Violent Crime

The massacre of almost 50 Maidan protesters on February 20, 2014 was a turning point in Ukrainian politics and a tipping point in the conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. This mass killing of the protesters and the mass shooting of the police that preceded it led to the overthrow of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych and gave a start to a civil war in Donbas in Eastern Ukraine, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. A conclusion promoted by the post-Yanukovych governments and the media in Ukraine that the massacre was perpetrated by government snipers and special police units on a Yanukovych order has been nearly universally accepted by the Western governments, the media, and many scholars. The Ukrainian government investigation identified members of the special company of Berkut as responsible for killings of the absolute majority of the protesters, but did not release any evidence in support, with the exception of videos of the massacre.
              The question is which side organized the “snipers’ massacre.” This paper is the first academic study of this crucial case of the mass killing. It uses a theory of rational choice and a Weberian theory of instrumental rationality to examine actions of major actors both from the Yanukovych government, specifically various police and security forces, and the Maidan opposition, specifically its far right and oligarchic elements, during the massacre.
          The paper analyzes a large amount of evidence from different publicly available sources concerning this massacre and killings of specifics protesters. Qualitative content analysis includes the following data: about 1,500 videos and recordings of live internet and TV broadcasts from mass media and social media in different countries(some 150 gigabytes), news reports and social media posts by more than 100 journalists covering the massacre from Kyiv, some 5,000 photos, and nearly 30 gigabytes of publicly available radio intercepts of snipers and commanders from the special Alfa unit of the Security Service of Ukraine and Internal Troops, and Maidan massacre trial recordings. This study also employs field research on site of the massacre, eyewitness reports by both Maidan protesters and government special units commanders, statements by both former and current government officials, estimates of approximate ballistic trajectories, bullets and weapons used, and types of wounds among both protesters and the police. This study establishes a precise timeline for various events of the massacre, the locations of both the shooters and the government snipers, and the specific timeline and locations of nearly 50 protesters’ deaths. It also briefly analyzes other major cases of violence during and after the “Euromaidan.” This study includes two video appendixes.
            This academic investigation concludes that the massacre was a false flag operation, which was rationally planned and carried out with a goal of the overthrow of the government and seizure of power. It found various evidence of the involvement of an alliance of the far right organizations, specifically the Right Sector and Svoboda, and oligarchic parties, such as Fatherland. Concealed shooters and spotters were located in at least 20 Maidan-controlled buildings or areas. The various evidence that the protesters were killed from these locations include some 70 testimonies, primarily by Maidan protesters, several videos of “snipers” targeting protesters from these buildings, comparisons of positions of the specific protesters at the time of their killing and their entry wounds, and bullet impact signs. The study uncovered various videos and photos of armed Maidan “snipers” and spotters in many of these buildings. The paper presents implications of these findings for understanding the nature of the change of the government in Ukraine, the civil war in Donbas, Russian military intervention in Crimea and Donbas, and an international conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine.

Most risk management activity in the healthcare sector is retrospective, based on learning from experience. This is feasible where the risks are routine, but emergency operations plans (EOP) guide the response to events that are both high risk and rare. Under these circumstances, it is important to get the response right the first time, but learning from experience is usually not an option. This case study presents the rationale for taking a proactive approach to improving healthcare organizations' EOP. It demonstrates how the Prospective Hazard Analysis (PHA) Toolkit can drive organizational learning and argues that this toolkit may lead to more efficient improvement than drills and exercises.

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Wiley's copyright policies do not allow me to post the published version of the paper, but they do allow me to send out individual copies. So if you don't have access to the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management and would like a copy of this article, please email me at:
alan [dot] j [dot] card [at] gmail [dot] com

The literature has suggested several approaches to explain violent crime, such as the heat hypothesis that more violence is associated to very hot temperature. However, the manifold determinants of violent crime in society are hardly known. This study shows that, controlling the climate, the intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) can be explained by the high level of income inequality, both in hot tropical areas and in temperate regions of the globe. Overall, then, the socioeconomic inequality is one of factors that generates aversive social environments and, as a consequence, a deteriorated human behavior leading to high rates of intentional homicides in society.

The ecological theory of crime was first introduced into criminology by the Cartographic School of Criminology in the 19th century. Ecological theories of crime were further developed by the Chicago School of Criminology in the early 20th century. Contemporary ecological theories include routine activity theory, crime pattern theory, and rational choice theory. The impact of the ecological perspective in scientific research of crime is noticeable in today's studies too. Modern scientists, researchers, and practitioners study crime by using the geographic information system, statistical and geostatistical methods, and crime mapping. The empirical research on the spatial patterns and concentration of crime in the City of Nis, Republic of Serbia, was conducted on the research sample of property crimes and violent crimes committed in the years 2008, 2013 and 2018. All the cases were geocoded into spatial units which represent urban and suburban areas in the territory of the City of ...

This paper has two goals. The first is to show that the heat hypothesis provides a partial explanation of violent crime in society. The second is to suggest an alternative hypothesis that intentional homicides can be explained by the level of income inequality, even when controlling thermal climate and other factors. The vast literature in these research fields has suggested several approaches to explain aggression and violent behavior in society, such as the heat hypothesis and the model of Climate, Aggression, and Self-control in Humans (CLASH). However, there are at least some factors about aggression and violent behavior that current theories have trouble explaining. This study proposes income inequality, latitude and their interaction as predictors of intentional homicides. Statistical evidence based on country-level analyses (N = 191 countries) reveals that controlling thermal climate and other factors, socioeconomic inequality is positively associated with violent crime. In particular, the findings here seem in general to support the hypothesis that differences between countries in intentional homicides (per 100,000 people) can be explained by the level of income inequality alone, and not thermal climate as a second predictor or the interaction of income inequality and thermal climate. These results suggest that income inequality may overpower the role of hot weather and seasonal variation of temperature to explain the level of violent crime in human society. A prediction of this theory here is that societies with low socioeconomic inequality, independently of thermal climate, are not likely to produce high levels of intentional homicides and violent crime. This finding can be useful for bringing a new perspective to explain and generalize one of the determinants that generates violent crime in human society. Some policy implications are suggested to reduce these social issues.

The severity, certainty and celerity (swiftness) of punishment are theorised to influence offending through deterrence. Yet celerity is only occasionally included in empirical studies of criminal activity and the three deterrence factors have rarely been analysed in one empirical model. We address this gap with an analysis using unique panel data of recorded theft, burglary and violence against the person for 41 Police Force Areas in England and Wales using variables that capture these three theorised factors of deterrence. Police detection reduces subsequent burglary and theft but not violence while severity appears to reduce burglary but not theft or violent crime. We find that variation in the celerity of sanction has a significant impact on theft offences but not on burglary or violence offences. Increased average prison sentences reduce burglary only. We account for these results in terms of data challenges and the likely different motivations underlying violent and acquisitive crime.

Over the years, a significant number of Rorschach studies have been conducted with forensic adult and adolescent samples, partly motivated by the use of the test in forensic psychological evaluations. Could the Rorschach, as a performance-based personality assessment tool, provide unique information that is not as vulnerable to distortion on the part of the examinee as self-report measures are? This article provides a review of Rorschach studies on relevant Rorschach variables, including those with different forensic samples. Empirical findings are mixed; there is not a one-on-one relationship between certain Rorschach variables and forensically relevant traits, such as psychopathy or hostility. This does not mean the Rorschach cannot provide useful information in answering psychological questions before the court. A case illustration of a male college student, who committed a (first) violent offense, illustrates the unique contribution of the Rorschach for understanding the psychological dynamics behind a violent act that was seemingly out of character.

Reviewing violence research in South Africa, this research brief shows that violence prevention initiatives need to move beyond a cause-and-effect approach that focuses on episodes and types of violence. It promotes looking at violence as a web, with criss-crossing forms that blur the line between victim and perpetrator as they evolve over time. Understanding violence in South Africa requires looking beyond the explanation of a ‘culture of violence’ and paying attention to how context turns the risk of violence into a reality.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar as relações entre transtornos da personalidade e crimes violentos, com as consequentes repercussões jurídicas advindas dessas associações. Para tanto, foram entrevistados 116 indivíduos em cumprimento de pena em três Unidades Prisionais situadas na Região da Grande Belo Horizonte, Estado de Minas Gerais, aos quais foram aplicadas as escalas Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders - SCID-II (“Entrevista Clínica Estruturada para DSM-IV-TR - versão brasileira 1.0”, de First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, e Benjamin, 1999 - versão brasileira) para avaliação de transtornos da personalidade, e a Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (“Mini entrevista neuropsiquiátrica internacional 5.0 - versão brasileira”, 1994, 1998, 2000, Sheehan DV & Lecrubier Y. - Versão Brasileira 5.0.0) para avaliação dos transtornos do Eixo I do DSM-IV, além de um terceiro questionário, elaborado pela própria pesquisadora, para reunião de informações de cunho sociodemográfico. Os participantes foram convidados a integrar o estudo após uma seleção aleatória dentre a integralidade dos indivíduos já sentenciados e em cumprimento de pena no regime fechado nessas três Unidades Prisionais, que detêm as três maiores populações carcerárias do Estado de Minas Gerais, objetivando-se reunir uma amostra representativa da população abrangida pelo Sistema Prisional do Estado. Os participantes foram classificados segundo os diagnósticos dos Eixos I e II, conforme preenchessem os critérios mínimos descritos no DSM-IV-TR. E As espécies de delitos mais frequentes entre os entrevistados foram os crimes patrimoniais (roubo e furto) e o de tráfico de drogas. As psicopatologias mais frequentes foram os Transtornos relacionados a substâncias e transtornos aditivos, especialmente aqueles relacionados ao uso de maconha, cocaína, crack e álcool, prevalentes em mais de 50% da população avaliada, seguidos pelo Episódio Depressivo Maior Atual (25,86%) e pelos Transtornos Ansiosos (21,55%). Entre os Transtornos da Personalidade, o subtipo Antissocial foi o mais recorrente (47,41%), seguidos pelos subtipos Borderline (14,66%) e Paranóide (12,93%). Os subtipos Esquizotípico (0,86%) e Histriônico (0,86%) foram achados incomuns. Realizados testes de correlação estatística, encontrou-se que indivíduos Transtorno da Personalidade Antissocial cometem, em média, mais crimes violentos em relação a quem não tem esse transtorno. Também foi realizada pesquisa documental, abarcando a análise dos prontuários jurídicos e de saúde de 16 pacientes internos no maior Hospital Psiquiátrico e Judiciário do Estado de Minas Gerais. A pesquisa revelou que os delitos mais frequentes foram o homicídio (23,73%) e a lesão corporal (13,56%), seguidos pelo crime de roubo (16,95%) e os transtornos mais prevalentes são aqueles inseridos no agrupamento Esquizofrenia, transtornos esquizotípicos e transtornos delirantes (81,25%). Transtornos da personalidade foram encontrados em apenas 6,25% da amostra, ainda assim, como comorbidade de transtorno do grupo Esquizofrenia, transtornos esquizotípicos e transtornos delirantes. Por fim, buscando analisar em que ocasiões são requeridos, no decorrer de um processo penal, exames periciais em saúde mental, foi realizada pequisa no acervo do Repositório de Sentenças do Poder Judiciário do Estado de Minas Gerais, concluindo-se que os transtornos mais frequentemente diagnosticados nas perícias em sede de Exame de Sanidade Mental são os Transtornos mentais e comportamentais devido ao uso de substância psicoativa. Como diagnóstico único, conformaram 42,11% das sentenças analisadas. Seguem-no como mais prevalentes a categoria Esquizofrenia, transtornos esquizotípicos e transtornos delirantes, que aparece citada como diagnóstico único em 15,79% das sentenças analisadas, e a categoria Retardo mental, que abarca 12,28% das mesmas. Os transtornos específicos da personalidade aparecem em apenas 7,02% dos diagnósticos referidos nas sentenças pesquisadas, demonstrando que tal perturbação da saúde mental ainda pouco comumente dá ensejo a questionamentos quanto à culpabilidade do réu e, por conseguinte, à feitura do Exame de Sanidade Mental. Dentre as sentenças pesquisadas, naquelas em que a avaliação pericial revelou diagnóstico de Transtorno da Personalidade, o magistrado concluiu pela semi-imputabilidade em 83,33% dos casos. Por toda a pesquisa realizada, concluiu-se que os sentenciados com Transtornos da Personalidade, sobretudo do subtipo antissocial, tendem a desenvolver comportamento delitivo precocemente, a reincidir mais e a cometer mais crimes violentos em relação aos sentenciados que não têm esse transtorno. Embora sejam consideradas criminalmente responsáveis por suas ações, precisam de cuidados médicos e psicológicos concomitantemente ao cumprimento de sua pena privativa de liberdade, o que ainda é feito de maneira ineficiente no sistema penitenciário.

This study aims at examining the possible relationship between increasing violence in Pakistani society and its excessive portrayal in popular Indian movies, ardently watched in Pakistan, during the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Firstly, five top-grossing films selected through popularity charts and youth polls are analyzed from the four decades under study. Then Violence Index, as per adjusted George Gerbner’s Formula, 1976, is calculated to identify and compare the trends in the defined time period. Subsequently, four samples of one month issues of the largest circulated Daily Jang from each decade (1976-2006) were carefully analyzed for crime news as an authentic daily record of social crime scene in the country. Results show that violence has increased both in Pakistani society and Indian movies during the forty years sampled but the increase is curvilinear rather than linear in nature. Only a negligibly weak correlation of + 0.2 is being found between the incidences of silver screen violence and real-life, reported crimes. Though there seems to be a fragile relationship between the two variables, it is observed that the violent crimes rate in Pakistani society fluctuates, following the trends and frequency of portrayal of violence in Indian movies in preceding decade under study.

Esta tese tem como tema os homicídios de mulheres em Pernambuco e seu objetivo foi compreender e analisar as dinâmicas sociais que produzem este tipo de violência. O
objeto do estudo foi o conjunto das situações as mulheres são assassinadas, mas, para isso, foi necessário também observar o conjunto das situações de homicídios de homens, para não tomar como específico aquilo que é comum aos dois grupos
populacionais. Para isso, realizou-se análise comparativa para identificar as situações nas quais homens e mulheres são assassinados e construir configurações de homicídios
específicas; identificar semelhanças e diferenças entre as configurações de homens e mulheres; calcular e analisar o risco diferencial de homens e mulheres para elementos
associados às configurações de homicídios; identificar e explicar os fatores associados aos homicídios de homens e mulheres e explicar as configurações de homicídios de
mulheres e os contextos nos quais elas ocorrem. Tratou-se de estudo quantitativo, cujas fontes de informações foram o banco de crimes violentos letais intencionais da
Secretaria de Defesa Social de Pernambuco, o DATASUS e o IBGE, para o período de 2004 a 2012. Os dados foram analisados por meio de análise de correspondência,
análise log-linear e regressão linear multivariada. As principais referências teóricometodológicas situam-se nas abordagens configuracionais e situacionais, em diálogo com a teoria social feminista e a sociologia brasileira. Foram identificadas quatro
configurações de homicídios: criminalidade, violência doméstica e familiar, violência interpessoal e violência cometida por parceiro íntimo. A primeira atinge homens e
mulheres. A violência interpessoal foi associada aos homens e a violência doméstica e aquela cometida por parceiro íntimo, às mulheres. A distribuição das configurações no
território do estado não é homogênea e está associado a fatores macrossociais como, por exemplo, desigualdade de renda e taxa de urbanização, e a fatores relacionados às
desigualdades de gênero, como chefia feminina do domicílio e taxa de fecundidade total. Os resultados demonstram que os contextos dos homicídios de mulheres são diversificados e obedecem a dinâmicas sociais distintas, nas quais o marcador de gênero está sempre atuante, mas nem sempre da mesma forma. Esses achados trazem desafios teóricos, no sentido de compreender os modos de articulação entre contextos
tradicionais e atuais de violência contra as mulheres, o que, por sua vez, coloca desafios para as políticas públicas, no sentido de articular o campo da segurança pública com as
políticas para as mulheres.

Media violence and its effects on aggressive behavior have been a concern of several segments of society. The effects of a film with violent scenes on the aggressive behavior of children was
investigated, by evaluating the difference in the level of aggressiveness expressed in compositions written before and after watching such a film. Twenty five girls and thirty one boys, aged from 9 to 12 years old and of the 4th. grade of a public fundamental school, participated in a experiment with intragroup design. First, all the children wrote a composition, given a particular plot which would begin the story. The film Mortal Kombat was subsequently shown in the classroom, and within 24 hours they wrote another story, with a different beginning plot. The compositions were judged by three university students who did not know the purpose of the study. They scored the character’s
aggressiveness in the composition on a scale from 0 to 10, using their own judgment and criteria. Analysis of this data indicated that the aggressiveness expressed on composition by girls and boys increased after watching the film. The difference was larger for boys than for girls. These results show that watching films with violent scenes increases aggressive behavior in children of both genders, when evaluated through means of written composition.

In November 2015, the Law Commission published a scoping report on the future of offences against the person. Building on previous reform efforts, the report proposed reworked versions of these offences for inclusion in a new statute. This article critiques those plans. First, it summarises the background to the report. Secondly, it outlines the problems with the existing crimes. Thirdly, it examines the comparative coherence of the recast offences. Fourthly, it offers some concluding thoughts on the revised scheme of liability.

This pdf is my Habilitation. It was published in 1997 at Campus and has been out of print for many years. I still like it. Campus have granted me permission to put the text online. 
The reference is....
Eisner, M. (1997). Das Ende der zivilisierten Stadt? Die Auswirkungen von Individualisierung und urbaner Krise auf Gewaltdelinquenz. Frankfurt am Main, Campus.

The concept of penal populism can be used as an analytical tool to monitor the recent changes in criminal justice and criminal policies in Turkey. This concept expresses in the most general sense that the stance and sensitivity that the public has exhibited regarding the punishment of the criminals is used by policy makers for political purposes and benefits. In Turkey sample it is possible to reveal penal populism with some determinations through examples such as frequently changes of punishment laws, criminal justice area shaped by everyday politics, recent death penalty discussions and violent crimes too frequent in the media. Crime news in the media can be determinant factor on punishments, or on the one hand, death penalty discussions continuing and on the other hand many times during the history of the republic there were many amnesty. Punishments are constantly subject to pressure from society, which is reflected in policy makers in this area but the real question is the demands, expectations and sensitivities of society to the punishments, how being used by politicians. In this study, which is based on penal populism, first point of view is to make a different dimension of the relationship between punishments and society on the Turkish case. In order to fulfill this purpose, a historical comparative method has been adopted. The study here on the one hand is from political sociology and on the other hand sociology of crime and sociology of punishment. It is argued that the main factors that is shaping criminal justice and determining criminal policies can be determined by the penal populism in Turkey. In order to support this claim, firstly the theoretical developments related to penal populism and the reflections of this concept on the developed western democracies will be discussed, and after that will follow by the evidence on criminal justice and criminal policies in Turkey about penal populism.

The study presents the results of statistical analyzes carried out in the field of violent crime in Romania. The area of violent crime included: murder, attempted murder, battery causing death, causing death blows, rape, serious bodily injury and robbery. To highlight trends in violent crime there were used specific indicators of time series analysis and of analytical methods for determining the trend on the basis of mathematical functions (linear, polynomial, parabolic, etc.), measures of central tendency and other indicators (crime rate, murder rate, etc.).
Violent crime analysis was performed for the period between 1990 and 2011. The
statistics included in  the  analysis were  provided by  the  General  Inspectorate of
Romanian Police - Criminal Records Division, Statistics and Operational Records.

Key words: violent crime, homicide, robbery, rape, Romania

This study aims at examining the possible connection between increasing violence against women in Pakistani society and its excessive portrayal in popular Bollywood movies, ardently watched in the country, during the four decades (i.e. 1980s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s). Firstly, the top ten grossing films selected through popularity charts and youth polls are analyzed from the four decades under study. Considering the symmetry of the movies sampled, Jang newspaper (the largest circulated and most popular daily in Pakistan) from the same four decades is content analyzed as a day-to-day reflection of real-life crime scenes, committed against women in our society. Then Violence Index, as per customized George Gerbner’s formula (1976) is calculated to identify and compare the trends in the defined time period. Results show that violence has evidently increased against women, both on and off screen, during the forty years sampled. Though, there seems to be a fragile, proportional relationship between the two variables, it is observed that the crime rate against women in Pakistani society fluctuates independently, and rather follow the trends and frequency of the portrayal of violence and crimes in Indian movies in the preceding decade under study.

Background. This study investigates the ways in which former offenders tell their life stories and integrate explanations for their previous criminal activity and desistance from crime into their personal narratives. It addresses an important gap in the desistance literature by including non-offenders as a comparison group. The specific aims of this study were to explore the similarities and differences in the personal narratives of desisters and non-offenders and to investigate the presence of generativity, agency and communion themes as well as the use of redemption sequences and contamination sequences in the life stories of both groups.

Methods. Respondents were identified through snowball sampling and targeted advertising (e.g., an organization that provides services to ex-offenders). Two groups were interviewed: men who had committed multiple crimes after turning 21 years old but were crime-free for the past year (desisting ex-offenders) and men who grew up in similar neighborhoods but reported no involvement in crime as adults (non-offenders). The final sample consisted of 19 desisters and 12 non-offenders; groups were matched on age and other background characteristics. Data collection included a life story interview and a set of open-ended questions about the respondent's juvenile offending and adult criminal history. Participants also completed two standardized instruments to assess generative concern and generative behavior: the Loyola Generativity Scale (LGS) and the Generative Behavior Checklist (GBC). Analyses identified themes through open coding, examined the structure of life narratives, and applied pre-established coding schemes for agency, communion and generativity themes and redemption and contamination sequences.

Results. Overall, the life stories of desisters and non-offenders were remarkably similar, even if they contained dramatically different content and reflected unique personal experiences. Respondents in both groups tended to craft narratives where they drew from earlier life experiences to identify reoccurring themes that helped to explain the trajectory of their lives and express deeply held beliefs about who they are as people. Desisters and non-offenders also were very similar in their use of redemption sequences and agency, communion and generativity themes. On the two generativity surveys, the desisting group reported levels of generative concern and generative behavior that were, at the very least, equivalent to average people their own age.

While almost all desisting respondents reported some kind of cognitive transformation, the degree to which they saw themselves as changing and how they described that change differed depending on the type of offenses committed. Two types of desistance narratives were identified. The hustler desistance narrative was used by former drug dealers. These men believed that they were involved in drug sales primarily for economic gain and could replace this source of income with legal pursuits. They did not view their past illegal activities as inconsistent with who they were as people. In contrast, the “real me” narrative was used by respondents who had perpetrated acts of violence. They argued that they were innately good people.

Conclusions. Overall, the study’s findings were consistent with previous research results that supported the “cognitive transformation and identity” view of  desistance, which emphasizes behavioral change as resulting primarily from internal rather than external sources. Previous offending patterns played an influential role in how ex-offenders viewed their past criminal activity, the ways in which they decided to change their lives, and their understanding of the desistance process. Involvement in peer-based programming, mutual support groups and mentoring relationships, whether they were institutionalized, volunteer-oriented, or self-initiated, were identified as major life changing experiences by many desisting ex-offenders. These activities also played a key role in shaping personal narratives and self-concepts in important ways that helped to sustain desistance over time.

In recent years, the Islamic State terror organization has become notorious for its evil brutality. The brutal nature of its propaganda (distributed mostly online) inspires Jihadi sympathizers around the world, encouraging them to use violence against " the enemies of Islam ". This form of violent behavior has also been adopted and imitated by others – including non-Muslim individuals and groups – regardless of their geographic location, worldview, religion, ethnicity, or nationality. Drawing from numerous examples, this article illustrates two processes: first, the " mainstreaming " of beheadings among Jihadists, and second, the imitation of this method (decapitation) by individuals motivated by other kinds of extremism.

The Nigerian criminal justice system is not entirely ignorant or unaware of the use and the merits of the application of criminal profiling as a tool in crime investigation. The technique was introduced to help law enforcement agencies solve serious crimes such as serial rape or murder and to a lesser extent arson and property crime. At the heart of profiling lies the belief that by combining psychological principles with crime scene analysis, it is possible to identify the likely characteristics of a perpetrator. However, criminal profiling in Nigeria has not nearly reached the level of recognition, functionality, or institutionalization that it has attained in other jurisdictions. This study aims to examine the feasibility and the practicality of offender profiling in a criminal investigation of violent crimes with a particular focus on the Nigerian criminal justice system. It will also give an expository critique of the loopholes and impediments in the Nigerian criminal justice system and ways criminal profiling can fill up these holes. The research methods employed in this study include a combination of both primary and secondary sources. The work highlighted the effectiveness of this field and thus concluded that criminal investigative analysis should be effectively immersed into the justice system and should also receive as much recognition as it has in other jurisdictions especially in the United States and in major parts of Europe.

¿Dónde tiene su origen el actuar violento? ¿Con qué palabras se cuenta a sí mismo, el autor, su propio acto despiadado? Ni siquiera las teorías más elaboradas consiguen siempre explicar la comisión de estas acciones crueles desde el punto de vista de sus autores, ni tampoco las crudas palabras con las que ellos las describen.
Partiendo de ello, el reto de Ceretti y Natali será el de construir unas «lentes» nuevas con las que observar y comprender el proceso de desarrollo de estas vidas criminales; para ello se valdrán del material proporcionado por las novedosas intuiciones del criminólogo estadounidense Lonnie Athens, importante exponente del interaccionismo simbólico.
Con esa dirección, el itinerario emprendido por los autores a partir de las entrevistas realizadas en la cárcel y de algunos diálogos extraídos de guiones cinematográficos, aporta al concepto teórico de «cosmologías violentas» las esferas simbólicas construidas por los «actores violentos» durante sus interacciones y sus experiencias en el mundo en el que viven.

The temporal persistence of crime hot spots is recognized as a valuable indicator of consistent problem areas. The current literature has not adequately addressed the mechanisms that perpetuate or interrupt persistent crime hot spots. Investigating the persistence of violent crime hot spots in Columbus, Ohio, from 1994 to 2002, this study fills a gap in the literature by identifying neighborhood structural correlates that drive the persistence of hot spots. Specifically, this study identifies yearly crime hot spots, and estimates an ordered probit model to explore the neighborhood structural determinants. The results indicate that socioeconomic factors, identified from a synthesis of social disorganization theory and routine activity theory, significantly correlate with persistent patterns of violent crime hot spots. This gives evidence that a combination of the two ruling spatial theories of crime provides an applicable framework for understanding the temporal dimension of violent crime hot spots. By identifying the factors that contribute to the persistence of hot spots of crime, insights gained from the results can help to inform focused crime prevention efforts.

The goal of this study is to analyze if a perceived risk of crime and social issues is supported by effective levels of empirical data. This study focuses on a vital case study, Italy that is one of the largest economies in Europe with socioeconomic issues also with a high flows of immigration from Africa and Middle East. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric analyses are applied on data from EUROSTAT and UNODC over a period from 2000 to 2019. Although levels of crime and immigration are declining over time, perceived risk of these social issues is high. In general, the perceived risk of crime seems to be overestimated. The only factor of concern in Italian economy for population is the increasing level of unemployment that can be a source of social issues. These results seem to be due to misleading information diffused by some political parties with media that induce people to overestimate perceived risk of crime and immigration: the politics of fear. The findings of this paper can provide a preliminary analysis and encourage the development of more in-depth studies to better understand the sources of fear of crime due to social issues and their possible interrelationships with social and political contexts in order to support appropriate policies in society.

Propuestas de seguridad ciudadana para los candidatos a presidente de Argentina (elecciones en octubre de 2015). Presentación de Argentina Debate:  La próxima gestión de gobierno deberá elaborar un diagnóstico institucional del sector lo suficientemente profundo para servir de base de un plan estratégico que aborde las diversas problemáticas. Por cierto, existe un marco suficiente de enfoques y experiencias reconocidas en nuestra región; incluso, en algunas jurisdicciones de nuestro país se avanzó en la implementación de políticas de seguridad democrática. La responsabilidad política por la seguridad tiene que asumir el desafío de plantear estrategias, programas y medidas en concordancia con los nuevos paradigmas. La oportunidad para dar un salto virtuoso en este campo es una deuda que debería convertirse, por lo menos, en compromiso de transformarlos en realidad.

Many studies in social sciences have suggested different approaches
to explain violent crime in society, such as the heat hypothesis that more
violence is associated to hot weather. However, these approaches provide a partial explanation of this social issue. This study shows that, controlling climate, socio-economic inequality at country level negatively affects human behaviour and leads to high rates of violent crime in society. The socio-economic inequality is one of the contributing factors that generates aversive environments, unhappiness and, as a consequence, high rates of intentional homicides in society. Overall, then, these findings here can clarify whenever possible, a vital source of unhappiness in society that may lead to aggressive behaviour and violent crime.

Economic crime models and the social strain theory argue that income inequality can foster property crime, yet empirical studies do not provide strong support for this relationship across countries. An important limitation of these studies is that they only consider relative inequality measures and omit absolute ones. Absolute inequality can have a crime-inducing effect for two main reasons: First, the potential monetary returns from crime can be expected to depend on the interaction between relative income inequality and mean income. Second, higher levels of absolute inequality imply that the economic elite can capture institutions in ways that can make them dysfunctional for society as a whole. This article finds that, in contrast to relative inequality, absolute inequality is a robust and statistically significant determinant of violent property crime rates for a sample of up to 59 developed and developing countries.

We present a series of 12 cases of violent crime, which were all committed under the influence of cannabis in Geneva, Switzerland, between 1996 and 2000. The crimes were committed by eleven males and one female, with a mean age of 26 years, who were using only cannabis at the time they acted. Most of them were chronic users. Five subjects had a past psychiatric history. Five had a personality disorder. Only three had been sentenced in the past for violent acts. At the time of the aggression, all of them exhibited adverse and acute effects of cannabis. All of them were judged by the court to be partially or totally non-responsible. Three cases are presented in more detail. Our data suggests that cannabis could have a specific role in the development of violent behaviour patterns and that detection of its adverse effects should be systematic in criminal responsibility evaluation.

In recent years, federal and state-level criminal justice reforms have
softened the punitive responses to crime that defined the quarter-century from 1980–2005. The main beneficiaries of these reforms have been non-violent criminals, who are increasingly eligible for pre- and post-charge diversion, expungement, early release from custody and early discharge from community supervision. For those convicted of violent offenses, not much has changed: sentences remain long; opportunities for release remain few; and conditions of post-release supervision are tightly enforced, leading to high rates of return to prison. The justification for a harsh response to violent crime is that such crime inflicts significant harm and represents a dramatic deviation from standards of acceptable behavior. In fact, “violent” behavior—that is, behavior that is intended to cause, or does in fact cause, physical injury to another person—is hardly anomalous. Across the life-course, and particularly in youth and young adulthood, such behaviors frequently occur among a broad spectrum of the population and rarely lead to criminal conviction. This Article explores why only some behavior is labeled violent, and what implications this fact has for sentencing and correctional management of people convicted of violent crimes, and for the broader management of the criminal justice system.

This paper discusses the relationship between fatal violence and organised crime. It does this by first providing a brief overview of two Birmingham street based organised crime groups, and then considers the 2003 fatal shootings of Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis. Methodologically this research is qualitative, and the ethnographic strand of the research offers a " criminological autopsy " of the case. By triangulating primary data, secondary sources and criminological theory, it is hoped that this paper will provide an exploratory understanding of the overlooked and under researched correlation between organised crime and fatal violence.

With the advent and popularity of Television by the end of 1950s and early 1960s, researchers focused the role and effects of this new medium on its growing audience. Himmelweit (1958) and Schramm (1961) are considered the pioneer researchers in the field. The volume of scientific studies regarding televised violence was largely increased following the landmark State Reports in US published between 1972 and 1982. These reports indicated that the proliferation of TV has exposed children to media violence at home. However, violence is rarely caused by a single factor, it rather involves multiple factors. Signorielli (2005) in her book Violence in the Media rightly commented that television plays a unique role of an entertaining storyteller but the increasing commercialization of TV is a serious matter of concern. The objective of this literature review is to provide a holistic overview of the landmark studies conducted on televised violence and its contribution to real life crimes and violence in society.

In this essay, I explore how gun-rights discourse draws on what Richard B. Gregg called the “ego-function” of protest rhetoric. I examine this stance through the lens of the “open carry” movement. I argue that open carry advocates have painted themselves into a rhetorical corner by portraying their cause as that of the oppressed patriot standing up to a tyrannical government, which limits the potential strategies
available to them and guides them toward the rhetoric of attack. I also explore the racial dimensions of the open carry movement, which are often overlooked in Second Amendment discourse.