Law Enforcement Institutions Research Articles

Piracy and Nigeria’s National Security in the Early 21st Century

Pirate attacks against ocean liners, coastal shipping and travellers along Nigeria’s inland waterways have increased since the end of the civil war in 1970. Advancements in boating technology and navigation, small arms availability and telecommunications have aided the sophistication of Nigerian pirates just as the calibre of culprits has grown from canoe operators and fishermen to include well connected drug runners, oil thieves and oil-pipeline vandals. Threats to Nigeria’s national security are not only economic or socio-political but, even possibly, existential, since oil exports, which yield 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and 65% of budgetary revenues were strongly resisted by the militants in 2006, for example. The nexus between insecurity and oil production is not peculiar to Nigeria but can be explained by the “natural resource curse” thesis or the “paradox of plenty” whereby developing countries with abundant mineral resources exhibit systemic corruption, weak government structures, armed conflict and political instability and lag behind in economic growth and living standards than countries with fewer resources. Thus, increased pirate attacks were deployed to back up agitations for resource control and political autonomy by Niger Delta activists. Despite the Government’s antipiracy efforts and orchestrated collaborations between the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Navy, Nigeria witnessed the “resource war” and “petro-aggression” common in other similarly afflicted countries like Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Chad, Sudan and Angola. Using key informant interviews, information from government agencies, newspapers and magazine articles, in addition to internet research, we found that public scepticism trailed heightened antipiracy policymaking. The recommendations to build stronger law enforcement institutions and address longstanding issues of remediation to the environment and compensation for victims of oil spillage were found to be more populist, more just and futuristic than appeasement of ex-militants. In conclusion, national security and the trend of piracy in the new millennium are likely to be moderated by improvements in law enforcement presence, firepower and the impact of corporate social responsibility by IOCs and associated stakeholders in the oil-rich delta region and the Lagos axis.

Institute of confidential cooperation in the USA: organizational and juridical aspect

One of the most efficient measures of crime counteraction is timely reporting law enforcement agencies during which a special role is dedicated to persons (informants). They provide assistance to authorized subjects in the sphere of corruption counteraction by giving operative significant information.Thus the article is aimed at the analysis of law enforcement bodies and special services of the USA experience concerning work with confidential sources.The latest tendencies of the US police activities are concentrated on the attraction of citizens to cooperation with police. Such cooperation is efficient in prevention of most hard crimes due to informants' assistance, i.e. people who display desire to cooperate with police.Scientists D. Sunshine and T. Tyler consider that the nature of relations between police and publicity has a great influence on the efficiency of crime counteraction, local citizens' welfare. The authors draw attention to the importance of establishing benevolent relations between police and local population.The given article also reveals the USA law enforcement agencies experience of institute of confidential cooperation using. Using of operative sources of information remains the most efficient tools for detection, suspension, disclosure and investigation of crimes in the whole world.With the aim of achievement of accuracy in terminology it is conducted the identification of different kinds of informants depending on their role and law enforcement institution they collaborate with.Conclusions. Actions in favor of society are a important element of informationship as social institute. The results of conducted analysis testify that the modern understanding of institute of confidential cooperation in the USA is grounded on the following principles:- the object of message is information about any abuses, violations, immoral behavior that may cause significant violations of rights and duties of citizens, damage to society or separate citizens and other public interests;- the motive of moral informant is the protection of public interests durante absentia personal direct interest in the results of investigation of the claim he has made;- informant has to be sure in the truthfulness of information he provides;- the sphere of informationship activity has to be as public as private sphere if its activity can influence the rights and duties of citizens and public interests.Thus the promising trend of further scientific researches has to be analysis of experience of the given problem solving in the other leading countries of international community with the aim of its consideration in domestic practice.

Vile vigilance: An integrated theoretical framework for understanding the state of Black surveillance

ABSTRACTThe family is the principal source of socialization and protection against racism for many Blacks. Transmitting values, norms, morals, and beliefs (i.e., racial socialization) to successive generations is done to promote racial awareness and to prepare an individual to survive in racist environments. Further, developing a sense of security, resiliency, and cultural pride provides psychological protection against racial prejudice and discrimination. Protective socialization is even more critical when it becomes the difference between life and death at the hands of law enforcement—a fate faced by too many Black males as a result of racist policing practices, including the over-patrolling of Black communities. Because discriminatory surveillance and over-patrolling can incite a number of social, physical, and mental health issues, a holistic approach to understanding the interaction between Blacks and law enforcement is critical. This article reviews the Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress (MEES) model, racial socialization theory, and Family Stress Model in the development of a theoretical framework for understanding the patterns of interactions between Blacks and law enforcement, the immediate and long-term effects of unjustified shootings on Black families and communities, and the response of sociopolitical systems. The new theoretical framework will be used to inform the work of human service providers and practitioners by identifying targets for interventions to improve relations and trust between Black communities and law enforcement institutions.

Helping Afghanistan's Informal Dispute Resolution Systems Follow Afghan Law in Criminal Matters: What Afghanistan Can Learn from Native American Peacemaking Program

Informal dispute resolution is common in rural areas of Afghanistan because of a general lack of access to or inefficiency of the formal mechanisms in those areas. While the Afghan informal dispute resolution systems have been known to resolve some criminal cases in ways that violate human rights or deviate sharply from Afghan formal law, it can be possible to minimize these practices while taking advantage of some of the strengths that informal dispute resolution offers. This paper argues that some Native American Tribal justice systems could serve as helpful models for the Afghan approach to informal justice because they offer effective informal dispute resolution and peacemaking systems that are consistence with the formal justice system and generally do not violate human rights. Accordingly, this paper begins with an introduction to informal dispute resolution mechanisms in both Afghanistan and selected Native American Tribal systems, elaborating on the interaction between the informal and official state law in these various systems. Next, it describes the failed attempts of the Afghan central authority to rule in the informal justice systems and integrate them into the formal legal structure. Then the paper will provide possible solutions which would include coordination between the formal and informal justice systems, monitoring of the cases within the informal system, including important criminal cases such as honor killing, theft, rape, and serious injury by members of the official system including provincial governor, district governor, and other law enforcement institutions. Finally, this paper offers some suggestions for how to respond once the monitoring bodies identify violations of human rights and Afghan law.

Ekonominių ekspertinių tyrimų galimybės tiriant ūkines ir finansines nusikalstamas veikas

The article analyses theoretical and practical possibilities of forensic economical examination and presents main problems of its performance. It should be emphasized that this type of forensic examination is based on the knowledge of two branches of sciences such as economics and law; therefore, authors try to clearly determine statuses and competencies of a forensic expert and to present national and international best practices in the sphere. Authors present the forensic practices of Lithuania showing in what financial crimes economical forensic examinations are performed most often, what the main mistakes are in ordering of forensic examinations, what tasks may be solved by forensic experts during the investigation of different types of financial crimes. Authors emphasize that forensic experts in these cases may act only as court (investigator, prosecutor) assistants; hence, they cannot act as independent fact finders. Therefore, an investigator or judge should only ask them to prove or disapprove different versions of crime investigation, etc. All existing situations are presented through practical examples compared with international practices. Also, foreign practices in the sphere of financial crimes are presented and analysed in the article. The main conclusion of the article is based on the survey on practices of forensic economical examinations in three Baltic states, and it states that the main principles of said examinations are the same in all three countries regardless peculiarities of legal regulation; therefore, there are possibilities to exchange practices among forensic experts and law enforcement institutions.

Inequality, Crime, and the Long Run Legacy of Slavery

This paper investigates the relationship between economic inequality and crime in Colombian municipalities. Following recent scholarly research that suggests that the legacy of slavery is largely manifest in persistent levels of economic inequality, we instrument economic inequality with a census-based measure of the proportion of slaves in each municipality before the abolition of slavery in the 19 century. We also explore the robustness of our estimates to relaxing the exclusion restriction, as the slavery instrument is only plausibly exogenous. We document a strong association between inequality and both violent and property crime rates at the municipal level. Our estimates are robust to including traditional determinants of crime (like population density, the proportion of young males, the average education level, the quality of law enforcement institutions, and the overall economic activity), as well as current ethnic differences and geographic characteristics that may be correlated both with the slave economy and with crime.

Witness Protection in Kosovo: Progress and Challenges

The role and importance of the witnesses in criminal procedure in fighting serious and organized crime, corruption, terrorism and preserving the public security have continuously increased. Law enforcement institutions increasingly face with difficulties in the process of proving criminal acts in the judicial processes because of their complexity in providing sufficient evidence during the criminal investigation procedure. Therefore, besides the reactive investigation methods and application of special crime investigation measures, establishing a legal infrastructure and capacities for the implementation of witness protection concept is necessary as well. Kosovo government and institutions declared fight and prevention of all forms of organized crime, corruption and terrorism as a priority and up to now, it was evaluated that a great job was done in drafting legislation and strategic documents in the law enforcement field as well as increasing the operational capacities of law enforcement institutions. Regarding the witness protection in Kosovo, progress is achieved in improving legislation and establishing special structures for implementation of witness protection programs, but still remain some challenges that Kosovo law enforcement institutions face such as international cooperation and geographic, cultural and social specifics.

Witness Protection in Kosovo: Progress and Challenges

The role and importance of the witnesses in criminal procedure in fighting serious and organized crime, corruption, terrorism and preserving the public security have continuously increased. Law enforcement institutions increasingly face with difficulties in the process of proving criminal acts in the judicial processes because of their complexity in providing sufficient evidence during the criminal investigation procedure. Therefore, besides the reactive investigation methods and application of special crime investigation measures, establishing a legal infrastructure and capacities for the implementation of witness protection concept is necessary as well. Kosovo government and institutions declared fight and prevention of all forms of organized crime, corruption and terrorism as a priority and up to now, it was evaluated that a great job was done in drafting legislation and strategic documents in the law enforcement field as well as increasing the operational capacities of law enforcement institutions. Regarding the witness protection in Kosovo, progress is achieved in improving legislation and establishing special structures for implementation of witness protection programs, but still remain some challenges that Kosovo law enforcement institutions face such as international cooperation and geographic, cultural and social specifics.

Anti-Corruption Agency and Increasing Punishments: Evidence from Courtts Decision in Indonesia

Using a dataset of Supreme Court decisions in Indonesia between 2002-2012, this research estimates the likelihood and the severity of punishments handed out by judges in the highest court level the defendants litigate. Several empirical econometric methods were used in this study to assess five different categories of punishment: imprisonment, probation, fines, compensation and asset confiscation. In crime-economics, the certainty and severity of punishment increases the cost of committing a crime, which decreases crime rates. As a specific type of crime, corruption can be eradicated using this approach. The results of the study show that the independent anti-corruption agency in Indonesia, known as the KPK (Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi/Corruption Eradication Commission) increases the cost of engaging in corrupt activities, as defendants handled by this agency have a significantly greater likelihood of being punished, and that any imprisonment, fines or and confiscation of assets will be more severe than those penalties imposed by other law enforcement institutions. Similarly, the activation of the KPK also has a significant positive impact on both likelihood and severity of punishment in terms of imprisonment and fines in the cases of defendants handled by the police and public prosecutors. In addition, the individual characteristics of the defendants have various and significant effects on each type of punishment, both in terms of likelihood and severity. Regarding the model, this research also finds that Cragg’s two-part model is more appropriate for assessing the severity of punishments, and also fits the data better than the Tobit model.

Notes on the development of law enforcement institutions within the EU

The author provides an overview of the development and challenges the EU’s law enforcement institutional phylogeny raises for Member States.

Measuring police officer and citizen satisfaction: comparative analysis

Purpose– The ability of the police to decrease victimization rates, protect human rights and social capital, to generate feelings of safety and to respond to citizens’ calls helps generate positive citizen feelings about the legitimacy of police as a law enforcement institution. Police approaches to reduce crime and violence are based mainly on objective measures, neglecting to assess its performance based on subjective perceptions. The conception that the citizens’ fear of being victims is not always reflective of the actual prevalence of crime highlights the importance of social surveys to assess the public’s perception of police performance. It is also important to assess employee satisfaction, since research indicates that the performance of first-line employees is influenced by their satisfaction. The purpose of this paper is to provide the first comparative study of both citizen and police officer satisfaction and evaluates their relationship.Design/methodology/approach– This paper is based on a dyadic survey that measures citizens’ evaluation of police service quality as well as policemen’s job satisfaction. The data were analysed using the multicriteria methodology of multicriteria satisfaction analysis.Findings– The results showed that policemen seem to be unsatisfied with their jobs, while citizens are quite satisfied with police performance. Specifically, policemen’s ability to be available for patrol is currently hampered by bureaucracy and other typical obligations. The tangibles criterion, which refers to buildings, offices and surveillance equipment, were characterized as inadequate by both policemen and citizens. It was also observed that police officers are not very satisfied with their amount of work may be the reason why citizens report median satisfaction levels in terms of police responsiveness.Originality/value– This survey adds to management literature on job satisfaction and service quality, providing some additional findings regarding the police population. In addition, it combines related constructs supporting the claim that citizens can be satisfied with police services provided that police officers are satisfied with their jobs.

NIEOSTROŚĆ W JĘZYKU I DEFINICJACH PRAWA KARNEGO POLSKIEGO I AMERYKAŃSKIEGO (STUDIUM SYSTEMÓW PRAWNYCH POLSKIEGO I AMERYKAŃSKIEGO)

The paper below intends to present and evaluate the theories of vagueness in the language of criminal law as exemplified in legal definitions. In the theory aimed to facilitate the task of interpretation of laws and statutes, in practice legal definitions they may be vague themselves, a phenomenon which either jeopardizes the stability of law and order, or makes law more flexible and compliant with the changing status quo. How one approaches the matter would depend upon a variety of factors. Among them we will find the branch of law or the type of the legal system. As far as criminal law is concerned, vague expressions are to be avoided. However, some legal systems “stigmatize” them more than others. In the American legal system the “void-for-vagueness” doctrine best illustrates the negative attitude of law enforcement institutions towards vague and unclear language. In the Polish law, on the other hand, it is not so explicitly criticized. Leaving room for free interpretation, vague language may prove a useful tool if literal interpretation defies the so-called “common-sense” understanding (very often referred to in works dedicated to law interpretation). Once a review of both legal systems is made, the author tries to arrive at a definite conclusion whether we should treat vagueness in the language of criminal provisions as something sought-for or rather undesirable.

New Paths of the History of Justice and Security Institutions in Latin America

In the research carried out in Latin America, the history of justice, on the one hand, and the history of security or law enforcement institutions, on the other, often failed to find common grounds in terms of focus, approach, problems, methodologies and even historical periods around which they mostly centered. After several years each current's searching and making contributions on its own, today, a new coincidence takes place within the sphere of Latin American political history, as renewed in turn by recent contributions, which finds in the 19th century the right spot for thematic crossovers. This article focuses around this specific aspect of the field: surveying the thematic contributions and convergence which, within the historiography, signalize a new meeting point. We would like to argue that it is precisely from here that thematic and research lines are developed and that we will witness the next contributions arise from them.

KONFLIK KPK VS POLRI JILID III: KONTESTASI KUASA DALAM PENEGAKAN HUKUM DI INDONESIA

Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) and Polisi Republik Indonesia (Polri) are two state law enforcement institutions. Indeed both institutions can carry out the organization of law enforcement, particularly in combating corruption, in shoulder to shoulder. But less than a decade, both institutions practice it often indicates that fights enemy volumes. The aims of the sstudy in this paper is to identify, to analyze, and to formulate how the KPK-Polri has a relations in a configured-usurpation than shoulder to shoulder in law enforcement. The corpus study is a series of events conflicts KPK vs Polri Volume III, triggered by the determination of Commissioner General Budi Gunawan as a suspect and arrest event Widjojanto by the Police as well as efforts to make the entire leadership of the KPK suspects. This study indicates the charge contestation or dispute the power ini law enforcement eradication of corruption. The indicators include conjoined twins jurisdictions, law enforcement power struggle, and political events set in law.

Corruption, debt financing and corporate ownership

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of perceived corruption on debt financing and ownership structure decisions of firms within the context of ten African countries.Design/methodology/approach– The paper analyses 15-year (1996-2010) data pertaining to 556 non-financial firms drawn from ten African countries using models that link firm financing, ownership structure, and perceived corruption. It uses robust procedures including system-generalized method of moments, general least square, and Logistic (LOGIT) regression.Findings– The study finds evidence that perceived corruption is important in shaping debt financing and ownership structure decisions of firms in Africa. Particularly, it finds that: first, higher levels of perceived corruption lead to firms using higher levels of short-term leverage, lower levels of long-term leverage and debts with shorter maturities and second, firms in countries with higher levels of perceived corruption respond to weaknesses in the law enforcement institutions through higher ownership concentration and controlling block shareholding.Research limitations/implications– As in most empirical studies, this study focused on listed firms. Nonetheless, future studies that focus on non-listed firms could add additional insights to the extant literature.Practical implications– The study provides empirical support for the argument that perceived corruption in a country distorts corporate governance. The policy implication of the findings is that governments, by taking steps that curb corruption, could enhance corporate governance by inducing firms into optimal debt financing and ownership structure decisions.Originality/value– The study focuses on firms in African countries for which studies such as this are non-existent.

English

Prosecutors in the country so that financial losses return refund losses the State has not been fullest. And existing legal institution in its implementation shows the result of maximum effort yet to refund the financial loss to the State. Therefore needs to be examined further the efforts of the Prosecutor's Office has done in the optimisation of returns on the country's financial losses. The Attorney law enforcement institutions in the framework of the financial rescue is expected to give a significant impact, so step harmonization of legislation is required to seek the repayment of assets results of criminal acts of corruption

An Efficient Anticorruption Sanctions Regime? The Case of the World Bank

With its sanctions regime, the World Bank has sent a clear message to client governments and suppliers that it will not tolerate corruption. However, as this article argues, with its present design, the sanctions regime at the same time runs counter to the World Bank’s own development agenda. Thus, the regime will have limited effect in protecting funds for development, reducing corruption risks, promoting the integrity and functionality of markets, and strengthening domestic law enforcement institutions. A key problem is that efforts to strengthen law enforcement at the national level are too limited. The sanctions primarily target private suppliers, while governments are not held responsible when fraud or corruption occurs. This reflects the World Bank’s challenging mandate to offer financial support to developing country governments while also trying to secure efficient use of the funds after they have been transferred. In considering alternative designs for its anticorruption strategy, the Bank should collaborate with other international development banks to demand integrity mechanisms that rely upon and strengthen domestic law enforcement institutions and competition authorities in client countries.

The Importance of Knowing and Applying of the Professional Legislation and Ethics in the Management of Educational Institutions to Combat Corruption

In some European countries, including Romania, affected by negative economic developments, education tends to be placed in a lower category of priorities. Corruption, ever more present after the 90s, began to be relatively recently present in the attention of the law enforcement institutions at all levels of the educational activity. Two of the methods of preventing and combating it are the knowledge of professional legislation and of the ethics in the Romanian educational system. We try to analyze some elements of educational management directly related to fighting intra-institutional corruption. We also approach specific legislative provisions to combat corruption ending with the presentation of such a concrete case.

PERAN ADVOKAT TERHADAP PENEGAKAN HUKUM DI PENGADILAN AGAMA

Advocate is a very noble profession (nobile officium). Noble profession given to these advocates incorporate advocates as one of the chess dynasty law enforcement in Indonesia. Law enforcement conducted by advocates can be done in litigation and non-litigation. The enforcement of this law can be seen first of all as a person or a human element to the quality, qualifications, and culture of each work. In that sense the issue of the rule of law depends on the actor, actors, officials or law enforcement officers themselves. Second, law enforcement can also be seen as an institution, agency or organization with the quality of their own bureaucracy. In this regard we look from the perspective of law enforcement institutions in fact, has not been institutionalized in a rational and impersonal (institutionalized). Advocates have a very important role in terms of law enforcement in the Religious. Religious Court has a number of components absolute competence cases which would require the role of advocate and support services to assist the parties litigating in the Religious. Services rendered by lawyers to their clients is assisting litigation, among others, into power, and give advise.

Forensic discrimination of inkjet-printed lines by Raman spectroscopy and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Tracing a printed document back to its device is an important issue in forensic examinations of questioned documents. Raman spectroscopy is a resourceful technique for document analysis since it provides molecular information of many inks’ components, the type of paper has no effect on the results, and it is a non-destructive technique. Research studies utilise Raman instruments that have a greater potential than the ones used by many law enforcement institutions, which are adapted for routine casework. The potential and limitations were investigated of one Raman instrument, which was especially designed for document casework with regards to the complex discrimination of samples printed by different inkjet printers from the same manufacturer. The results showed low signals for most of the samples, especially black lines, due to fluorescence. To eliminate this, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was performed. The surface treatment method with a silver colloid was studied and optimised to be a less invasive method. SERS spectra resulted in more intense and well-shaped bands but the same profile, typical of copper phthalocyanine derivatives, overwhelmed the entire spectra for blue and black ink lines. Notwithstanding, closer examination revealed smaller spectral differences, which allowed discrimination of the samples into two groups: samples printed by the Deskjet models and samples printed by professional models such as Photosmart, Business and Officejet.