Traditional Enforcement Research Articles

An unrestricted Arnold’s cat map transformation

AbstractThe Arnold’s Cat Map (ACM) is one of the chaotic transformations, which is utilized by numerous scrambling and encryption algorithms in Information Security. Traditionally, the ACM is used in image scrambling whereby repeated application of the ACM matrix, any image can be scrambled. The transformation obtained by the ACM matrix is periodic; therefore, the original image can be reconstructed using the scrambled image whenever the elements of the matrix, hence the key, is known. The transformation matrices in all the chaotic maps employing ACM has limitations on the choice of the free parameters which generally require the area-preserving property of the matrix used in transformation, that is, the determinant of the transformation matrix to be $$\pm 1.$$ ± 1 . This reduces the number of possible set of keys which leads to discovering the ACM matrix in encryption algorithms using the brute-force method. Additionally, the period obtained is small which also causes the faster discovery of the original image by repeated application of the matrix. These two parameters are important in a brute-force attack to find out the original image from a scrambled one. The objective of the present study is to increase the key space of the ACM matrix, hence increase the security of the scrambling process and make a brute-force attack more difficult. It is proved mathematically that area-preserving property of the traditional matrix is not required for the matrix to be used in scrambling process. Removing the restriction enlarges the maximum possible key space and, in many cases, increases the period as well. Additionally, it is supplied experimentally that, in scrambling images, the new ACM matrix is equivalent or better compared to the traditional one with longer periods. Consequently, the encryption techniques with ACM become more robust compared to the traditional ones. The new ACM matrix is compatible with all algorithms that utilized the original matrix. In this novel contribution, we proved that the traditional enforcement of the determinant of the ACM matrix to be one is redundant and can be removed.

BEYOND THE COURTROOM: THE EVOLUTION OF RIGHTS-BASED CLIMATE LITIGATION FROM URGENDA TO HELD AND ITS POLICY IMPACT

This paper examines the growing trend of employing international and human rights law in domestic climate change lawsuits as a strategic tool for legal action. Using a qualitative and comparative analysis of seminal case law, such as Urgenda Foundation v the Netherlands and R (Friends of the Earth and others) v Heathrow Airport Ltd and Held v State, this paper aims to explain the juridical trajectories and methodologies employed in rights-based climate litigation. The primary objective is to critically evaluate the potential regulatory impact of this emergent jurisprudential paradigm on both domestic legislation and international climate change treaties. The study posits that when traditional enforcement mechanisms enshrined in international environmental law treaties prove ineffective, domestic litigation grounded in human rights claims serve as a catalyst for transformative jurisprudence. This, in turn, can exert substantial pressure on state and non-state actors, compelling them to adopt more strict regulatory measures to mitigate the effects of climate change. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to elucidate the effectiveness and development of rights-based jurisprudence in climate litigation, and second, to assess its potential for influencing the creation of stronger regulatory mechanisms at both state and international levels. The paper argues that when international treaties fail to take adequate climate change action, domestic lawsuits based on human rights claims start to serve as a lever of change, pressuring both state and non-state actors into adopting more ambitious measures. The study underscores the importance of this rights-based approach not merely as a legal strategy but as a multifaceted tool for effectuating systemic regulatory advancements and fostering climate justice.

Unveiling the Threats Beneath: Fish Mislabeling in the Brazilian Amazon Coast and its Impacts on the Critically Endangered Daggernose Shark

AbstractFish mislabeling is a global issue with far‐reaching consequences for both food security and biodiversity conservation. This practice involves the intentional or unintentional misidentification of fish species sold in markets and restaurants, often driven by economic gain or cultural preferences. The mislabeling of threatened fish species further exacerbates the problem. This manuscript focuses on an emerging mislabeling practice in the Brazilian Amazon coast, which impacts a critically endangered elasmobranch species, the Daggernose Shark Isogomphodon oxyrhynchus. More specifically, the mislabeling of the Atlantic Tripletail Lobotes surinamensis as the Acoupa Weakfish Cynoscion acoupa has led to intensified fishing activities and incidental capture of the Daggernose Shark. Traditional enforcement approaches have shown limited effectiveness, and alternative conservation interventions, including participatory management and education programs for artisanal fishers, are needed to address this complex issue.

Can Ethical Certification Prevent Food Fraud?

Ethical, sustainable, social and environmental certification organisations exist as a means to ensure various trade standards are met; protect and empower small-scale producers in developing countries; and enable consumers to use their purchasing power to effect positive change. Consumers who trust in these labels accordingly pay a premium for it, though as is the case with all food, crime may infiltrate the supply chain and undermine the value of the certification label. Research shows that crimes such as modern slavery and child labour, use of banned pesticides, corruption, and food mislabelling have all been linked to certified foods – and regulation and traditional enforcement over these crimes may be limited or absent. The existence of these crimes undermines the certification process, purpose, validity and legitimacy and may render the label fraudulent. However, standards set by certification organisations operate as a form of regulation, despite being universally inconsistent and voluntary. Implicit or explicit tolerance for these crimes also denies injury committed against the consumer. As such, from the perspective of food fraud, this research suggests that through their standards setting, certification organisations may provide a layer of regulation and enforcement, contributing to the prevention of food fraud for certified ethically labelled food.

Community-Oriented Policing and Violent Crime: Evidence From the Los Angeles Community Safety Partnership

Over the past decade, the Los Angeles Police Department has experimented with a unique model of community-oriented policing called the Community Safety Partnership (CSP). The program places a dedicated set of CSP officers in select housing developments and neighborhoods to engage with residents to better understand and ultimately address the root causes of crime. This study examined the first four waves of the program to assess whether, and the extent to which, the program reduced violent crime. Results reveal significant variation in program effects, with the first wave yielding crime reductions while subsequent waves experienced little to no change in violent crime. Supplemental analyses suggest that the null results for the final three waves of the program were not confounded by increases in crime reporting and reveal that crime reductions following the program’s first wave were not achieved through increases in traditional enforcement (e.g., arrests).

Analysis of the Influence of Regulatory Enforcement Shifts from Coercive to Collaborative on Compliance Behaviors within the Pre-Tertiary Education Regulatory Environment

The use of the coercive (traditional enforcement) approach in enforcing regulatory compliance to aspects of the Education Regulatory Act, 2020 (Act 1023), that is overseen by the National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), led to media clamor and a high level of non-compliance, which necessitated the development of a new collaborative approach to change non-compliance behavior in the education regulatory environment. With critics raising alarm over the tendency of the new approach to deepen the level of non-compliance instead of solving the problem, there was a need to explore this new approach to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of the new collaborative approach. The research design used to address the research problem was divided into two (2) phases. The main approach focused on using situational analysis of a case to describe the regulatory environment of NaSIA before and after the change in the regulatory enforcement approach of the regulator and the compliance behavior of the regulated entities. The second phase entailed the use of descriptive statistics to analyze survey data of regulated entities (pre-tertiary education institutions) to verify the veracity of the attitudes or thoughts identified in the situational analysis. The study showed that the adoption of the new approach reduced the level of agitation and clamor in the media, and the level of regulatory compliance increased, leading to over six thousand (6000) pre-tertiary education institutions that were considered non-compliant in 2021 attaining full compliance at the end of 2022. This is a 75% improvement in regulatory compliance over the previous year, demonstrating the success of the new strategy in attaining the regulator’s primary goal.

The Effect of Formal and Informal Regulations on Industrial Effluents and Firm Compliance Behavior in Malaysia

AbstractThe rapid development of the manufacturing sector has been causing industrial effluents pollution. The practice of environmental regulation in the emerging economy focused on the externalities impact of industrialization. In conjunction with the issue, this study examines the effect of formal and informal regulation on the industrial effluent act and the firm compliance behavior in Malaysia. This quantitative study uses a survey questionnaire (structured) and involved 42 factories of three industries, namely food and beverages, textiles, and paper in Penang, Kedah, and Perlis. The data were analyzed using non-parametric tests: The Chi-Square, Mann-Whitney, and Spearman’s Rho. This study uses the firm behavior theory as the framework, and our non-parametric analyses showed that the traditional enforcement and fined probability could significantly affect compliance levels. We also find the market, consumer, competitor, and investor pressure positively influence firm compliance. The empirical results suggest effective enforcement of environmental regulation and the role of non-regulation must be empowered as a support mechanism for pollution control.

Europe’s nature governance revolution: harnessing the shadow of heterarchy

In the battle to address Europe’s biodiversity crisis, fixing its implementation gap—the gap between EU nature law on the books, and on the ground—is vital. Europe’s private nature governance revolution, underpinned by the UNECE Aarhus Convention, is a core part of its response. This article breaks new empirical ground in understanding how those mechanisms have been working in practice, and their knock-on effects for traditional enforcement by the State. We develop an innovative methodological tool, the Nature Governance Effectiveness Indicators (“NGEIs”), enabling the first quantitative measurement of the effectiveness of public and private nature governance in practice. In collecting data on these indicators, we create a novel dataset spanning three jurisdictions and 23 years, giving a unique insight into Europe’s “environmental democracy in action”. We regress the NGEIs against the Nature Governance Index, an original longitudinal index measuring the evolution in nature governance laws over this period. Our results provide the first systematic empirical evidence that, despite the widespread embrace of private nature governance laws on the books across our studied jurisdictions from 1992 to 2015, the enhanced citizens’ rights conferred by these laws are not being consistently used in practice. They also reveal that, despite these inconsistencies in usage of the Aarhus mechanisms in practice, passing private governance laws can in fact improve levels of State enforcement of EU nature law in practice. For policymakers seeking to increase enforcement of EU nature law on the ground, harnessing what we term the shadow of heterarchy, by strengthening private governance rights, may therefore be a more effective means of doing so than simply ratcheting up existing traditional governance mechanisms such as levels of maximum criminal penalties or civil fines.

How effective are police road presence and enforcement in a developing country context?

Traffic enforcement and associated penalties are essential in any successful road safety strategy. Available literature identifies both traditional and automated traffic enforcement. Ghana employs traditional traffic enforcement involving visible police officers enforcing traffic rules and regulations on the roadways. This phenomenological study explores the perceived effectiveness of police road presence as a road safety strategy in the Ghanaian context. Data for the analysis came from in-depth interviews of 42 people recruited as a convenience sample (comprising 25 commercial drivers, 12 private drivers, and five traffic police officers of the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD) of the Ghana Police Service). The study results suggest widespread driver road tactics to outwit the traffic police officers, police extortion and driver bribery (road traffic corruption), and punishment avoidance. These behaviours undermine deterrence and negate the seriousness and expected general deterrent effect of the police road presence and enforcement. This study provides an initial exploration of the effectiveness (or otherwise) of police road presence and enforcement in the context of a developing country. Additional studies are, however, needed to explore this phenomenon further.

Evaluation of a Public Technology-Based Traffic Enforcement Program

While police enforcement is a well-known means of reducing traffic violations, it is also recognized that other agents should be involved in creating sustainable deterrence. This paper describes and evaluates the Israeli Road Guards program, a new and unique type of traffic enforcement, which enables simple technology-based enforcement of traffic violations by citizens. In its 24 months of operation, more than 3400 volunteers who submitted over 64,000 violation reports were involved in this program. Each report went through a rigorous evaluation process. More than 80% of the submitted reports were rejected in the various stages of the procedure. In 13.7% of the cases a notice letter was sent, and in 4.3% of cases (reflecting the most severe offenses) a citation was issued by the police. The monthly rate of report submission by the volunteers was at its highest initially, then decreased and stabilized after about six months at 1.4 reports per month. The proportion of active volunteers also decreased over time to a level of 0.26 at the end of the study period. The violation types reported within the program differed substantially from those captured by police enforcement. These differences are likely due to the manner in which each mode of enforcement was performed. The most common violations reported by volunteers were lane deviations, red light running and driving on the roads’ shoulders, which are easily documented by means of video recordings. They are also associated with higher crash risks. Thus, the results show that such public technology-based traffic enforcement, which can be carried out during regular daily driving and does not require anyone to make extra trips, may efficiently complement traditional police enforcement.

Tax Morale: Direct and Indirect Paths between Trust Factors: Empirical Evidence from Greece

A plethora of evidence can be found in the literature supporting the view that citizens’ trust in the state plays a decisive role in their overall tax compliance. Nevertheless, in Greece, where the consequences of a ten years long economic crisis still exist, the phenomenon of tax evasion is still dealt with traditional enforcement methods like penalties, regular audits, and tax policy. A new conceptual model is proposed and empirically tested using data from 1,014 Greek citizens from fifty areas of Greece. It attempts to examine the combined effect of ten trust-related factors, which are grouped into four dimensions on tax morale (trust in governance quality, trust in principles and institutions, trust in fellow citizens and trust in personal perceptions). The results show that Greek citizens’ trust in tax reciprocity is the factor that mainly affects tax morale, with citizens’ trust in tax authorities and in the institution of democracy closely following.

Detection and identification of illegal-modified private cars through frequency band analysis

Post-purchase-illegal-modification of road vehicles' exhaust systems by vehicle fanatics for loudness has caused an upsurge in nuisances to local residences when driven and rallied during late night and early mornings. Traditional enforcement measures rely on setting up roadblocks by the Police at rallying hotspots. These measures involve the judgement of individual police officer and can be subjective. With the aid of noise monitoring equipment, the accuracy and efficiency of on-site exhaust system-modified vehicle detection can be enhanced. Since the sound profile of a single-vehicle exhaust cannot be captured by simple roadside noise level measurements alone, segregation and analysis of the noise spectrum are employed to identify vehicles with modified exhaust systems. The paper presents the findings of investigating the feasibility and accuracy of off-the-shelf devices for detecting vehicles fitted with modified exhaust systems, with private cars being the primary target. A pilot test by roadside noise monitoring has been conducted with a sound level meter and an acoustic camera and revealed an on-site accuracy of up to 75%. Data collected during the tests were further used to explore the applicability of integrating artificial intelligence with traditional noise monitoring devices.

Desistance from criminalisation: police culture and new directions in drugs policing

ABSTRACT Globally, there is emerging evidence that drugs policing is moving away from traditional enforcement interventions towards a greater focus on harm reduction. Signs of a shift include alternatives to criminalisation in the form of police-led diversion schemes. This article examines the extent to which new directions in drugs policing reflect changes in police culture. The key change under consideration is police desistance from criminalising people who use drugs. Another aim is to advance theoretical debates into the factors affecting cultural change in police organisations. Drawing on an extensive qualitative study of challenges, innovation and reform in drugs policing across England and Wales, the findings capture the transformative effect of certain experiences on the values police officers hold and how they understand and make sense of drug problems, their role and impact. It is argued that further insights into cultural change can be gained by drawing on the concept of turning points from life-course criminology and desistance research. The findings also reveal how changes in the field of policing have fostered and facilitated changes in police culture and practice. A policy implication of this study is that cultural change could be furthered through experiential learning and critical reflective practice approaches to police education.

Functional systems within cryptolaundering processes: a work domain analysis model of cryptolaundering activities

ABSTRACT Cryptocurrencies are receiving significant attention owing to their volatility, affiliation with criminal activities and perceived role in money laundering. Traditional anti-money laundering enforcement techniques are proving ineffective due to a lack of a body of knowledge about the cryptocurrency system and the continued use of traditional approaches to disruption. This study presents a first-of-its-kind systems model of the cryptolaundering system. The authors applied Work Domain Analysis (WDA) to describe the functioning of the cryptolaundering sociotechnical system using the unique language and perspective of cryptolaunderers. The resulting WDA abstraction hierarchy demonstrates the difference between cryptolaundering and traditional money laundering efforts. Cryptolaunderers operate outside of the traditional financial system relying primarily on unregistered laundering services and employ cyber tradecraft methods while circumventing regulatory and enforcement efforts. The WDA model aided with the understanding of cryptocurrency technologies, identifies avenues for intervention in cryptolaundering activities, and provides a basis for expanding anti-cryptolaundering laws and regulations.

Control activities and compliance behavior—Survey evidence from Norway

Successful fisheries management relies on compliance. Compliance in turn relies on the perceived legitimacy of the existing rules and regulations, the effectiveness of monitoring and enforcement, and on the positive feedback loop between legitimacy and effectiveness. Against the backdrop of increasing incentives to violate rules and regulations in modern fisheries, there are concerns that traditional control activities relying on physical inspections, are no longer effective in safeguarding sustainability. Modern control activities, which make use of new technologies, such as camera surveillance on vessels, remote monitoring (drones, planes, satellites) and real-time monitoring of catches with automated data recording, may offer a promising alternative to enforcement officers conducting physical inspections. This paper presents evidence from a large-scale survey among Norwegian fishers, investigating (i) attitudes towards traditional and modern control activities, and (ii) how expectations about and experiences of physical inspections affect compliance behavior. We also investigate the role of individual factors on compliance, such as risk aversion, which we measure with an economic experiment. While we cannot document an effect of risk aversion on compliance behavior, we find that having experienced more controls in the past and perceiving the likelihood of future control as higher, significantly reduce rule violations. We also find that survey respondents appreciate traditional enforcement measures, while they have mixed attitudes towards modern control activities.

Smart Contracts and Automation of Private Relationships

The aim of the present essay is to investigate whether and how blockchain technology platforms and smart contracts could be considered a modern form of private authority, which at least partially escapes the application of mandatory rules and traditional enforcement mechanisms. Blockchain technology presents itself as democratic in nature, as it is based on an idea of radical decentralization. This is in stark contrast to giant Big Tech corporations working over the internet in the fields of social networking, online search, online shopping, etc., with blockchain, technology users put their trust in a network of peers. Nevertheless, as happened with the internet, market powers could create monopolies or highly imbalanced legal relationships. In this sense, contractual automation seems to play a key role in understanding the potentialities and the risks involved in the technology. In general terms, one of the main characteristics of a smart contract is its self-executing character, which should eliminate the possibility of a breach of contract. But smart contracts may also provide for effective self-help against breaches of traditional contracts. Finally, when implemented on blockchain platforms, smart contract relationships may also benefit from the application of innovative dispute resolution systems, which present themselves as entirely independent from state authorities.

When threats become credible: A natural experiment of environmental enforcement from Florida

Environmental regulators often use dynamic enforcement, which bases penalties and enforcement effort on plants' past compliance history, to improve compliance and decrease emissions when enforcement resources are limited. Using plant-level data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), I examine an unexpected shift in the use of traditional enforcement by environmental regulators in Florida, showing that all of the state's plants decreased emissions and improved compliance following an increase in penalties for those with Priority Violations. The largest improvements were observed among plants with the highest expected costs of compliance, which is consistent with the theory of dynamic enforcement. These results are robust to the use of control plants from nearby southern states, as well as control plants selected via a matching algorithm. The paper's findings (1) provide quasi-experimental evidence on the effectiveness of traditional enforcement actions, and (2) suggest that dynamic incentives may matter for plant compliance decisions.

Market Disputes | Legal, Social, and Long-Term Implications for an Evolving Spectrum Market

Enforcement, adjudication, and litigation enacted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) resides at an interesting intersection between traditional law and normative common property resource agreements – similar to those in common pool resources. Despite being granted specific legal powers by Congress, the FCC works to dissolve contentions that arise between spectrum incumbents through market dispute resolutions mediated through their Enforcement Bureau’s Market and Dispute Resolution Division (MDRD). The MDRD mediates and adjudicates a myriad of complaint types brought on by “market participants, entities, and organizations against common carriers, commercial and mobile data service providers, and/or utility pole operators” (EB-Market Disputes and Resolution Division, n.d.). The MDRD’s decision to promote resolutions between complainants and defendants is unique in terms of traditional enforcement mechanisms – especially as a primary regulatory agency. The initiative to have stakeholders mediate, negotiate, and ultimately settle their disputes on their level is reminiscent of dispute remediation tactics observed in common pool resource environments. To investigate this approach to enforcement, adjudication, and litigation further, we utilize the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework developed by Elinor Ostrom. Used to scaffold a myriad of policy, regulatory, and traditional CPRs, the IAD Framework incites a unique investigation into the agreements that arise between disputing parties. Our work shows that state/government regulation is not explicitly required to foster an enforcement environment. Primarily, this provides a foundation for our work regarding automated enforcement mechanisms, whereby, third party agents through automation can facilitate enforcement effectively within an increasingly overutilized spectrum market.

Rangers can't be with every elephant: assessing rangers' perceptions of a community, problem-solving policing model for protected areas

AbstractRecent studies have highlighted that illegal activities occurring within protected areas, including the poaching of fauna and flora, cannot be addressed with increased law enforcement alone. Moreover, research on the increasingly militarized nature of front-line conservation efforts has pointed to potentially detrimental aspects of such approaches. This has led to a shift in focus to identifying ways to further engage local communities in the prevention and reduction of wildlife crimes. However, few studies have examined the potential for changing the responsibilities of front-line conservation personnel or their views on such changes. Such insight is vital in forecasting the successful adoption of, or possible resistance towards, a more community-oriented policy. We examined rangers’ perceptions in Uganda to assess their attitudes towards traditional enforcement strategies and alternative, non-enforcement approaches for reducing illegal activities in protected areas. Our findings suggest that although respondents believed that traditional enforcement strategies (e.g. foot patrols) are important and effective in reducing wildlife crime, these strategies on their own were insufficient to address illegal activities. Study participants emphasized the importance of expanding the role of front-line rangers, in line with approaches suggested in the policing literature. We discuss the implications of our findings for transdisciplinary conservation science research and front-line conservation policy and practice.

Trust and power as determinants of tax compliance across 44 nations

The slippery slope framework of tax compliance emphasizes the importance of trust in authorities as a substantial determinant of tax compliance alongside traditional enforcement tools like audits and fines. Using data from an experimental scenario study in 44 nations from five continents (N = 14,509), we find that trust in authorities and power of authorities, as defined in the slippery slope framework, increase tax compliance intentions and mitigate intended tax evasion across societies that differ in economic, sociodemographic, political, and cultural backgrounds. We also show that trust and power foster compliance through different channels: trusted authorities (those perceived as benevolent and enhancing the common good) register the highest voluntary compliance, while powerful authorities (those perceived as effectively controlling evasion) register the highest enforced compliance. In contrast to some previous studies, the results suggest that trust and power are not fully complementary, as indicated by a negative interaction effect. Despite some between-country variations, trust and power are identified as important determinants of tax compliance across all nations. These findings have clear implications for authorities across the globe that need to choose best practices for tax collection.