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Abstract Literature often emphasizes the use of force as a distinctive feature of police work, while risky encounters and uncertainty
are conditions under which such work is carried out daily. Conditions leading to the use of force by the police have been
associated with the presence of menacing minorities, losing verbal control, the youth and lack of experience of officers,
and critical physical proximity between officers and suspects. Additionally, defiance towards the police has often been linked
to increased force used by the police. It is here proposed that uncertainty also fosters police officers’ dispositions to
use force. In this study, four focus groups were conducted with officers from two Venezuelan municipal police departments
in October 2003, presenting a hypothetical scenario progressing from contact with suspects towards an open confrontation involving
a shooting. Officers perceived, through different phases of the scenario, an encounter of no easily predictable outcome with
suspects, involving potential harm to the police and bystanders. A pattern seemed to appear among officers in which overcoming
real or assumed resistance became the central issue. When physical confrontation with suspects became evident, self defence
was the clearest justification for the use of force, though the use of force was also defended by officers without further
elaboration on the requirements and conditions for effectively thwarting aggression. It appears that uncertainty about the
outcome of a situation fosters both the disposition and the justification for using force.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10611-009-9187-z
- Authors
- Luis Gerardo Gabaldón, University of Los Andes Merida Venezuela
The Nature of Customary Law
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11158-008-9079-6
- Authors
- Nicole Roughan, Victoria University of Wellington Faculty of Law P.O. Box 600 Wellington New Zealand
Abstract Using data on 75 countries for six years in the period 1995–2003, this paper analyzes empirically whether and to what extent
the quality of the legal system affects the performance of the labor market. According to the regression results, a legal
system characterized by a dependent judiciary, biased courts, a lack of intellectual property protection and a lack of integrity
increases unemployment and lowers the employment level. The magnitude of the effect seems to be substantial, particularly
among young people.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10657-008-9092-4
- Authors
- Horst Feldmann, University of Bath Department of Economics and International Development Bath BA2 7AY UK
Abstract What explains controversy over outpatient commitment laws (OCLs), which authorize courts to order persons with mental illness
to accept outpatient treatment? We hypothesized that attitudes toward OCLs reflect “cultural cognition” (DiMaggio, P. Annl
Rev Sociol 23:263–287, 1997), which motivates individuals to conform their beliefs about policy-relevant facts to their cultural values. In a study involving
a diverse sample of Americans ( N = 1,496), we found that individuals who are hierarchical and communitarian tend to support OCLs, while those who are egalitarian and individualistic tend to oppose them. These relationships, moreover, fit the cultural cognition hypothesis: that is, rather than directly
influencing OCL support, cultural values, mediated by affect, shaped individuals’ perceptions of how effectively OCLs promote
public health and safety. We discuss the implications for informed public deliberation over OCLs.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Category Original Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10979-008-9174-4
- Authors
- Dan M. Kahan, Yale Law School PO Box 208215 New Haven CT 06520 USA
- Donald Braman, George Washington University Law School Washington DC USA
- John Monahan, University of Virginia School of Law Charlottesville VA USA
- Lisa Callahan, Policy Research Associates Delmar NY USA
- Ellen Peters, Decision Research Eugene OR USA
Abstract This paper aims to establish an initial determination of what the primary indicators of the ease of access to small arms and
light weapons are. Guns are so abundant and ubiquitous in most parts of the world that the right question to ask is not how
many guns are out there but what are the conditions, or lack thereof, that promote the ease of access. This paper also aims
to offer researchers with initial tools for coding indicators for the ease of access in future investigations on this important
topic. At the outset, I introduce three sets of indicators: legal, ‘black market feeder indicators’, and socialeconomic indicators.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9181-x
- Authors
- Denise Garcia, Northeastern University Boston MA USA
Abstract The dominant focus of thinking about economic justice is overwhelmingly distributive, that is, concerned with what people
get in terms of resources and opportunities. It views work mainly negatively, as a burden or cost, or else is neutral about it,
rather than seeing it as a source of meaning and fulfilment—a good in its own right. However, what we do in life has at least as much, if not more, influence on whom we become, as does what we get. Thus we have good reason also to be concerned with what Paul Gomberg has termed contributive
justice, that is, justice as regards what people are expected and able to contribute in terms of work. Complex, interesting work
allows workers not only to develop and exercise their capacities, and gain the satisfaction from achieving the internal goods
of a practice, but to gain the external goods of recognition and esteem. As Gomberg’s analysis of the concept of contributive
justice in relation to equality of opportunity shows, as long as the more satisfying kinds of work are concentrated into a
subset of jobs, rather than shared out among all jobs, then many workers will be denied the chance to have meaningful work
and the recognition that goes with it. In this paper I examine the contributive justice argument, suggest how it can be further
strengthened, arguing, inter alia, that ignoring contributive injustice tends to support legitimations of distributive inequality.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s11158-008-9077-8
- Authors
- Andrew Sayer, Lancaster University Department of Sociology Lancaster LA1 4YT PA USA
Abstract Considerable attention has been given to the accessibility of legal documents, such as legislation and case law, both in legal
information retrieval (query formulation, search algorithms), in legal information dissemination practice (numerous examples
of on-line access to formal sources of law), and in legal knowledge-based systems (by translating the contents of those documents
to ready-to-use rule and case-based systems). However, within AI & law, it has hardly ever been tried to make the contents
of sources of law, and the relations among them, more accessible to those without a legal education. This article presents
a theory about translating sources of law into information accessible to persons without a legal education. It illustrates
the theory by providing two elaborated examples of such translation ventures. In the first example, formal sources of law
in the domain of exchanging police information are translated into rules of thumb useful for policemen. In the second example,
the goal of providing non-legal professionals with insight into legislative procedures is translated into a framework for
making available sources of law through an integrated legislative calendar. Although the theory itself does not support automating
the several stages described, in this article some hints are given as to what such automation would have to look like.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10506-008-9073-5
- Authors
- Laurens Mommers, Leiden University P.O. Box 9520 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands
- Wim Voermans, Leiden University P.O. Box 9520 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands
- Wouter Koelewijn, Leiden University P.O. Box 9520 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands
- Hugo Kielman, Leiden University P.O. Box 9520 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands
Abstract This article provides the background to an international project on use of force by the police that was carried out in seven
countries. Force is often considered to be the defining characteristic of policing and much research has been conducted on
the determinants, prevalence and control of the use of force, particularly in the United States. However, little work has
looked at police officers’ own views on the use of force, in particular the way in which they justify it. Using a hypothetical
encounter developed for this project, researchers in each country conducted focus groups with police officers in which they
were encouraged to talk about the use of force. The results show interesting similarities and differences across countries
and demonstrate the value of using this kind of research focus and methodology.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9177-6
- Authors
- Philip Stenning, Keele University School of Sociology & Criminology Keele Staffordshire ST5 5BG UK
- Christopher Birkbeck, University of Salford School of English, Sociology, Politics and Contemporary History Crescent House Salford M5 4WT UK
- Otto Adang, Netherlands Police Academy De Kleiberg 15 7312 SN Apeldoorn Netherlands
- David Baker, Monash University Criminal Justice, School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences Gippsland Campus Churchill Victoria 3842 Australia
- Thomas Feltes, Ruhr-University Bochum Criminology, Criminal Justice Policy and Police Science Universitätsstraße 150, GC 5 44801 Bochum Germany
- Luis Gerardo Gabaldón, Universidad Católica Andrés Bello Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas Edificio de Postgrado, piso 2, Urbanización Montalbán, La Vega Caracas Venezuela
- Maki Haberfeld, John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY) 899 Tenth Avenue New York NY 10019 USA
- Eduardo Paes Machado, Universidade Federal da Bahía Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas Salvador Bahía CEP 40210-90 Brazil
- P. A. J. Waddington, University of Wolverhampton History and Governance Research Institute Room MC309, Millennium City Building, Wulfruna Street Wolverhampton WV1 1LY UK
Abstract Building on Klockars et. al. ( 2000) analysis of survey data on police agency integrity, this analysis develops an economic model of police corruption within
police agencies. Empirical estimates of the economic model are consistent with Klockars et. al. ( 2000) in that there is no evidence to support the traditional theory that police agency corruption is attributable to the “individual
bad-apple.” Independent of other factors, the present analysis shows that police culture fosters corruption. Furthermore,
the present analysis shows that incentive structures within police agencies increase the problem of corruption as the scale
of police agency operation increases. Policies that would promote higher levels of integrity are considered.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9184-7
- Authors
- Gary E. Marché, Rogers State University 1701 W Will Rogers Blvd Claremore OK 74017 USA
Abstract Mortgage fraud is a fast-growing form of white-collar crime that has received much press coverage in the United States of
America. Mortgage fraud has an adverse effect on individual homeowners, communities, and many indirect victims of the crime.
While past research has focused on the personal motivating factors behind the commission of white-collar crime, this particular
article reviews several facets of the crime itself and explores the potential neighbourhood risk factors that help attract
the crime. From a national perspective, mortgage fraud seems to occur more frequently in neighbourhoods that have low socioeconomic
indicators. These associations become even more pronounced when the degree of fraud occurrences within the community is factored
in as a variable. Upon disaggregating the data according to region, the fraud indicator variables also display differing trend
levels, perhaps indicating that as mortgage fraud practices begin to mature within an area, its community dynamics tend to
change as well. The article concludes with recommendations for policymakers, community organizations, and law enforcement
officials as to how to address mortgage fraud once it appears within a community, and also addresses future avenues of research
for what is largely an untapped area of financial crime research.
- Content Type Journal Article
- DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9186-5
- Authors
- Andrew T. Carswell, University of Georgia Athens GA USA
- Douglas C. Bachtel, University of Georgia Athens GA USA
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