Unlawful Violence Research Articles

Janzen, Rebecca. Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production. Vanderbilt University Press, 2022. 242 pp.

Janzen, Rebecca. Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production. Vanderbilt University Press, 2022. 242 pp.

Review: Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production, by Rebecca Janzen

Review: <i>Unlawful Violence: Mexican Law and Cultural Production</i>, by Rebecca Janzen

Актуальные направления уголовно-исполнительной политики Российской Федерации

The purpose of this article was to analyse the current topical directions of the penal enforcement policy of the Russian Federation, which is quite dynamic, constantly developing and improving, taking into account the influence of economic, political, social and spiritual factors on it. There are quite a large number of topical directions of the penal enforcement policy of the Russian Federation, among which the authors have identified the following: humanisation of the execution and serving of criminal sentences; ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of convicts; optimisation of the organisational and structural structure of the system of institutions and bodies executing criminal sentences; ensuring the security of the penal enforcement system and other subjects of penal enforcement relations; introduction of information technologies; implementation of inter-prisoner relations; and implementation of the international legal framework. Humanisation was most clearly manifested in changes in the types of regime and conditions of serving sentences for socially vulnerable categories of convicts. The trend of humanisation has affected both those convicted of crimes of minor and medium gravity and those convicted of serious and especially serious crimes, including those serving life imprisonment. In order to ensure the rights and legitimate interests of convicted prisoners, it is necessary to create effective safeguards to protect them from cruel or inhuman treatment, unlawful violence and the use of torture. Within the framework of optimising the organisational and structural design of the system of institutions and bodies executing criminal sentences, there are three projects reflected in the conceptual documents. In ensuring the security of the penal correctional system and other subjects of criminal-executive relations and the introduction of information technologies, it is planned to create a comprehensive system for the protection of the information system operating in the penal correctional system, including the protection of the personal data of both inmates and correctional personnel. An important element of security is the technical equipment of correctional institutions and correctional centres. Within the framework of the implementation of international standards in penal legislation and practical activities of the penal correctional system, it is pointed out that due to recent foreign policy events, the considered direction of penal policy is now beginning to lose its dominant importance, however, in the current realities, additional measures should be taken to strengthen national guarantees of respect for the rights of convicted prisoners, created, among other things, by taking into account the UN international standards in the field of treatment of prisoners. The constant and priority directions in the development of penal enforcement policy over the past decades have been the humanisation of the procedure and conditions for serving sentences and ensuring the rights and legitimate interests of convicts. However, this constancy of penal enforcement policy does not prevent the emergence of new directions, which are reflected in the current penal enforcement legislation and the activities of institutions and bodies executing criminal sentences and other measures of a criminal-legal nature.

Assessing the Role of Mass Media in Reducing the Menace of Insecurity in North-East Nigeria

Terrorism refers an unlawful violence or any other unlawful harmful act committed against civilians by groups or persons for political or other ideological goals, a premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub national groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience. Since the emergence of Boko Haram terrorist group in the North-East Nigeria in 2002, human lives had been lost to their attacks in thousands. The killings have continued unabated until recently that they are being gradually overcome. Employing agenda setting theory, this study aimed at assessing the roles of mass media in reducing the menace of insecurity in North-East Nigeria. The study found among others that mass media can help to reduce the insecurity menace by articulation and pursuit of the national interests, conveying information to the people and security agencies, speaking out against societal ills and vices, providing informed criticism and viable alternatives to public policies on security matters and monitoring the performance of government security agencies and other concerned agencies. The study made additional recommendations on the roles that mass media can play in tackling insecurity in the region.

The Path to Bucha: Organisational Practices of the Russian Army and Violence against Noncombatants

The Bucha massacre raises the question of whether the Russian army predisposes its soldiers to unlawful violence against civilians. This article assumes that regardless of superior orders, perpetrators of violence must overcome the psychological barriers developed during socialisation. The psychological mechanism of "moral disengagement" allows soldiers to kill in combat and act violently on civilians. The duty of the armed forces is not only to prepare soldiers to fight and kill but also to prevent illegal violence. The case of the Russian army demonstrates how formal activities to prevent moral disengagement and violations of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) face insurmountable obstacles in the form of institutional culture and insufficient human capital.

The continuity of police brutality in post-apartheid South Africa

The objects of this research are: First, to highlight that police brutality is still ongoing in South Africa despite the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994. Second, to explore the concept of police brutality and its definitional related concepts like excessive force, reasonable force, lethal force, and de-escalation. Third, to explore possible avenues of rebuilding citizens’ loss of trust and confidence in the police.&#x0D; The researcher investigated the following problems: Police excessive use of force on citizens resulting in injuries or loss of lives, understanding of reasonable force, when can police officers make use of force, a lack of proper police accountability, and citizens’ lack of trust and confidence of the police.&#x0D; The main results of the research are: first, police brutality is still ongoing in South Africa due to reported incidents of brutality in some instances resulting in loss of lives at the hands of the police. Second, a conceptualization of police/citizen partnership is needed in South Africa, benefits derived from community police need to be explored more for the understanding of all stakeholders. Third, the culture of promoting violence within and outside the police service needs to be addressed. Fourth, Police brutality is an abuse of power, it portrays police officers in a bad light seen by many as oppressive apparatus of the state designed to perpetuate immediate unlawful violence against citizens. The police service has a lot to do when it comes to winning the hearts and minds of citizens. Contemporary policing must respect the rights and dignity of citizens and enforce the law without fear or favour within the laid down the constitutional mandate.&#x0D; The area of practical use of the research are all citizens affected by crime, police and safer communities, human rights organisations, university students and staff members of the criminal justice department

Violence and bordering on the margins of the State: A view from South Africa and the southern border of Spain

This article examines expulsions in and around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla and in informal settlements in former black townships in South Africa. These violent bordering processes expose the violent injustices that constitute the boundaries of lawful (liberal) law, and the violence that sovereigns use to secure territories. Drawing on Walter Benjamin we make three main theoretical arguments. First, that the bordering processes in our case studies are instances of law (and State) preserving violence. Second, that absence and responsibilization are central techniques for invisibilizing the role of violence in preserving law, and that abdication of jurisdiction is key to the exercise of state sovereignty. Third, that when the State preserves itself through sharing its monopoly over violence the fictitious distinction between law and violence collapses. We use the term ‘borderline lawful violence’ to highlight the precarious nature of the boundary between lawful and unlawful violence.

Features of the status and protection of the rights of persons living on the occupied territories

Based on the concluded study, the authors demonstrate that international law recognizes the unconditional responsibility of the power occupying or exercising effective (overall, general, de facto) control over the territory for the human rights of its population, and in particular the civilian population as protected persons. Such liability exists independently of the personal liability of the representatives (agents) of that State. In this case, the state, which exercises control over the territory, is automatically responsible for any actions of organizations under its control. At the same time, it is quite difficult to determine the share of responsibility of a sovereign state for the implementation of human rights on a territory over which that state does not exercise control. The legislation of Ukraine imposes responsibility for the protection and violations of human rights in the ORDLO on Russia under both international humanitarian law and international human rights law. International humanitarian law imposes on the occupying state the obligation to ensure all the minimum humanitarian needs of the population, its basic rights related to the preservation of life, health and dignity (with special emphasis on the rights of women and children), private property, effective protection of these rights and protection from any unlawful violence, preservation of the infrastructure of the territory. The occupying State cannot be absolved of responsibility for serious human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Decisions of international courts unequivocally extend these obligations, as well as obligations under international human rights law, to all forms of illegal control of the territory of another state. At the same time, the Constitution and legislation of Ukraine do not provide for the refusal of the state to ensure and protect human rights on its territory, even in conditions of state of emergency or war. Ukraine ensures the realization of the rights of the ORDLO population on the territory of other regions of Ukraine. Ukraine also protect and restore human rights in the territory of the ORDLO with the means provided by international law.

The State’s Monopoly of Force and the Right to Bear Arms

In debates over the Second Amendment, the conventional view is that the government ought to possess a monopoly of legitimate force, subject to the right of individuals to act in emergency self-defense. Many treat the non-defensive circumstances in which our system decentralizes force as holdovers from days of nonprofessional police and soldiers. When it comes to the Second Amendment, many believe that the only legitimate reason individuals may bear arms today is for individual self-defense against isolated criminal violence (e.g., an occupied home invasion). This symposium article attacks the monopoly of force account, justifying the continued relevance of American law’s decentralization of legitimate force. This article argues that decentralization of force remains important for three reasons. First, despite the rise of professional police, American law enforcement still enforces law below desirable levels. Underenforcement of core crimes is particularly a problem in disadvantaged and rural communities and during times of civil unrest. Decentralization of force helps mitigate the underenforcement problem. And decentralization may be a better solution than simply providing more police because many areas where law is underenforced also (paradoxically) suffer from the effects of overcriminalization. Increased police presence could make the overcriminalization problem worse without solving the underenforcement problem. Second, American law has a mismatch between public duties and private rights. While providing effective law enforcement is a public duty, it is not a private right. Individuals, thus, have no effective claim that the government adequately enforce the law or protect them against unlawful violence. And any attempt to create such a private right would create profound separation of powers concerns. Consequently, self-help and private law enforcement are the best remedies when governments undersupply needed levels of police protection. Third, even if the “government” has a monopoly of force, it does not follow that government officers are the only ones in whom the government’s monopoly may be vested. The “government” is an incorporeal entity whose power must be exercised by human agents. Agents do not perfectly carry out the tasks of their principals; some government officers commit malfeasance and nonfeasance. The decentralization of force provides a remedy for such abuses of office. Ultimately, the article concludes that the individual right to bear arms still has relevance for public defense and security. This fact should warrant consideration when determining the scope of the right, including that the arms protected by the Second Amendment should continue to include those arms whose primary value is public security rather than individual self-defense.

DEPRIVATION OF LIFE OF AN ASSAILANT IN THE NECESSARY DEFENSE AND A CATALOG OF PROTECTED LEGAL INTERESTS

The article is devoted to the issue of killing an attacker in self-defense. The considerations are based on the interpretation of Article 25 § 2 of the Penal Code, from which it follows that the method of defense must be commensurate with the danger of attack. The authors are looking for a catalog of legal interests that can be defended by harming the attacker’s life. They also analyze Article 2 (2a) European Convention of Human Rights, according to which deprivation of life shall not be regarded as inflicted in contravention of this Article when it results from the use of force which is no more than absolutely necessary in defence of any person from unlawful violence. The authors draw attention to the role of this provision in the interpretation of the signs of necessary defense, especially the sign of proportionality of the means of defense to the danger of assassination. In the article, they also defined the concept of a countertype (justification) and briefly characterized the remaining features of necessary defense

Tolerating Extreme Speech

How should free societies deal with people who profess support for the use of unlawful violence to achieve political ends? I believe that what tends to be called extreme speech should not be subject to any additional legal restrictions beyond the ordinary legal constraints on criminal activity. Police and lawmakers should focus on preventing active conspiracies to commit violence against persons and property rather than identifying extreme speech for prosecution. My argument is as follows. Violent rhetoric is a common part of political discourse. ‘Lawful’ violence itself is a core feature of the way all states maintain social order. People disagree a great deal about how violence may legitimately be used and for what ends. So advocating for the use of violence as a matter of policy or morality, rather than against specific individuals, cannot plausibly be considered extreme. It is hard to distinguish extreme political positions from mainstream political positions expressed in slightly different terms or from actors in different social positions. Any legal restrictions would be unevenly, and likely arbitrarily, enforced.

True Threats, Self-Defense, and the Second Amendment.

Does the Second Amendment protect those who threaten others by negligently or recklessly wielding firearms? What line separates constitutionally legitimate gun displays from threatening activities that can be legally proscribed? This article finds guidance in the First Amendment doctrine of true threats, which permits punishment of "statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individual." The Second Amendment, like the First, should not be read to protect those who threaten unlawful violence. And to the degree that the constitution requires a culpable mental state (mens rea) in such circumstances, the appropriate standard should be recklessness.

Early detection of extremism? The local security professional on assessment of potential threats posed by youth

Frontline professionals such as social workers and civil servants play a crucial role in countering violent extremism. Because of their direct contact with society, firstliners are tasked with detecting individuals that may threaten national security and the democratic rule of law. Preliminary screening takes place during the pre-crime phase. However, without clear evidence or concrete indicators of unlawful action or physical violence, it is challenging to determine when someone poses a threat. There are no set patterns that can be used to identify cognitive radicalization processes that will result in violent extremism. Furthermore, prevention targets ideas and ideologies with no clear framework for assessing terrorism-risk. This article examines how civil servants responsible for public order, security and safety deal with their mandate to engage in early detection, and discusses the side effects that accompany this practice. Based on open-interviews with fifteen local security professionals in the Netherlands, we focus here on the risk assessments made by these professionals. To understand their performance, we used the following two research questions: First, what criteria do local security professionals use to determine whether or not someone forms a potential risk? Second, how do local security professionals substantiate their assessments of the radicalization processes that will develop into violent extremism? We conclude that such initial risk weightings rely strongly on ‘gut feelings’ or intuition. We conclude that this subjectivity may lead to prejudice and/or administrative arbitrariness in relation to preliminary risk assessment of particular youth.

Prevention of Criminal Behavior of Prison Officers Working with Convicts Held in Lockable Premises

The Russian Federation continues its consistent policy of humanizing the conditions for incarcerated women and minors, of law observance in the execution of punishment and the prevention of unlawful violence against inmates. In this connection, optimizing the prevention of prison officers’ unlawful behavior requires new approaches to precluding personality destruction of prison employees that leads to unlawful use of physical violence against inmates. The existing legal basis does not provide any special psychological assistance for specific categories of officers, thus it is important to search for effective methods of preventing unlawful behavior of those employees who have immediate contact with convicts held in lockable premises. The intensity and tension in the work of these officers are caused by their constant contact with the most criminalized inmates, by the necessity to perform their professional tasks in the conditions of covert or open confrontation, provocative or manipulative behavior of criminals. Such conditions increase the probability of unlawful behavior of prison officers, manifested both as one-time, situational reactions and as overall behavioral strategies. Such factors made it necessary to conduct a country-wide research of personal characteristics of this category of officers with the purpose of identifying those features that provoke unlawful behavior. It involved 213 prison officers (representative method of random sampling) from 81 subjects of the Russian Federation; the authors also examined data acquired as a result of specific requests and the analysis of materials on the frequency and characteristic features of unlawful behavior of officers. The research resulted in determining personal profiles of penitentiary system’s employees. It showed that 98 of them (the first group) have an evident complex of negative characteristics (negative profile of personality). It is not recommended for them to work in lockable premises in the future. The researchers recommended 115 officers (the second group) for future work in lockable premises of penitentiary institutions (positive profile of personality). The diagnostics’ results made it possible to determine that the key specific task of psychological assistance for this category of officers is timely identification of inclination for unlawful behavior and the assessment of the effectiveness of correctional measures. Preventive work should be based on the results of screening that determines the level of aggression, depressive conditions, mental tolerance of the officer under considerable psychological and physical stress and extraordinary, extreme situations at work.

Violence in the mosh pit: assault within the Australian punk scene

ABSTRACTThe mosh pit is a unique crowd formation where audience members dance aggressively to engage with the music, the performers and each other. However, in this space, Australian punks may experience violations of bodily integrity. Multiple levels and types of transgression occur, as members break with mosh pit ethics by engaging in unwanted and unlawful sexual and physical violence. This case study provides an example of how group normative behaviour is confounded in liminal spaces – how transgression within such spaces undermines the supposed freedom experienced by its participants. Whilst the mosh pit is perceived to be a site governed by its own particular ethics, some defy these in word and practice. The rules of engagement are ambiguous, and offenders are able to rationalise their harms through neutralisation techniques and the diffusion of blame and responsibility. The consequence is that more often than not, offenders can use the unique physical nature of the mosh pit to execute personal vendettas and engage in intentional violence such as ‘crowd killing’ and sexual assault, with little social and legal consequence. Moreover, a certain culture of denial permeates participant responses to these issues. Throughout it all, the violence occurring has a decidedly masculine basis, reflecting overarching gender differences in interpersonal violence generally.

Policy and quasi-policy in Russia: vectors for a possible transformation

The reality of Russia confirms the relevance of studying the specifics of the historical form of policy prevalent in the country. In order to analyze the nature of the existing order of power in post-Soviet Russia, different analytical categories are required compared to democracy or authoritarianism. This warrants using approaches and methods which lie at the border between political science and sociology. Such approaches allow for examining politics as a process and a result of not only the elites’ doings, but also a group of actors, which is not only not outlined, but, on the contrary, isn’t really limited. The author of this article offers an authentic policy typology, starting with its ideal variety, being institutionalized, based on universal trust rather than force and on competition between projects and decisions aimed at common benefit, conducted within an indefinite circle of free citizens. Compared to true policy, the main distinctions of other phenomena is a lack of institutionalization in the case of “under-policy”, lacking principles of unrestricted participation and alignment towards common good in the case of “pre-policy”, and the use of unlawful violence in the case of “anti-policy”. These phenomena can be described using the collective term “quasi-policy”. “Under-policy” and “pre-policy” are inherent to people’s “natural state”, and can be used as a means to adjust public life and the circulation of resources, while “anti-policy” is a perverse form of social order which arises from not knowing any non-violent solutions to various problems. Based on the empirical data, the author shows that “pre-policy”, which is becoming ever less effective, is prevalent in Russia, while also considering possible trends for its subsequent transformation. “Pre-policy” is characterized by syncretism of the governmental, economic and legislative domains of public life, being an archaic phenomenon by default. However, the degree of “pre-policy’s” archaism varies. In Russia’s case it is quite high. In Russia we see a high degree of integration on the social level within situational informal groups (cliques), combined with a low degree of trust on the societal level, which leads to there not being ideologically manifested political differentiation. The tendencies when it comes to the transformation of Russia’s “pre-politics” are multidirectional and conflicting: together with amplified “pre-policy” by means of increasing archaism, we can also observe pre-political actors occasionally resorting to certain principles of “under-policy” and “anti-policy”, when “pre-policy” is unable to help said actors solve the problems that they face.

The Natural Laws of Good Manners: Hobbes, Glory, and Early Modern Civility

AbstractAccording to Hobbes, glory causes conflict in two ways: by causing competition over comparative recognition, and by making men violently sensitive to insult. Interpreters have generally depicted the sensitivity to insult as a manifestation of the desire for comparative recognition. This reading raises two problems. First, the two ways in which Hobbes uses glory are inconsistent. Second, if the problem with glory is comparison, then the law of nature enjoining the acknowledgment of equality should lead to war rather than peace. This paper illuminates these obscurities by placing Hobbes in the context of the contemporary literature on honor and civility. These sources reveal two concepts of honor which correspond to the two ways in which Hobbes writes about glory. Hobbes draws heavily from these sources, but intentionally elides the two concepts of honor in order to undermine an ideology of honor that was used to justify disobedience and unlawful violence.

Measuring the Proportion of the Defendant’s Retaliatory Act in Self-Defence under Nigerian Law

The defence of self-defence as provided in the Nigerian penal statutes is in consonance with the constitutional protection guaranteed every Nigerian to use reasonable and necessary force for the defence of person and property, from unlawful violence. The defence, where successfully pleaded, completely exculpates a defendant from criminal liability. The important condition for the application of this defence is that the person assailed must be reasonably apprehensive of death or bodily harm and at the time, he uses any force as is necessary even if that results in the death of the assailant. However, in evaluating thedefence, the courts most often than not, read into the law what is not in the letter of the law and thereby hold the view that the retaliatory force used must be commensurate or proportionate with the attack received. This paper analyses this issue and holds the view that there is no provision in the law requiring that the defendant’s act must be proportionate to the attack received. It is also the view of this paper that once there are reasonable grounds for the defendant’s belief that he was in imminent danger, the amount of force used by him to preserve his life becomes immaterial. The paper recommends that trial courts should apply the letter and spirit of the law as enacted by the legislature in order to avoid miscarriage of justice.

Render unto Caesar

The violence of the British state in the global ‘war on terror’ is a form of state crime, but as these crimes are largely committed as a ‘junior partner’ in the unlawful violence of a US-led empire...

Plaga bezprawia. Wojna domowa i paradoks władzy suwerennej

This paper consists of three parts. The first is devoted to the role of the Athenian plague in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. There are indications that the civil war that broke out in the country, weakened by plague, was not simply the result of a historical and degraded human nature. Instead of using evil human nature as the key for understanding each social conflict, I suggest interpreting the Athenian civil war (stasis) as a symptom of non-egalitarian social relations. The second part of the paper is devoted to the birth of modern capitalism and the analysis of Thomas Hobbes’ philosophy. An English philosopher, Hobbes not only translated The History of the Peloponnesian War, but was also an author who treated the reality of modern civil wars as a principal point of reference. Hobbes created his philosophy mainly as a result of fearing a conflict that could undermine the existing division of power and wealth. The result of this fear was a mechanism that I refer to as the paradox of sovereign power. It was a process during which the authority that had been established to defend society against lawlessness and chaos dominated the social life, not respecting existing laws and customs, and thus creating the very world it was supposed to protect the people from. The third part is devoted to Walter Benjamin’s criticism of sovereign power. Observing the same processes as Hobbes did, the German philosopher viewed them from the inside (i.e., from the perspective of the victims of modern progress, the same view that aroused fear in the author of Leviathan). Benjamin argued that the social order established at the threshold of modernity was built on unlawful violence (primitive accumulation) and that the condition for its duration was the permanent reproduction of this lawlessness (hence, the thesis of the state of emergency, which has become the rule). According to Benjamin, this vicious circle of violence can only be escaped by recovering the memory of folk traditions, past class struggles, lost revolutions and social systems that, like the Paris Commune, pose the possibility of life liberated from the yoke.