Showing papers in "Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology in 2005"

Forgiveness, Shaming, Shame and Bullying

Abstract: This study predicts self-initiated bullying from three variables: shaming, forgiveness and shame. Data were collected from 1875 Bangladeshi school children (60% girls; mean grade = 8.28) using the Bengali version of the Life at School Survey. Results demonstrated that reintegrative shaming and forgiveness were related to less bullying. High shame acknowledgement (accepting responsibility, making amends) and low shame displacement into anger or blaming others were also associated with less bullying. Liking school protected children who experienced (a) less reintegrative shaming, and (b) more stigmatising shaming at home. Equally, more reintegrative shaming and less stigmatising shaming protected children against bullying when liking for school was absent. The forgiveness main effect on bullying (22.4% reduction) was much bigger than the main effect of reintegrative shaming (11.3% reduction). These results are consistent with the view that forgiveness is a more powerful restorative practice than reintegrative shaming.

Assessing Reoffending in Restorative Justice Conferences

Abstract: Restorative justice conferencing, in response to youthful offending, has grown in popularity around the world.While there is now substantial empirical evidence that shows offenders and victims are satisfied with outcomes and perceive the process as generally fair, available data on reoffending have produced mixed results. Uncertainty about how conferencing affects future offending may result from how reoffending is analysed. In this paper, I used survival analysis to reanalyse data from the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Restorative Policing Experiment and assessed two methodological approaches: a standard comparative approach to examine differences in reoffending between offenders in conference and court and a variation analysis to examine differences in reoffending within conference and court groups. Comparative analyses showed that violent offenders referred to conference were less likely to reoffend compared to violent offenders referred to court. There were no differences in reoffending for property offenders in conference and in court.Variation analyses showed that female offenders attending conferences were less likely to reoffend than male offenders in conferences. There were no differences in reoffending for males and females in court. These results suggest that there is value in comparing the effects of traditional and restorative interventions, as well as assessing how variation within interventions is related to future offending.

Bureaucracy, Contracts and Networks: The Unholy Trinity and the Police

Abstract: Over the past thirty years, police services in the UK and Australia have been subjected to a series of demands for change and reform. This article describes these reforms as a shift from command and control bureaucracy through markets to networks and argues that constant reform is a result of the unintended consequences of change. Many of these unintended consequences stem from the limitations and incompatibility of each of these governing structures.We show that the conflicts between the core ideas that distinguish each governing structure create dilemmas that render all reforms continget.

Secret State, Transparent Subject: The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in the Age of Terror

Abstract: This article describes the secrecy provisions embodied in the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Legislation Amendment Act 2003 (Cwlth). The article explains how these provisions curb freedom of speech and remove ASIO's activities from the domain of public scrutiny. It argues that by effectively criminalising open discussion of ASIO's activities the provisions insulate much of the domestic 'war on terror' from the public gaze. It also argues that the provisions implicitly sanction lawlessness by ASIO in open breach of the rule of law. By undermining free speech and the rule of law, this legislation increases the risk of torture of persons detained by ASIO. The legislation also exacerbates the punitiveness of such detention. Moreover, the secrecy offences will distort Australian politics by enabling the government to control and manipulate 'security' information. The article concludes that the increase in state secrecy and its impact are part of a continuing shift in the relative distribution of power between state and subject in liberal democracies; a shift that signals a move to more repressive or authoritarian forms of rule.

Escalation and Deceleration of Offending Behaviours From Adolescence to Early Adulthood

Abstract: Relatively little longitudinal research is available in Australia to describe I the age/crime relationship in much detail, particularly patterns of offending occurring during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood. This paper addresses this issue using self-reported criminal involvement from a school-based sample, a group of socially disadvantaged individuals, and a group of officially identified offenders. The findings support the widespread research that rates of offending peak during adolescence, at which time offending is widespread, and that the criminal career is of relatively short duration. However, the results also demonstrate that the age/crime curve is not a unitary phenomenon. The type of offending behaviour being considered, the gender of the population, and the perpetrator's exposure to the criminal justice system contribute to the variability in the curve. In this study, the prevalence and mean level of overall offending for the total sample was higher during early adulthood than adolescence for vehicle offences and drug-use, rates of theft were similar in both periods, and vandalism and serious offending were lower. In addition, socially disadvantaged young people reported involvement in crime that peaked and desisted earlier in the life course compared to the school-based sample, and gender differences within these groups were also found. For the school-based sample, offending for females began and desisted earlier than for males, but within the at-risk group, the opposite was true. Implications for crime-prevention programming are discussed.

Reforming Police: Opportunities, Drivers and Challenges

Abstract: A few years ago, David Bayley and Clifford Shearing (1996) argued that at the end of the 20th century we were witnessing a ‘watershed’ in policing, when transformations were occurring in the practices and sponsorship of policing on a scale unprecedented since the developments that heralded the creation of the ‘New Police’ in the 19th century. In this special issue of the journal, we and our fellow contributors turn our attention to a somewhat neglected aspect of this ‘quiet revolution’ in policing (Stenning & Shearing, 1980), namely the nature of the opportunities for, and challenges posed by, the reform of policing in different parts of the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Our attention in this issue is particularly focused on the opportunities, drivers and challenges in reforming public (state-sponsored) police institutions.

Police Reform as Foreign Policy

Abstract: This article discusses the worldwide enterprise of assisting in the reform of police institutions in order to support democracy. It describes the current scope of activity, the changing context for this kind of work, and the key lessons, both substantive and tactical, that have been learned about engaging in such assistance. It concludes with two recommendations about the most powerful levers for engendering democratic change in foreign police forces.

Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 [Book Review]

Abstract: Review(s) of: Shared Beginnings, Divergent Lives: Delinquent Boys to Age 70 By John H. Laub and Robert J. Sampson (2003) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 338 pp, ISBN 0674011910. Includes references. Includes endnotes.

Assessing Recidivism Risk Among Young Offenders

Abstract: The development of a recidivism risk index for use with young offenders is described. A construction sample was drawn from the first 458 incarcerated youths in South Australia approached to...

Boozers and bouncers : masculine conflict, disengagement and the contemporary governance of drinking-related violence and disorder

Abstract: The links between crime, violence and male offending are now more deeply researched in a growing international literature that understands much antisocial and criminal behaviour as a social resource for the attainment and protection of masculine identities Nevertheless, the tie between masculinity and nonoffending has been much less explored This focus group study of understandings of public drinking-related conflict and violence among young male drinkers and security officers in a combined urban and rural district of New South Wales illustrates the significance and complexity of these links Masculine concerns inform a readiness for involvement with conflict and its enjoyment through the prominence of issues of social status, gender policing, honour and carnival during different social occasions But this must be understood in relation to the different masculinity 'projects' (Connell, 1995) that contrast security officers with an idealised professional self-image and the majority of drinkers, from a more violent minority A surprisingly common pattern of 'respectable' masculine subjectivity informs disengagement from serious violence This is often characterised by an exaggerated view of the rational male self as safe and in control of most social interaction in dangerous public contexts The pitfalls of this may even be enhanced by the new influence of campaigns around 'risky' public drinking that aim to instill ideals of responsible self-governance

Zhou Yongkang and the Recent Police Reform in China

Abstract: This article is an attempt to understand the conflicting imperatives of police reform and the underlying constraints affecting it in a one-party state.When China entered the 21st century, police abuse of powers was a conspicuous national problem. Facing mounting public outcry, as crystallised in the series of scandals before 2003, the police, under the leadership of the powerful new Minister, started a nationwide campaign to control police abuses. The article analyses the competing explanations for police abuses in China and the conflicting demands placed on the police in China's social and economic transition.The article concludes that the ultimate restriction on police reform in China is its politicisation. As long as China remains an authoritarian state, which uses police to maintain its political stability, the police will still be unable to be truly responsive and accountable to public need.

Trotsky in Blue: Permanent Policing Reform

Abstract: The subject of this article is police reform in North America. The article is divided in two parts. The first part reviews the recent past with respect to reforming the police in Canada. I examine the case of the reform of the Montreal police, which tried to implement an approach modelled on COP-POP principles. The reform process lasted for some 18 years and covers two periods. From 1987 to 1993, the service tried unsuccessfully to reform the mentalities of its officers, without changing the structures of the force. From 1994 until today, it introduced significant changes in its structures but was forced after 2002 to reestablish many of the structures it had abolished.The reform suffered from a split of leadership between police and civilians and produced a divorce between the uniformed patrol and plainclothes criminal investigation. In the second part of the paper, I assess the impact on the police reform movement of the moral panic generated by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I argue that very deep budgetary cuts in the US, a new reliance on physical coercion and outsourcing to the private sector may bring the COP-POP reform movement to a standstill. I conclude that current developments in policing are deepening the gap between security and justice in policing.

Boys and Road Rage: Driving-Related Violence and Aggression in Western Australia

Abstract: This article reports on the results of a population survey of 1208 West Australian drivers designed to measure the prevalence of drivingrelated violence and aggression as well as perceptions of these behaviours. A clear distinction is made between driving-related violence (restricted to criminal acts of violence, threats of violence and vehicle damage) and other aggressive driving behaviours. Although the majority of survey respondents had experienced some form of aggressive driving behaviour, only 13% reported ever being a victim of driving-related violence. However, 17% of respondents believed they were likely, or very likely, to be a victim of driving-related violence within the coming year. More than two thirds of respondents thought their likelihood of being a victim of driving-related violence had increased over the past 10 years. Both aggressive driving behaviours and driving-related violence were typically perpetrated by young males against other males. The article concludes with a discuss...

Justice in the Risk Society

Abstract: The punishment paradigm is attractive because of the parsimonious way in which it integrates the instrumental and the symbolic features of ordering.This paper examines the relationship between these features in a context where risk and risk reduction are prioritised.The central question motivating the paper is a normative one: What opportunities, if any, does the explosion of risk-focused technologies present for minimising our reliance on punishment as a technology for governing security? Our contention is that the mentality of risk has promoted the exploration of alternative technologies that call into question the tight coupling of punishment with the governance of security. A key issue addressed in the paper is whether it is possible for subjects to experience a sense of justice that is not punishment-centred. Such a situation exists, we argue, in the case of an initiative in the governance of security that one of us has been facilitating in South Africa.

Why Don't the Police Stop Crime?

Abstract: Several answers to the question 'Why don't the police stop crime?' are considered. Police do stop some crime, although increasingly they will rely on nonpolice personnel for assistance in doing so.The proportion of crime they stop is not fixed: learning the right lessons from the experience of New York City will help them to increase it. Nonetheless, police need to be alert to the dangers of concentrating single-mindedly on crime reduction. Doing so not only has inherent dangers, but it can also divert attention from other tasks and objectives of policing. Understanding the police role in crime control and reduction is hampered by populist insistence that simple answers are enough. Equally, the academic promise of new 'sciences' of crime and policing is overstated. The article argues for a more inclusive and sophisticated approach to answering the question in its title.

Challenges and Prospects for the Development of Inclusive Plural Policing in Britain: Overcoming Political and Conceptual Obstacles

Abstract: Rather than focus on the contentand rationale underlying these initiatives, we centre our commentary onthe principal obstacles so far exhibited, and likely to persist, for achievinginclusive nodal policing approaches.We then highlight some strategies forovercoming these difficulties.It is well known that policing is conducted by public, private, and other OnonstateOagencies (see, e.g., Johnston & Shearing, 2003; Loader, 2000). The acceleration ofthis trend in recent decades has led to a tendency for liberal states to abandon someof their monopoly claims over security governance. With state police experiencing acrisis of public legitimacy (Reiner, 2000) and a growing number of groups mobilis-ing nonstate security providers, the question of how best to direct the process ofpolicing in the Ocommon interestO has come to occupy both governmental andscholarly thought. Drawing upon our recent research, this paper examines efforts bythe British Government to respond to the realities of the OnewO landscape ofOpluralisedO (Loader, 2000; Loader & Walker, 2004) or OnodalO (Johnston &Shearing, 2003) policing in Britain and Northern Ireland.

Disaggregating the Relationship Between Drug Misuse and Crime

Abstract: Studies on the association between drug-misuse and criminal behaviour have tended to be based on either aggregated data (composite forms of drug-misuse or offending) or data on just one or ...

The Reform of Policing in the Russian Federation

Abstract: The reform of policing in the Russian Federation involves an unusual combination of challenges. These include finding the best distribution of police powers and responsibilities among three levels of government (federal, regional and local); confronting an excessive degree of commercialisation of policing; and developing 'democratic' policing that meets standards of professionalism, accountability and legitimacy. In the new millenium, talk about police reform in Russia has focused on organisational questions and ways of administering police functions. Relatively little attention has been given to the content of policing and police relations with the public. Significant reform of policing in Russia has not yet begun.

Using Financial Incentives and Income Contingent Penalties to Detect and Punish Collusion and Insider Trading

Abstract: Collusion and insider trading, being white collar crimes, are often characterised as being victimless crimes. The absence of identifiable victims makes the detection of these crimes particularly difficult. This paper proposes that, in order to increase the flow of information about collusion and insider trading, parties engaged in these crimes should be offered financial incentives to provide evidence against their co-conspirators. In order to provide greater certainty that rewards will be paid, and also to increase the probability that any fines are paid, it is also proposed that an income-contingent fine collection mechanism be utilised. The paper presents two case studies to illustrate how the fine collection mechanism could be used.

Unlikely Friends? Oprah Winfrey and Restorative Justice

Abstract: In recent years, restorative justice has surfaced as a new criminal justice practice in diverse parts of the world. Often, it appears that these practices have emerged in complete isolation...

Evaluation research and criminal justice: beyond a political critique

Abstract: This article is intended to stimulate reflection and debate about the relationship between pure and applied research in criminology. The central argument is that evaluation research, which has almost become a dominant paradigm in researching criminal justice, has lower methodological standards than peer-reviewed social science. It considers this case in relation to quantitative and qualitative methods, and examines examples of a 'flagship' and 'small-scale' evaluation. The article concludes by discussing the implications for evaluators (who are encouraged to employ a wider range of methods), funding agencies and criminology as an academic discipline.

Paradigm Lost: The Dutch Dilemma

Abstract: In the 1970s the Dutch police developed a paradigm of policing that married ideas from the United States on community-oriented policing to a strongly social and democratic role for the police in society. From the early 1990s there was a gradual shift to the right in Dutch society that was reflected in concerns about crime and safety. The paradigm came under scrutiny. Then Dutch officers began to visit New York in considerable numbers and returned with ideas on 'zero tolerance'. This 'tough' approach to crime reduction appears to conflict with Dutch 'tolerance' in criminal justice. The paper argues that there is reluctance to abandon that original paradigm, ambivalence about the new concepts from abroad but, above all, an inability to develop a new, comprehensive paradigm. This may well be true elsewhere and we assume that modern policing needs to be based on a well-thought paradigm on the police role in society.

Police Reform in Peru

Abstract: Following a political transition, Peru launched a police reform in 2001. This study focuses on internal and external impediments to the reform. The highly transparent and democratic process won public support and the backing of rank-and-file officers, but failed to overcome opposition from police leadership. The strength of senior police opposition is directly related to financial interests threatened by anticorruption initiatives. In the external environment, government weakness and lack of presidential support present critical breaking points. Additional external weaknesses include the politically independent profile of the Interior Ministry reform team, the lack of a politically negotiated reform plan, and the absence of international backing. Presidential support failed at a critical moment when police challenged the Interior Minister. Noting the limitations of different evaluative criteria in policing reforms, the article argues that important advances have been achieved in policing in Peru even as short-term impacts are limited.

Critical Criminology and Its Discontents: A Response to Travers' Critique of Criminal Justice Evaluation

Abstract: In a recent article in this journal Max Travers advanced the view that criminal justice evaluation is boring, biased and beset with methodological problems. As evidence of this he cited (among other things) an evaluation of the NSW Drug Court carried out by the present author and several of his colleagues. This article offers a brief response to Travers' claims.

Review of the Practice of Ronet Bachman and Russell Schut's Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice 2nd edition

Abstract: Review(s) of: The Practice of Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice (2nd ed), By Ronet Bachman and Russell Schutt (2003) Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press, xxiii + 405 pp, ISBN 0761928774 Includes references

Tracking the Regulation Debate

Abstract: Review(s) of: Restorative Justice and Responsive Regulation By John Braithwaite (2002) Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 336pp, ISBN 0195158393. Review(s) of: The Open Corporation: Effective Self-regulation and Democracy By Christine Parker (2002) Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 376pp, ISBN 0521818907. Review(s) of: Securing Compliance: A Principled Approach By Karen Yeung (2004) Oxford, UK: Hart, 284pp, ISBN 1841133779. Review(s) of: Adapting Legal Cultures By David Nelken and Johannes Feest (2001) Oxford, UK: Hart, 282pp, ISBN 1841132918. Includes references. Includes endnotes.

Criminal justice in social contexts

Abstract: Review(s) of: Psychological Jurisprudence: Critical Explorations in Law, Crime and Society, Bruce A.Arrigo (Ed.), (2004) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791461521. Review(s) of: Girls' Violence: Myths and Realities, Christine Alder and Anne Worrall (Eds.), (2004) Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, ISBN 0791461106. Review(s) of: Partners in Health, Partners in Crime: Exploring the Boundaries of Criminology and Sociology of Health and Illness Stefan Timmermans and Jonathon Gabe (Eds.) (2003) Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 1405105399.