Change

Corruption in the United States and China: codes of conduct vs. crackdowns Abstract Previous research on China’s corruption and its continued, tolerated existence tended to focus on guanxi wang networks (informal gift-giving) and baohu san (protective “umbrellas” from enforcement). This article compares China with the United States and argues that enforcement results between the two countries are similar even though the mechanisms are distinct. Issues of system capacity and non-issue making explain the similar effects of these disparate methods (codes of conduct in the U.S. and anti-corruption crackdowns in China).

Abrahms, M. (2018). Rules for rebels: The science of victory in militant history. Oxford University Press

Strong by concealment? How secrecy, trust, and social embeddedness facilitate corporate crime Abstract This article examines how corporate crime is organised through studying the longevity of illegal business cartels. Previous studies demonstrate cartels can remain undetected for years or decades. Similar to criminal networks, cartel participants need to communicate in order to collaborate effectively, but operate covertly at the same time. The case study analysis of fourteen Dutch cartel cases in this study demonstrates two main findings. First, cartel participants communicate frequently and elaborately, and the need for trust and communication impedes concealment. Second, the longevity of cartels cannot be explained by isolation from but by embeddedness in their social environment. The context of legitimacy and a facilitating environment are significant factors. Criminal collaboration is studied extensively in literature on organised crime, however gained little attention in the literature on corporate crime. Hereby, this study contributes to an understanding of how corporate criminal conduct is organised, by applying relevant theory on criminal networks gleaned from the literature on organised crime.

Explaining the crime drop: contributions to declining crime rates from youth cohorts since 2005 Abstract Since the mid-90s there has been almost a 50% reduction in the volume of crime in England and Wales - a trend that has been mirrored in many Western countries (Greenberg Justice Quarterly, 31(1), 154–188, 2014). Despite previous assumptions, for example, declining birth cohorts, it is proposed here that the decline in crime for the 1995–2005 period can largely be attributed to a doubling of the probability of a crime being ‘proven’ (cf Lloyd et al. 1994; MOJ, 2012; Taylor 2016). However, in the last decade these reductions in crime rates have levelled off to a relatively stable degree. Analysis of published data relating to the performance of the criminal justice system in England and Wales suggests that reductions in crime levels since 2005 are largely accounted for by the fall in proportion of the youth population engaging in offending behaviour. It is argued that falls in rates of crime are largely independent of the offending frequency of young people or variations in the probability of offences being proven; rather, reductions in youth crime over this period could largely be attributed to policy changes, including multiagency interventions targeted at young people who were at risk of starting to offend (McAra and McVie 2015; Smith 2015). Further discussion suggests that the binary proven reoffending rate is not an accurate barometer of criminal justice system performance; rather it is argued that reductions in the youth offending population feed forward into later reductions in the number of adult offenders and further impact on overall crime rates in the longer term.

British Muslims perceptions of social cohesion: from multiculturalism to community cohesion and the ‘war on terror’ Abstract Since the Northern disturbances of 2001 and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, the UK government has changed the focus of policies from those that predominantly focused on British Muslims’ Asian identity, to those that focus on British Muslims’ religious identity. The fracturing of the Asian identity has been evident in the political discourses on the ‘war on terror’ and community cohesion, with both defining British Muslims through their religious identity, as opposed to their Asian identity, an identity for which inter Asian commonality existed. This article draws on research that was conducted on British Muslims’ perceptions of social policy since the 1980s and explores the extent to which changes in governmental policies have impacted British Muslims’ perceptions of commonality with non-British Muslims. The article demonstrates how the ‘war on terror’ and community cohesion are negatively impacting social cohesion through making British Muslims feel isolated and marginalised in society. The implications of the findings are discussed in relation to the radicalisation of British Muslims and the growing influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Risky business: corporate risk regulation when managing allegations of crime Abstract This article seeks to develop an understanding of how corporations manage their social and ethical responsibilities, whilst simultaneously facing allegations of crime. It draws on the case of TeliaSonera, a Swedish corporation prosecuted for committing bribery in Uzbekistan. The article begins by introducing the reader to this so-called ‘Uzbek affair’, before exploring how corporate governance has shifted in the new regulatory landscape, and the role CSR plays in this landscape. Secondly, it critically deconstructs TeliaSonera’s regulatory regime, in order to analyse how the risks of corruption and bribery are managed in the aftermath of the Uzbek affair, and what functions this management fulfils for the corporation’s front stage performance. By drawing on the distinction between primary and secondary risk management as proposed by Power [1, 2], the article argues that the regime in place to manage social and ethical risks simultaneously manages reputational and profitability-related risks, thus illustrating the dual functions of corporate risk management. This duality, it is suggested, is a consequence of the responsibilisation process in which corporations have become self-regulating entities, which allows for a ‘risk management of everything’ (cf. [1]).

Increased clarity or continued ambiguity? Correctional officers’ experiences of the evolving Canadian youth justice legislation Abstract Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) heralded many changes in the treatment of youth within the justice system, particularly in regard to holding youth “accountable” and the use of “meaningful consequences.” Under the former Young Offenders Act (YOA) far more youth were given custodial sentences, while under the YCJA youth custody rates have plummeted. Yet few scholars have empirically assessed how correctional officers working with youth (COs) interpret and experience “accountability” and “meaningful consequences” in their day-to-day work. Based on 24 in-depth interviews, we examine the most perceptible changes COs employed in Canadian youth closed-custody facilities encountered, as a result of the legislative movement from the YOA to the YCJA. Findings suggest that the criminality of sentenced youth has changed with the new legislation, as well as how COs do their job—some feeling that the legislation is at odds with their occupational responsibility and negatively impacting their ability to “do the job”. Recommendations for youth correctional practice are offered.

Federal investigations of police misconduct: a multi-city comparison Abstract Over the past two decades, high-profile federal investigations have examined the policies and practices of several American police departments where civil rights violations and police misconduct were deemed serious by the Department of Justice. This paper focuses on four recent investigations: Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson, and New Orleans. We examine the specific types of misconduct highlighted by the investigation of each department. Findings reveal both important similarities and differences across the four cases.

Are Muslims in the Netherlands constructed as a ‘suspect community’? An analysis of Dutch political discourse on terrorism in 2004-2015 Abstract Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, counter-terrorism legislation has been argued to be globally focused on a so called ‘suspect community’: the ‘Muslim community’. The media, politicians and scholars speak about a new wave of terrorism where ‘Islamic’ is a common key denominator. Critical research, so far predominantly focused on the United Kingdom, has pointed at unintended consequences arising from political discourse in which a ‘suspect community’ is constructed, for society as a whole and the ‘suspect community’ in particular. Building on this research, this study analyses if and how Muslims are also constructed as a ‘suspect community’ in Dutch political discourse on terrorism in the period 2004-2015. The analysis shows that political discourse in the Netherlands has shifted significantly in this period. Whereas until 2011, terrorism was framed as a problem that originates in society and that is to be solved for society as a whole, it is currently seen as a problem that originates in Islam and which needs to be addressed by the ‘Muslim community’. All members of that ‘Muslim community’ are now considered as potentially ‘suspect’ when they do not openly and explicitly adhere to Western values and take action to distance themselves from the ‘Jihadist enemy’. Further societal implications of this discourse, in which the ‘Muslim community’ is constructed as a ‘suspect community,’ are also discussed.

Politics of mass rapes in ethnic conflict: a morphodynamics of raw madness and cooked evil Abstract To explain war rapes in former Yugoslavia, the work of cultural ideology is never complete, but an unstable relation between cultural activism and cultural norms and practices provides the point of departure to move beyond the stereotyped accounts of mass rapes and develop a neo-structural model of canonical formalization based on discourse analysis and transformational morphodynamics. Methodologically, the new model takes lead from the abstract mathematical operations and canonical transformations suggested by Lévi-Strauss for the structural study of myth. The assumption is that mass rapes are fueled by a specific cultural activism that activates a cultural ideology that makes mass rapes effective in a military strategy of ethnic cleansing.