Homicide and property crime: The relationships to anomie

Sociological explanations of crime have given considerable attention to Merton's anomie theory without systematically testing it. This paper tests Merton's theory through operationalizing anomie in terms of the degree of inequality in the distribution of income in each of the 50 states. A multiple regression analysis determines that while income inequality is significantly related to the rate of homicide, it is not significantly related to the rate of property crime. A preliminary cross-national analysis of 20 nations replicates this same general finding. The results suggest that a relatively large gap between material success and the means to success is likely to result in crimes of violence rather than property crime once we control the influence of other variables.     

Finding a serial burglar's home using distance decay and conditional origin–destination patterns: a test of empirical Bayes journey-to-crime estimation in the Hague

Can we tell where an offender lives from where he or she commits crimes? Journey-to-crime estimation is a tool that uses crime locations to tell us where to search for a serial offender's home. In this paper, we test a new method: empirical Bayes journey-to-crime estimation. It differs from previous methods because it utilises an ‘origin–destination’ rule in addition to the ‘distance decay’ rule that prior methods have used. In the new method, the profiler not only asks ‘what distances did previous offenders travel between their home and the crime scenes?’ but also ‘where did previous offenders live who offended at the locations included in the crime series I investigate right now?’. The new method could not only improve predictive accuracy, it could also reduce the traditional distinction between marauding and commuting offenders. Utilising the CrimeStat software, we apply the new method to 62 serial burglars in The Hague, The Netherlands, and show that the new method has higher predictive accuracy than methods that only exploit a distance decay rule. The new method not only improves the accuracy of predicting the homes of commuters—offenders who live outside their offending area—it also improves the search for marauders—offenders who live inside their offending area. After presenting an example of the application of the technique for prediction of a specific burglar, we discuss the limitations of the method and offer some suggestions for its future development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中职学校学生校园暴力犯罪成因分析与预防

本文试图从个人人格、家庭、学校、社会方面探讨中职学校学生校园暴力犯罪的成因,并提出了相应的预防措施。     

An Exploration of Rapists' Motivations as Illustrated by Their Crime Scene Actions: Is the Gender of the Victim an Influential Factor?

An aim of this paper was to examine if the rapist's motivations of anger and power as inferred from rape crime scene behaviours differentiates between rape victim genders. In addition, it was sought to analyse the resistance strategies employed by rape victims to investigate whether gender influences victim–offender behavioural interactions. A sample of 24 female and 12 male rape victims aged from 13 to 39 years were analysed. The data were extracted from the US National Crime Survey, which contained 12 reported cases of male rape. It was hypothesised that the theme of power would be evident from the rapists' behaviour as illustrated by the crime scene actions and victim–offender interaction. Smallest Space Analysis, a multi‐dimensional scaling technique, was employed to identify the themes present in the perpetration of rape. The crime scene actions illustrated several distinctions relating to the theme of power present in the offender's motives irrespective of the victim's gender. An additional finding was that victim resistance strategies differentiated between male and female rape victims. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

非法人体试验的实质化犯罪证成与刑法规制

同一社会的法律法规整体中,不同性质的法对行为违法性的评价始终是一致的。《民法典》的问世,将人格权独立成编。人格权的独立成编不仅彰显了国家对公民的生命权、身体权、健康权的法律保护,亦体现了法律对现代医学科学时代人格权新型权利内容的特别维护。刑法应当积极回应非法人体试验这一社会现实,准确把握刑事法律的国际趋势,科学构建刑法体系,完善人体试验法律秩序,保护受试者的合法权益,推动医学研究的良性发展。     

They should have known: Hindsight and outcome biases in child abduction cases

Two cognitive biases might partially account for public support of the ineffective AMBER Alert system. Hindsight bias is a cognitive error in which people with outcome knowledge overestimate the likelihood that this particular outcome would occur; outcome bias is an error made in evaluating the quality of a decision once the outcome is known. Two experiments assessed whether hindsight and outcome bias occur in child abduction scenarios. Study 1 was a pre/posttest experiment that examined whether hindsight bias occurs in situations in which the identity of the abductor (stranger or parent) is manipulated between groups, and all participants are told the child was killed. Study 2, a between-subjects experiment, examined whether hindsight and outcome biases occur in situations in which no AMBER Alert was issued (because the situation did not meet the legal requirements to issue an Alert), and manipulated the identity of the abductor and the outcome (child safely returned, killed, or not outcome provided). Hindsight and outcome biases occurred in both studies, given the correct set of circumstances. Abductor identity also impacted outcome estimates. Results from the two studies indicate that hindsight and outcome bias occur, but this is dependent on the outcome (child killed, child returned safely, no outcome provided) and the identity of the abductor (stranger, dangerous parent, non-dangerous parent). Limitations and future directions are discussed.     

An experimental investigation of the misinformation effect in crime-related amnesia claims

Research suggests that both internal (i.e., lying) and external (i.e., misinformation) factors can affect memory for a crime. We aimed to explore the effects of post-event misinformation on crime-related amnesia claims. We showed participants a mock crime and asked them to either simulate amnesia (simulators) or confess to it (confessors). Next, some participants were provided with misinformation. Finally, all participants were requested to genuinely recollect the crime. Overall, simulators reported less correct information than confessors. Moreover, these two groups were equally vulnerable to misinformation. In addition, exploratory analyses on strategies adopted by simulators revealed that those who previously, mostly omitted information while simulating amnesia exhibited the lowest amount of correct details. Simulators who instead used a mixed strategy disclosed more fabricated memory errors. Findings suggest that legal professionals and jurors should take into account that even offenders, irrespective of confessing or simulating memory loss for a crime, can be susceptible to post-event misinformation.     

医疗机构药品购销职务犯罪情况研究——以中国裁判文书网82份判决书为样本

为进一步认识我国医疗机构从业人员药品购销领域职务犯罪现状,采用案例分析法分析中国裁判文书网相关文书。研究发现,当前案件发生率较高、形势依旧复杂严峻,涉案金额高,社会危害性大,涉案主体相对集中,犯罪行为普遍具有较强的持续性和重复性,判决罪名以受贿罪为主,管理混乱与制度落实不到位是滋生犯罪的土壤。建议探索医药产品定价采购的科学机制,完善制度体系,建立管控机制,提高医疗机构从业人员薪资待遇,加强并创新廉洁教育,运用科技监督手段。     

非法人体器官交易的刑事立法研究

借鉴他国立法经验,根据我国刑法典,把非法人体器官交易这种行为定性为一种犯罪,在刑法中增设非法人体器官交易罪(类罪名),以此预防、打击非法人体器官交易.