This article of a first impression offers a radically different theory of community policing: “Police power as social resource theory” (SRT). The SRT addresses three main questions: What is the role and function of the police? What is the relationship of the police with the people? Why do people call the police? SRT (re)conceptualizes crime and police from the perspective of the people, not that of the state. From the people’s perspective crimes are personal problems, while problems are unmet expectations resulting from resource deficiencies and police are social resources make available to the people in solving their own problems. In terms of foundation SRT is a theory of the people, a theory of democratic governance, a theory of empowerment, and a theory of self-help. 1 I thank Professors Grame Newman of SUNY – Albany and Herman Goldstein at Wisconsin Law School for reading and commenting on earlier drafts to this article. Their efforts have contributed immeasurably to improving the scholarship of this article.
This paper examines security networks in a context where security is increasingly regarded as a problem of intelligence. Data are derived from interviews with officers in criminal intelligence units in Ontario, Canada. A conceptual framework is developed to understand the limits of security intelligence within an emerging security network paradigm, focussing on the normative dimensions governing security networking, and the mechanisms and technologies limiting information deployment among public security agencies. Despite efforts to address security through the sharing of actionable information, security intelligence maintains an exclusive value. Technologies of control promoting this exclusivity also function to prevent intelligence from becoming common knowledge. Because of its limited value, intelligence is ill-suited for export into security governance writ large.
Heroin, a derivative of opium, was first created in 1874 and was marketed in 1898 as a cough medicine by a German pharmaceutical company. In Britain, the dispensing of heroin was initially restricted to pharmacists under the general pharmacy and poisons legislation. Just 22 years later, the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 made it a criminal offence to manufacture, sell, distribute or possess heroin for non-medical purposes. This article attempts to explain this major shift in the regulation of heroin by drawing on David Garland's influential book Punishment and Welfare. Garland traces the fundamental transformation in social regulation that occurred at the turn of the twentieth century, arguing that a new penal-welfarism emerged which was to underpin the welfarist politics that held sway until the 1970s. It is argued that by locating the shift in heroin regulation in this wider context of social change, some new insights are revealed. In conclusion, some implications of this argument for contemporary approaches to heroin are discussed.
This article assesses the extent to which Germany's adaptation of European Union legal norms through altering the criteria for access to territory and rights has challenged the judicial and conceptual boundaries of its notion of national political community. It compares the policies that directly affected EU citizens’ and other immigrant groups’ access to German territory, citizenship and social integration programs. It may be seen that, in enjoying a unique and privileged position between Germans and the other foreigners, this group not only challenges and undermines the justification for this very distinction, but also transforms the concept of ‘otherness’.
This article follows a recent international case where tourism has influenced a criminal trial and its outcome. In order to assess the real impact of this development it draws upon the conceptual frameworks that have informed sentencing to establish best fit with existing theories. Furthermore, it compares this informal development in sentencing with recent legislation in the UK (and more established provision in the United States) designed to outlaw hate crimes. From this it is possible to see that certain countries reliant on tourism are offering tourists what might be termed ‘status privileges’ (a concept borrowed and adapted from the hate crime literature), which serves to distort justice and lays the foundations for a two-tier system that can only lead to inferior protection for indigenous people.
In 1971, the organization theorist James March published "The Technology of Foolishness" (ToF). The essay can be seen as inspired by ideas of the late 1960s in California. ToF argues that wise decision making should not only focus on pursuing given goals, as is often done, but also on finding new and better goals. The present study traces the reception of ToF in the scholarly literature. It has been much praised, but little used relative to other of March's contributions. The reception has often been superficial and ritual and March's harsher ideas have to some degree been sugarcoated. ToF has inspired work regarding playfulness, improvisation, hypocrisy and not least entrepreneurship. But there is unused potential in ToF. This potential is discussed in the next to final Section of this article. One is called intelligent holes in stupid organizations and concerns how to maintain or achieve free thinking in organizations and society. Another one regards hypocrisy – how to handle and use truth and lies in and around modern organizations and political systems.
The nature and prevalence of insurance fraud has been studied only to a limited extent, even in the USA and Europe. Nevertheless, national authorities have pressed ahead with various approaches to control such fraud. This paper briefly outlines the nature and difficulties around measurement of insurance fraud and reviews key international trends in the regulation of fraud. It then presents the findings of an empirical study of insurance fraud in Taiwan and recent proposals for anti-fraud control. It analyses these findings in the context of actual practices of insurance companies which give evidence to the idea that ‘moral hazard’ is embedded in the institutional arrangements, social relationships, and moral economies of private insurance.
Police investigation units represent a knowledge-intensive and time-critical environment. Knowledge sharing is a key process in investigations. In this paper, we present an empirical study of performance in police investigations. Police investigation units are defined as value shops, where primary detective work is performed. Knowledge sharing is found to have a significant influence on the police investigation value shop. Furthermore, this research suggests that knowledge sharing is influenced by occupational culture. Occupational culture is a reduced, selective, and task-based version of organizational culture that is shaped by the socially relevant worlds of policing occupation. Four dimensions of occupational culture were identified: team culture, planning culture, theoretical culture, and traditional culture. Only the extent of team culture was found to have a significant influence on the extent of knowledge sharing and performance in police investigations.
This paper addresses a number of interrelated conceptual difficulties that impact adversely on the ability of international criminal trials to deliver outcomes perceived as legitimate by victims and communities in post-conflict states. It begins by exploring the extent to which those moral justifications for punishment espoused by international courts are instrumental in marginalizing the aspirations for justice of victims and victim communities, and suggests how a greater appreciation of the sociological context of punishing international crimes can contribute towards an improved understanding of normative practice. The paper then examines the relationship between perceptions of international crime and punishment, and the broader issue of whether international criminal law provides an appropriate normative structure for giving effect to those universal humanitarian values concerned with punishment in an increasingly pluralistic world. Finally, the paper considers how the theory and practice of punishing international crimes can more effectively satisfy both local and global aspirations for post-conflict justice through enhancing the transformative capacity of international criminal trials.
This article analyses exchange relationships involving public police agencies and external institutions. It specifies three general forms of exchange (Coercion, Sale and Gift), then observes that, in practice, the three may not be mutually exclusive. It identifies ambiguities that may exist within exchange relationships, and discusses the implications of these for three important aspects of police performance: efficiency or value for money; equity in the distribution of police services; and the legitimacy of the police organisation. The article concludes that managing ambiguity in exchange relations has become a challenge of 21st century policing, and that police are well advised to have elaborate guidelines in place to govern their exchange relations.
Fraud and corruption in the public sector have become issues of increasing importance for the government in the United Kingdom. Numerous initiatives have emerged ranging from high profile publicity campaigns against benefit fraud and tax evasion to the establishment of specialist bodies, such as the NHS Counter Fraud and Security Management Service (NHSCFSMS). One of the most interesting developments, however, has been the emergence of the 'counter fraud specialist (CFS)' across central and local government, as well as the private sector. These are specially trained civilian personnel who are tasked to prevent, investigate and secure sanctions against fraudsters. They undertake common training packages and are accredited by the Counter Fraud Professional Accreditation Board (CFPAB). This paper first outlines the emergence of the CFS; then draws upon the results of recent survey data to discuss some of their characteristics. The paper also considers some of the main issues raised by the growth of the CFS including the possible emergence of an embryonic 'fraud police', the indirect 'load shedding' of fraud investigation and the governance of this new breed of policing personnel.
It has been 2 years since legal education reform started in Japan. The Justice System Reform Council envisioned the 21st century lawyer as a lawyer who “not only has highly developed professional legal knowledge but also has acquired strong legal ethics based on wide cultural knowledge and rich humanity” (Recommendations of the Justice System Reform Council—For a Justice System to Support Japan in the 21st Century—(June 21, 2001)). Since then, all interested parties have been trying to specify the qualifications needed to be a competent lawyer: What lawyering skills and professional attitudes does Japanese society expect from lawyers; how can they be acquired; and how can they be examined or evaluated? In this paper, I first briefly describe the traditional legal training system and the traditional image of the lawyer in Japan. Second, I look at the history of legal training system reform; summarize images of the lawyer each that interested party envisions, and review the current status of the reform. Then, I explore the optimum way to reinforce the quality and quantity of the legal profession in Japan.
Until very recently, little is known about Chinese policing, especially outside of China. This article makes a case for the study of Chinese policing, with a different—context dependent, bottom's up, facts driven—approach. The article is divided into three sections. Section 1 of the paper provides a brief overview of problems and issues with researching into policing in China, with Chinese sources. Section 2 takes issues with studying Chinese policing from a dominant and exclusive western theoretical perspective and argues for the studying policing in China indigenously and empirically, from inside out and bottom's up. The article concludes (Section 3) with some personal reflection of the author as a veteran China police researcher.
Current high levels of morbidity and mortality, and high rates of incarceration among Australian Aboriginal populations are related historically to the attempted separation of Aboriginal people from family and community. The paper discusses these events through an analysis of legal and extra-legal forms of power in the late 19th century in Victoria, and through an analysis of the workings of the informal powers of administrators and mission superintendents, within a broader framework of liberal political reason.
