The articles in this Special Issue explore case studies from Global South contexts to show how plural policing is negotiated and navigated. They highlight variances in law-and-order maintenance arrangements, primarily in contexts where state policing is recognized as an adapted colonial import that exists alongside local and indigenous governance mechanisms, which at times exist in parallel or in conflict with each other. Collectively, the articles explore issues of globalization, legitimacy, hybridity, plurality, security privatization, and non-conformity with colonial ideas about policing in former colonies. Each article provides insight into scholarly acknowledgement of an ideological shift away from the recognition of state police serving as the sole stakeholder organization with a responsibility for maintaining law, order, and peaceful communities across diverse spaces in the Global South context. They further highlight the importance of understanding plural policing mechanisms in larger discussions about security governance in the Global South.
Deaths of despair (15+ years) are described for two peer county groups. Each county experienced competitive, transitional, or monopoly governance based on the duration of one political party's control. Highest mortality among non-Hispanic Black (Black) people occurred in monopolies, affecting all age-sex-specific groups from 15-19 to 65-69. Transition to Democratic or Republican party monopolies produced similar overall trends. Governance by the same political party produced different rates depending on the length of one-party control. Black: White mortality rate ratios were reduced or reached 1.0 in competitive counties, and 51,801 fewer Black deaths might have occurred in monopoly counties based on competitive rates. The association between duration of one-party control and death rates was statistically significant and independent of state gun law strength. The data generate a hypothetical framework for structural racism based on political privilege/political monopoly rather than racial privilege/political affiliation. Analytic epidemiologic research is needed for testing.
County budget priorities shape how local criminal justice systems manage individuals with mental illness when community treatment capacity is limited. Using data from one Texas rural hub county, a 2-year observational analysis paired county budget allocations with hospital emergency department encounters and jail bookings of individuals with serious mental illness. Results showed stable budget priorities favoring correctional and judicial operations over community mental health services. During the same period, jail bookings were concentrated among a small subset of individuals with serious mental illness. They were dominated by low-level, nonviolent, and administrative charges rather than charges involving violence. Detention length of stay varied widely and did not increase systematically with booking frequency, although repeated bookings led to greater incarceration exposure. Emergency department encounters involving serious mental illness did not show higher clinical severity, longer hospitalizations, or greater costs than encounters without serious mental illness. Most encounters involved medical diagnoses rather than psychiatric. Findings indicate local governments relied on jails and emergency departments as default crisis responders to unmet community mental health needs. The study contributes a framework linking budget composition, justice system contact, and emergency care in a rural hub setting, and highlights institutional substitution as a product of local governance and fiscal priorities.
To date, much of the local, state, and federal policy designed and implemented regarding violent crime has followed principles of retributive justice, with a punitive approach toward offenders. This approach stands in contrast to restorative justice, which emphasizes inclusion of victims' rights and relationships between offender, victim, and community. To address the effectiveness of these policies, we use state-level panel data to test the impact of one such restorative policy, victim-offender dialogue, on the violent crimes of homicide, assault, and robbery. Using a doubly robust difference-in-difference model, we find little support for victim-offender dialogue policy's ability to reduce violence. While states that passed this legislation saw an uptick in crime prior to the policy's enactment, this trend was not mitigated with the introduction of victim-offender policies.
When we think about violence in America, what typically comes to mind is the kinetic type of violence, committed by individuals, that takes the form of mass killings. This type of violence is horrific and generates universal revulsion, but there is another type of violence that is less noticeable, and neither captures the full attention of the media nor is a topic that involves policy discussions in a way that mass violence sometimes does. This is an insidious, lethal kind of violence known as structural violence that manifests itself in the premature death of numerous Americans. We demonstrate the widespread lethality associated with structural violence by examining the life expectancies of residents of Texas’ 254 counties, where we highlight the disparities that exist in how long different groups of county residents are likely to live. We also show that this is a problem that can be solved, or at least ameliorated, with uncontroversial policy actions, and these include not enacting policies that reduce political competition and the likelihood of political change because the results we present show clearly that political competition and change are conditions that improve public health outcomes.
This study describes the development and evaluation of Better Together, a coalition between law enforcement, first responders, and health care organizations to develop an interagency training for managing justice-involved individuals with mental health issues. In the United States, calls to 9-1-1 and other crisis lines frequently dispatch law enforcement, first responders, and sometimes crisis intervention teams. As these individuals are assessed and managed during the response, they are taken into custody by law enforcement, transported for medical care, or released. A Department of Justice grant led to the facilitation of a collaborative to discuss how training in the various involved organizations aligns with complexities of these cases on the ground. An interagency training program was developed to clarify agency roles and improve cross-sector collaboration. Pretest, posttest, and 2-week follow-up assessments measured participant knowledge and understanding of agency roles. Overall scores improved significantly from pretest (63%) to posttest (76%, p < .001) and remained high in the 2-week follow-up (75%, p = .021). However, changes in leadership since the completion of the training have demonstrated the tenuous nature of keeping a collaboration of this nature sustainable.
Cycles of violence and recidivism in North Macedonia remain deeply shaped by intersecting socio-political and socio-economic determinants. Despite the enactment of a probation law in 2015, the criminal justice system continues to rely heavily on custodial sentences, particularly short-term imprisonment, which has repeatedly been shown to have limited rehabilitative impact. Penal statistics indicate persistently high recidivism rates among these offenders, suggesting imprisonment often reproduces, rather than disrupts, patterns of violent behaviour. The analysis situates these trends within the broader socio-political and economic landscape. Structural factors such as unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion aggravate reintegration, while ethnic tensions and political instability further limit the effectiveness of penal policies. At the same time, EU accession requirements and Council of Europe standards have introduced external pressure to reform, leading to gradual advances in probation services, conditional release mechanisms, and community-based alternatives to incarceration. Drawing on official statistics, national reform strategies, and international monitoring reports, the paper argues that violence prevention cannot be addressed solely through penal reform but requires a multidimensional approach. Effective policy must integrate socio-economic support, reintegration programmes, and community engagement with legal and institutional reform. By highlighting the interplay between structural determinants of violence and criminal justice policies, the case of North Macedonia offers broader lessons for post-socialist societies navigating democratic transition and European integration.
Firearm homicides are a leading cause of death among American teens. While the impact of gun laws has received attention, the effects of political election outcomes over time as a determinant of health have received far less attention. Teen firearm homicide rates for 2001-2020 are therefore described according to race/ethnicity and mayoral political competition in two peer county groups, each matched for 19 socio-demographic factors. Non-Hispanic Black (Black) teen firearm homicides were highest in counties with political monopolies (one-party governance for >24 years throughout) compared to politically competitive counties. If competitive county rates had occurred in monopoly counties, estimated Black teen firearm homicide deaths would have declined from 6,912 to 3,424, independent of state gun law strength. Results generate a hypothetical framework for structural racism affecting teen homicide in these counties based primarily on political privilege and monopoly governance rather than racial privilege and political affiliation. An analytic epidemiologic study is needed to test these hypotheses.
Since their establishment, public police agencies have been primarily responsible for maintaining law and order, reducing crime, and responding to incidents of crime and social disorder. However, as societies become more complex and dynamic, it is increasingly recognized that the tasks of crime control and violence reduction cannot be addressed by formal police institutions alone. This recognition has led to the growing involvement of a range of nonpolice actors in the broader policing landscape. In Trinidad and Tobago, individuals and community-based networks often work alongside the official police service to address crime and reduce violence. This article examines the experiences and perspectives of 15 Hearts and Minds officers regarding the impact and effectiveness of stakeholder collaboration in reducing violence in high-crime areas near the capital, Port of Spain.
By using the restorative justice approach framework, this article examines the customary bulubulu approach of resolving intimate partner violence (IPV) in Fiji. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey, to explore the views of 226 iTaukei people on the use of bulubulu to resolve partner violence. The research findings reveal that the decisions in the bulubulu process are made by elder male family members. At the same time, female survivors are rarely given a chance to speak, and women are pressured to accept the decision made and reconcile with their husbands/partners. Findings also reveal that the communal rights conflict with the victims' individual rights, and the customary method violates women's rights. Moreover, the findings indicate that, as a restorative justice approach, the bulubulu system is more beneficial to the family, community, and the clan rather than to the female survivor. The paper empirically and theoretically contributes to the literature on restorative justice in Fiji and the Pacific.
This article provides an overview of crime data in Taiwan and introduces the evolving nature of fraud as a growing criminal and social concern. Anchored in Taiwan's Criminal Code, this article first outlines major legislative reforms and law enforcement agencies and then use policy initiatives targeting telecommunication fraud as an example. Drawing on official data from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the National Police Agency (NPA), the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB), and the 165 Anti-Fraud Hotline Center, the study identifies fraud as the most prevalent crime in Taiwan between 2020 and 2024, with incidents more than doubling during this period. The analysis of fraud suspects and victims reveals notable increases across all age and gender groups, with middle-aged suspects and elderly victims disproportionately affected. Although Taiwan has expanded its anti-fraud measures through cross-agency collaboration, strengthened legal frameworks, and public awareness campaigns, the persistently low clearance rate and limited recovery of victim losses continue to pose substantial challenges. The article concludes by discussing the limitations of using official crime data and advocating for improved data integration and inter-agency cooperation to strengthen Taiwan's capacity for fraud-combating in the digital era.
Understanding and addressing issues of victimization, public safety, and crime requires accurate and comprehensive survey data. However, China currently lacks systematic, nationally representative surveys specifically designed for criminological research. This study systematically reviews six major social surveys: the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), Chinese Social Survey (CSS), China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), and China Household Financial Survey (CHFS). Each survey is evaluated in terms of its scope, methodology, accessibility, and questions related to victimization, public safety, and crime, as well as overall strengths and limitations. The study highlights the potential of these data sets for criminology and victimology research, offering opportunities to examine patterns, determinants, and consequences of victimization, crime, and safety perceptions. At the same time, the fragmented and unsystematic nature of these surveys poses significant challenges for comprehensive analysis. This underscores the urgent need for a nationally representative victimization survey in China, which would also enhance research on public safety and crime-related issues more broadly.
Agency records and administrative data have been widely employed in the criminal justice discipline, particularly in cross-national comparisons. However, only a handful of studies in corrections have used such data to examine institutional trends and practices collectively within an Asian context. To address this research gap, this study analyzes three primary sources of agency records in Taiwan-Statistics of Justice, Crime Situations and Analyses, and Annual Reports-along with unpublished data approved by the Agency of Corrections. Through a systematic review, this study examines the evolution of institutional corrections over the past decade, with a focus on trends in general and special prison populations, release mechanisms, and key institutional provisions. In addition, it will explore the utility of agency documents in advancing evidence-based practices and facilitating cross-societal comparative studies. Hopefully, this study will inspire greater data transparency and applications that guide future research in corrections.
Community-based corrections in Mainland China has undergone great practical development over the past two decades. Notwithstanding this progress, academic research on this subject remains limited, primarily because of restricted access to fieldwork opportunities and relevant data sources. This study provides a brief overview of the development and innovations in Chinese community corrections, followed by an analysis of existing English-language scholarly literature. It then introduces available data sources that could facilitate future research. While acknowledging the inherent challenges of conducting criminological research in the Chinese context, this paper emphasizes the critical need for greater academic attention to community corrections, an area intrinsically reliant on evidence-based practice. The paper concludes by offering recommendations concerning data accessibility, suggesting potential research directions to further advance scholarship in this field.
This article introduces drug data resources in Hong Kong, with a critical review of the Central Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA). It begins by examining the evolution of drug policies from prohibition to rehabilitation, highlighting the contributions of various agencies in data collection. By analyzing academic articles that cite the CRDA from 2010 to 2023, we argue that while the CRDA is recognized for its comprehensive demographic data, it also faces limitations, including underreporting and a lack of detailed information on factors associated with drug use. Despite these challenges, the CRDA remains the most comprehensive official source of drug-related data in Hong Kong, providing valuable insights for researchers and policymakers. To enhance its reliability and applicability, we recommend cross-disciplinary validation of the data, establishing a robust tracking system for individual drug use trajectories, and including diverse demographic and geographic statistics, such as age, ethnicity, and location of drug use, to inform targeted treatment programs.
Macao, one of China's two special administrative regions (SARs), is a unique jurisdiction with distinct challenges and opportunities for criminological research. This article examines the current state of crime data in Macao, focusing first on official statistics-where they can be accessed, who publishes them, and the key characteristics and limitations of these data sets. While official crime data provide a foundation for understanding crime trends in the region, significant issues, such as inconsistency of data and a lack of granularity limit its utility for in-depth analysis. In addition to official sources, this article explores non-official data derived from self-report surveys and interviews utilized in contemporary criminological studies in Macao. By synthesizing these diverse data sources, the article serves as a practical guide for criminologists interested in conducting research in this unique context. In addition, it outlines previous empirical studies and identifies critical challenges. Finally, it offers recommendations for future research, and advocates for innovative approaches that can more effectively explore crime and highlight the theoretical and empirical significance of this dynamic region.
This article examines the accessibility and management of crime data in mainland China, analyzing the relationships between legal frameworks, statistical practices, and research applications. Through analyzing the evolution of criminal law and its amendments, we demonstrate how legal definitions of crime shape crime data collection and categorization in China. We systematically review official data release mechanisms, including national statistics, specialized databases, and government publications, offering researchers a roadmap for navigating Chinese crime data sources. By examining empirical studies that utilize these resources, we evaluate methodological approaches and data validity. Our findings reveal both the unique characteristics of Chinese crime data systems and persistent challenges in data accessibility and reliability. This analysis contributes to the understanding of crime measurement in a non-Western context, providing practical insights for researchers and policymakers working with Chinese criminal justice data. We conclude by proposing strategic directions for improving data infrastructure and research methodologies in Chinese criminological studies.
China is reportedly the country that carries out the most executions worldwide, yet the lack of reliable data hinders the understanding of capital punishment in the Chinese Mainland. This study explores the role of guiding cases-judicial and prosecutorial decisions selected by China's highest court and procuratorate to promote consistency and fairness-in the application of the death penalty. We first introduce guiding cases, their binding effects, and their significance, along with a description of the death penalty in China. We then present examples of how these cases can be analyzed to facilitate our understanding of the death penalty. This study constitutes the most comprehensive overview of guiding cases on capital punishment. It offers a unique perspective on studying capital punishment in China and encourages further research on the intersection of judicial and prosecutorial guidance and the death penalty.
The integrity and quality of crime data have sparked extensive debate in criminological research. This paper examines both official and unofficial crime data in Hong Kong since its 1997 handover, highlighting the unique features and conditions of crime data from different sources. It starts with an analysis of post-1997 crime trends, outlining overall patterns and notable shifts in key crime categories over time. The study then introduces fragmentation as a conceptual framework to identify three major challenges facing Hong Kong's crime data infrastructure, namely definitional, technical, and institutional fragmentation. By exploring the limitations of disorganized and decentralized data, this study argues that fragmentation is structurally embedded in the institutional configuration of Hong Kong's crime data system. One particular aim of this study is to advance new research directions to bridge existing gaps and enhance the role and functionality of crime data in informing crime and public policies.
