Law Enforcement Employees Research Articles

Some Aspects of Prevention and Investigation of Damage to the Railway Telecommunications Facilities

The authors study the issues of preventing the damage to the railway telecommunications infrastructure by analyzing the current criminal procedure legislation, criminal legislation and criminalistics views on the methods and means of counteracting crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. They present the algorithm of actions of the law enforcement employees and the specialists servicing the railway facilities when such offences take place. The authors analyze the procedural investigative activities regarding the employees of the organizations that service the railway infrastructure. The investigation of crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation requires expert knowledge in the sphere of servicing railway transport. The authors specifically examine some evidence acquired during the preliminary investigation and the methodology of some investigative actions (interrogation of witnesses, representatives of the aggrieved party, inspection of the crime scene). They analyze the procedure of evaluating the damage inflicted on sophisticated telecommunication facilities. They also single out a number of special characteristics of the investigative methodology for crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation when specialists in servicing complex telecommunications facilities are called to give testimony. It is noted that countries bordering on the Russian Federation and members of the Customs Union are gradually harmonizing their criminal and criminal procedure legislation with the legislation of the Russian Federation. The paper states that today the Russian Federation has sufficient legislative base to form a system of preventing crimes against railway telecommunications infrastructure. In conclusion the authors present a number of measures to counteract crimes under Art. 215.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, offer their brief description and the recommendations for using them. They stress the necessity of cooperation between the owners of the railway facilities, the law enforcement bodies and the mass media.

The Prosecutor Effects in Trials for Petty Violent Offences in Russia

The Russian Criminal Procedure Code specifies two possible types of trial for petty violent offences. The normal procedure is referred to as private prosecution. The victim initiates the case by submitting the claim directly to the court and acts as prosecutor. The second possible trial type for the same category of offences includes preliminary investigation by the police and the participation of the public prosecutor in court hearings on behalf of the victim. In practice both procedures are used with comparable frequency. The paper utilizes this duality of procedure and employs the quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design to compare trial outcomes in the two types of trial and examine the effects associated with the participation of the public prosecutor in court. It uses two datasets: (a) that includes information on the entire population of defendants tried for offences in question between 2009 and 2013 and (b) that resulted from the one-to-one merger of (a) with the dataset generated from court verdict texts available online. Controlling for the selection of cases into the public prosecutor track as well as for legal and extralegal characteristics of offence and offender, the analysis establishes that the participation of the public prosecutor in trials reduces the probability of acquittal and increases the probability of reconciliation of parties and case dismissal (conditional upon the admission of guilt). Another dimension of the public prosecutor effect is the mitigation of disparities in the likelihood of acquittal associated with the occupational status of defendant, save for the law enforcement employees. The latter are more likely to be acquitted than defendants with other occupational status and are less probable to reconcile with the victim.

Legal and Extralegal Origins of Sentencing Disparities: Evidence from Russia's Criminal Courts

This article conducts the first analysis of sentencing disparities related to social characteristics of offenders in Russia. It uses a data set of sentencing decisions consisting of over 5 million observations representing the entire population of defendants between 2009 and 2013. The analysis focuses on all felony cases processed by federal district courts (2,905,608 individuals) and estimates sentencing disparities (decisions to imprison and sentence length) related to general social status characteristics of offenders as well as to finer occupational differences. The Russian Criminal Code prescribes that judges should account for the personality of the defendant and his or her family condition, but does not specify how this should be done in practice. Controlling for major legal characteristics of offense and offender, as well as for judge‐level variation, the analysis shows sentencing disparities connected with gender, unemployment, citizenship, local residence, marital status, and occupational status of defendants. Disparities are explained with reference to different origins. Thus, a more severe punishment of law enforcement employees for premeditated crimes corresponds to the legal rule; a harsher treatment of the unemployed and a more lenient sentencing of married defendants are interpreted with reference to legitimate concerns about repeated offending. Extralegal bias is manifested in the more severe punishment of private entrepreneurs and softer punishment of college students. Sentencing disparities are also estimated at different values of sentence length.

INTRUSIVE AFFAIRS MINISTRY

(By Sergei Operov and Ivan Safronov. Kommersant, Sept. 19, 2016, p. 1. Condensed text:) Kommersant has learned that a large-scale security and law-enforcement reform is in the works. Before the 2018 presidential election, plans call for expanding the FSB [Federal Security Service] into a ministry of state security, which would also include the Foreign Intelligence Service and [most operations of] the Federal Protection Service; placing the Russian Investigative Committee back under the oversight of the Prosecutor General’s Office; and splitting the functions of the Emergency Situations Ministry [set to be disbanded - Trans.] between the Defense Ministry and the Internal Affairs Ministry. The state security ministry may gain the power to take charge of the most high-profile cases or oversee investigations that rely on information that the ministry itself has gathered. The reform is expected to streamline the management of security and law-enforcement agencies, as well as rid them of corruption. ... According to Kommersant sources, preparations for the new reform began shortly after the [March 30] presidential decrees that abolished the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Narcotics Control Service (assigning their functions to the Internal Affairs Ministry), and created the [Russian [National] Guard by combining the Internal Affairs Ministry’s Internal Troops and other subdivisions [see Current Digest, Vol. 68, No. 14, p. 9 and p. 10]. ... The sources say that the new incarnation of the FSB would in effect take on the functions of the USSR State Security Committee [KGB].. .. Today’s FPS would continue in the form of the Russian President’s Security Service, which, in addition to protection, would also be in charge of special communications and transportation of senior officials. ... In addition to these structural changes, the new ministry would also acquire new functions. For example, if its staff uncovered information that led the IC or the Internal Affairs Ministry to open a criminal case, the ministry would not only guide and facilitate the investigation of that case, but would also oversee its prosecution. should note that the IC’s Chief Administration for Procedural Control, which used to carry out these functions, has effectively been eliminated. In addition, the new ministry would install its own protective safeguards at all [other] security and law-enforcement agencies. ... The ministry’s investigative arm, which would have the status of a chief administration, could take charge of the most high-profile and politically significant criminal cases, which the Criminal Procedure Code currently assigns to the jurisdiction of the IC and the Internal Affairs Ministry. ... We (FSB operatives - K) used to just provide guidance for investigations, but now we’ll be assigned to monitor their progress from indictment until trial, an informed source at the FSB told Kommersant, emphasizing that these would be high-profile cases involving allegations like corruption. According to this source, [the new ministry’s] intelligence operatives would also check up on how effectively and thoroughly an investigator has used the information they provided. However, it is not quite clear what form such oversight would take. ... This reform may bring significant changes to the IC. It may go back under the jurisdiction of the Russian prosecution system, from which it broke away in 2011 [see Current Digest, Vol. 62, No. 51 - 52, p. 15]. Accordingly, its chief administrations would be taken down a peg in status. For example, the Chief Military Investigation Administration would become a rank-and-file administration. By the way, as of Jan. 1, 2017, the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office will become a branch of the Prosecutor General’s Office. A law to that effect was adopted in 2014, due to the fact that military investigations and their oversight will no longer be funded by [the budgets of] the Defense Ministry, the Internal Affairs Ministry or the FSB. ... In turn, the Ministry of Defense might be beefed up with civil defense troops, as well as rescuers, firefighters and other personnel from the Emergency Situations Ministry. That ministry’s State Fire Inspectorate will be transferred to Internal Affairs, which it used to be part of. ... The security and law-enforcement reform is expected to be complete by the 2018 presidential election. To do so, however, relevant bills will have to be drafted and passed by the new parliament [elected Sept. 18; see the second feature in this issue, above - Trans.] - and, most important, money will have to be found. After all, the most conservative estimates say it will cost tens of billions of rubles just to pay compensation to [current] security and law-enforcement employees who do not want to serve in the reformed agencies. ... It should be noted that, according to Kommersant sources, reform plans call for replacing [some] chiefs of existing services and agencies.

Analysis of the psychometric characteristics of the experimental psychological methods for examination of the law enforcement officers

Background As a number of local documents requires continuous improvement of psychodi-agnostic work, one of the main activities of the Internal Affairs Agencies psychi-atric service is an active clinical examination, the timely detection of law en-forcement officers employees with neuropsychological instability, tendency to aggression and other forms of deviant behavior. Methods The aim of the study was the selection of additional experimental psychological techniques to conduct psychological examinations of law enforcement officers. As on objective of a study evaluation of reliability, validity and discriminative level of psychological tests has been chosen. The object of study was a group of the randomly selected representatives of almost all the major police professions, consisting of 348 respondents of the male gender in the age from 21 to 48 years old. Given the fact that the screening psychological evaluation of law enforce-ment officers during periodic psychiatric examinations is usually carried out un-der time constraints and the urgency to form an opinion immediately after the end of testing, nonprojective psychological techniques have been chosen for test-ing. These techniques, according to the scientific literature, proved their effective-ness and, in addition, are characterized by a small volume of questions and sim-plicity (largely - the dichotomous scales). Moreover, it does not require a lot of time to handle them: a methodology «Aggressive behavior» (E. P Ilyin, P. O. Ko-valev, 2001), the test «Аnxiety-Rigidity- Extravertebral» (D. Moudsli, 2002), the test «IPC-Fragebogen» (H. Levenson, 1986), the test is «MS PTSD» (NM Keane, 2001). Results Tests reliability was investigated by determining the consistency of their results by calculating the L. Cronbach’s coefficient α and Guttman method of splitting in half; discriminative level was determined by calculating the ratio; construct validi-ty was investigated by the exploratory factor analysis conduction. The factor loadings equal to or greater than 0,3 were considered to be sufficient, provided that the other factor loadings per item tend to zero; the criterion validity was in-vestigated by calculating the dichotomous correlation coefficient φ, and the statis-tical significance of the coefficient was determined by the distribution tables χ2 with one degree of freedom.The data achieved makes it possible to assert that law enforcement officers contingent discriminative level (δ-Ferguson = 0,88 ± 0,1) and the criterion validi-ty (φ≥0,225; r≤3E-05) of all the techniques of scales are high enough. Reliability of «Aggressive behavior» methodology is estimated as high only in relation to the general level of diagnosis of incontinence (α-Cronbach = 0,78; Guttman split-half = 0,763), whereas the reliability and construct validity of its individual scales are insufficient. Taking into account the high level of criteria validity and discrimina-tive level of this test, it is possible to talk about whether it should be used only as an indicator of the overall level of incontinence of internal affairs body employ-ees.«MS PTSD» has revealed a high level of reliability, and discriminative valid-ity (α-Cronbach = 0,67; Guttman split-half = 0,63; δ-Ferguson = 0,984), which allows to recommend its use in the process of psycho-diagnostic survey of law enforcement officers.The level of reliability and construct validity of methods «IPC-Fragebogen» and «ARE» was insufficient (α-Kronbaha≤0,5; Guttman split-half≤0,5), indicat-ing that they cannot be used in the process of psychological examinations of law enforcement officers. Conclusion Notwithstanding that several diagnostic instruments have proven themselves in long use in other professional contingents, an important conclusion has been ob-tained as a result of the work that the existing practice of these practices intro-duction into the activity of departmental psychological and psychiatric services without holding their quality evaluation and analysis of testing during the exami-nation of law enforcement officers should be considered unacceptable. On the contrary, the use of any psycho-diagnostic tools must be carried out only after a reasonable proof of the adequacy of their contingent’s psychometric characteris-tics, gender, socio-psychological, and, possibly, regional particularities.

Legal and Extralegal Origins of Sentencing Disparities: Evidence from Russia's Criminal Courts

This paper conducts the first analysis of sentencing disparities related to social characteristics of offenders in Russia. It uses the dataset of sentencing decisions consisting of over 5 million observations representing the entire population of defendants between 2009 and 2013. The analysis focuses on all felony cases processed by Federal district courts (2,905,608 individuals)and estimates sentencing disparities (decisions to imprison and sentence length) related to general social status characteristics of offenders as well as to finer occupational differences. The Russian Criminal Code prescribes that judges should account for the personality of the defendant and his or her family condition, but does not specify how this should be done in practice. Controlling for major legal characteristics of offence and offender as well as for judge-level variation, the analysis shows sentencing disparities connected with gender, unemployment, citizenship, local residence, marital status, and occupational status of defendants. Disparities are explained with reference to different origins. Thus, a more severe punishment of law enforcement employees for premeditated crimes corresponds to the legal rule; a harsher treatment of the unemployed and a more lenient sentencing of married defendants are interpreted with reference to legitimate concerns about repeated offending. Extralegal bias is manifested in the more severe punishment of private entrepreneurs and softer punishment of college students. Sentencing disparities are also estimated at different values of sentence length.

Die vasstelling van ’n fisieke-welstandaanwyser

With the increasing prevalence of emphasis on lifestyle-related wellness, the focus has been diverted from treatment and cure of disease to prevention and health promotion. Therefore, the area of wellness has received much attention and has been promoted with much enthusiasm, especially in the corporate industry. The present study delved into the area of overall physical wellness and explored its components and the influence of an active work environment on these components. This study adopted a cross-sectional, quantitative experimental design Undergraduate university students (n = 165) and 234 training recruits and law enforcement employees underwent several wellness assessments in a bid to compare overall physical wellness in sedentary and active work environments. The individual results were compared and scored into risk areas that were ultimately compounded to formulate an overall physical wellness indicator. It was found that the students were superior in some areas of wellness; the recruits, however, possessed a more pronounced state of overall physical wellness. This indicates that physical activity does contribute significantly to attaining a state of overall physical wellness and so reduces the risk of developing lifestyle related chronic conditions. The overall findings suggest that maintaining a healthy lifestyle through physical activity and health-promoting behaviour will result in a greater state of wellness. In this area of research a host of possibilities for future research are unfolding especially the overall wellness indicator.

The Use of Official Records to Measure Crime and Delinquency

What are "Official" RecordsThe term "official records" is broad and would include data taken from any set of administrative records in order to measure crime or features of criminal justice. In practice, it is usually taken to refer to police or court records. For present purposes, we will limit discussion to the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. This includes the older "Summary Reporting System" with seven different data collections (Offenses Known to the Police also called Return A; Age, Sex and Race of Persons Arrested; Supplementary Homicide Report; Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted; Full-time Law Enforcement Employees; Arson Offenses Known to Law Enforcement; and Hate Crime), as well as the National Incident-Based Reporting System which is currently under development. The term "UCR" is ambiguous. When we refer to the whole organizational enterprise coordinated by the FBI, we use the term "UCR Program," otherwise we will refer to specific data collections. ... Language: en

Intimate Partner Violence Within Law Enforcement Families

Using data from the Baltimore Police Stress and Domestic Violence study, the authors examined how exposure to stressful events on the job affects law enforcement employees' physical aggression toward domestic partners, evaluating the role of negative emotions and authoritarian spillover in mediating the impact of such task-related stress. The authors consulted general strain theory and angry aggression theory to explain domestic violence in police families. Significant positive effects on physical aggression toward an intimate partner were found for variables measuring authoritarian spillover and negative emotions. However, these effects were different for different gender and racial groups.

MMPI‐2 assessed post‐traumatic stress disorder related to job stress, coping, and personality in police agencies

AbstractThe PK and PS scales of the MMPI‐2 were developed to index the degree of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These scales were applied to a sample of 254 mostly male sworn and civilian law enforcement employees from four police agencies. Participants also completed surveys measuring their perceived levels of job stress, their use of a set of coping strategies, and their performance on measures of five global personality domains. The two PTSD scales appeared to have good internal structures and relatively high reliabilities. Employees at greater risk for PTSD reported higher levels of work‐related stress, seemed to use more maladaptive coping strategies, were more neurotic, and tended to be less extraverted, agreeable, and conscientious. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Collective bargaining in the public sector: the experience of eight states

1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW Joyce M. Najita and James L. Stern Introduction Extent of Organization and Representation The Law of Public Sector Bargaining Scope of Bargaining Right to Strike Impasse Resolution/Interest Arbitration Grievance Arbitration Concluding Thoughts 2. JUDICIAL REVIEW AND LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE: THE NEW JERSEY PUBLIC SECTOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING EXPERIENCE Joan Parker Jurisdiction Representation Unfair Practices Scope of Negotiations Mediation and Factfinding Interest Arbitration Grievance Arbitration Conclusion 3. GRIEVANCE AND INTEREST ARBITRATION IN PENNSYLVANIA'S PUBLIC SECTOR Joan Parker Act 195 Jurisdiction Representation Issues Scope of Bargaining Dispute Resolution Dispute Resolution-Act 88 Grievance Arbitration Act 111 Jurisdiction Representation Questions Dispute Resolution Grievance Arbitration Conclusion 4. INTEREST ARBITRATION AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEE BARGAINING-THE WISCONSIN EXPERIENCE William C. Houlihan Legislative Background Bargaining Units and Representation The Impact of Interest Arbitration Organizing The Changed Nature of Bargaining Municipal Employment Relations Act Impasse Procedure under MIA (Police and Firefighters Except Milwaukee Police) Impasse Procedure under MERA (MED/ARB and INT/ARB) Impasse Procedure Covering Milwaukee Police Law Enforcement Employees of the Milwaukee Police Department Police and Fire Arbitration Experience under MIA Municipal Employees Arbitration Experience under MERA Teachers and the QEO The Narcotic Effect, Issues, and Comparables Conclusion 5. PUBLIC SECTOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN MICHIGAN: LAW AND RECENT DEVELOPMENTS Gregory M. Saltzman and Shlomo Sperka Evolution of Michigan's Public Sector Bargaining Policy Extent of Unionism Strike Experience Scope of Bargaining under PERA Mediation and Factfinding Act 312: Compulsory Interest Arbitration for Police and Firefighter Units Act 112: Legislative and Judicial History Act 112 and Strikes Act 112 and the Scope of Bargaining Act 112: Other Provisions and Effects Proposal A: A Major Change in School Financing State Civil Service Employees Conclusion 6. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC SECTOR Carol A. Vendrillo Early Legislation George Brown Act Winton Act Meyers-Milias-Brown Act Right to Strike Binding Interest Arbitration Past Efforts to Get Comprehensive Labor Law Aaron Commission Educational Employment Relations Act Dills Act Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act Agency Fees Excluded Employees Act Extent of Organization Public Schools State Employees Higher Education Local Government Future Trends 7. PUBLIC SECTOR LABOR LAW AND EXPERIENCE IN NEW YORK STATE Janet McEneaney and Robert P. Hebdon A Brief Look Back The Regulatory Agencies The Public Employment Relations Board The New York City Office of Collective Bargaining The Duty To Bargain and the Scope of Bargaining The Duty To Bargain Maintaining the Status Quo after a Contract Expires The Scope of Bargaining The Management Rights Clause of the NYCCBL Impasse Resolution under the Taylor Law Procedure Evidence on Mediation and Factfinding Impasse Resolution under the NYCCBL Arbitration and Contract Enforcement Strikes The Privatization of New York's Public Services Summary and Conclusion 8. ILLINOIS PUBLIC SECTOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING LEGISLATION: THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS R. Theodore Clark, Jr. and F. Donal O'Brien Senate Bill 536 and House Bill 1530 Extent of Unionization in the Illinois Public Sector Subsequent Amendments to the IPLRA and the IELRA Administration of the Acts Representation Cases Duty to Bargain Cases Treatment of Alleged Unilateral Action Cases Statutory Impasse Procedures Contract Administration and Grievance Arbitration Questions Yet To Be Answered under the IPLRA and/or IELRA Concluding Observations 9. ESSENTIAL EMPLOYEE STRIKES AND STATUTORY ARBITRATION PROCEDURES: THE HAWAI'I PUBLIC SECTOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING EXPERIENCE Joyce M. Najita, William J. Anzenberger, and Helene S. Tanimoto Introduction The Legal Framework for Collective Bargaining in Hawai'i's Public Sector Administering Agency: HPERB/HLRB Statutory Bargaining Units Scope of Bargaining The Public Employer Grievance Arbitration Limited Right to Strike Negotiation Impasse Resolution Impact of Strikes and Adoption of Statutory Arbitration Procedures Statewide Teachers Strike, 1973 The Firefighter Sickout and Strike Threats, 1974-1979 Blue-Collar Workers' Strike, 1979 HGEA Strike, 1994 Protecting the Public Health and Safety: Who Are Essential Employees? Firefighters (Decision No. 80) Blue-Collar Workers (Decision No. 119) Teachers (Decision Nos. 181, 186, and 383) HGEA Workers (Decision No. 212 and Order No. 1033) Statutory Arbitration As Strike Alternative Summary and Conclusions