Recent Crime Research Articles

Crime as Pollution

T he point of departure of this provocative article by John and Emily Eck (2012, this issue) is a striking empirical regularity uncovered by Sherman, Gartin, and Buerger (1989). Sherman et al. found that only 3% of addresses and intersections (“places,” as they were called) in Minneapolis produced 50% of all calls to the police. Weisburd and Green (1995) found that 20% of all disorder crime and 14% of crimes against persons in Jersey City, NJ, originated from 56 drug crime hot spots. Twenty five years later in a study of Seattle, WA, Weisburd, Bushway, Lum, and Yang (2004) reported that between 4% and 5% of street segments in the city accounted for 50% of crime incidents for each year over a 14-year period. Other more recent studies finding comparable crime concentrations include Brantingham and Brantingham (1999), Eck, Gersh, and Taylor (2000), and Roncek (2000). The observation that crime is concentrated at a discrete location gave rise to what has come to be called “place-based” policing in which police are deployed and managed to prevent crime at specific locations. The quintessential example of placed-based policing is greatly increasing police presence at crime hot spots. Braga’s (2008) informative review of hot spots policing summarizes the findings from nine experimental or quasi-experimental evaluations. The studies were conducted in five large U.S. cities and one suburb of Australia. Crime-incident reports and citizen calls for service were used to evaluate impacts in and around the geographic area of the crime hot spot. The targets of the police actions varied. Some hot spots were generally high-crime locations, whereas others were characterized by specific crime problems like drug trafficking. All but two studies found evidence of significant reductions in crime. Furthermore, no evidence was found of material crime

Mediatization and mothers accused of murder in Sophie Hannah’s crime novel A Room Swept White

This article explores representations of media reporting and cot death in the British writer Sophie Hannah’s recent crime novel A Room Swept White. The article argues that Hannah’s novel interrogates the mediatization of cot death and maternal identity, in order to probe notions of gender and power. Hannah’s representations are closely linked to the figure of the female detective, whose own identity is challenged by what she discovers during the course of her investigation. Recent media coverage of cot death, and mothers accused of infanticide, suggests that this controversial subject is capable of provoking a re-evaluation of conventional constructions of motherhood. The article concludes that the complex relationship between the mediatization of cot death, maternal identity and the probing of crime in Hannah’s novel allows the reader to reassess the role of the female investigator and the nature of authority.

Mind The Double Gap: Using Multivariate Multilevel Modelling to Investigate Public Perceptions of Crime Trends

This paper uses multivariate multilevel models with data from the British Crime Survey to investigate individual and neighbourhood influences on perceptions of local and national crime trends. In response to debates about the negative consequences of immigration and ethnic diversity, we specifically investigate the influence of ethnic heterogeneity on such perceptions. Results indicate that a person's socio-demographic background and their newspaper readership have the strongest association with perceptions of national trends whilst the strongest association with pessimistic views on localized crime is whether the individual has been a recent crime victim. Results suggest no negative effects for ethnic diversity. Moreover, the findings indicate that living in a mixed neighbourhood is associated with a reduced likelihood of perceiving rising levels of national crime.

Repeat Arsonists’ Behavioural Consistency Analysed by the Suspect Retrieval Support System

In the case of arson, the police often have difficulty in finding forensic evidence and eyewitnesses. If the police can identify the suspects based on their crime scene behaviours, it will be helpful for the criminal investigation. As the first step to fulfill the above purpose, this study focused on the behavioural characteristics of the Japanese repeat arsonists. It examined their behavioural consistency using the suspect retrieval support system developed by Adachi and his colleagues (1993, 1996, 1997). The system estimated behavioural similarities between a target sample and a database containing prior offenders and their offences, using the random choice probability method. The data comprised arsonists who had committed crimes between 1982 and 2005. Three hundred and nineteen repeat arsonists were the target sample in the above system. The offences in the database numbered 10,237, and these crimes were committed by 10,154 arsonists. Fifteen out of the 319 repeat arsonists were retrieved as a rank score of 1 among 10,154 offenders in the database, based on the similarity. The past records of 170 repeat arsonists were ranked within 10th percentile in the database. Additionally, an examination of the offenders who had more than one offence recorded in the database revealed that the most recent crimes among the offences committed by the same offender were most similar to the target crimes. The consistency in the characteristics of each offence were compared by performing a chi-squared test between 81 offenders who showed the highest similarity and 81 offenders who showed the lowest similarity, differentiated by the suspect retrieval support system. The results showed that consistencies regarding the following behavioural characteristics showed highly significant differences between the two groups: the tools used and the way in which the fires were set, the objects burned, and the towns where the arsonists committed their crimes.

Optimising collection of footprint evidence from crime scenes and suspects

Analysis of either footprints or footwear impressions which have been recovered from a crime scene is a well known and well accepted part of forensic investigation. When this evidence is obtained by investigating officers, comparative analysis to a suspect’s evidence may be undertaken. This can be done either by the detectives or in some cases, podiatrists with experience in forensic analysis. Frequently asked questions of a podiatrist include; “What additional information should be collected from a suspect (for the purposes of comparison), and how should it be collected?” This paper explores the answers to these and related questions based on 20 years of practical experience in the field of crime scene analysis as it relates to podiatry and forensics. Elements of normal and abnormal foot function are explored and used to explain the high degree of variability in wear patterns produced by the interaction of the foot and footwear. Based on this understanding the potential for identifying unique features of the user and correlating this to footwear evidence becomes apparent. Standard protocols adopted by podiatrists allow for more precise, reliable, and valid results to be obtained from their analysis. Complex data sets are now being obtained by investigating officers and, in collaboration with the podiatrist; higher quality conclusions are being achieved. This presentation details the results of investigations which have used standard protocols to collect and analyse footwear and suspects of recent major crimes.

Road Dogsby Elmore Leonard; New York, HarperCollins, 2009, 288 pages, $26.99 hardcover, $13.99 softcover

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessRoad DogsWesley Sowers M.D.Wesley Sowers M.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Dec 2010https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2010.61.12.1268AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The book Road Dogs is the most recent crime novel by Elmore Leonard. Mr. Leonard is a prolific writer in this genre and focuses on criminals as opposed to crime. This was my first experience with his work, and it was entertaining and engaging. Mr. Leonard draws us into a world that is governed by rules and values that are alien to most of our own. The story begins in a Florida prison, where the protagonist, Jack Foley, develops a relationship with the Cuban criminal Cundo, who arrived in the United States via the Mariel Boatlift and made and protected a small fortune through some criminal activities and vaguely legal investments. Here they became "road dogs," or inmates paired up to watch each other's backs. Cundo hooks Foley up to his lawyer, who manages to get his sentence for bank robbery reduced from 30 years to a little more than time served (about three years!). Cundo pays all the lawyer's fees, leaving Foley in his debt to the tune of $30,000, which he insists Foley does not need to repay because "We friends Jack, you the only one I can talk to." This sets the stage for a story about friendship, trust, ambiguity, and betrayal in the obscurely menacing world of criminal society in Los Angeles, where the two rendezvous after their proximate release from prison.Cundo's beguiling "wife," Dawn, leads a cast of characters focused on fulfilling their own needs and desires, with little concern for those they use or trample in the process. The relationships of power, risk, cunning, and treachery play out as various plans are hatched and alliances formed in attempts to relieve Cundo of his fortune.Jack Foley, who is charming, crafty, and agile, is a strange resident of this world, moving through it skillfully, outsmarting or outmaneuvering those who would make him a casualty of their plans. One wonders why such a likeable, bright, and ultimately ethical character has chosen a life of crime and what magic he possesses to allow him to survive and thrive in this criminal world. As unlikely as this seems, we find ourselves genuinely delighted by his progress toward triumph, which seems inevitable. Although this book adds little insight to our understanding of sociopathy, it allows us to observe this version of it without feeling unsettled.Dr. Sowers is director of the Center for Public Service Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 61Issue 12 December, 2010Pages 1268-1268PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2010 Volume 61 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 December 2010 Published in print 1 December 2010

Road Dogs

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessRoad DogsWesley Sowers M.D.Wesley Sowers M.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Dec 2010https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2010.61.12.1268AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail The book Road Dogs is the most recent crime novel by Elmore Leonard. Mr. Leonard is a prolific writer in this genre and focuses on criminals as opposed to crime. This was my first experience with his work, and it was entertaining and engaging. Mr. Leonard draws us into a world that is governed by rules and values that are alien to most of our own. The story begins in a Florida prison, where the protagonist, Jack Foley, develops a relationship with the Cuban criminal Cundo, who arrived in the United States via the Mariel Boatlift and made and protected a small fortune through some criminal activities and vaguely legal investments. Here they became "road dogs," or inmates paired up to watch each other's backs. Cundo hooks Foley up to his lawyer, who manages to get his sentence for bank robbery reduced from 30 years to a little more than time served (about three years!). Cundo pays all the lawyer's fees, leaving Foley in his debt to the tune of $30,000, which he insists Foley does not need to repay because "We friends Jack, you the only one I can talk to." This sets the stage for a story about friendship, trust, ambiguity, and betrayal in the obscurely menacing world of criminal society in Los Angeles, where the two rendezvous after their proximate release from prison.Cundo's beguiling "wife," Dawn, leads a cast of characters focused on fulfilling their own needs and desires, with little concern for those they use or trample in the process. The relationships of power, risk, cunning, and treachery play out as various plans are hatched and alliances formed in attempts to relieve Cundo of his fortune.Jack Foley, who is charming, crafty, and agile, is a strange resident of this world, moving through it skillfully, outsmarting or outmaneuvering those who would make him a casualty of their plans. One wonders why such a likeable, bright, and ultimately ethical character has chosen a life of crime and what magic he possesses to allow him to survive and thrive in this criminal world. As unlikely as this seems, we find ourselves genuinely delighted by his progress toward triumph, which seems inevitable. Although this book adds little insight to our understanding of sociopathy, it allows us to observe this version of it without feeling unsettled.Dr. Sowers is director of the Center for Public Service Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. FiguresReferencesCited byDetailsCited ByNone Volume 61Issue 12 December, 2010Pages 1268-1268PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES December 2010 Volume 61 Number 12 Metrics PDF download History Published online 1 December 2010 Published in print 1 December 2010

A Study on Recent Crime Conditions of Foreigner's and Confrontation Strategy Trends

A Study on Recent Crime Conditions of Foreigner's and Confrontation Strategy Trends

The Causal Connection Between Drug Misuse and Crime

One of the most influential accounts of the causal connection between drug use and crime was developed by Paul Goldstein in a tripartite conceptual framework that divided explanations of the connection into economic-compulsive', psychopharmacological' and systemic' (Goldstein 1985). The aim of this paper is to examine the validity of the taxonomy in explained drug-related crime across different crime types and to identify some of the mechanisms involved. This was done by interviewing drug-misusing offenders currently serving sentences of imprisonment in the United Kingdom about the role of drug use in their recent crimes. The paper concludes that Goldstein's taxonomy should be refined to take into account the wide range of factors that influence the connection between drug use and crime.

Things like that don't happen here: Crime, place and real estate in the news

This article investigates the construction of place in crime reporting through bystander quotes in recent crime stories in newspapers from the north-eastern US. These quotes are part of a larger pattern of reporting that highlights environmental features of serenity and peacefulness as antidotes to crime. Against claims that crime in the media is always exaggerated, this research demonstrates how the impact of crime is moderated by declaring it unlikely and by discursively shifting it to other geographic locations. It is argued that crime reporting shares a structural similarity with fictional representations of place found in film, and that this pattern of crime reporting helps to reinforce a suburban consumption ethos.

Jindabyne’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

<i>Jindabyne</i>’s Haunted Alpine Country: Producing (an) Australian Badland

Educational reform in Japan for lifelong learning

This report describes the current state of affairs and reform in Japan in 2007 of the theory, policy, and practice of lifelong education. As in most countries, Japan has been talking of decentralisation in government, of giving more local autonomy to communities and of promoting individuality in education. In line with these aims, the government has said it promotes lifelong learning for the economic security, wellbeing, and the quality of life of the people in the new millennium. The fall in birth rate and rise in the proportion of old‐aged pensioners have supported the general reform towards lifelong learning. However, recently it seems that the government has switched to focus on more tightly controlling school education which had been liberalised during the past 10 years—leading some to feel that the government was using recent adolescent crime and delinquency as a guise to recover centralised influence in schools. Some observers have interpreted this re‐focus on school education reform as abandoning the drive towards individual autonomy and lifelong learning. The new revisions to education laws and the prevailing socioeconomics surrounding education are summarised. Based on a full literature survey, theory and analysis on how to initiate the social intrinsic motivation to lifelong learning, this study shows that the government is likely on the right track by pushing through the reform laws to set minimum standards in education—as the only foundation upon which lifelong learning can flourish.

`Violence All Around Us'

How do international human rights frameworks function in addressing violence against women in situations of prolonged political violence and colonial conflict? How do other voices, generated locally, take on, contest or interact with, these frameworks? These questions are addressed in the Palestinian context through examining two recent reports, the first, a problematic November 2006 report by Human Rights Watch, A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls, and the second, a report issued in March 2007 by the Palestinian Violence Against Women Forum, a network of local Palestinian NGOs. Data from the first Palestinian national survey on domestic violence (2005) are also scrutinized. Beginning with a specific incident of a recent honor crime in a Palestinian refugee camp, this initial intervention also probes the history of public debate research and activism on domestic violence in Palestine and argues for careful attention to the diversity of community responses.

Understanding and Preventing Criminal Recidivism Among Adults With Psychotic Disorders

Understanding and Preventing Criminal Recidivism Among Adults With Psychotic Disorders

Sex Offender Re-Entry: A Summary and Policy Recommendation on the Current State of the Law in California and How to 'Safely' Re-Introduce Sex Offenders into Our Communities

This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive review of the current and pending sex offender legislation in California, examine their effectiveness or ineffectiveness and any possible loopholes, and conclude with a broad recommendation on where the state of California's law and policies surrounding the safe release and supervision of sex offenders into the community should be heading. In doing so, the paper will rely on current statistics on sex offenders in California, policy recommendations by various organizations on this topic, media profiles and case histories of recent real-life sex crimes, and actual data from the California online sex offender registry to discover the profile of the real sex offender in California. This paper will also examine the roll of public outcry and moral panic in the implementation of these laws and the effect this may have had on their specific provisions and eventual effectiveness in order to provide a more comprehensive review of the impetus behind such regulations and hopefully to inform future legislation of the lessons of the past. Note: Appendix C for this paper is not included, please contact the author if you would like access to it.

The Crime Drop in America: an Exploration of Some Recent Crime Trends

Between 1993 and 2000 the United States experienced a sharp decline of over 40% in murder and robbery rates. There has been much speculation about the factors that contributed to that decline. In this paper, we examine the effects of incarceration, changing demographic composition, policing and control of guns, and the changing nature of markets selling crack cocaine. We find two major factors contributing to the drop. The first and major effect was the undoing of the rapid rise in violence between 1985 and 1993, a rise that was attributable largely to the recruitment of young people into the crack markets as replacements for those sent to prison. That entire rise was attributable to young people with handguns. Between 1993 and 2000, there was a significant drop in the demand for crack by new users, and so the young people were no longer needed, but they could be absorbed in the robust economy. The second factor that contributed to the decline was a continuation of the reduction in violence by people aged 30 and above, probably due to an incapacitation effect.

Neighbourhood policing: the story so far

The recommendations of the recent Crime and Disorder Act Review will shape the evolution of neighbourhood policing. This article explains how neighbourhood policing in the UK has developed, including milestones such as the National Reassurance Policing Programme. Now, as neighbourhood policing is rolled out more widely, there is not one model in use, rather ten principles that forces are expected to apply. Early lessons from the roll out of neighbourhood policing suggest that much has been achieved and that the key to success is effective partnership working, particularly with local governments.

A Bakhtinian Perspective on Feminist Lesbian Crime Writing

In her paper, "A Bakhtinian Perspective on Feminist Lesbian Crime Writing," Sarah Posman discusses how the Bakhtinian concepts "ethos" and "chronotope" add to the discussion of feminist lesbian crime writing. She sets out from a Bakhtinian typology of action stories and situates recent crime writing as a curious mixture of mission stories and transformation stories. Focusing on the innovative potential of feminist lesbian crime writing, Posman explores how such stories tackle the iconically masculine and heterosexual conventions of the detective story and manage to balance tradition and subversion successfully. Posman infuses her analysis with issues central to feminism and queer theory and considers how a feminist lesbian detective hero can "change the world," that is, how such an "other" ethos impinges on crime writing's conventional chronotopical constellation. The hero and world under discussion are those of the popular Kate Delafield series by Katherine V. Forrest.

The Relation Between Psychological Distress, Television Exposure, and Television-Viewing Motives in Crime Victims

This study examines the relation between psychological distress as a result of criminal victimization and television exposure and viewing motives. Participants were 221 recent crime victims who were measured for "common" distress symptoms (Symptoms Check List-90), symptomatology associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (Self Inventarisation List), amount of television exposure, viewing motives, and selection of specific programs. Remarkable gender differences were found in the relation between psychological distress and amount of television exposure and gratifications sought from television. With regard to selective exposure, the results indicate that severity of distress symptoms may be a moderating factor in the affect-dependent stimulus arrangement theory (Zillmann & Bryant, 1985).

Police force reform and military participation against delinquency

In recent years, levels of fear and insecurity have risen throughout Latin America, as levels of public confidence in the police have continued to drop. On one hand, these trends have made evident the pressing need for police reform. On the other, they have fueled public pressure to enlist the armed forces to assist the police in combating crime, drugs, and other threats to internal security. This article examines the context for this emergent militarization, particularly as it relates to recent crime trends. It presents some of the reforms that have been carried out in the region, and concludes by discussing some of the future challenges likely to face institutions of public security.