Seriousness Of Offense Research Articles

Criminal enforcement of copyright in India

AbstractThe Supreme Court of India, in the recent case of Knit Pro International v. State of NCT of Delhi, clarified that the offence under S. 63 of the Copyright Act, 1957 is cognizable and nonbailable. This decision is likely to have far‐reaching consequences in the field of copyright enforcement. This article is meant to examine the current state of criminal enforcement of Copyright in India, its interface with freedom of speech and expression and the likely impact of the said judgement on copyright enforcement in India. The article starts with an overview of criminal remedies under the Copyright Act, 1957 and the criminal procedure applicable to those remedies. It then analyses the provisions in light of five factors which are considered crucial in criminalizing an offence—seriousness, proportionality, legal soundness, enforceability and alternative remedies. The article concludes that the current regime for criminal enforcement of copyright leans heavily in favour of enforcers and requires a change to ensure a balance between copyright and the right to freedom of speech and expression.

HỌC THUYẾT VI PHẠM VÔ HẠI TRONG TƯ PHÁP HÌNH SỰ HOA KỲ VÀ VI PHẠM TỐ TỤNG KHÔNG LÀM THAY ĐỔI BẢN CHẤT VỤ ÁN TẠI VIỆT NAM

During the investigation, prosecution, and adjudication of criminal cases, there is carry the risk of procedural violations and errors. When conducting appellate or cassation trials, it is crucial to determine the seriousness or harmlessness of any procedural offences to decide whether to cancel the judgment for re-investigation or re-trial. The authors introduce the doctrine of “harmless error” in the United States criminal justice system and analyzes the “procedural violations that do not change the nature of the case” in Vietnam. Finally, the authors recommend developing regulations on this type of violation in Vietnam’s criminal procedure lane.

Penal Proportionality in the Protection of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land Law

This study explores the penal proportionality in the Protection of Sustainable Food Agricultural Land Law. It is argued that the severity of criminal sanction must correspond to the offense's seriousness. Using doctrinal legal research, this study employed a statute and conceptual approach with the literature study to collect the data. The finding of this study shows that the PLP2B Law violates the penal proportionality principle when it determines the threat of a criminal consequence. Even though they are considered minor infractions, several of them carry relatively significant criminal penalties that even outweigh the possibility of punishment for more serious acts. The objective of matching the seriousness of the offense to the severity of the criminal sanction has not been fully achieved. The determination of such threats of criminal sanctions does not, on a large scale, reflect the importance of social justice for all Indonesians. By taking into account the rank of offenses in the environmental harm-based criminalization model, Article 73 of the PLP2B Law must be proportionate to the magnitude of the offense. The determination of criminal sanction threats in the Law needs to be considered and compared to the determination of criminal sanction threats in other environmental laws.

IMPACT OF POLICE CYNICISM ON CRIME REPORTING: INSIGHTS FROM ANGELES CITY, PHILIPPINES

This research delves into the intricate relationship between police cynicism and crime reporting behavior in Angeles City, Philippines. It takes a comprehensive approach, aiming to identify both the factors that encourage and discourage crime reporting while examining the influence of police cynicism. The research utilizes a mixed-methods design, encompassing a descriptive survey and correlation research. The survey includes questions regarding individuals attitudes towards the police, their willingness to report crimes, and their perceptions of the polices effectiveness in combating crime. The correlation research specifically delves into the connection between police cynicism and crime-reporting behavior, hypothesizing that higher levels of police cynicism correlate with lower levels of crime reporting and vice versa. The findings of this study carry significant implications for improving crime reporting behavior, ultimately contributing to enhanced safety in Angeles City. The research underscores the existence of generally positive attitudes toward crime reporting, driven by an awareness of the seriousness of offenses, a sense of empowerment, and a shared responsibility for community well-being. This positive disposition emphasizes the need for law enforcement agencies and policymakers to consider community engagement strategies and initiatives that encourage reporting. The research also reveals that discouraging factors do exist, particularly concerning non-traditional crimes, where fears and distrust in the justice system play a significant role. While there is a prevailing trust in the local polices effectiveness, the weak correlation between positive police perceptions and actual reporting behavior highlights the need for a holistic approach in policy development. Furthermore, the positive correlation between discouragement and encouragement factors in reporting suggests potential policy implications, calling for in-depth research to further comprehend the intricate dynamics influencing reporting behavior. The findings collectively emphasize the multifaceted nature of public perceptions and reporting motivations, underlining the interconnectedness of these elements. Policymakers are encouraged to adopt comprehensive approaches that foster community trust and enhance reporting behavior, while researchers are urged to delve deeper into these nuanced relationships to inform evidence-based policies for public safety and more effective law enforcement in Angeles City. KEYWORDS: crime reporting, crime reporting behavior, police cynicism, encouraging and discouraging factors of crime reporting

Intention to report misconduct of the Royal Malaysian Police: Examining perceived offence seriousness, perceived disciplinary fairness and perceived legitimacy

The intention to report misconduct is the inclination of police officers to disclose wrongdoing perpetrated by other officers, whereas the code of silence is an unwritten policy prohibiting officers from reporting the misbehaviour of their colleagues. Hence, officers have the choice either to remain silent or to report any misconduct by their colleagues. This article investigates the determinants of the intention to report misconduct by Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) officers from the commercial crime investigation department. Organizational theory is used to form the framework and develop the hypotheses. Three hypotheses are developed concerning the intention to report RMP officer misconduct using three elements: perceived offence seriousness, perceived disciplinary fairness and perceived legitimacy. Face-to-face and online survey questionnaires were used as data collection methods. In total, 170 questionnaires were distributed, and 151 completed questionnaires were useable. The questionnaire contained four scenarios illustrating various forms of misconduct; each contained seven questions measuring police officers’ perception and assessment of their intention to report, perceived seriousness of the offence, perceived disciplinary fairness and other intentions to report. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that perceived offence seriousness and perceived legitimacy had a strong positive relationship with officer intentions to report misconduct. This study has important implications for national and international policymakers to find out how well officers understand their agency's rules on misconduct as well as their opinions about the seriousness of the different types of misconduct, the appropriate discipline for the misconduct and their willingness to report the behaviour.

White Collar Crime: Awareness and Perception Analysis

The present study comparatively examined the perceptions and experiences of participants on white-collar offences in relation to traditional street level offences in the cities of Ankara and Eskişehir. For this objective, a wide range of information was collected, including the perceived seriousness of offences, victimization, high risk behaviors that may be related to victimization, crime control, and the perceived victim profile. A total of 381 participants living in Ankara and Eskişehir were selected via convenience sampling methods. The results were analyzed with descriptive statistics as well as T-test, and ANOVA. The results revealed that the participants perceive white-collar offences as significantly serious criminal acts in comparison to common street level offences and that they believe that states should allocate equal funds to white-collar offences as well as common street level offences. We also found that there were significant differences between the participants' attitudes towards the potential victim profile and their attitudes towards actual victims. The findings are believed to be significant for law enforcement agencies, consumer protection organizations and other experts working in the field.

The role of language and emotional intelligence in judgments of real‐life social and moral transgressions among Greek, Hungarian, and British users of English

AbstractPrevious research suggests that people are more prone to commit moral transgressions when they face moral dilemmas in a second language (LX) as opposed to their first language(s) (L1). This study investigated the influence of language, emotional intelligence, and the degree of severity of real moral transgressions on bilinguals' judgments of offense seriousness, the intensity of the emotions they experienced, and the punishments they proposed for the perpetrators. To this end, 256 British L1 users, 209 Greek–English bilinguals, and 187 Hungarian–English bilinguals watched four videos presenting moral transgressions of mild and extreme severity. Data were analyzed by means of robust linear mixed‐effects models and moderated mediation analyses. For the extreme severity videos, the results revealed strong correlations between offensiveness, emotionality ratings, and proposed punishments for the perpetrators. However, the Greek and the Hungarian participants who watched the videos in their LX English reported lower offensiveness and emotionality ratings and less harsh punishments for the perpetrators than they did in their L1 (Greek and Hungarian, respectively). Furthermore, the role of language in the proposed punishments for the perpetrators was mediated by emotional intensity, but only for the extreme severity stimuli. The results also suggest that higher levels of emotional intelligence are linked with tougher judgments of offense seriousness and stronger emotions when watching real moral transgressions. These findings highlight that the moral foreign language effect does not only exist in the hypothetical moral realm but affects perceptions of offensiveness and emotionality and decisions for the future of perpetrators in real‐life situations.

Juvenile probation officers and discretionary decision-making: the effects of legal, physical, and social factors

Although sentencing recommendations should be based on legal factors, research shows that some juvenile probation officers (JPOs) also consider extra-legal factors. Indeed, research shows that stereotypes about certain demographics (e.g., young Black males) increase the perception of dangerousness and, in turn, result in harsher sentencing recommendations. The purpose of the current study was to identify the legal (seriousness of offense, prior offenses, and record), physical (race, gender, and age), and social factors (socioeconomic status, completeness of the juvenile’s family/family arrangement, presence of co-offenders) that the JPO considered the most important when making their sentencing recommendations. Data for the study came from a sample of juvenile probation officers in nine states. Participants were asked questions about sanctioning, disposition, and sentencing. The findings show that while the majority of JPOs rated legal factors (e.g., seriousness of offense) as the most important when making sentencing recommendations, a substantial proportion of the sample rated physical factors (e.g., race) as the most important factor considered when making sentencing recommendations. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Global crime science: what should we do and with whom should we do it?

AbstractFollowing on from a previous paper advocating changes in the editorial processes of peer-reviewed journals, the present paper espouses the conduct of multiple local victimisation surveys as an affordable route to a pan-European crime science. Local surveys have a local impact which national surveys lack, and meta-analysis of survey results enable more general conclusions. The Latvian local survey reported in the chapter revealed wide inequality of victimisation at the individual level, an association between high rating of the seriousness of offences suffered, multiple victimisation at the individual level, and alienation from the police of some ethnic groups.

Dynamic risk and differential impacts of probation: Examining age, race, and gender as responsivity factors.

Juvenile courts that apply the risk-need-responsivity (RNR) model should periodically reassess youths and observe reductions in risk. There is a gap in knowledge concerning the reliable implementation of the specific responsivity principle of the RNR model, which emphasizes considering youths' unique characteristics to support rehabilitation success. In the present study, we aimed to identify whether specific responsivity factors (i.e., age, gender, and race/ethnicity) and supervision experiences (i.e., time under supervision and participation in judicial programs) effect changes in risk scores. We anticipated that (a) time under supervision would be negatively associated with dynamic risk, (b) participation in judicial programs would be positively associated with dynamic risk, and (c) race/ethnicity (not age or gender) would moderate the relationship between supervision experiences and dynamic risk. The sample consisted of 360 youths who served probation in a midwestern court. We tested multilevel models to determine differential impacts of supervision experiences on dynamic risk across responsivity factors, controlling for initial risk scores and offense seriousness. Partially confirming our hypotheses, results showed that spending longer periods on probation and being referred to judicial programs were both associated with negative changes in risk scores (i.e., risk scores increased over time). There was no effect of age or gender; however, race/ethnicity predicted dynamic risk. The average change in risk score was 1.81 units lower for historically marginalized youths (b = -1.82, SE = 0.68, p = .01), and the magnitude of the effect was significantly driven by multiracial youths. As expected, race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between time on probation and changes in risk scores. Findings indicate that improper application of the specific responsivity principle of the RNR model may diminish desired rehabilitation outcomes. Closing this theory-to-practice gap would improve court supervision experiences for all youths. In future studies, researchers should continue investigating specific responsivity factors and the dynamic validity of risk assessment. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Who gets diverted into treatment? a study of defendants with psychosis

The current study aimed to advance our understanding of the factors that influence mental health diversion in Local Courts in New South Wales, Australia. Logistic regression was used to systematically identify the factors that are correlated with diversion in a cohort of individuals (N = 7283) diagnosed with psychosis. Those with a substance-induced psychotic disorder were less likely to be diverted than those with an affective psychosis or schizophrenia, after adjusting for age, gender, Indigenous status, offence seriousness, violence and criminal history. Unexpectedly, those with psychotic disorders committing violent or serious offences were more likely to be diverted than those committing non-violent, less serious offences. Legal representation should be provided to all individuals with serious mental illnesses facing criminal charges. The State-wide Community and Court Liaison Service should be expanded to more Local Courts. Further research is required into why Aboriginal defendants with a psychotic illness are less likely to be diverted.

The Consequences of Counting Juvenile Adjudications in Adult Sentencing

The two primary legal factors affecting most sentencing decisions in guidelines jurisdictions are the seriousness of the current conviction offense and the defendant’s prior involvement with the criminal justice system. While districts vary in the factors considered in prior record scores, the inclusion of juvenile adjudications in these assessments is common. Nevertheless, the impact that prior adjudications have on sentencing recommendations likely varies based on the types of juvenile adjudications included, the relative weight those prior actions are given relative to prior convictions as adults, and whether the guidelines impose upper limits on the extent to which juvenile adjudications can affect adult sentencing recommendations. In this study, we estimate the impact of juvenile adjudications on recommended sentencing outcomes using data from Pennsylvania from 2015-2019 and demonstrate a method to evaluate whether the current policy contributes to disparate sentencing recommendations. Further, we examine the extent to which alternative policy structures, that are in place in other jurisdictions, produce greater, lesser, or similar impacts on recommended sentences and potential disparity. We conclude with a discussion of research on juvenile cognitive development and its implications as related to our findings.

The Impact of Legal Team Size on Third Party Perceptions

We examine whether the number of lawyers representing a defendant impacts third parties’ moral judgments and recommended punishments for similar offenses. Specifically, we use an experimental survey with a between-subjects design to examine third parties’ perceptions regarding the seriousness of fraud and tax evasion offenses and the punishments they deem appropriate for these offenses. Our benchmark analysis suggests that subjects’ perceived severity and seriousness of both offenses are significantly increasing in the number of lawyers representing the defendant. These results could be driven both by a direct impact of legal representation on third parties’ perceptions and preferences for punishment, or by third parties updating their beliefs regarding the seriousness of these offenses based on the defendant’s legal expenditures. To investigate whether the latter mechanism may be driving results, we conduct a second experimental survey wherein subjects are informed that the number of lawyers has been randomly determined. This causes the significant relationship between the perceived seriousness of the offense and the number of lawyers to vanish. However, for fraud offenses, increasing the number of lawyers from one to more lawyers increases third parties’ recommended sanctions, which is consistent with a psychological phenomenon of ‘luck envy’.

Victims’ Perceptions of Cyberstalking: an Examination of Perceived Offender Motivation

The current study explores cyberstalking victims’ perceived offender motivation for using a sample of 576 young adults who had been repeatedly pursued online by someone they knew within the previous 12-months. Results revealed that cyberstalking victims most frequently believed that the perpetrator engaged in the repeated unwanted contacts because they were motivated by affection (47.22%), rejection (43.58%), or were obsessed with them (41.49%). Further, the study assessed whether victims’ perceived cyberstalker motivation impacted whether they felt fearful as a result of the repeated online pursuit behavior, controlling for offense seriousness and demographic characteristics. Multivariate findings revealed that when victims perceived their cyberstalker was motivated by retaliation or revenge or rejection, they were statistically significantly more likely to feel fearful as a result of the repeated online behaviors. In contrast, when victims perceived their cyberstalker was motivated by feelings of affection, they were statistically significantly less likely to feel fearful as a result of the repeated online pursuit behaviors. Implications for cyberstalking victims’ reporting and help-seeking behaviors are offered.

Racial Differences in Co-Offending: Correlations With Concurrent Juvenile Police Contacts and Predictions of Future Adult Police Contacts

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relationship between co-offending and offense seriousness varied by race and whether similarities in age (juvenile, adult) and race (white, non-white) augmented the frequency and severity of future offending in co-offending males. Analyzing 15,059 incidents of police contact involving male juvenile participants from the Second Philadelphia Birth Cohort (PBC II) and the records of 7,420 male participants from the PBC II, a stronger co-offending–offense seriousness relationship was noted in the juvenile police contacts of non-white participants, whereas similarity between co-offenders led to increased adult police contacts in non-white but not white participants. These results suggest that juvenile co-offending may operate along social learning lines in non-white, if not white, youth.

Adaptation of the Turkish version of the Violence Profile for Current Offense for the evaluation of violence severity of index offense

Because different definitions of violence adopted in previous studies have led to diverging results, there occurred a requisite of standardization for rating and evaluating violent behavior through reliable methods. We aimed to introduce to Turkish researchers an instrument that encompasses all types of offending behavior and allows them to evaluate the violence profile of each offense. A total number of 142 criminal offenses were evaluated with the Violence Profile for Current Offense (VPCO), which was developed by Taylor for the rating of the seriousness of the index offense. After establishing semantic and content equivalence, inter-rater reliability and internal consistency of the Turkish VPCO were examined. According to our preliminary results, we encourage the application of the Turkish version of the VPCO in the severity assessment of violence of any type of offense in forensic settings. Furthermore, we believe that proper assessment of the severity of violent behavior related to mental disorders could aid in improving clinically feasible prediction models and tools in both clinical and forensic settings.

Juror and community views of the guilty plea sentencing discount: Findings from a national Australian study

A plea of guilty is a long-accepted factor mitigating sentence in many countries, including Australia, although academic debate over the merits and application of the discount is ongoing. This paper presents findings from a national Australian study on public opinion on the guilty plea sentencing discount, with a particular focus on sexual offences. Survey data were drawn from 989 jurors in cases that resulted in a guilty verdict and 450 unempanelled jurors and 306 online respondents who were provided with vignettes based on real cases. A third of the respondents would have supported a discount in their case if the offender had pleaded guilty. In contrast, more than one half of the respondents surveyed, who had received a vignette with a guilty plea scenario, supported an increment in sentence if the offender had gone to trial. There was more support for a discount in cases involving non-sexual violent offences versus sexual offences and adult versus child victims. Where a discount was supported, this most commonly was a reduction in the length of custodial sentence, with online respondents allocating the least generous discounts. Willingness to accept a sentencing discount was predicted by a range of variables including gender, education, punitive attitudes, offence type and offence seriousness. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for sentencing law and practice.

Modelling Burglary Susceptibility – An Expert Judgement Approach

Developing a model allow a better understanding of the nature of a complicated phenomenon. With advancement of tools and technology, model development has been applied widely to mimic the phenomena of interest, spatial or non-spatial wise, allowing a guided decision making to be made. In this paper, the phenomena of burglary vulnerability and susceptibility are modelled based on expert opinion input to create a model that imitates the expert profiling of burglary occurrences, which is dependent on individual expert wisdom and experience in handling the burglary investigation. Due to seriousness of burglary crime offences in Malaysia, especially the urban areas, a prediction model is needed to correlates the factor of crime and further estimates the spatial susceptibility to work hand in hand with other government initiatives in reducing crime. Eighteen (18) indicators and 63 sub-indicators has been identified to be significant in defining the susceptibility of burglary. Apart from input of rating and ranking of indicators and sub-indicators obtained from questionnaire distribution to expert in handling burglary, the geospatial based data were also incorporated into the model to add the element of spatial accuracy in susceptibility prediction. The geospatial data includes the distribution of burglary incidence from 2010 – 2016, the census data, the building footprint data and the demarcation area. For the collected questionnaire feedback, the procedure of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) were adapted to determine the weight value considering the rating input of expert from the distributed questionnaire. The input of weight and scoring were applied to the corresponding spatial features and combined with the operation of weighted sum to yield the total burglary susceptibility of a place. The results of the model were validated with the real reported burglary frequency based on True Positive Rate correlation matrix. The model validation finds that the model have a sensitivity of 82% in classifying the burglary susceptibility of the building polygon inside the study area. However this model still requires some improvement as it is still lacking to perform the classification of incidence intensity correctly.

What Makes a Crime Serious? Testing Warr’s Model of Offence Seriousness

Warr (1989) proposed that the perceptions of seriousness of different criminal offences are a function of perceptions of harmfulness caused by a crime (consequences of the crime), and perceived wrongfulness of a crime (normative evaluations regarding the crime). The study reported in this paper tested this model and examined the perceptions of seriousness of different offences in a sample of university students in Turkey. It was found that the degree of consensus regarding offence seriousness was much higher for offences judged as more serious. It was further found, when using wrongfulness and harmfulness assessments, that offences clustered into three larger groups: offences that present threat/risk of physical harm/death, property offences, and “minor” offences. Further, Warr’s model was tested on both the offence and the individual level of analysis. The findings suggest that the model indeed holds, however relative strength of harmfulness and wrongfulness, as predictors of crime seriousness, are different in Turkey, compared to findings from the USA and Westernest European countries. On an individual level, it was found that harmfulness was a stronger predictor than wrongfulness in a much larger number of offences, and that on the level of the offence, harmfulness was as strong a predictor of seriousness as wrongfulness.

Not Wild about Wildlife Protection? The Perceived Harmfulness, Wrongfulness, and Seriousness of Wildlife Crimes

AbstractThe purpose of this research was to explore the perceived harmfulness, wrongfulness, and seriousness of wildlife crimes, such as illegal or unlicensed hunting or fishing. Research questions included how offenses against wildlife are perceived, compared to offenses against persons and property, and how perceptions of harmfulness and wrongfulness impact perceptions of wildlife offense seriousness. A survey modeled after previous studies of crime seriousness was administered to a college student sample. The results showed that wildlife offenses were ranked as less serious, harmful, and wrong than those against persons and property, and also less than those against companion animals and animals on farms. Perceived wrongfulness and harmfulness were significant predictors of perceived seriousness of wildlife offenses, with wrongfulness being the stronger predictor. Results are contextualized within theoretical frameworks that offer insights as to why wildlife crime is not viewed as seriously as other offense types.