Sort Of Crime Research Articles

Political and legal aberration: nihilism and weapons

The subject of this study is the current political and legal phenomenon, which is “political and legal aberration”. The study reveals the content of the subject, which is considered, on the one hand, as a manifestation of legal nihilism, which is typical for the actions of public authorities and political structures within the state due to their conscious or unconscious disregard for the norms of international law, carried out in their narrow corporate interests. On the other hand, it is a kind of legal mechanism, a legal weapon, which is used as a result of the subject of international law giving priority to its domestic legislation over international law, carried out with the aim of hybrid aggression, solving its imperial goals of seizing the lands of its neighbors, etc. To this end, and counting on impunity, all sorts of crimes are committed in the occupied and other territories of the victim country. Such a subject of international law, in this case, is the Russian Federation. The article examines the practical manifestations of legal nihilism in various public authorities of Ukraine in modern conditions, analyzes their causes and the onset of negative consequences for the realization of the dream of Ukrainian society - the European integration of Ukraine, joining the family of European, democratic, economically developed countries. Attention is focused on various aspects of the above, including the manifestation of such a negative consequence of legal nihilism as the peculiar desire of public authorities to carry out judicial reform in Ukraine. It is noted that this situation serves as a kind of barrier to the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the Ukrainian society. It is noted that in modern conditions, when individual subjects of international law use the law itself not as a universal democratic mechanism for regulating social relations, but as a kind of legal weapon against political and legal opponents in order to achieve their own, primarily imperial, mercantile interests, to undermine the existing world law and order, public security systems, etc., thereby destroying the existing systems of international security, the system of established and regulated legal relations, and creating threats to the existence of life itself on the planet. A conclusion is made about the expediency of reformatting the existing international institutions of security and legal relations, or their complete reboot, or even their liquidation and creation of new ones, following the example of the liquidation of the League of Nations and the formation of the current UN.

REPORTED CASES IPC CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN IN WEST BENGAL, INDIA: A STUDY WITH RECENT DATA

Objective of the study: The present study tries to explore the variation in criminal cases of crimes against children in West Bengal vis-à-vis India during the period 2006 to 2017. Methodology: This is mainly a descriptive study, which uses secondary information collected from the official records of the National Crime Records Bureau from 2006-2017 of India and West Bengal. The present study considers only the crimes against children that are punishable under IPC. Linear regression is carried out to explore the crime against children which is increasing over the years. Findings: The data shows that all sorts of crime against children are increasing over time and that more than 90 percent of crimes against children are committed by known people. Implications: There should be awareness programmes by the Government of India and the respective State Governments to teach the parents and the teachers of schools about how to prepare the children against any move committed against them and how to treat the children if such mis-happenings are already committed. The NGOs and mass medias also have their specific roles in order to stem violence against children. Limitations: Firstly, the study was based on secondary data. Hence, sometimes it was not specific to researcher’s needs. Secondly, National Crime Records Bureau provides history of crime upto 2017 and afterwards no further records regarding crimes were updated. So, the present situation of overall crime against children in India was not known. Key wordsKidnapping, Murder, Rape, Trafficking of girls

Nature of Crime Victims in Bangladesh

The study focused on realizing the condition of crime victim and it is a tearing problem in Bangladesh. Police are the principal delegates of the criminal justice system local jurisdictions across the country face significant challenges in criminal justice. The particular sorts of crime and criminal justice problems that local governments face change extensively the nation over. To observe the nature of crime victimization in Bangladesh and try to find out the factors and their legal appreciations is the objectives of this study. In addition, secondary method and data is used for fulfillment of the study. There are some factors increase the visibility of victims i.e. role of media, the higher public profile etc. The victim is weak in relation to the offender – the ‘ideal victim’ is likely to be a female, sick, very old or very young and victim is blameless for what happened. Victims suffer from trauma resulted from the crime. Legal appreciation of victims’ right is, the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, Section 545 (1 & 2) and section 546 recognized the right of compensation, but the opportunity was hardly available.

Venezuela’s Toxic Relations with Iran and Hezbollah: an avenue of violence, crime, corruption and terrorism .

Venezuela’s relations with Iran date back into the sixties when both were founding members of the OPEC. Iran’s influence in Latin America has become quite large since the Iranian revolution. Iran sees Latin America as a strategic priority for its global positioning. The Lebanese immigration towards South America has begun a while ago. But there’s a period, during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) when a large number of Lebanese immigrants came to the continent. Back then, according to some experts, Hezbollah and Iran took advantage of this mass migration and infiltrated their agents and recruiters among the Muslim migrants. Hezbollah is probably the most organized terrorist organization in the World in respect to its illegal financing activities. The group funds its regular operations through all sorts of crimes. Hezbollah has a tight relationship with Iran. Ever since Iran has established its covert operations in Venezuela, Hezbollah has come along, as its proxy. Venezuela is submerged in crime and corruption. The Venezuelan government has been infiltrated by transnational organized crime for more than a decade. The convergence of corruption, crime, violence and terrorism in Venezuela was enabled by a set of conditions and circumstances that basically surfaced after Chávez was elected president in 1998. From that time onwards, Venezuela became a crucial source of political, financial and logistical support for Hezbollah. Their relationship impacts the neighboring countries, particularly Brazil.

Concept and ways of approaches of crime

In the article, of committing a are considered as objects and other phenomena of objective reality, which establishes a person when committing a socially dangerous act (action or inaction) that is recognized as a crime. The of committing a are proposed to be divided into instruments and other of committing a crime, it turns out their significance for criminal liability. Means are considered as elements of criminal behavior (socially dangerous act), their most important features are analyzed, and on the basis of the concept of means of committing a crime is formulated. The latter are divided into tools for committing crimes and other objects or phenomena of objective reality, used in the commission of a criminal offense as a of its implementation. Means are also considered as a feature of the crime, and the peculiarities of their legal consolidation in the articles of the law on criminal liability are clarified. Thus, the of committing a should be defined as - separate objects, phenomena or processes of the objective world that are used by it in the course of committing a socially dangerous act in deliberate or careless crimes are separated from the person, substantially increase their damaging qualities, substantially facilitate their commission. and largely affect the social nature of the - its social danger. The are inextricably linked and interdependent with all elements and features of the crime. This, in particular, expresses the influence of as actual (objective and subjective) features, and on the social properties (social danger) of the relevant crimes, which ultimately determines the inclusion of them as a mandatory feature certain sorts of crimes and the specifics of the design of these syllables in the norms of the Special Part of the Criminal Code.

Hypocrisy, Inconsistency, and the Moral Standing of the State

Several writers have argued that the state lacks the moral standing to hold socially deprived offenders responsible for their crimes because the state would be hypocritical in doing so. Yet the state is not disposed to make an unfair exception of itself for committing the same sorts of crimes as socially deprived offenders, so it is unclear that the state is truly hypocritical. Nevertheless, the state is disposed to inconsistently hold its citizens responsible, blaming or punishing socially deprived offenders more often or more harshly than other offenders, even when the crimes are the same. The state’s stable disposition to inconsistently hold offenders responsible undermines its standing to hold offenders responsible for the same reasons that hypocrisy undermines standing; instead of making an unfair exception of itself, the state makes an unfair exception of others. Strikingly, this means that the state lacks the standing to hold anyone responsible for a crime for which it is unfairly disposed to hold citizens responsible inconsistently, not just socially deprived offenders. Thus, it is even more urgent that the state regain its moral standing by working toward a justice system that holds offenders responsible consistently.

Trayectoria delictiva y factores de riesgo de los menores que ejercen violencia filioparental

<p>En los últimos años, en los medios de comunicación han aumentado alarmantemente los casos de lo que parece un nuevo y preocupante fenómeno de violencia doméstica: la violencia filio-parental. De esta forma, el objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la trayectoria delictiva y los factores de riesgo de los/as menores que han cometido violencia filio-parental en función del sexo.</p><p>Los participantes de este estudio son 57 menores del Juzgado de Castellón (34 chicos y 23 chicas), cuyo rango de edad oscila entre 14 y 17 años, configurando una media de 15,81. El 82,5% de los/as jóvenes de la muestra han nacido en España, mientras que el 10,5% proceden de países del este de Europa, el 5,3% de países del sur de América y el 1,8% de países árabes.</p><p>El perfil encontrado en este estudio para este tipo de delito sería el de un varón de 16 años de edad, nacido en España, que cuenta con una agresión filio-parental, que también ha cometido otro tipo de delitos y presenta riesgo en las áreas de Pautas educativas y Educación formal/empleo. En relación al perfil femenino, sería el de una chica de 15 años de edad, nacida en España, que cuenta con un expediente de violencia filio-parental, que no ha cometido otro tipo de delitos y con riesgo en el área de ocio y tiempo libre. </p>

The Duty to Charge in Police Use of Excessive Force Cases

Responding to the problems of mass incarceration, racial disparities in justice, and wrongful convictions, scholars have focused on prosecutorial overcharging. They have, however, neglected to address undercharging the failure to charge in entire classes of cases. Undercharging can similarly undermine the efficacy and legitimacy of the criminal justice system. While few have focused on this question in the domestic criminal law context, international law scholars have long recognized the social and structural cost for nascent democratic states when they fail to charge those responsible for the prior regime’s human rights abuses. This sort of impunity threatens the rule of law and misses the opportunity to reinforce important democratic values. This Article draws on international law scholarship to argue that there is a duty to investigate and a limited duty to charge crimes that implicate core democratic principles of equality and fairness. Police use of excessive force against unarmed African-American suspects is just this sort of crime.

Crime and satanism: Mutual relationship and characteristics of criminal acts

This paper explores the relationship between Satanism and criminal acts related to that sphere which are frequent in criminal and judicial practice. Author proposes two definitions of a criminal act connected with the contemporary occultism, as well as definition of occult-related crime. He offers a review of the already existing classifications of the Satanism-related crime, after which he presents additional, legal-oriented typology. It is concluded that the crime associated with Satanism is extremely heterogenous and comprehensive category which includes many criminal acts which presence in practice varies a lot. Those criminal acts could be directly and primarily motivated by some kind of Satanic doctrine; however, in most cases, real motivation for a crime lies outside of that matter. Author divides most common crimes into four wider categories, analyzing particular crime motives, modus operandi and other elements relevant from legal, criminalistic and criminological perspective. The author points out that the most frequent criminal acts associated with the domain of Satanism/pseudosatanism are various types of vandalism (for example: graffiti containing Satanic and anti-Christian messages, grave desecration, church vandalism, as well as damaging or destruction of varios religious monuments, sacred items and sacred places connected with Christian religion), which usual perpetrators are adolescents. Regarding ritual sacrifices, in vast majority of cases, object of criminal act is some sort of animal. Unlike popular speculations, human sacrifices connected with Satanic ceremonies are extremely rare in practice. Absolute majority of registered murder cases (and other crimes against life, physical and sexual integrity, rights and freedoms of man and citizen) which were initially (in the early stages of investigation, or simply by sensationalist media informing) pointed out as a possible examples of 'ritualistic satanic crimes', proved not to be primarily related with real or presumed Satanic interests of the perpetrator. Even in those cases which were indirectly connected with some elements of Satanism, personal characteristics and general life perspective of the perpetrator proved to play crucial role in the domain of motivation for a crime and its realization (f.e. existence of some of the common pragmatic crime motive, presence of various personality disorders, presence of psychosis etc.). Author presents and analyses satanic-related clues typical for all sorts of crime, as well as clues which are significant for particular criminal acts. He underlines the existence of wide varietry of occult/satanic indicators, which could vary from the satanic and anti-Christian symbols, textual messages, illustrations, numerological aspects etc., to the less visible indicators concerning time, place, method, means, purpose of particular criminal act and the like. Among other things, author concludes that proper recognition of those clues and indicators could be an important step towards understanding and successfully solving individual criminal case.

COOPERATION BETWEEN EUROPEAN UNION MEMBER STATES IN THE FIELD OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The author presents in his paper the competences and objectives of Eurojust, the functioning of this body and the cooperation of Eurojust with other agencies. Eurojust is a body of the European Union, whose task is to encourage and improve the coordination and cooperation between competent judicial authorities of Member States. This body has its legal personality and was established by the EU Council Decision in 2002. This Decision was amended in 2003 and 2009. Eurojust does not deal with all sorts of crime, because it was established with a view to reinforcing the fight against serious crime. The general competence of Eurojust covers all types of crime and offences in respect of which Europol is at all times competent. The competence of Europol is defined in the Article 4 of the EU Council Decision setting up the European Police Office (Europol) and in the Annex to this decision. Pursuant to this provision and its annex, the Europol is competent for organised crime, terrorism and other serious forms of crime, listed in the Annex to the Decision and which affect in such a degree two or more Member States that it urges, due to the extent, importance and consequences of criminal offences a joint action of Member States. In the Annex to the Decision are listed criminal offences which are within the competence of Europol and consequently also within the competence of Eurojust. Eurojust is competent for the offences on the territory of all Member States. Eurojust may assist also in criminal matters at the request of a Member State’s competent authority in which is involved a non-Member State, but only in the case when an agreement establishing cooperation with a non-Member state has been concluded or when this assistance is absolutely necessary. In the context of its functioning, Eurojust pursues the following objectives: (a) to stimulate and improve the coordination between the competent authorities of the Member States in the investigations and prosecutions in the Member States, taking into account any request emanating from a competent authority of a MemberState and any information provided by any body competent by virtue of provisions adopted within the framework of the Treaties; (b) to improve cooperation between the competent authorities of the Member States, in particular by facilitating the execution of international mutual legal assistance and the implementation of legal instruments which implement the principle of the mutual recognition; (c) to support otherwise the competent authorities of the Member States in order to render their investigations and prosecutions more effective. Eurojust is composed of 28 members who consists the College. Eurojust is composed of one national member seconded by each MemberState in accordance with its legal system, being a prosecutor, judge or police officer of equivalent competence. Member States have to ensure a continual and efficient participation in achieving objectives of Eurojust pursuant to Article 3. Eurojust has proved successful since its establishment and has gained a high degree of trust among the Member States. It is important that it enables besides the cooperation between the Member States also the cooperation with the institutions, authorities and agencies of the European Union and also the cooperation with the third states (non-Members) and organisations. It has to be specially stressed that the cooperation between different organisations and states in the prosecution of international crime is of utmost importance.

Wielokulturowość a tożsamość

In the discussed issue that concerns the relations between multiculturalism and identity, after showing the dimensions, ideology and the practical side of cultural pluralism, identity is presented (with religion being one of its important elements) as a great value for a society, especially one living in the European environment. And these reflections, supported with the experiences that have been gained, especially from France, Belgium and Germany, lead to stating that cultural pluralism is a certain value, but some definite requirements are set to it, especially ones that are concerned with its ideology. This cannot be dominating monism or hybrid monism. Mixing cultures is also unacceptable. Moreover, some communities, as e.g. Muslims, are not able to integrate with the society that has Christian values. They form closed groups that are not subjected to any control by the forces of law, which favors various sorts of crime. And this state of things, according to the rule “pars pro toto”, is the cause why the whole specific community is held responsible, and the initially positive attitude towards it is changed into isolating it. Hence – since the solutions that have been applied until now do not work, they should not be kept to, but new ones should be looked for, ones that do not destroy the identity of the local communities.

An Evaluation of the Effects of Police Resources and Incident Solvability on Crime Detection

This study examines the relationships between incident solvability, resources and crime detection. It involves critical examination of existing studies, and the development of solvability and resourcing concepts and a resourcing-solvability theoretical model. The application of resources to the investigation of solvable incidents explains detection levels and the origins of solvability lie in offender characteristics and environments, which affect profiles of solvable offences across jurisdictions. Solvability varies between different sorts of crime and within the same offence types. It limits crime detection and determines the amount of resources needed to clear an offence. Resources enable the potential for detection due to solvability to be realised. The detection of low and medium solvability offences and the benefits of larger amount of resources being directed at highly solvable offences are at odds with prior research, while levels of offence solvability and potential detections have been under-estimated.

EPA-1353 – How children and adolescents with adhd evolve into adultwood?

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the neurobehavioral disorder most common in school-age children. It is estimated to persist into adulthood in about 65% of cases, causing significant impact on job performance, social functioning and overall quality of life. Assess functional and quality of life impact in young adults diagnosed with ADHD as children/adolescent. Cross-sectional study between January and March 2013 with telephone interviews to patients aged over 18 years previously diagnosed with ADHD and followed in a pediatric consultation. We analyzed sociodemographic variables, co-morbidities, performance at school/work, interpersonal relationships and risk taking activities. Statistical analysis done using SPSS. 40 young adults were included, the mean age 20 years. 42.5 % were still students and 20% were unemployed. About 12–18% of cases had a problematic relationship with superiors. In some cases we found risk taking habits, mainly tobacco, alcohol and drug use. A minority of them reported being evolve in some sort of crime or violence. There was no statistically significant association between that and the duration of use of medication. Only 12.5 % of cases were followed in adult psychiatry. As described in literature, there's a high rate of unemployment and tobacco, alcohol and drug use. It is possible that this sample is not representative of the population with ADHD as doesn’t include severe cases (followed by child psychiatrists). Most patients didn’t have followup showing the importance a better transition of care from adolescence to adulthood.

A social work study on family related issues influencing juvenile delinquency

Article history: Received January 20, 2013 Received in Revised form March, 11, 2013 Accepted 7 June 2013 Available online 8 June 2013 We present a study to investigate the impacts of various factors on juvenile delinquency. The study distributes 400 questionnaires among young people aged 19-26 who are involved with some sort of crime and analyzes their feedbacks. There are three hypotheses including family income, tendency to spirituality and religion and educational backgrounds of families and juvenile delinquency among these people. The results show that while family income and religious as well as spirituality characteristics play important role on juvenile delinquency, educational background of the parents do not statistically have any influence on juvenile delinquency. The study recommends that a better family condition could contribute society to reduce juvenile delinquency and people could guide their children through better consultations.

On the Origins of the Violent Neighborhood: A Study of the Nature and Predictors of Crime‐Type Differentiation across Chicago Neighborhoods

Little of the literature on crime at the neighborhood level examines whether and why some crime types predominate in a given neighborhood over other types. Many macro‐level theories do make predictions about the sort of crimes that occur in some neighborhoods, although they remain largely untested. This study focuses on one of these theories, differential opportunity, and its predictions about the making of violent neighborhoods. Drawing on various data sources, this inquiry determines whether crime profiles differ across Chicago neighborhoods—that is, whether there is significant variation across neighborhoods on ratio of violent crimes to other crime types. Next, it also investigates whether the structural factors implicated in the differential opportunity perspective distinguish these neighborhoods or only predict the incidence of crime. The results reveal significant differences in the distribution of crimes across neighborhoods, as well as show that certain factors identify neighborhoods that favor violence over other crimes.

An Introduction to How Criminal Profiling Could Be Used as a Support for Computer Hacking Investigations

ABSTRACT This article presents a review and a critical analysis of the literature and can be considered the initial stage of a study that attempts to improve computer forensics and cybercrime investigation when using criminal profiling. This research is based on the premise that the motivations behind any sort of crimes—and it is no different with cybercrimes, and more specifically in this article with computer hacking crimes—are a product of human society and, even when they present new methods and tools, its human nature that leads criminals to, sooner or later, commit mistakes. Therefore, the objective of this article is to link criminal profiling to computer hacking, identifying expressions of human psychological traits and adding new elements to digital investigation.

Editorial: Global collapse and cultural possibility

This fi fth volume of CMC comes along at a particularly precarious time in global history. The current crisis of global capitalism is of course a crisis of human meaning and sustainability as well; more is at stake, always, than markets. As global capitalism shudders under the weight of its accumulated contradictions, other dimensions of human life are shaken as well: local cultures, familial arrangements, immigrant opportunities, even the provision of daily sustenance. And if Marx and Merton were even half right, these tremors will rattle the social order in ways that produce new strains on legitimate achievement, new tensions between social classes, new experiences of perceived deprivation and material want, and so new sorts of crime and predation. Mix all this with the global mediasphere ‐ with a live-on-demand mediascape that confounds causes and consequences, images and their effects ‐ and it’s easy to imagine the madness that may lie ahead. Yet a shuddering social order can shake loose new hopes and possibilities as well. As seen in the recent US presidential election, a well-timed social crisis can help produce results unimaginable decades before, perhaps even days before. The media saturation of daily life can convert every moment of progressive resistance into a made-fortelevision commodity; but a citizenry armed with video cameras and mobile phones can also invent the sort of instantaneous communication that makes meaningful political resistance a viable alternative. A world where commodity consumption no longer defi nes everyday life can punch a hole in citizens’ acquired sense of self, but the possibilities emergent in that world can also begin to fi that hole, perhaps, with a new sort of economic and cultural self-suffi ciency. Now is no time for despair, or for drawing back from the task of critical, culturally engaged analysis. Dangerous times demand at least a modicum of intellectual courage. It is in this cultural context, and in this spirit, that we move into CMC’s fi fth year of exploring media, crime, culture, and politics. Media and politics have, of course, for decades been inseparable; yet with the 2008 US presidential election the use of new and alternative media as tools for political campaigning was taken to a new level. Clearly understanding that ‘traditional’ or ‘conventional’ media forms ‐ print and broadcast news, billboard and television advertising ‐ no longer suffi ce to capture the attention,

From the Standpoint of Redemption: Aesthetic Autonomy and Social Engagement in J. M. Coetzee's Fiction of the Late Apartheid Period

From the Standpoint of Redemption:Aesthetic Autonomy and Social Engagement in J. M. Coetzee's Fiction of the Late Apartheid Period Michael Marais (bio) During the 1980s, a perennial criticism of Coetzee's fiction was that it did not engage with the depredations of apartheid. Thus, for instance, Michael Vaughan complained that this writing downplays "material factors of oppression and struggle in contemporary South Africa" (1982, 126), and Michael Chapman attacked Foe for failing to "speak to Africa" and simply providing a "kind of masturbatory release . . . for the Europeanising dreams of an intellectual coterie" (1988, 335). Many critics have responded to the crude literalism of this argument. David Attwell's J. M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing, for instance, is a sustained attempt to place what he refers to as Coetzee's "situational metafiction" in its historical context and thereby expose the nature and extent of its engagement with the realities of apartheid (1993). More recently, Derek Attridge has questioned the instrumentalist assumptions that underlie this critical debate by arguing that Coetzee's writing is aware of and sensitive to literature's singular relationship to an otherness which seeks constantly to enter and change the cultural formation. While Attridge contends that the reader's encounter with the alterity of the work must needs have a tangible impact on the lifeworld, he maintains that since the other in question [End Page 229] is always wholly indeterminate, literature's effects are "not predictable enough to serve a political or moral program" (2004, 4). Although I agree with the general tenor of this argument, I feel that one of the conclusions towards which it tends, namely that we need "no Coetzee to tell us that the white world's subjection of other races has been brutal and dehumanizing" (30), risks disregarding the urgent desire to engage with precisely the brutalisation of life under apartheid that is self-reflexively articulated in Coetzee's fiction of this period. In this paper, I trace the expression of this desire in Life & Times of Michael K, Foe and Age of Iron. Drawing on Adorno's aesthetic theory, whose relevance to an understanding of the resistive nature of Coetzee's writing has been noted by Neil Lazarus (1987), I show that, for Coetzee, the literary work's capacity to engage with its context is not simply a given, a matter of the author's political proclivities. If it is to criticise society and to suggest the possibility of a better world, the work must wrest itself from the very domain in which it is ineluctably located. Finally, I relate the ontogenetic anxiety that is a feature of Coetzee's writing of this period to his attempt to negotiate this apparent aporia. Coetzee's self-reflexive preoccupation with the literary representation of violence is arguably most evident in Age of Iron. Alluding as it does to the violence which, in Hesiod's account in Works and Days, is a feature of "the age of the iron race" (1983, 103–4), this novel's very title indicates a concern with the damaged nature of life in apartheid society. On a number of occasions, the protagonist, Mrs Curren, even suggests that the spiritual deformation of South Africans by the social and political structures of apartheid has a physical corollary. "How ugly we are growing, from being unable to think well of ourselves!" she exclaims at one point (1990, 121). And when Mr Thabane shows her the spectacle of state-instigated violence in Guguletu, she remarks as follows on its effect on him: "His look had grown uglier. No doubt I grow uglier too by the day. Metamorphosis, that thickens our speech, dulls our feelings, turns us into beasts" (1990, 95). The material existence of this novel, of course, attests to an aesthetic concern with such violence, degradation, and suffering. Indeed, in the Guguletu scene to which I have just referred, this concern is self-reflexively staged when Mr Thabane insists that Mrs Curren represent the violence and suffering that she has witnessed:1 "When you see a crime being committed in front of your eyes, what do you say? . . . What sort of crime [End Page 230] is it...

Los delitos sexuales con menores de los clérigos en el Derecho penal argentino

The present article deals with an issue concerning society as a whole, and the Church in particular. In these pages, the Argentinean Penal Code Legislation about sexual offences towards minors is analysed, taking into account the views of the most renamed attorneys. They discuss certain elements which could improve the law as well as fill in certain gaps in it. Special attention is drawn to what would happen if this sort of crimes were committed by clergymen, also if there were aggravating circumstances and to which extent that would enforce a more severe sentence. Additionally, a comparison is drawn between the way these offences are weighed by canonical and civil legislations -considering their diverse nature- with the purpose of demonstrating that the law of the Church has a broader approach than penal legislation towards this sort of offence. Finally, the article considers the question if it's an obligation for bishops and other superior clerical authorities to report priests who have committed this felony. The similarities between the Argentinean and Spanish Penal Codes and other Southamerican legislations will contribute to making this article useful for a wide range of readers.

Una sentencia justa para Josef K.: sobre <i>El proceso</i> de Kafka

At the beginning of The Process the narrator says that Josef K. was arrested one morning «having done nothing serious». Nevertheless there are very few critics that have taken this sentence to the letter. As Josef K. is executed at last, it must be supposed that the character should have commited some sort of crime. Though it has been speculated a lot about which this crime could be, it has been impossible to reach a firm decision. What this way of reading the story shows is that is tremendously difficult to conceive the idea of a world in which it would be possible to arrest and execute innocent people with no justification at all. But this is precisely the basis of the fiction world imagined by Kafka, who through The Process prefigured the terror lived all over Europe dominated by totalitarism.