Rates Of Serious Crime Research Articles

Theoretical approach to tax compliance

Purpose- The aim of this study is to emphasize the importance of efficiency in tax compliance and to reveal the factors that increase tax compliance. Methodology- The factors that are effective in tax compliance are explained within the framework of domestic and foreign literature. Findings- Tax compliance is high in countries characterized by high economic freedom, significant capital markets, effective competition laws and low rates of serious crime. In a secure environment that improves their quality of life, where individuals can exercise their economic rights in terms of significant capital markets and effective competition laws, they tend to view tax compliance as less of a burden and more of a civic duty. Tax compliance is high where tax morale is high. When trust in authorities is high, taxpayers will pay their taxes voluntarily. Paying taxes is a civic duty, while tax evasion is immoral. Tax awareness increases if individuals feel the tax obligation in their conscience, if they have a sense of the need to pay taxes, if the level of education and culture is high, if government services are transparent and if the government imposes sanctions on those who do not pay taxes. High tax rates and an unfair tax system are associated with low compliance. Conclusion- The results of this study provide insights for researchers on the factors affecting tax compliance. Keywords: Tax compliance, tax, government, taxpayer, tax authorities. JEL Codes: H20, H21

POLICE REFORM IN DIVIDED TIMES

POLICE REFORM IN DIVIDED TIMES

Avoiding Burnout at the Digital Forensics Coalface: Targeted strategies for forensic agencies in the management of job-related stress

Recent evidence shows digital forensics experts are at risk of burnout and job-related stress. This may be related to the increase in digital evidence and/or repetitive exposure to challenging material, either face to face or via digital imagery in real time or post-event. This exposure includes footage and/or sound recording of extreme violence, child exploitation, suicide, and death scenes. This increase in the risk of stress also aligns with the changing nature of policing with rates of serious crime, especially robbery and homicide decreasing, while digital crime in many countries increases. This increase changes workload demands and requires new skillsets in addition to traditional investigation methods. Workplace stress has high financial and personal costs, impacting organisations, teams, family, friends, and the individual. For organisations and teams, occupational stress is associated with increases in workplace accidents, absenteeism, early retirement, higher intention to quit, lower motivation and disillusionment with work, all of which impacts the cohesion of forensic teams. The aim of this paper is to present a set of key evidence-based, targeted strategies that forensic science and policing agencies can roll-out in order to manage workplace stress, thereby managing the risk of higher turnover, absenteeism and lower workplace innovation.

Thank God for (others’) unanswered prayers: the failure of the drug war … cheap drugs … lower rates of serious crime … the logic adds up, but what next?

Thank God for (others’) unanswered prayers: the failure of the drug war … cheap drugs … lower rates of serious crime … the logic adds up, but what next?

Economic Dominance, the “American Dream,” and Homicide: A Cross‐National Test of Institutional Anomie Theory

This article presents a cross‐national test of Messner and Rosenfeld's (1994) institutional anomie theory. Drawing on multiple data sources, including the United Nations, World Bank, World Values Survey, and Heritage Foundation, we examine relationships between economic dominance, indicators of culture, and homicide among a sample of 50 nations. Additionally, we assess the thesis of “American exceptionalism,” a unique cultural complex implicated by Messner and Rosenfeld as a cause of high rates of serious crime in the United States. Results from OLS regression models provide mixed support for the theory. While none of the theoretical predictors exhibits a statistically significant direct effect on homicide, findings suggest that homicide occurs most often in countries where free‐market principles and practices drive the economy and where core cultural commitments are oriented toward achievement, individualism, fetishism of money, and universalism. However, contrary to expectations, the impact of a market‐driven economy is not more pronounced in countries with weakened non‐economic institutions, and results provide only limited evidence in support of the American exceptionalism thesis. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

An evaluation of the assumptions that underlie institutional anomie theory

Messner and Rosenfeld's institutional anomie theory [IAT] postulates that a pervasive cultural mandate to obtain material wealth, coupled with an anomic normative environment that arises from a pronounced imbalance of power in favor of the economy over all other societal institutions, is responsible for the high rates of serious crime found in the United States. Though intuitively appealing, this perspective is not readily amenable to falsification. Consequently, most empirical evaluations of institutional anomie theory have examined the additive and multiplicative effects of the structural antecedents of the institutional imbalance of power and anomie on violent and property crime rates. Our research takes a different tack. We examine the theory's underlying assumptions and suggest that the applicability of IAT may be limited to advanced, western nation-states.

Has Roe v. Wade Reduced U.S. Crime Rates?

Rates of serious crime in the United States dropped greatly throughout the 1990s for virtually all offenses. John Donohue and Steven Levitt have argued that this reduction relates strongly to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized the abortion of unwanted pregnancies. If such pregnancies result in children with higher lifetime risks of criminality, then the greater ability to terminate these pregnancies after 1973 should reduce crime rates. The purpose of this article is to empirically assess Donohue and Levitt’s basic premise that unwanted pregnancies result in children with significantly higher risk for law-violating behavior. This analysis addresses two questions. First, do children born of an unwanted pregnancy become more highly involved in juvenile delinquency during adolescence and criminal behavior during early adulthood? Second, do the consequences of unwanted pregnancies depend upon the social and demographic characteristics of the child and family? The authors address these two questions with panel data gathered from a national sample of children born prior to Roe v. Wade.

Metropolitan Expansion and Black Social Dislocation: The Link between Suburbanization and Center-City Crime

A long-standing though unexplained finding is that the degree of suburbanization in a metropolitan area is positively related to the rates of serious crime in the incorporated center city. The authors account for this relationship by integrating theoretically two underlying features of urban life in the U.S. First, from a human ecology standpoint, suburbanization is part of a a broader metropolitan expansion process that undermined and isolated many center-city black communities. Second, serious crime in cities is disproportionately concentrated in black communities. They reexamine the suburbanization/city-crime link using racially disaggregated models fir cities and SMSAs in 1980. The findings show that the rate of suburbanization among the total SMSA population is strongly related to the center-city rates of serious crime among blacks, but not among whites. This supports the view that suburbanization increased black center-city crime rates by socially isolating black communities and engendering a variety of social problems. Indeed, upon controlling for potential mediators of the suburbanization-crime link, the relationship between suburbanization and black city-crime rates virtually disappeared

Routine Leisure Activities and Rates of Crime: A Macro-Level Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to apply a approach to explain the relations between macro-level indicators of leisure activities and rates of serious crime. We hypothesize that indicators of the volume of leisure activities that typically take place within households will exhibit negative relations with rates of crime, whereas indicators of the volume of leisure activities that are usually conducted away from households will yield positive associations with rates of crime. Regression analyses for a sample of the largest Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in the United States provide strong support for these hypotheses. A household index and a nonhousehold index exhibit negative and positive associations, respectively, with SMSA crime rates. We suggest that while these results are fully consistent with the routine activities approach, they are not readily interpretable with reference to other general perspectives on the relations between leisure and crime. An important, recent development in criminology has been the formulation of the perspective. The perspective derives largely from Hawley's (1950) human ecology theory and is based on the premise that there is a symbiotic relationship between legal and illegal activities. In essence, illegal activities feed upon the legal activities of everyday life

GEOGRAPHICAL MOBILITY, GOVERNMENTAL ASSISTANCE TO THE POOR, AND RATES OF URBAN CRIME

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the effects of governmental aid to the poor and geographical mobility on rates of urban crime. Previous research based on small samples of SMSAs suggests that these two variables are important predictors of rates of serious crime. Analyses based on a large number of SMSAs in 1980 (N=292) generally reaffirm earlier conclusions. Governmental assistance to the poor exhibits significantly negative associations with homicide rates, and geographical mobility yields significantly positive associations with all measures of index offenses. The results also replicate the prior finding of regional interactions in the effects of poverty on most types of serious crime.