary studies on criminal and deviant behaviors that are influenced by human crisis situations.

Child Sexual Abuse Material Online: The Perspective of Online Investigators on Training and Support

AbstractThe development of online technologies in recent decades has led to the proliferation of the distribution, consumption, and sale of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online. This trend has arguably also contributed to the sexual abuse of children offline. In this context, many organizations, including financial institutions and police agencies, have invested human, financial, and technological resources to address this problem. Combining statistics on recent crime trends with data collected from online police investigators suggests the critical need for this phenomenon to be taken more seriously on a global scale. Using data obtained from interviews conducted with online CSAM police investigators across several Australian police agencies, this study presents a detailed view of what is needed to best support police work in this domain. The most frequent responses obtained from investigators grouped around three dimensions: (1) knowledge and skills related to the tools used during investigations, such as computers, information technology, the Internet, and legislations; (2) knowledge related to offenders, how they operate, and how investigators should interact with them virtually; and (3) mental health wellbeing of investigators.

Is Campus a Place of (In)Security and Crime? Perceptions and Predictors among Higher Education Students.

This paper addresses subjective insecurity, namely perceptions of (in)security and criminal variables on campus among Portuguese higher education students. Additionally, predictors of perceptions of (in)security and gender differences were also examined. The participants were 775 students and data were collected through the “Diagnosis of Local Security Questionnaire”. Robbery, physical assault, theft, and sexual offenses were the most feared crimes. Additionally, robbery, theft, and public property damage were perceived as the most common on campus. Alcohol/drug consumption and juvenile conflicts/delinquency were the main reasons justifying criminal occurrences. Sociodemographic variables such as gender, age, education, and years of campus attendance, as well as criminal variables (e.g., perceived trend of crime, criminal occurrences, and crime promoters) predicted perceptions of (in)security. Females reported more fear than males of robbery, sexual offenses, physical aggression, and domestic violence. Therefore, preventive measures, including in the social domain and physical spaces, are mandatory to reduce violence on campus.

A Summary of the Crimes of Street Political Violence among Young People

Street political violence crimes occur frequently all over the world, especially in western countries, among which there are many shadows of youth. Even in some incidents, youth is the most active group causing social unrest. In the youth street political violence crimes, young people gather illegally in the streets, and even commit violent crimes such as beating, smashing, looting and burning. The development trend of street political violence crimes by young people is often traceable, expanding rapidly across regions, the subjective purpose of crimes is complicated, and a variety of criminal means are used alternately. There are many reasons for the occurrence of youth street political violence crimes, among which there are not only internal reasons the lack of national security prevention ability, but also external factors such as the instigation and planning of the external reactionary forces and the fuel of media network, as well as individual reasons such as the youth s self-demand can not be realized and the youth is easily bewitched because of lack of rationality. In addition, the backward means of crime detection and prevention and the lack of crisis management and control ability are the important reasons for the expansion of crime consequences. Therefore, all parties should constantly consolidate the guarantee foundation of national security, take the initiative to occupy ideological and political positions, improve the security risk early warning system, improve the crisis management and control system, and enhance the level and capacity of safeguarding national security.

Psychometric Challenges in the Measurement of Constructs Underlying Criminal Responsibility in Children and Young Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study.

At present, many countries have lowered the minimum age of criminal responsibility to deal with the trend of juvenile crime. In practical terms, whether countries advocate for lowering the age of criminal responsibility along with early puberty, or regulating the minimum age of juvenile criminal responsibility through their policies, their deep-rooted hypothesis is that age is tied to adolescents’ psychological growth, and, with the rise in age, the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy gradually improves. With this study, we aimed to test whether this hypothesis is valid. The participants were 3,208 students from junior high school, senior high school, and freshman in the S province of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We subjected the gathered materials to independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), linear regression analysis, and Bonferroni post hoc test. The influence of the age variable upon dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy was significant (p = 0.002, p = 0.000, p = 0.072), but only empathy was positively correlated with age variable (B = 0.032); dialectical thinking ability (B = −0.057), and self-control ability (B = −0.212) were negatively correlated with the age variable. Bonferroni post hoc test confirmed these findings. Therefore, we concluded the following: (1) Juvenile criminal responsibility, based on the capacity for dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy, is not positively correlated with age. (2) Age is not the only basis on which to judge a juvenile’s criminal responsibility. (3) More research that directly links age differences in brain structure and function to age differences in legally relevant capacities and capabilities(e.g., dialectical thinking, self-control, and empathy) is needed. (4) Political countries should appropriately raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility and adopt the doli incapax principle in the judicial process.

Do high value target strikes reduce cartel-related violence? An empirical assessment of crime trends in Tijuana, Mexico

Do high value target strikes reduce cartel-related violence? An empirical assessment of crime trends in Tijuana, Mexico