Individual Criminal Research Articles

Controlling embezzlement in Kuwait through situational crime prevention

The literature on the causes of corruption has been preoccupied with the corrupt individual or the socio-political and economic contexts in which corruption occurs. This has resulted in macro-level counter-corruption approaches that focus on the root causes of corruption. In the last few decades, however, new Western criminological theories and approaches have been developing. Environmental criminology – and its family of theories – is one example of theories that provide a different perspective on crime prevention by focusing on the crime rather than the criminal. In this context, situational crime prevention (as part of environmental criminology) brings in micro-level preventive techniques, such as the immediate manipulation of the criminogenic situations, rather than focusing on the distant causes of crime. The Western literature on criminology abounds in successful experiences of the ability of situational crime prevention to prevent several types of crime, including white-collar crime. In the Arab world, nevertheless, there is a dearth of studies, if any, that apply situational crime prevention in terms of crime prevention. This paper furthers another area of research where it has been argued that criminology in the Arab world is still dominated by modern criminology theories where the individual criminal is the centre of attention. As a result, environmental criminology has notably been absent in the Arab criminological discourse. Taking Kuwait as an example of an Arab country, and embezzlement as a unit of analysis, this paper argues that situational crime prevention is also a promising crime prevention approach in the Arab world.

Serial Murderers In Japan (1882-2017): A Narrative Analysis

A retrospective narrative analysis of 61 serial murder-ers (a few, belonging to health care profession, such as physicians, midwives and paramedic) in Japan was attempted. Materials available in the online databases including Wikipedia entries on individual criminals were studied. Among the studied total of 61 serial murderers covering the time span from 1882 to 2017, 59 were convicted and 2 were non-convicted. All five categories of Deitz typology of serial murderers were represented among the convicted sample. These include, psychopathic sex-ual sadists (e.g: Ryuun Daimai, Yoshio Kodaira, Genzo Kurita, Kiyoshi Okubo, Takahiro Shiraishi), crime spree killers (e.g: Kanae Kijima, Chisako Kakehi), custodial killers (e.g: Shige Sakakura, Miyuki Ishikawa and Hayato Imai), psychotic, religious-cult killers (e.g: Sachiko Eto, Shoko Asahara and his 12 collaborators) and organized crime functionaries (e.g: Satoru Nomu-ra). Tomomasa Nakagawa, personal doctor of the Aum Shinrikyo Buddhist religious-cult leader Shoko Asakara, may hold a record for a scientist on death row to publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal.Limitations of this study include, (1) omission of the methods of killing used by the murderers from analysis (2) total reliance on media reports for information, in preference to voluminous records of Japanese court cases. Despite these limitations, details presented in this analysis of 59 convicted and 2 non-convicted se-rial murderers in 45 court cases held in Japan may be useful for comparative studies in forensic science and law enforcement.

Criminalization of Individuals as a Deterrent Effect Upon Cartel Behaviour in Indonesia

Cartel behavior is one of the activities that has received serious attention in Indonesian competition law. In some cases, cartels are also carried out by the same business actors, who in previous cases, have been found guilty of cartel. This article proposes that the optimal way to deal with cartels in Indonesia requires the imposition of criminal sanctions, such as imprisonment, against individuals who are responsible for the occurrence of cartels. Imprisonment will have a deterrent effect on the offenders of criminal acts. This paper is carried out with an analytical descriptive method with a normative legal approach by analyzing the Commission’s awards that punish the same business actors for repeatedly cartel offenses and also analyzing the laws and regulations of business competition and the Criminal Code as well as related laws and regulations applicable in Indonesia. The criminalization of individuals responsible for the occurrence of cartels is very urgent to be applied in Indonesia to provide a deterrent effect to cartel perpetrators.

“Commited by Men”: Individual Criminal Responsibility for Aggression Against Ukraine

The article deals with the personal scope of criminal responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. While the Kampala amendments to the Statute of the International Criminal Court have further strengthened the crime of aggression’s leadership character, they have also limited the possibility of holding individuals accountable as accomplices. Nonetheless, this article posits that there are still avenues within the current legal framework to bring key individuals involved in the aggression against Ukraine to justice. It examines different factions within the Russian leadership and the leaders of Belarus and also explores the possibility of bringing Russian propagandists to account. The article advocates for a careful selection policy that balances international and domestic systems better to serve the cause of accountability. Pursuing investigations and prosecutions against these groups should result in an outcome that re#ects the extent of the criminality of Russia’s aggressive war.

Legal Framework Publication of State Secrets via Cyberspace in Indonesia

The issue of publishing information and electronic data that fall under the category of state secrets via cyberspace remains unregulated in Indonesia, leading to a complex debate between the state's secrecy and the public's right to access information. This tension has been further intensified by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the widespread availability of information, making it difficult to distinguish between state secrets and public information. As a result, individuals or entities who disseminate state secrets through cyberspace may not be held accountable unless specific regulations are established. This study adopts a normative juridical approach with a legal and conceptual framework to examine the intersection of state secrets and the publication of information through cyberspace, examining relevant provisions from existing laws and regulations. The study's findings may provide the legal vacuum concerning the criminalization of individuals who have published information or electronic information that may be categorized as state secrets through cyberspace..

Evaluating the Individual Criminal Responsibility of Gukurahundi Perpetrators under International Law

The aim of this article is to evaluate whether individual criminal responsibility (ICR) is attributable to perpetrators of the Gukurahundi atrocities committed in Matabeleland and Midlands, Zimbabwe, between 1983 and 1987. The criminal liability of Gukurahundi perpetrators is evaluated against the legal requirements garnered from conventions, jurisprudence of international criminal tribunals and the work of leading scholars. Firstly, the article provides an overview and historical development of the concept of ICR under international law. Second, it examines the theories of criminality under international law. Third, it analyses the forms and modalities of ICR including relevant specific crimes. Fourth, it evaluates the individual and superior responsibility of Gukurahundi perpetrators. A crucial feature of international criminal law is the legal obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish perpetrators of international crimes. The article therefore explores the different ways in which ICR could be attributed to perpetrators of the Gukurahundi international crimes. The author sets out to advance knowledge and understanding of possible mechanisms to hold perpetrators of the Gukurahundi atrocities criminally accountable under international law.

The United States Promotes Individual Criminal Accountability for Aggression and Atrocity Crimes Committed by Russians in Ukraine

The United States Promotes Individual Criminal Accountability for Aggression and Atrocity Crimes Committed by Russians in Ukraine

AI-Based Autonomous Weapons and Individual Criminal Responsibility Under the Rome Statute

Objective: international law obligates states to prosecute those who have violated laws in armed conflicts, particularly when the international community now has International Criminal Court (ICC).That is why the aim of the paper is to discover the responsibility for the crimes made with the use of AI-based autonomous vehicles in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC.Methods: doctrinal analysis allowed to research the positions of experts on the responsibility for the crimes made with the use of AI-based autonomous vehicles in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC. Results: this paper argues that the ICC can only exercise jurisdiction over natural persons who allegedly have committed the crimes under its jurisdiction, as compared to autonomous weapons. This paper argues that the persons who facilitate the commission of the alleged crimes are highly likely to be criminally responsible for providing means for the alleged crimes to be committed by AI-based autonomous weapons under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute and concludes that the Rome Statute provides a solution even to AI-based autonomous weapons.Scientific novelty: this paper addresses to the highly relevant issues of the responsibility for the crimes made with the use of AI-based autonomous vehicles in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the ICC.Practical significance: the results achieved in the paper can be used in regulation design for AI-based autonomous weapons. It can also be used as a basis for the future research in the sphere of liability of AI-based autonomous weapons and AI in general

Anomie Society and Crime

Recently, many forms of criminal behaviors have been reported from various parts of Sri Lanka which have been the subject of special discussion in the society. Hence, this article has been composed by identifying several criminal incidents where individual criminality and social damage were felt very intensely and combining them with a theoretical analysis. Accordingly, the unique criminal acts reported by the media in the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, in which the Sri Lankan society became a tertiary victim, can be mentioned as follows. Homicide, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Robberies, Smuggling, Cybercrimes, Road accidents, and Suicide. The relationship between anomie and crime has been analyzed, highlighting the impact of anomie theory on the origins of crime through a theoretical analysis of these crime events. In the analysis of the above criminal events, it is clear that the anarchy that is built in society has led to crimes. That is, in the breakdown or degeneration of norms, man has committed criminal behavior. As society has become more complex, human needs have become unlimited, but due to the limited resources available to meet those unlimited needs, man has entered a competitive path. Accordingly, human beings have moved away from primary relationships and focused on secondary relationships. There, the social animal who works hard mainly for the sake of earning wealth and creating a luxurious environment around him is focused on perfecting his needs, forgetting his duties, responsibility, and obligations. In the construction of this social situation, criminal behavior has been allowed to emerge.

Evolution of the Individual Criminal Accountability Principle in International Law

The creation of Special Tribunals with authority to prosecute those accused of "grave breaches" and infringements of the law towards humanity was among the most significant breakthroughs in international law. Unquestionably, this is a recent worldwide development that has raised questions about sovereignty and impunity. Since the horrors committed by the Nazis and the Nuremberg trials, war crimes legislation has expanded its definition to include several offenses that are now referred to as "international crimes" and "crimes of genocide." Although it was created to combat the politics of punishment for those who commit these crimes, some member states are unwilling to prosecute people who commit these recognized international crimes. In fact, the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court (ICC) was drafted due to the jurisprudence established by these Special Tribunals. More precisely, it has been maintained that Act of war crimes and Act of crimes against humanity are perpetrated by individuals and not by impersonal forces, and that international law can only be upheld and implemented by punishing those responsible for such horrible crimes. Nevertheless, a convincing argument could be made that the establishment of these tribunals heralds a revolutionary change in international law. The qualitative research methodology has been applied to the following article.

Retraction Notice: ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Financing of Entities Involved in Core Crimes: Aiding and Abetting’

We, the Editors and Publishers of The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, have retracted the following article:
 Laura Ausserladscheider Jonas and Dire Tladi, ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Financing of Entities Involved in Core Crimes: Aiding and Abetting’ 54(1) 2021Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa <https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-3062/8604>
 Following its publication, it was brought to our attention that this article contains significant overlap, in the form of continuous paragraphs and their accompanying footnotes, with the following chapter:
 Manuel J. Venturas, ‘Aiding and Abetting’ in Jérôme de Hemptinne, Robert Roth, Elies van Sliedregt, Marjolein Cupido, Manuel J. Ventura and Lachezar Yanev (eds), Modes of Liability in International Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2019) <https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108678957.007> The journal article ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility’ reproduced significant parts of the chapter in Modes of Liability without appropriate attributions or citations.
 The second author, Dire Tladi, has requested to be dissociated from the publication.
 We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The cover page only of the retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked as “Retracted.”

Good Citizens with the Wrong Arguments: A critical comment on Sullivan's Social Diversion

Abstract
 In the wake of the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision in R v Sullivan, striking down legislative limits on the extreme intoxication defence in Canada, significant public debate arose about how the intoxication defence applies to sexual assault. Currently, the social debate has focused on implications for individual criminals and victims. This paper will argue the terms of the debate have dodged the larger social issues at the intersection of mental health, addiction, gender, and racial inequity, and poverty. These issues have been sidelined in the social discourse due to the efforts of institutions to divert away from the role they play in the underpinnings of crime and victimization. To affect social diversion, institutions notably leverage harm decisionism rhetoric to uphold existing responsibilization paradigms. Thus, to meaningfully affect social change, the call to action is rather than arguing amongst themselves within the current ideologically driven parameters, activists should deconstruct the discourse to hold institutions accountable for the inequitable social structures they uphold. Analysis of the Sullivan case grounded in social statistics and penal philosophy demonstrates how institutions can covertly pit activists against one another and uphold a socially misinformed status quo. Rather than attack criminals or victims affected by their social circumstance, activists should expose this process of how crime occurs and persists to victimize: institutionally supported responsibilization of disadvantaged groups due to an unwillingness to allocate appropriate resources to address their needs.

The Impact of Globalisation on Legal Conduct

One of the adverse consequences of globalisation is the spread of illegal conduct in the world and an increase in crime rates. This circumstance determines the relevance of the subject under study. It is argued that the causes of illegal conduct are determined by the contradictions of social development, ideological confrontation, economic, political, social inequality of the world’s countries and the deformation of legal consciousness. The globalisation of the shadow economy, the emergence of new tax evasion schemes, including through offshore companies, laundering of proceeds from crime, piracy, raider seizures of other people’s property, arms trafficking, aggressive globalism in the foreign policy of a number of states, regional wars, domestic conflicts, information wars, arbitrary interpretation of certain religions, distortion of their principles by extremist organisations – all this causes the crisis state of the economy, politics, socio-cultural and spiritual spheres of society and crime in many countries of the globalised world. The purpose of this study is to highlight the understanding of illegal conduct through the lens of the adverse impact of globalisation processes on it. The methodological framework of this study comprises a system of philosophical and ideological, general scientific and special scientific principles and methods, namely principles of objectivity, concreteness, complexity; Aristotelian, systemic, structural-functional, formal legal, and comparison methods. The study found that illegal conduct in a globalised world is promoted by social contradictions generated by globalisation or stimulated by this process. It is noted that globalisation is contradictory. It has both positive and negative, anti-criminogenic and criminogenic properties, and criminogenics dominate – it is a peculiar consequence of both political, economic, and cultural expansion, and a significant stratification among the extraordinarily rich and poor not only at the national level, but also at the international level. Deformation of legal consciousness, extreme individualism, illegal conduct, crime, corruption affects the standard of living of society, contributes to the violation of human rights and forces us to independently search for numerous ways to realise legitimate interests, including illegal ones. The limitation of certain managerial capabilities of the state, which is necessarily the case in a globalised society, also has a negative impact on solving problems of human rights protection and crime prevention. It is proved that in general, globalisation contributes to inequality, injustice, the destruction of traditional values of society, people’s uncertainty about the future, the growing threat of illegitimate use of armed forces and aggression in the face of growing competition and imperial aspirations of individual governments. The scientific novelty of the article is an attempt to find all the globalisation factors that affect the deformation of legal conduct and stimulate the growth of crime rates. The results of the study contribute to finding ways to influence persons prone to illegal conduct, improving the means and methods of combating criminal organisations and individual criminals. This is the practical significance of the article

Re-examining mental health crisis intervention: A rapid review comparing outcomes across police, co-responder and non-police models.

Police are the default first responders in most mental health crisis intervention models worldwide, resulting in a heavy burden on police, perceived criminalization of individuals with complex mental health needs, and escalation of aggression that resort to violence. Models, such as crisis intervention teams (CIT), and co-response programmes aim to improve service user experiences and outcomes by providing mental health training to police, or pairing law enforcement officers with mental health clinicians, respectively. Despite these efforts, mental health-related calls continue to result in negative outcomes, and activists and policymakers are advocating for non-police models of crisis intervention. Evidence-based practice in mental health crisis intervention is urgently needed. The present review's main objective was to examine, synthesise and compare outcomes across police, co-responder and non-police models of mental health crisis intervention internationally using a rapid review framework. A systematic search of four electronic databases of studies published between 2010-2020 and a grey literature search was conducted, yielding (n=1008) articles. A total of 62 articles were included in the present review. Studies were largely observational, lacking control groups and were of low-moderate quality with a high potential for bias. Overall, there is little evidence to suggest that the CIT model impacts crisis outcomes. Co-responder models evidenced improved outcomes compared to police only models, however, evidence was often mixed. Non-police models varied significantly, and studies tended to be too low quality to make comparisons or draw conclusions, however, research on youth models and crisis resolution home treatment suggested positive outcomes. Findings highlight the need for high-quality studies and policies to facilitate the implementation and evaluation of novel approaches not involving police. Cross-sectorial collaboration and service user input are urgently needed to inform, develop, test and disseminate effective models of crisis intervention acceptable to service users.

Criminal Law Policy Implementation of Criminal Social Work to Reduce Overcapity Corporate Institutions in Indonesia

Law is one element that cannot be separated in society, the relationship between law and society is a reciprocal relationship. The law will continue to develop along with the development of society, so that if in the course of time the community will develop, it will automatically require legal reforms that are able to keep pace with the development of society.The imposition of a crime against someone who commits a criminal act is a very important part in realizing a good criminal justice system, in this case the judge should be able to choose which type of crime is right for the perpetrator. The alternative to imprisonment, in this case social work punishment, gives the fact that imprisonment is increasingly being criticized for humanitarian considerations, philosophical considerations, and economic considerations. The criticisms of the negative consequences of imprisonment have given rise to the idea of looking for alternatives other than imprisonment even though imprisonment can be justified in terms of crime prevention, public safety, but imprisonment also has a fairly large negative assessment. Social work crimes for perpetrators of minor crimes can fulfill the elements of development and provide protection to the community. Elements of coaching that are oriented to individual criminals who are convicted of social work criminals are protected from negative impacts such as being labeled as criminals by the community, losing self-confidence so that the convict has self-confidence which is very necessary in the process of community integration.

Retracted: Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Financing of Entities Involved in Core Crimes: Aiding and Abetting

We, the Editors and Publishers of The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, have retracted the following article: Laura Ausserladscheider Jonas and Dire Tladi, ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility for the Financing of Entities Involved in Core Crimes: Aiding and Abetting’ 54(1) 2021 Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa <https://doi.org/10.25159/2522-3062/8604> Following its publication, it was brought to our attention that this article contains significant overlap, in the form of continuous paragraphs and their accompanying footnotes, with the following chapter: Manuel J. Venturas, ‘Aiding and Abetting’ in Jérôme de Hemptinne, Robert Roth, Elies van Sliedregt, Marjolein Cupido, Manuel J. Ventura and Lachezar Yanev (eds), Modes of Liability in International Criminal Law (Cambridge University Press, 2019) <https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108678957.007> The journal article ‘Individual Criminal Responsibility’ reproduced significant parts of the chapter in Modes of Liability without appropriate attributions or citations. The second author, Dire Tladi, has requested to be dissociated from the publication. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The cover page only of the retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked as “Retracted.”

On optimal enforcement in international crime setting

National and international criminal courts often choose to focus prosecutions on the heads of organizations that commit international crimes. In this article we consider a game between a law enforcement authority and a head of a criminal organization who decides on his level of personal exposure to crime and the number of individual criminals he recruits. Our results highlight that, depending on the level of social harm and detection costs, optimal enforcement does not always imply concentrating enforcement resources on the head of the organization and may involve investing resources in detecting and sanctioning individual criminals who execute the crime for the head.

Domestic Violence Policy: A World of Change

The second wave of the feminist movement brought unprecedented changes in awareness of criminal legal system (CLS) responses to domestic violence (DV). The seemingly feminist “success” in the harsher CLS responses, however, resulted in the disparate criminalization of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and poor individuals, among both DV defendants and victims. Therefore, feminist support for anti-carceral/abolitionist feminism, recognizing the cooptation of feminist ideals within a neoliberal CLS system, has grown. Colonial policing, however, has only tangentially been applied to DV (and other gender-based abuse offenses’) CLS responses. This article advocates for significant changes to policing DV.

Corporate Criminality and Individual Criminal Responsibility in International Law: Removing the Hurdles from the International Criminal Court’s Approach to Perpetration through Control of a Collective Entity

Abstract This article discusses the International Criminal Court’s (icc) understanding of the notion of collective criminality and its application in identifying the perpetrators of international crimes committed through the activities of a corporation. It analyses the Court’s current approach to the notion of control in interpreting Art. 25(3)(a) of the icc Statute and explains why it cannot prove useful against individuals within non-state collective entities. In this direction, it suggests a more flexible theory of control and it applies it in the context of corporate criminality to identify the responsibility of company directors as perpetrators of international crimes through their corporation’s activities.

Jail diversion: a practical primer.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. With a substantial number of inmates diagnosed with mental illness, substance use, or both, various diversion strategies have been developed to help decrease and avoid criminalization of individuals with mental illness. This article focuses primarily on the first three Sequential Intercept Model intercept points as related to jail diversion and reviews types of diversion programs, research outcomes for diversion programs, and important components that contribute to successful diversion.