Showing papers in "British Journal of Criminology in 2017"
TL;DR: In this article, the economic and social research was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J007935/1), the Isaac Newton Trust and the National Geographic Society.
Abstract: This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J007935/1) and the Isaac Newton Trust.
94 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, the role of corruption in facilitating the illegal wildlife trade is discussed. But, the authors focus on the presence of corruption within illegal wildlife trafficking and highlight the unique nature of corrupt practices influenced by different socio-political and cultural settings.
Abstract: This study focuses on the role of corruption in facilitating the illegal wildlife trade. This research attempts to contribute to the literature by disentangling the existence, influence and nested nature of corruption within the illegal wildlife trade based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in China, Morocco, Russia and Uganda. By utilizing Passas’ concepts of symbiotic and antithetical relationships as theoretical framework, we examine the presence of corruption within illegal wildlife trafficking. Our findings lend support for, and extend the framework with the concept of legal exploitation, while highlighting the unique nature of corrupt practices influenced by different socio-political and cultural settings. Symbiotic and antithetical relationships were revealed through qualitative fieldwork and provided in-depth knowledge behind the social world of wildlife trafficking.
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, an analysis of trade data from two large and illegal e-commerce websites, collected on a daily basis for ten months, examined how market revenue was affected by media coverage of police work on such markets and the highly publicized conviction and life-sentencing of a market founder.
Abstract: Is crime reduced by highly publicized punishment events? Is crime reduced by law enforcement’s public relations work? These longstanding questions are addressed in a novel context—digital drug markets. An analysis of trade data from two large and illegal e-commerce websites, collected on a daily basis for ten months, examined how market revenue was affected by (1) media coverage of police work on such markets and (2) the highly publicized conviction and life-sentencing of a market founder. Trade increased after periods with elevated media coverage, and also after the two court events. Possible explanations for the increase in trade after the trial outcomes are discussed in an analysis of textual conversations in three online forums associated with illegal e-commerce.
42 citations
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TL;DR: This paper provided an alternative social psychological perspective through detailed empirical analysis of two of the 2011 English ‘riots,’ and demonstrated the value of the social identity approach in providing criminological theory with a richer and deeper perspective on these complex social phenomena.
Abstract: Theoretical perspectives that give primacy to ideological or structural determinism have dominated criminological analysis of the 2011 English ‘riots’. This paper provides an alternative social psychological perspective through detailed empirical analysis of two of these riots. We utilise novel forms of data to build triangulated accounts of the nature of the events and explore the perspectives of participants. We assert these riots cannot be adequately understood merely in terms pre-existing social understandings and political realities and that identity based interactional crowd dynamics were critically important. The paper demonstrates the value of the social identity approach in providing criminological theory with a richer and deeper perspective on these complex social phenomena.
36 citations
TL;DR: This paper used an under-utilized method by criminologists to obtain data from 45 police forces relating to 655 cases of rape and sexual assault by penetration over a five-year period and were analysed in relation to victim and perpetrator age, relationship, location of crime and type of offence.
Abstract: Despite extensive research on rape and sexual violence, there exists an important gap in knowledge around older victims. This gap exists in relation to national statistics (the Crime Survey for England and Wales has an upper age limit of 59 for intimate violence), and by both criminologists and gerontologists. This research used an under-utilized method by criminologists—freedom of information requests to police forces. Data were obtained from 45 forces relating to 655 cases of rape and sexual assault by penetration over a five-year period and were analysed in relation to victim and perpetrator age, relationship, location of crime and type of offence. The findings challenge the dominant real-rape stereotypes and have implications for future research, policy and practice.
33 citations
TL;DR: The authors examined adjudication processing responses at the intersection of immigration and drug offences in a Southwestern federal district court, where the logic of immigration enforcement subsumes more traditional federal drug law enforcement, and demonstrated how characteristics of "drug cases" are constructed at this intersection in such a manner that they stand apart from the prototypical federal drug case, and more closely resemble criminal immigration cases.
Abstract: Drawing from data obtained in a comparative study of US district courts’ criminal justice practices, this paper examines adjudication processing responses at the intersection of immigration and drug offences in a Southwestern federal district court, where the logic of immigration enforcement subsumes more traditional federal drug law enforcement. I demonstrate how characteristics of ‘drug cases’ are constructed at this intersection in such a manner that they stand apart from the prototypical federal drug case, and more closely resemble criminal immigration cases. I argue that in this border jurisdiction, the prevailing adjudicatory logic is concerned with defendants’ status as unauthorized outsiders such that these defendants are barely distinguishable from immigration defendants in how their sentences are calculated and rhetorically justified.
31 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the Home Office, Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Rayne Foundation, the Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Smith Richardson Foundation have been jointly sponsored by the authors.
Abstract: This work is sponsored by the Home Office, the Department of Health, the Department for Education, the Rayne Foundation, the Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Smith Richardson Foundation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyze two payment-by-results pilot schemes in England and Wales and demonstrate how their involvement in these pilots enabled and justified the new 12-month mandatory statutory supervision requirement, significantly extending the spatial and temporal reach of carceral power.
Abstract: Recent penal policy developments in England and Wales emphasize the role for voluntary organizations. Voluntary organizations play an important and increasing role in punishment, including imprisonment and supervision, but the effects of their work are ill understood. Existing literature is ambivalent: some argue such work empowers and builds social capital; for others, it extends control. This tension is addressed by analysing two payment-by-results pilot schemes. This analysis adds to the limited empirical knowledge about voluntary organizations. It demonstrates how their involvement in these pilots enabled and justified the new 12-month mandatory statutory supervision requirement, significantly extending the spatial and temporal reach of carceral power. The conclusion considers the theoretical implications of this analysis.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine recent legislative developments in Northern Ireland around Lord Morrow's Human Trafficking & Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill that was passed unanimously in the Northern Ireland Assembly and which uniquely in the UK now makes it a criminal offence to pay for sexual services.
Abstract: This paper examines recent legislative developments in Northern Ireland around Lord Morrow’s Human Trafficking & Exploitation (Further Provisions and Support for Victims) Bill that was passed unanimously in the Northern Ireland Assembly and which uniquely in the UK now makes it a criminal offence to pay for sexual services. I suggest that issues around sex trafficking, sexual slavery and prostitution in Northern Ireland bear all the hallmarks of Stan Cohen’s famous articulation of a moral panic (Cohen, 1972) but also argue that his original formulation needs to be recast slightly to take account of the horizontal structuring of moral panics in contemporary society.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on men's gender performances in relation to both violent and non-violent crime, and develop an improved understanding of the central criminological relationship between men and violence.
Abstract: In order to develop an improved understanding of the central criminological relationship between men and violence, this article focuses on men’s gender performances in relation to both violent vict ...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compare the characteristics of the relationships between police officers and communities in the Glasgow conurbation with those in the highlands and islands of Scotland in the period c. 1900-70.
Abstract: Drawing on archival research and oral history interviews, this article compares the characteristics of the relationships between police officers and communities in the Glasgow conurbation with those in the highlands and islands of Scotland in the period c. 1900–70. Rejecting the uniform or linear narrative suggested by existing historiography, it argues that these relationships were diverse, complex and shaped by local cultural, social and economic factors. By analysing the grassroots or everyday policing delivered by the urban beat officer and village constable, it reconstructs a social history of policing in twentieth-century Scotland. Moreover, the article identifies key constitutive elements that enabled or disrupted the forging of trust and legitimacy in Glasgow and the highlands in an era still associated by some with a ‘golden age of policing’. The article focuses in particular on the capacity of discretion, ‘insider’ status and embeddedness within local settlements to deliver effective policing, enhancing conclusions about best practice that have been drawn from studies of more recently formalized ‘community policing’ initiatives.
TL;DR: The authors explored fraudulent acts by offenders who target and pressurize older adults to have property repairs, often misrepresenting themselves as skilled tradesmen, and overcharging for such work, using extensive documentary materials from 11 enforcement operations in England together with interviews with trading standards officers and financial investigators.
Abstract: This paper explores fraudulent acts by offenders who target and pressurize older adults ‘on the doorstep’ to have property repairs, often misrepresenting themselves as skilled tradesmen, and overcharging for such work. It uses extensive documentary materials from 11 enforcement operations in England together with interviews with trading standards officers and financial investigators. Using Reiner’s (2000) Necessary Conditions of Crime framework illustrates the dynamics of doorstep fraud – from ‘low-value’ crimes to incidents of grooming and repeated victimization to the actions of organized crime groups often involving money laundering. The paper’s contribution is a focus on a relatively understudied but vulnerable demographic group in criminology, and in highlighting the investigation practices of non-constabulary law enforcement officers who have not been the subject of empirical study in criminology
TL;DR: The authors argue that a culture of denial limits the ability and willingness of prison authorities and prison staff to recognize, acknowledge and respond appropriately to the realities of sexual activity in British prisons. But they do not discuss the role of women in sexual activity.
Abstract: Theorized through Stanley Cohen’s sociology of denial and informed by testimonies from formerly imprisoned men, this article argues that a culture of denial limits the ability and willingness of prison authorities and prison staff to recognize, acknowledge and respond appropriately to the realities of sexual activity in British prisons. It has three objectives: to detail experiences of consensual and coercive sex; to elucidate the collective and collaborative cultural habit of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ by which what is known becomes not known and what is concealed remains hidden; and to show how this strategy leaves unprotected those who choose to engage in, or are coerced into, sexual activity.
TL;DR: In this paper, a multi-method examination of a police training academy in Iraqi Kurdistan was conducted to investigate how a nascent state attempts to secure hegemony in a post-conflict environment.
Abstract: Possessing a monopoly on the legitimate use of force, police are central to the establishment of state legitimacy, especially in a nation experiencing a radical reconstruction. Employing a multi-method examination of a police training academy in Iraqi Kurdistan, this study investigates how a nascent state attempts to secure hegemony in a post-conflict environment. Drawing upon literature of state legitimacy and empire, findings suggest the reconstruction is better understood as a cultural performance designed to project legitimacy for an imperial client state, helping explain the continued instability of the state and rise of dangerous non-state actors.
TL;DR: The World Customs Organization's recent survey on customs' approach to wildlife smuggling revealed that half of the administrations surveyed do not monitor their anti-wildlife smuggling activities as mentioned in this paper, whereas others have adopted an instrumental approach, drawing on institutional theory.
Abstract: Biodiversity is under threat from wildlife crime. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is one of the most well-known instruments among the plethora that exists to protect endangered wildlife species. Trade ban and control are vital components of its wildlife protection mechanism. Customs play a crucial role in CITES enforcement. The World Customs Organization's recent survey on customs' approach to wildlife smuggling revealed that half of the administrations surveyed do not monitor their anti-wildlife smuggling activities. This study has examined why some customs tackle wildlife smuggling symbolically, whereas others have adopted an instrumental approach, drawing on institutional theory. The primary discovery has been that customs' symbolic approach is related to the extent of the modernization of a customs administration rather than the demand for legitimacy and support from external stakeholders.