Global Crime Research Articles

Cooperation of Europol and Eurojust with External Partners in the Fight Against Crime: What are the Challenges Ahead?

The paper addresses the cooperation of Europol and Eurojust with external partners in the fight against crime. Like other EU Justice and Home Affairs agencies do within their respective mandates, Europol and Eurojust take part to the EU’s efforts to promote and strengthen cooperation with third countries and international organisations in criminal matters, and the tools and expertise they developed make them interesting and valuable partners with whom to cooperate. Their external activities are essential in the current criminal landscape, marked by the globalisation of crime and the necessity to conduct cross-border investigations and prosecutions involving non-EU countries. The issue also gains a new interest with the perspective of Brexit, as the question arises whether the negotiations on the future EU-UK relationship will allow the United Kingdom to continue to cooperate closely with the two agencies. The paper discusses the legal framework currently organising the modalities of Europol and Eurojust’s external cooperation, which is marked by the revision of their constitutive instruments in order to modernise them, and a move towards the harmonisation of the relevant provisions. The two agencies face two challenges that may limit their external activities: 1) the importance of diversity and variable geometry in their relations with both EU Member States and external partners, and 2) the need to ensure an appropriate balance between efficient cooperation and protection of fundamental rights. Concerning the latter, mechanisms of political and judicial accountability are particularly important to monitor the agencies’ external activities and ensure the absence of fundamental rights’ violations.

Governing illicit finance in transnational security spaces: the FATF and anti-money laundering

This article analyzes the global anti-money laundering (AML) regime from the perspective of security governance, examining the creation of a transnational security space by the FATF. Security is often mentioned as relevant context for AML measures, and the Financial Action Taskforce (FATF) as its central institution. Yet, most analyses – implicitly or explicitly – present the FATF as an important banking regulator. Arguing that this perspective on the FATF is too limited, the article outlines the changing security context in which AML emerged as an important tool for governance. Unlike traditional ideas of international security, the idea of security governance emphasizes new forms of cooperation to ensure safety and security across multiple levels. Based on International Relations (IR) and criminological research, the article develops a framework with five dimensions of security governance: a comprehensive security concept, multi-purpose rationalization, public-private cooperation, multi-nodal governance, and transnational security spaces as a result. Unlike other efforts of global crime governance, the global AML regime provides a prime example of security governance in all of these dimensions. At the same time, the link to security also explains why the global AML regime expanded in some areas more than in others: AML is still a weak governance instrument for regulating financial crimes such as tax evasion or corruption, but it is a strong one for security-related crimes. While the FATF remains a special case in global governance, the creation of transnational security spaces in AML – caused by FATF activities – is likely to be a model for future security governance in other fields.

Method of object identification of critical information infrastructure in aviation industry

In recent times all over the world the number of different emergency situations was increased. Every day mass media informs about natural and man-caused disasters, weapon conflicts, acts of terrorism, global crimes, acts of piracy that were committed by both crime organizations and single offenders. Increasingly frequently as a result of these events many people fall a victim and also state critical importance systems and resources can be damaged. According that, civil aviation industry requires special attention, just as there is need for continuous communication and interconnection between ground-based and aircrafts systems. Most of the world's leading states began to devote considerable attention to the methods and means of identifying, systematizing and securing critical infrastructure objects. Loss or operational breakdown of these objects can cause significant or irreparably damage for national security of the state. However, according to the analysis, the existing approaches to identifying and identifying infrastructure objects are not systemic and clearly formalized, are oriented only to certain sectors of the infrastructure and do not take into account the full range of parameters and features of the critical infrastructure, especially its information component. In view of this, in this work a method of object identification of critical information infrastructure is developed, which gives ability to determine the critical infrastructure elements, their mutual influence and influence on functional operations of the critical aviation information system. This method, as well as a software application developed on its basis, can be used for identification the objects of critical information infrastructure in different industries.

Needed to Regional Cooperation to Combat People Smuggling in Indonesian Waters

People smuggling is a growing global crime that exposes thousands of migrants to unacceptable risks and challenges the integrity of international borders. In the last two decades, globalization and conflicts have seen an increase international migration flows. People smuggling is not a new phenomenon in Indonesia. It has developed steadily over the last 10 years in response to the increased demands of asylum seekers and refugees attempting to reach Australia by boat. Among the convicted people smuggling organizers are a number of rejected asylum seekers who stayed on in Indonesia for years. Some smugglers are former refugees but now hold Australian citizenship, granted to them after regular resettlement. Indonesia recorded nine boat accidents involving 728 asylum seekers in 2012, while in the following year the number rose to 23 involving 615 victims. Operation Sovereign Borders and they turn-back-theboats policy from Australia, from December 2013 to March 2014, there were seven occurrences of boats being turned back to Indonesian waters. The result of research show that first, Indonesian government need regional cooperation to handling treated people smuggling in Indonesian waters. Regional cooperation would be a win-win solution for both countries. And second, the regional cooperation should be in line with prevailing Indonesian legislation.

Combatting the global crime of bribery: a report on Canadian foreign official anti-bribery policy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an updated review of Canadian foreign official anti-bribery policy.Design/methodology/approachTo achieve this objective, seven factors were examined. Several factors have been emphasized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and others are original.FindingsThe results indicate that while Canada is making progress towards strengthening its foreign official anti-bribery policy, significant weaknesses still remain.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature in this area by utilizing several new factors which attempt to gauge the effectiveness of foreign official anti-bribery policy.

Experimental study of method of determination the level of critical information infrastructure importance in the civil aviation

In recent times all over the world the number of different emergency situations was increased. Every day mass media informs about natural and man-caused disasters, weapon conflicts, acts of terrorism, global crimes, acts of piracy that were committed by both crime organizations and single offenders. Increasingly frequently as a result of these events many people falls a victim and also state critical importance systems and resources can be damaged. By this means most of world leader states have attended to methods and means of identifying, systematization and security assurance for critical infrastructure objects. Loss or operational breakdown of these objects can cause significant or irreparably damage for national security of the state. For adequacy security methods implementation it`s very important to determine the importance (criticality) level of state information infrastructure objects in some sector. In view of this the method of determination the level of the critical information infrastructure importance in the civil aviation was proposed and it gives a possibility to assess the importance level and rank critical aviation information systems both by both quantitative and qualitative parameters. Follow-up study contains proposed experimental technique and with help of this method adequacy was checked. It confirms ability to determine the importance level of different critical aviation information systems: information systems of air navigation service, aircraft board information systems, information systems of air companies and airports.

Poachers, Pirates and Wildlife Crime: Improving coordination of the global response

This article aims at identifying how the global response to poaching can be improved and what role South Africa might play in it. To do so, we examine the emerging global wildlife crime regime and the challenges it faces. To offer an understanding of how governance could be improved, we ask how the success in curbing another transnational crime can serve as an example of international coordination. Through a comparison, we aim at identifying core dimensions by which the coordination of counter-poaching can be improved. Our conclusion stresses the importance of a more focussed, inclusive and experimental account. We end in outlining a number of core issues that South Africa should start to consider in its policies towards wildlife crime.

The global crime drop and changes in the distribution of victimisation

Over three decades crime counts in England and Wales, as throughout the Western world, have fallen. Less attention has been paid to the distribution of crime across households, though this is crucial in determining optimal distribution of limited policing resources in pursuing the aim of distributive justice. The writers have previously demonstrated that in England and Wales the distribution of crime victimisation has remained pretty much unchanged over the period of the crime drop. The present paper seeks to extend the study of changes in the distribution of victimisation over time using data from 25 countries contributing data to the International Crime Victimisation Survey (ICVS) sweeps (1989–2000). While fragmentary, the data mirror the trends discerned in England and Wales. The trends are not an artefact of the inclusion of particular countries in particular sweeps. The demographic, economical, geographical and social household characteristics associated with victimisation are consistent across time. The suggested policy implication is the need for greater emphasis on preventing multiple victimisation.

Extradition: An Empirical Test of International Cooperation

Extradition is a critical component of transnational criminal law (Cullen and Burgess, 2015:208). Given the globalization of crime, extradition is becoming increasingly important to businesses, governments and individuals. For example, if a criminal embezzles corporate assets and flees the United States, the corporation, the U.S. government and shareholders will all benefit from an effective extradition regime. However, efficient extradition regimes could come at the cost of harming human rights and weakened protections for the accused (Cullen and Burgess, 2015:209). Accordingly, it is crucial that we have a nuanced understanding of extradition.Unfortunately, there is little empirical testing on the subject. For example, I am aware of only one study in Political Science and it is fairly limited; it only suggests that Democratic Peace Theory may help explain extradition (Wagner, 2003). On the other hand, there is some treatment of the matter in the legal and policy research. However, that research is primarily descriptive and often only focused on a particular country. Furthermore, although the policy and legal research are rich in detail and often in theory, they lack any quantifiable justification to substantiate many of their claims. For example, Pyle suggests that the United States has become “the long arm of foreign injustice” (Pyle, 2001:4). He claims that the United States extradites individuals to regimes that are undemocratic, where they will be afforded few protections. This is a serious concern; particularly since 10 to 20 percent of those extradited from the United States are United States’ citizens (Pyle, 2001:4). Although he cites a few instances where this is alleged to have happened, there is no systematic attempt to fully address the issue. Without a more in depth analysis, it is difficult to say whether the cases Pyle cites are idiosyncratic or whether they are endemic and signal U.S. complicity in corroding human rights. In this paper, I address Pyle’s assertion only indirectly and attempt to make more general claims. I do not consider whether individuals are extradited to particular countries; that is an issue of compliance and beyond the scope of this paper. Furthermore, this project is not per se a project on human rights. Rather I ask a more fundamental question: with whom do states commit to extradite? In this study, commitment is conceptualized as states signing bilateral extradition treaties. Although, admittedly imperfect, this is a good starting point to quantify extradition policy decisions. Furthermore, without a bilateral extradition agreement, extradition can be difficult and perhaps even impossible. For example, the United States does not extradite absent a bilateral treaty. Thus, Pyle’s concern is assuaged if the United States (or any democracy for that matter) is more likely to sign with other democracies than with non-democracies.Accordingly, the ultimate aim of this project is to uncover the factors that influence states’ decisions to sign extradition treaties. To accomplish this goal, I place extradition into an empirically based research program. Specifically, I adopt and modify several theories of Political Science and International Law to address issues of extradition. I begin with a discussion of the extant Political Science literature. This literature attempts to view extradition decisions as an extension of the democratic peace research agenda. I suggest that such an explanation may be incomplete because there are good reasons to believe that states consider more than shared democratic institutions in making their extradition decisions. In fact, this shortcoming is admitted. To address the problem, I offer a more general and comprehensive explanation. The model in its most distilled form is labeled as an opportunity\willingness model. This nomenclature was chosen so to create a common language from which social science and other disciplines, which do empirical research can understand extradition. Admittedly, many of the variables do not always fit neatly into either of these categories. Nevertheless, I adopt these terms, because in order to bring extradition into an empirically driven research program and to clarify its theoretical underpinnings, it is useful to have some common ground from which to move forward. Furthermore, most of my theoretical arguments focus on the willingness part of the equation. This is primarily because those arguments are more nuanced and allow me to better connect the social science literature to extradition. Additionally, in the opportunities section of the analysis, I focus mostly on legal systems. I do so because it allows me to introduce the reader to important extradition concepts, which may help future research.

Structural Determinants of Antiretroviral Therapy Use, HIV Care Attendance, and Viral Suppression among Adolescents and Young Adults Living with HIV.

BackgroundThe authors examined associations between structural characteristics and HIV disease management among a geographically diverse sample of behaviorally and perinatally HIV-infected adolescents and young adults in the United States.MethodsThe sample included 1891 adolescents and young adults living with HIV (27.8% perinatally infected; 72.2% behaviorally infected) who were linked to care through 20 Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions Units. All completed audio computer–assisted self-interview surveys. Chart abstraction or blood draw provided viral load data. Geographic-level variables were extracted from the United States Census Bureau (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantage, percent of Black and Latino households, percent rural) and Esri Crime (e.g., global crime index) databases as Zip Code Tabulation Areas. AIDSVu data (e.g., prevalence of HIV among youth) were extracted at the county-level. Using HLM v.7, the authors conducted means-as-outcomes random effects multi-level models to examine the association between structural-level and individual-level factors and (1) being on antiretroviral therapy (ART) currently; (2) being on ART for at least 6 months; (3) missed HIV care appointments (not having missed any vs. having missed one or more appointments) over the past 12 months; and (4) viral suppression (defined by the corresponding assay cutoff for the lower limit of viral load at each participating site which denoted nondetectability vs. detectability).ResultsFrequencies for the 4 primary outcomes were as follows: current ART use (n = 1120, 59.23%); ART use for ≥6 months (n = 861, 45.53%); at least one missed HIV care appointment (n = 936, 49.50); and viral suppression (n = 577, 30.51%). After adjusting for individual-level factors, youth living in more disadvantaged areas (defined by a composite score derived from 2010 Census indicators including percent poverty, percent receiving public assistance, percent of female, single-headed households, percent unemployment, and percent of people with less than a high school degree) were less likely to report current ART use (OR: 0.85, 95% CI: 0.72–1.00, p = .05). Among current ART users, living in more disadvantaged areas was associated with greater likelihood of having used ART for ≥6 months. Participants living in counties with greater HIV prevalence among 13–24 year olds were more likely to report current ART use (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.05–1.65, p = .02), ≥6 months ART use (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.05–1.65, p = .02), and to be virally suppressed (OR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.20–1.87, p = .001); however, youth in these areas were also more likely to report missed medical appointments (OR: 1.32, 95% CI: 1.07–1.63, p = .008).ConclusionsThe findings underscore the multi-level and structural factors associated with ART use, missed HIV care appointments, and viral suppression for adolescents and young adults in the United States. Consideration of these factors is strongly recommended in future intervention, clinical practice, and policy research that seek to understand the contextual influences on individuals’ health behaviors.

From Legal Translation to Legal Globalization: Globalization of Criminal Laws to Counter Global Crimes

From Legal Translation to Legal Globalization: Globalization of Criminal Laws to Counter Global Crimes

EU initiatives along the ‘cocaine routes’ to Europe: Fighting drug trafficking and terrorism by proxy?

While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU’s relations with neighboring countries, less attention has been given to the ways in which the EU is partnering with third countries to fight other central ′‘unconventional security threats′’, such as terrorism and drug trafficking. This article traces the evolution of EU cooperation on these two issues with countries along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe, i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean and West Africa. A mapping of EU initiatives and cooperation reveals that not only can a securitization of EU cooperation be observed in both regions, but various ′‘unconventional security threats′’, perceived in geopolitical terms, seem increasingly to serve as drivers for EU external action. The modalities of EU support – through international and regional organizations as well as third countries’ own counter-crime and counter-terrorism capabilities – suggest that the Union is fighting drug trafficking and terrorism ′‘by proxy′’. The article discusses whether the ′‘indirect′’ EU approach is a strategy of efficient engagement, or rather a way of avoiding commitment while portraying itself as a ′‘global crime fighter′’. Lastly, more analytical attention to third country interests, agency, and opposition is suggested in order for analyses to transcend the one-directional understanding of power seemingly underpinning the proxy concept.

Common Goods and Evils: The Formation of Global Crime Governance. By Anja P. Jakobi. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 296p. $96.00.

Common Goods and Evils: The Formation of Global Crime Governance. By Anja P. Jakobi. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 296p. $96.00.

Neoliberalism, Crime and Criminal Justice

Neoliberalism has played a prominent role in criminological accounts of criminal justice and penal policy. Neoliberalism’s place ranges from the core of neo-Marxist visions of a systematic global crime control program, through its place as one element in a punitive Anglophone ‘culture of control’, down to more modest claims that neoliberal shaping of risk techniques has transformed specific aspects of policy and practice. In such work neoliberalism is inconsistently defined, and linked with divergent changes in criminal justice. International studies indicate major differences between different ‘neoliberal’ regimes’ stances on crime control. There are often tenuous and very variable connections made between neoliberal politics and crime policies. The necessary interplay of neoliberalism with other factors (other political rationalities, prevailing local conditions etc.) in shaping criminal justice make the impact of neoliberalism unclear. As a result, there are increasing calls to abandon the use of neoliberalism as an explanatory category and move to more specific understandings of how politics shapes the governance of crime.

Tatort Germany: The Curious Case of German-Language Crime Fiction ed. by Lynn M. Kutch and Todd Herzog

Reviewed by: Tatort Germany: The Curious Case of German-Language Crime Fiction ed. by Lynn M. Kutch and Todd Herzog Thomas W. Kniesche Lynn M. Kutch and Todd Herzog, eds., Tatort Germany: The Curious Case of German-Language Crime Fiction. Rochester, ny: Camden House, 2014. 263 pp. That crime fiction written in German exemplifies a “curious case” has been established before, but a more wide-reaching case can indeed be made for contemporary German-language crime fiction, and the editors and contributors of this volume succeed in doing so quite admirably. A volume that endeavors to outline a framework for current trends in German crime fiction should provide answers to a number of questions, such as: Does it succeed in offering a representative overview of contemporary German-language crime fiction? Does it include discussions of relevant and interesting authors [End Page 173] and texts? Does it compare contemporary German crime fiction to such writing in other languages? The answer to all of these questions is an unqualified “yes.” In their introduction, the editors maintain that repeated readings of and scholarly reflection on German-language crime fiction is not only possible but necessary. In such readings, the specifics of crime fiction written in German should be given special attention. To achieve this goal, the volume is divided into three parts that focus on the three areas of geographical setting, history, and identity, respectively. Thus, the individual chapters are mostly concerned with three popular subgenres of German crime fiction: the regional crime novel (Regiokrimi), the historical crime novel, and the crime novel that highlights questions of gender and sexual identities. Part One, on “Place,” includes contributions by Kyle Frackman on Regionalkrimis, Sascha Gerhards on contemporary trends in German crime tv and fiction, Jon Sherman on the Simon Brenner novels by Wolf Haas, and Anita McChesney on Austrian regional crime fiction. Frackman claims “that German regional crime fiction is both a modern development and simultaneously a recollection of crime fiction’s journalistic and literary beginnings” (23) and discusses examples of journalism featuring crime in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century periodicals to make his point. Gerhards identifies two new subgenres of the German Krimi he calls “Weltkrimi” (concerned with global crime) and “Verarbeitungskrimi” (concerned with dealing with the Nazi past). The former he finds in certain episodes of the popular and long-running series Tatort, the latter in crime fiction written by authors such as Volker Kutscher and others. Sherman shows that the focus of Wolf Haas’s Simon Brenner novels is not on solving crimes but on painting a picture of contemporary Austrian society with all of its complex issues, such as shifting ethnic, sexual, and class identities, and, in a similar vein, McChesney establishes “the sociocritical function of regional Austrian crime novels” written by Alfred Komarek, Wolf Haas, and Gerhard Roth and shows “how the novels draw on familiar images to unsettle notions of the provincial Austrian homeland” (82). In part two, “History,” Magdalena Waligórska examines novels by Volker Kutscher, Erich Schütz, Henrike Heiland, and Monika Buttler and asks “whether contemporary German crime fiction provides an exculpatory vision of Germany’s dark past or offers a critical investigation of the National Socialist period” (103). Susanne C. Knittel reads Rainer Gross’s Grafeneck (2007) and Kettenacker (2011) as examples of the “retrospective historical detective [End Page 174] novel” (Achim Saupe), Carol Anne Costabile-Heming looks at the publication history of Erich Loest’s crime novels he wrote under the pseudonym Hans Walldorf between 1967 and 1975 after his release from prison, and Traci S. O’Brien discovers in Eva Rossmann’s novel Freudsche Verbrechen (2001) a balanced approach to the problem of (historical) knowledge between the illusion of knowing how it really was and the poststructuralist distrust of knowledge. Part three on “Identities” features contributions by Angelika Baier on gender deviance in contemporary German crime fiction, Faye Stewart on how contemporary writers Thea Dorn and Christine Lehmann subvert the crime genre to expose gender discrimination and violence against women, and Heike Henderson on the culinary crime fiction of Eva Rossmann. In the three novels Baier analyzes, intersexed characters are the killers, but they are also shown as victims of repressive medical and...

The Crimes of the Powerful and the Globalization of Crime

Inspired by the theme and written for the Seminario Internacional de Direcito, Democracia & Sustentabilidade, 13-14 de agosto de 2015, IMED, Passo Fundo, this article examines the effects of the crimes of the powerful as represented by multinational corporations, state organizations, and non-state actors alike in the context of geopolitics and the globalization of capital. The essay sets out to exhaustively define the crimes of the powerful while providing an overview of the globalization of crime and victimization. Additionally, as a matter of discussing the relations of the globalization of crime, capital, and social control, I summarize the primary lessons learned from The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful (2015) that I was the Editor for and contributor to. Finally, I conclude by responding to the dialectical question of whether the current economic recessions, contractions, and unchecked expansion of financial and corporate wealth are sustainable and represent a prototype of things to come or are not sustainable and represent the need for the development of alternative archetypes of change and sustainability? Key Words Crime; Globalization; Political Economy; Powerful; Sustainable RESUMO inspirado pelo tema e escrito para o Seminario Internacional de Direito, Democracia e Sustentabilidade, 13-14 de agosto de 2015, IMED, Passo Fundo, este artigo examina os crimes dos poderosos, representados pelas corporacoes multinacionais, organizacoes estatais e atores nao estatais, tanto no contexto da geopolitica quanto da globalizacao do capital. O ensaio visa a definir exaustivamente os crimes dos poderosos , proporcionando uma visao geral da globalizacao do crime e da vitimizacao. Alem disso, para discutir as relacoes da globalizacao do crime, do capital, e do controle social , eu resumirei as principais licoes aprendidas a partir de The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful (2015), do qual eu fui editor e colaborador. Por fim, concluo respondendo a questao dialetica de se a atual recessao economica, as contracoes e a expansao desenfreada de riqueza financeira e corporativa sao sustentaveis e representam um prototipo de coisas para vir ou nao sao sustentaveis e representam a necessidade de desenvolver arquetipos alternativos de mudanca e de sustentabilidade? Palavras-chave: Crime; Globalizacao; Economia Politica; Poderosos; Sustentavel

Mental health service responses to human trafficking: a qualitative study of professionals' experiences of providing care.

BackgroundHuman trafficking is a global crime and human rights violation. Although research has demonstrated a high prevalence of mental disorder among trafficked people and that trafficked people are in contact with mental health services, little is known about mental health professionals’ experiences of identifying and providing care for trafficked people. This study aimed to understand how people are identified as trafficked within mental health services and the challenges professionals experience in responding to trafficked people’s mental health needs.MethodQualitative study of electronic health records of trafficked people in contact with secondary mental health services in South East London, England. Comprehensive clinical electronic health records for over 200,000 patients in contact with secondary mental health services in South London were searched and retrieved to identify trafficked patients. Content analysis was used to establish how people were identified as trafficked, and thematic analysis was used to explore the challenges experienced in responding to mental health needs.ResultsThe sample included 130 trafficked patients, 95 adults and 35 children. In 43 % (41/95) of adult cases and 63 % (22/35) child cases, mental health professionals were informed that their patient was a potential victim of trafficking by another service involved in their patient’s care. Cases were also identified through patients disclosing their experiences of exploitation and abuse. Key challenges faced by staff included social and legal instability, difficulties ascertaining history, patients’ lack of engagement, availability of services, and inter-agency working.ConclusionsTraining to increase awareness, encourage helpful responses, and inform staff about the available support options would help to ensure the mental health needs of trafficked people are met. Further research is needed to establish if these challenges are similar in other health settings.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-015-0679-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Understanding the Support Needs of Human-Trafficking Victims: A Review of Three Human-Trafficking Program Evaluations

Human trafficking is a global crime and human rights violation that affects nearly every country of the world. Victims of human trafficking may suffer severe physical, psychological, and emotional health consequences as they are often subjected to a range of abuses such as physical violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, mind-control, and torture. A variety of human-trafficking victim support programs exist in the United States and other countries that receive human-trafficking victims to support their immediate and longer-term needs. There is a dearth of contemporary literature on the subject of the support needs of human-trafficking victims. Further, due to a lack of publicly available program evaluations, little is also known about whether victim support programs are able to meet the needs of human-trafficking victims. This article aims to bridge a gap in knowledge and understanding of human-trafficking victims’ support needs and whether they are being met by support programs by reviewing three recent U.S.-based human-trafficking victim support program evaluations.

International Trends in Prison Upsizing and Downsizing: In Search of Evidence of a Global Rehabilitation Revolution

Our review of global trends in the use of incarceration reveals that both the number of people incarcerated worldwide and the global rate of incarceration continue to increase in every global region. In addition, there have been sizable global increases in the use of pretrial detention, the proportion of female prisoners, the proportion of foreign prisoners, prison privatization, and prison crowding. After reviewing these global trends, we examine the available data on correctional performance, focusing on global crime trends in the subgroup of countries (n = 20) where three-quarters of the world’s prison population is currently located. While most (17/20) of these countries continued to increase their prison population despite decreases in most crime categories, three countries—the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Pakistan—have reduced their reliance on incarceration (number and rate) while also reducing their crime rates. Compared to other countries with large prison populations, the United States’ overall increase in both the prison population (+14.4% since 2000) and incarceration rate (+2.2) can be described as modest. Our review of global trends in corrections and sentencing policy reforms revealed an emerging focus on offender rehabilitation in both prison and community corrections settings and a growing recognition of the link between community development and crime. Focusing on the potential impact of rehabilitation-rich policy reforms in the United States, we highlight the results of a recent simulation modeling study (Taxman & Pattavina, 2013) designed to estimate the impact of expanding our institutional corrections treatment infrastructure. This study reported significant, but relatively small, long-term reductions in prison populations when treatment capacity and treatment quality are increased. These findings suggest that even major improvement in the quantity and quality of prison programming—by itself—will not fundamentally change the life course of prisoners, resulting in continued high return-to-prison rates for these offenders. We conclude that for the United States to significantly reduce its reliance on incarceration, we will need to rethink our approach to crime and punishment. Our global review of corrections and sentencing strategies identified a number of possibilities. Using the global incarceration rate and the global crime rate as benchmark performance “tipping points,” we call for the development of corrections and sentencing policies—and the hiring of corrections personnel—based on the new goal of corrections: individual and community rehabilitation.

Crime Rates in India

This study presents the trend analyses of police-recorded crime data in India. We demonstrate the long-term trends of serious violent and property crimes and examine whether the crime trend in India follows the global crime trend, especially the declining trend in the United States and West European countries. By examining the peaks, troughs, and turning points, this study examines the similarities and differences in long-term trends between different crime types. The data for our study are drawn from Crime in India, an annual publication by the National Crime Record Bureau of India. The results suggest that rates of murder, robbery, burglary, theft, and rioting follow declining trends, while rates of rape show an increasing trend between 1971 and 2011. The homicide trend is the only crime category following the global crime trend. While recognizing the universal and India-specific limitations of the police-recorded crime data, we want readers to consider the findings of the study with caution. We strongly recommend that India establish a national crime victimization survey and regularly participate in the International Crime Victimization Survey.