Crime Use Research Articles

Purchaser, firearm, and retailer characteristics associated with crime gun recovery: a longitudinal analysis of firearms sold in California from 1996 to 2021

BackgroundFirearm violence is a major cause of death and injury in the United States. Tracking the movement of firearms from legal purchase to use in crimes can help inform prevention of firearm injuries and deaths. The last state-wide studies analyzing crime gun recoveries used data from over 20 years ago; thus, an update is needed.MethodsWe used data for 5,247,348 handgun and 2,868,713 long gun transactions and law enforcement recoveries from California crime gun recovery (2010–2021) and California’s Dealer Records of Sales records. Covariates included characteristics of dealership sales, firearms and their transactions, and purchaser’s demographic characteristics, purchasing history, criminal history (from firearm purchaser criminal history records), and neighborhood socioeconomic status. Analyses for handguns and long guns was conducted separately. In multivariable analysis, we included correlates into a Cox proportional hazard model accounting for left truncation and clustering between the same firearm, purchaser, dealerships, and geographic location. Covariates that remained significant (P < 0.05) were retained. For handguns, we evaluated associations of violent and weapons crimes separately. In supplementary analyses, we examined interactions by purchasers’ race and ethnicity.ResultsIn total, 38,441 handguns (0.80%) and 6,806 long guns (0.24%) were recovered in crimes. A firearm dealer’s sales volume, percent of transactions that were denials, pawns, pawn redemptions, and firearms that became crime guns were each positively associated with firearm recovery in crime. Handguns that were inexpensive, larger caliber, and that had been reported lost or stolen were positively associated with recovery in crimes. Purchaser characteristics associated with crime gun recovery included: being younger, female, Black, Hispanic, Native American or Pacific Islander, or other race/ethnicity (vs white), having previous arrests, living in close proximity to the firearm dealership, and living in a more socially vulnerable census tract. Associations with race and ethnicity were modified by previous infraction-only arrests.ConclusionsThis study confirms that many previously studied correlates of firearm recovery are still relevant today. We were able to expand on previous research by examining novel associations including purchasers’ criminal history and previous firearm transaction history. These results provide evidence that can be used to disrupt firearm use in crimes.

El Uso de Técnicas de Neutralización en Condenados por Crimen Organizado. Diferencias entre Integrantes del Núcleo y la Periferia

The purpose of the article is to find out the way people convicted of organized crime use neutralization techniques to avoid blame for their crimes and if there is a difference in their use between members of the organization’s core and periphery. The study was carried out with seven out of the nine members of the same organization convicted of drug trafficking. In-depth triangulated interviews with police information and court documents were used. Inmates make extensive use of techniques to justify their conduct by questioning the legal norm and attributing responsibility to external circumstances such as “having no other way out”. Members of periphery use fewer techniques, and on fewer occasions, than those of core, and they are the only ones to assume responsibility for the crime committed.

Criminal law characteristics of mass destruction weapons as a criminal offense constructive objective feature (Articles 439, 440 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine)

The norms of international and national legislation, which determine the definition and meaning of the concept of mass destruction weapons, as well as each of its components – chemical, biological (in particular, toxin) and nuclear weapons – have been studied. It has been established that a constructive objective feature of the crimes provided for in Articles 439 and 440 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine is not any weapon of mass destruction, but only those prohibited by international treaties, the consent of which is binding on the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Considering that the highest body of the legislative power of Ukraine has not ratified the international treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations on July 7, 2017, the position of the scientists who believe that as part of the crime of “use of mass destruction weapons” (Article 439 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), nuclear weapons are not part of the concept of “weapons of mass destruction” has been supported.&#x0D; Doctrinal approaches to distinguishing the object, means and instrument of committing a criminal offense have been considered, on the basis of which it has been concluded that the object of the crime is a “passive” feature of the composition of the criminal offense, it is characterized by a criminal influence on it in the form of action or inaction, its properties are provided by the subject of the crime use in the more or less distant future. Weapons of mass destruction as part of the criminal offense provided for in Art. 440 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, is the subject of this crime.&#x0D; The means of committing the crime is an “active” feature of the composition of the criminal offense, its properties are used by the criminal to create favorable conditions and facilitate the implementation of the illegal act. The instrument of the crime is also an “active” feature of its composition. Its properties are always used by the criminal directly when committing the crime to cause or threaten to cause significant damage to the object of criminal law protection. As part of the criminal offense provided for in Art. 439 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, weapons of mass destruction are the means of committing this crime.

Banishing justice: Extradition limits in the United States

AbstractArrest warrants are an important and pervasive aspect of crime and justice in the United States. There are nearly three million arrest warrants active on any given day, of which several hundred thousand were issued for serious violent crimes (SVCs) such as aggravated assault, robbery, forcible sexual assault, and homicide. In more than a third of those SVC warrants, however, extradition is conditionally waived such that an offender can avoid arrest by leaving town; they can elect banishment over prosecution. Studying extradition limits among these serious offenses presents an opportunity to illuminate both a challenge to public safety and justice, as well as forces underlying discretionary decision making by police. To that end, we study all arrest warrants issued in the United States for SVCs between 2017 and 2019. We model banishment rates at the county‐level within a multivariate negative binomial framework. Analyses showed banishment varied as a function of policing capacity, firearm use in crimes, racial composition, and voting behavior during the 2016 presidential election.

Modeling Local-Scale Violent Crime Rate: A Comparison of Eigenvector Spatial Filtering Models and Conventional Spatial Regression Models

Environmental factors have both direct and indirect impacts on crime behavior decision making. This study aimed to examine to what degree the occurrences of violent crimes can be affected by social and built environment over space. Although a few studies have attempted to model crime rate using spatial regression models, there is a lack of comparison of spatial regression models. Particularly, the eigenvector spatial filtering type of spatial regression models has reportedly been effective in urban and regional studies, but it has not been widely applied to crime data. In this study, we aimed to examine whether the spatial filtering type of spatial regression models outperforms conventional types of spatial regression models in modeling violent crime rates over space. Moreover, we aimed to investigate the impacts of land use mix and street connectivity on the occurrences of violent crimes as the routine activity theory explained. In empirical studies, two types of spatial regression models (i.e., spatial error model and eigenvector spatial filtering model) were selected and estimated successfully to model local-scale violent crime rates across New York City. The eigenvector spatial filtering models outperform the spatial error models as well as the nonspatial models. Model estimation results show that occurrences of violent crimes (i.e., assaults and robberies) can be well determined by socioeconomic and built environment factors and thereby environmental factors can affect the occurrences of violent crimes. The contributions of socioeconomic and built environment factors to violent crime can offer insights on urban planning and policymaking toward violent crime prevention. Particularly, this study offers new evidence on the routine activity theory that increasing land use mix and street connectivity can enhance street activity, thereby reducing occurrences of violent crimes. Policymakers and urban planners should continue to enhance street activity through increasing land use mix and street connectivity. In addition, eigenvector spatial filtering models are advocated for use in crime or other applications in urban and regional studies.

When Overt Research Feels Covert: Researching Women and Gangs in a Context of Silence and Fear

This paper discusses the tension between ethics in theory and ethics in practice, along the continuum of overt and covert field research. I argue that complete overt research is not only unfeasible, but can even be dangerous or harmful to the people we research and the researcher. Within this discussion it can be stated that the formal standardized requirements of the ethics committees actually undermine our ability to act ethically. For this reason, I argue that there is a need to focus on a virtues based approach and reflective stance regarding ethics in the field. I use the case of Honduras, where I conducted field research on the role of women and gangs, to discuss this argument. High levels of insecurity in Honduras create a context of fear which prescribes certain rules of engagement with the wider political economy of violence, and specifically on community interactions with gangs (Hume 2009a; Wilding 2012). My research shows that there is a silent agreement among the people living in neighborhoods with gang presence not to engage in gang-related discussions. Local organizations also prescribe a strict code of conduct in the field, which prohibits the use of crime, violence and other related concepts. This raises key practical and ethical questions for researchers, not least – how do we research that which is silenced? The aim of the paper is to critically discuss the relation between university ethics processes – ethics ‘in theory’ – and street ethics or ethics ‘in practice’, when conducting (participatory) observation in urban neighborhoods and prisons in Honduras.

PERKEMBANGAN MODUS OPERANDI KEJAHATAN SKIMMING DALAM PEMBOBOLAN MESIN ATM BANK SEBAGAI BENTUK KEJAHATAN DUNIA MAYA (CYBERCRIME)

The development of technology and the internet does not always produce positive things. Negative things that are side effects include the crime of skimming (theft of customer data) which is one type of crime in cyberspace. Lately Indonesia is enlivened with breaking ATM news that occurred in various regions in Indonesia. The customers suddenly lose their account balance due to being burglarized by irresponsible people. ATM piercing technique is known as ATM Skimmer Scan technique. ATM machine piercing (Automated Teller Machine) using Skimmer, which is a customer data thieves. The modus operandi of bank breakers is installing skimmer in ATM mouth. After the customer data obtained, the perpetrator just insert into the ATM card. burglars will freely drain the customer's money. Problems that arise is the development of modus operandi crime skimming in the case of bank burglary bank as a form of cybercrime (cybercrime) And Efforts / Legal Steps in Tackling Crime Use of Information Systems and Electronic Transactions. This research is legal research using conceptual approach and statue approach which will review Law Number 11 Year 2008 regarding Information and Electronic Transaction. Based on the method used, it is known that the modus operandi of criminal skimming in ATM bankruptcy as a form of cyber crime and the application of article in Law Number 11 Year 2008 regarding Information and Electronic Transaction as an effort / step in tackling the crime of Information System Use and Electronic Transactions.

The Last Link: from Gun Acquisition to Criminal Use.

Guns that are used in crime and recovered by the police typically have changed hands often since first retail sale and are quite old. While there is an extensive literature on "time to crime" for guns, defined as the elapsed time from first retail sale to known use in a crime, there is little information available on the duration of the "last link"-the elapsed time from the transaction that actually provided the offender with the gun in question. In this article, we use data from the new Chicago Inmate Survey (CIS) to estimate the duration of the last link. The median is just 2months. Many of the gun-involved respondents to the CIS (42%) did not have any gun 6months prior to their arrest for the current crime. The CIS respondents were almost all barred from purchasing a gun from a gun store because of their prior criminal record-as a result, their guns were obtained by illegal transactions with friends, relatives, and the underground market. We conclude that more effective enforcement of the laws governing gun transactions may have a quick and pervasive effect on gun use in crime.

Hot Potato Criminology: Ethnographers and the Shame of Poor People's Crimes

When ethnographers study street crime, they anticipate that readers might shame them for shaming the poor. One common response is to compromise the quality of ethnographic data. Another is to pass righteous indignation away from the poor by arguing the causal significance of deindustrialization, class inequalities, racial prejudice, policing, colonialism, or hostility toward immigrants. Almost always, such arguments are gratuitous: The evidence for the structural and historical causes offered by ethnographers does not vary with the situational and biographical variations in behavior that make for high-quality ethnographic data. Nevertheless, if we read around the rhetorical practices that contemporary ethnographers of crime use to shift shame away from their subjects and themselves, we learn how street crime is produced through small criminogenic social circles. Considered as a set, recent ethnographies have significantly advanced knowledge about the social psychology of criminality, and they provide promising leads for improving the understanding of variations in crime patterns over time and across metropolitan spaces.

The K-Y Protocol: The First Protocol for The Regulation of Crypto Currencies (E.G.-Bitcoin)

Crypto currencies like Bitcoin are gaining prominence as a medium of exchange. They have several benefits like very low transaction cost, fungibility etc. But Crypto currencies are also identified with their use in crimes, illegal activities and speculation. Part of the reason for their prominence as well as notoriety is the fact that they have no Sovereign Backing whatsoever and also because they are decentralized. To make Crypto currencies acceptable by the people and also curb their misuse, the authors have proposed a protocol containing a set of standards and procedures. By using this procedure, any nation can create its own Sovereign Backed crypto currency called NationCoin. A commission will be established which will hold a certain quantum of money loaned by the Government. This loaned money will provide the Sovereign backing to the Crypto Currency. A Controlled Block Chain Protocol is used. The Genesis Block of several NationCoins is then provided to the banks in the country to use them for interbank settlements. These Interbank transactions will lead to the mining (generation) of additional NationCoins by the commission which will hold it without releasing it to the public. Once there are sufficient numbers of NationCoins so as to be equal to the loaned amount unit-for-unit, it shall be released to the public for use.

Developing a Crime Mapping GIS System For Law Enforcement: A Case Study of Owerri Metropolis, Nigeria

This paper examines the use of GIS in the development of a crime analysis information system for the Nigeria police. In recent times, criminality has been on the increase with criminals using new and more sophisticated ways to commit crime; resulting to fear and restlessness among the citizens. They police have found it difficult to manage and control these crimes largely due to the obsolete methods and resources they employ in doing so. The purpose of this study is to see how the Nigerian Police Force can adopt the use of crime maps in its operations and reap the benefits. The system will help the police in the analysis of crimes which will lead to crime hotspots identification. Using ArcGIS Software 10.0, we created a digital land use map of crime hotspots in the area and a crime-geospatial database. The results of the spatial analysis and a 500m buffering done on the data shows that areas that are more vulnerable to crime, have no police stations situated around them. This study shows that a GIS based Information system will give the police better insights into crime mapping and analysis which will be a tool to help them effectively manage and combat crime. This study recommends full government involvement in the area of human personnel and infrastructure development for the police to effectively change from the traditional to GIS based ways of combating crime.

The Great American Gun War: Notes from Four Decades in the Trenches

In this essay I provide an account of how research on gun violence has evolved over the last four decades, intertwined with personal observations and commentary on my contributions. It begins with a sketch of the twentieth century history of gun control in the United States. I then provide an account of why gun violence is worth studying, with a discussion of how and why the type of weapon used in crime matters, and assess the social costs of the widespread private ownership of firearms. I then detour into the methodological disputes over estimating basic facts relevant to understanding gun use and misuse. In Section IV, I focus on how gun availability influences the use of guns in crime and whether the incidence of misuse is influenced by the prevalence of gun ownership, regulations, and law enforcement. I go on to review evaluations of efforts to focus law enforcement directly at gun use in violent crime. Next I turn to the hottest topic of our day, the role of guns in self-defense and what might be deemed private deterrence. The conclusion summarizes the claims and counterclaims concerning gun regulation and asks, finally, if there is the possibility of an influential role for scientific research in the policy debate.

Terrorism Life Cycle and Criminalisation: Implcations for Curbing Insurgency in India

Three main perspectives on the Naxalite issue are prevalent in India. The first is the security or ‘law and order’ perspective prominent within the police and the government establishment which equates Naxalites with terrorists. The second is the ‘root causes’ perspective, where socio-economic issues are viewed as the primer to the movement. The third perspective which is held by the Naxalites and their sympathizers sees the movement as fallout of structural violence. Appropriate and successful address of the root causes, which could extend over a decade or more and the consequent petering out of the insurgency, represents the best case scenario in a simplistic counter insurgency framework. However a combination of inadequately addressed root cause(s) and resort to criminal activities by insurgents seem to threaten this paradigm of conflict resolution. Crime provides access to contraband, particularly difficult to procure weapons, and disproportionate profits. An insurgent movement may adopt criminal means as a of resource augmentation at any stage of its life cycle. Even an insurgency which has abjured crime for a major part of its life cycle might take to it at a stage when the government counter-strategy is gaining the upper hand and movement is beginning to flag. At this point in time (if it has not done so earlier) the ideology will justify adopting criminal acts for the cause. An insurgency’s resort to terror as a tactic to achieve its political aims and use of crime as a source of finance; creates that possibility for it to transform into a terror-crime entity to survive, at a stage in its life cycle when it losses popular support to the government. It is a reality that India faces in the case of insurgencies in Punjab and Nagaland. Hence severing the terror-crime relationship should form an important component of a State’s counter-insurgency strategy and accordingly policing aspect must be accorded consideration it merits. This paper draws lessons from the Shining Path insurgency in Peru to provide policy pointers in preventing insurgencies from transforming into terror-crime entities for survival, on losing mass support.

Erratum to: Factors Affecting a Recently Purchased Handgun’s Risk for Use in Crime under Circumstances That Suggest Gun Trafficking

Erratum to: Factors Affecting a Recently Purchased Handgun’s Risk for Use in Crime under Circumstances That Suggest Gun Trafficking

Firearm Retailers’ Willingness to Participate in an Illegal Gun Purchase

Firearm-related violence is a significant public health and public safety problem for cities in the USA, and licensed firearm retailers are an important source of the guns used in that violence. Using a scripted telephone interview, we screened a sample of licensed retailers in California to assess their willingness to participate in the surrogate or “straw” purchase of a handgun; such purchases are illegal under federal law. Of 149 retailers who provided a response, 30 (20.1%) agreed to participate. In multivariate analysis, pawnbrokers were more likely to agree than were gun dealers (odds ratio 6.58, 95% confidence interval 1.99–21.71). Sales of handguns that were later subjected to ownership tracing (a proxy measure for a gun’s use in crime) were not more frequent among retailers who agreed to participate than among others, and other findings were unexpected as well.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11524-010-9489-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Governing through crime — the case of the European Union

In Governing through Crime , Jonathan Simon offers an ‘interpretation’ of contemporary practices, discourses and experiences of the state in the USA that aims to provide a ‘thick’ account of the use of crime as a governance strategy. In support of his argument, he cites a variety of constitutional, cultural, economic, historical, political and social factors. Many of them are demonstrably US-specific. Therefore, any potential for exploring the application of his ideas to another governmental entity might appear to be precluded. This article challenges that supposition, investigating their possible relevance to an understanding of the European Union’s evolving, and increasingly significant, role as a penal actor.

Factors Affecting a Recently Purchased Handgun’s Risk for Use in Crime under Circumstances That Suggest Gun Trafficking

While many handguns are used in crime each year in the USA, most are not. We conducted this study to identify factors present at the time of a handgun’s most recent retail sale that were associated with its subsequent use in crime under circumstances suggesting that the handgun had been trafficked—purchased with the intent of diverting it to criminal use. Handguns acquired in multiple-gun purchases were of particular interest. Using data for 180,321 handguns purchased from federally licensed retailers in California in 1996, we studied attributes of the handguns, the retailers selling them, the purchasers, and the sales transactions. Our outcome measure was a handgun’s recovery by a police agency, followed by a gun ownership trace, conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, that determined (a) that the recovery had occurred within 3 years of the handgun’s most recent purchase from a licensed retailer and (b) that the person who possessed the gun when it was recovered by police was not its most recent purchaser. Altogether, 722 handguns were recovered and had trace results that met the additional criteria. Handguns acquired in multiple-gun, same-day transactions were more likely to be traced than were single-purchase handguns (odds ratio [OR] 1.33, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.08 to 1.63). This was not the case for multiple-purchase handguns defined more broadly as multiple handguns purchased by one individual over any 30-day period as used in “one-gun-a-month” laws. Bivariate regressions indicated increased risk of a handgun being traced when it sold new for $150 or less (OR 4.28, 95% CI 3.59 to 5.11) or had been purchased by a woman (OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.62 to 2.52). Handguns sold by retailers who also had a relatively high proportion (≥2%) of purchases denied because the prospective purchasers were prohibited from owning firearms were more likely to be traced than were those sold by other retailers (OR 4.09, 95% CI 3.39 to 4.94). These findings persisted in multivariate analyses. Our findings suggest specific strategies for intervention to prevent gun violence.

Evolving and combining facial composites: Between-witness and within-witness morphs compared.

Student participant-witnesses produced 4 composites of unfamiliar faces with a system that uses a genetic algorithm to evolve appearance of artificial faces. Morphs of 4 composites produced by different witnesses (between-witness morphs) were judged better likenesses (Experiment 1) and were more frequently named (Experiment 2) by participants who were familiar with the target actors than were morphs of 4 composites produced by a single witness (within-witness morphs). Within-witness morphs were judged better likenesses and more frequently named than the best or the first-produced individual composites. The same results for likeness judgments were observed after possible artifacts in the comparison of between- and within-witness morphs were eliminated (Experiment 3). Experiment 4 showed that both internal and external features were better represented in morphs than in the original composites, although the representation of internal features improved more. The results suggest that morphing improves the representation of faces by reducing random error. Between-witness morphs yield more benefit than within-witness morphs by reducing consistent but idiosyncratic errors of individual witnesses. The experiments provide the first demonstration of an advantage for within-witness morphs produced using a single system. Experiment 2 provides the first demonstration of a reliable advantage for between-witness morphs in the most forensically relevant task: naming a composite of a familiar person produced by a witness who was unfamiliar with the target. Morphing would enhance the recognition of facial composites of criminals. Within-witness morphing provides a methodology for use in crimes in which the victim is the only witness.

Corpses and Capital: Narratives of Gendered Violence in Two Costa Rican Novels

In a region prone to violence and political corruption, Costa Rica has been touted as an ecological paradise, a stable democracy, and an egalitarian society. However, Costa Rican fiction from the late twentieth century contests this idyllic image and presents instead a world of intrigue, violence, and criminality. El ano del laberinto (2000) by Tatiana Lobo and Cruz de olvido (1999) by Carlos Cortes are two novels that serve as an excellent introduction to developments in postwar fiction and scholarship from Central America. In my analysis, I first situate the novels in the context of Central American cultural and political developments in recent decades and then consider the linking of narrative, gender, and violence in the novels. My study centers on the authors' use of crime to challenge national myths and to deconstruct narratives that have been instrumental in constructing cherished national identities. Of particular importance is the depiction of gendered bodies and the violence practiced upon them, as well as the politics surrounding bodies and violence in national narratives and in the authors' contemporary stories. This article is available in Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature: http://newprairiepress.org/sttcl/vol32/iss1/7 Corpses and Capital: Narratives of Gendered Violence in Two Costa Rican Novels Laura Barbas Rhoden Wofford College For many audiences, Central America is a peripheral place, relevant for its revolutions in the 1970s and 1980s and for the free trade debates of globalization. In discussions outside the isthmus, Central America is most famous for its political unrest, natural disasters, and perhaps for the culture wars surrounding Rigoberta Menchu’s testimony. Few are aware that in recent decades, Central America has faced dramatic changes, including debt crises, social turmoil, and mass migration to the United States and other countries. Fewer still are aware of the wealth of literature from Central America or of the energetic debates about cultural studies and politics among scholars and authors from the region. Two recent novels from Costa Rica serve as an excellent introduction to developments in fiction and scholarship from the isthmus. They also make important contributions on the topic of gender politics and offer a new understanding of the relevance of Central American fiction in discussions of contemporary literature. In the last decades of the twentieth century, Central America faced the chaotic aftermath of several decades of civil war. The isthmus also experienced economic globalization driven by the neoliberal policies governments adopted in the post-war years. Costa Rica did not suffer the same debilitating civil conflicts as its neighbors, and the nation was one of the first to capitalize on the opportunities neoliberal policies seemed to offer. With no military, no revolutions, and no gun-toting opposition featured on international media outlets, the country drew the first Intel plant in Latin America. It also 1 Rhoden: Corpses and Capital: Narratives of Gendered Violence in Two Costa Published by New Prairie Press

BETTER GUN ENFORCEMENT, LESS CRIME*

Research Summary: Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which for the past several years has been the major federal initiative to combat gun violence, includes several elements (such as gun locks and other efforts to reduce gun availability) that research suggests are likely to have at best modest effects on gun crime. In general, enforcement activities targeted at the “demand side” of the underground gun market currently enjoy stronger empirical support. However much of PSN's budget has been devoted to increasing the severity of punishment, such as by federaliz-ing gun cases, which seems to be less effective than targeted street-level enforcement designed to increase the probability of punishment for gun carrying or use in crime. Policy Implications: PSN and other enforcement activities could be made more effective by redirecting resources toward activities such as targeted patrols against illegal gun carrying. Given the substantial social costs of gun violence, an efficiency argument can also be made for increasing funding beyond previous levels.