How can an environment be created in Cuba in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics? This book examines present security conditions in Cuba and forecasts the effects that economic and social liberalization could have on levels of criminality. For decades, Cuban citizens have enjoyed relatively good security, as a consequence of surveillance and tight political control by an authoritarian state. However, economic liberalization necessitated by the loss of Soviet support has resulted in illicit activities and increased criminality including drugs, contraband and human trafficking. Today, relatively good security and a stable political system coexist with widespread illegality. But as restrictions are eased, the average citizen is becoming less secure. Cuba's privileged geographical location, combined with economic scarcity, the remnants of the communist system and the local criminal organizations it created, also makes it vulnerable to more dangerous foreign criminal groups. Based on both quantitative and qualitative data including in-depth interviews with experts on Cuba and democratization and observational research in Cuba itself, the book seeks to identify the risks associated with liberalization and to explore workable solutions. More broadly, it aims to shed light on how the negative consequences of social and economic liberalization can be minimized for the average citizen during periods of political transition from authoritarian systems. How can an environment be created in which safety is not sacrificed for more open markets and politics?

An inter-disciplinary survey of crime and violence in America with entry emphasis focused on the 20th century. Addressing specifically the period from 1960 to the present, this reference also projects into the 21st century with contemporary terms covering aspects of violent crime, terrorism, riots, gangs, guns and gun control, AIDS, drug and drug related crime, and corporate and political crime. An inter-disciplinary survey of crime and violence in America with historical perspective, but primary entry emphasis focused on the 20th century. Addressing specifically the period from 1960 to the present, this reference also projects into the 21st century with contemporary terminology covering aspects of violent crime, DNA evidence, terrorism, riots, gangs, guns and gun control, AIDS, drug and drug related crime, and corporate and political crime. A Bibliographic Essay, Table of Cases, and Index enrich this work designed for students, scholars, and professionals in criminal justice and related fields.

This book examines Mental Health Courts (MHC) within a socio-legal framework. Placing these courts within broader trends in criminal justice, especially problem-solving courts, the author draws from two case studies with a mixed-methods design. While court observational and interview data highlight the role of rituals and procedural justice in the practices of the court, quantitative data demonstrates the impact of incentives, mental health treatment compliance and graduating patterns from MHC in altering patterns of criminal recidivism. In utilising these methods, this book provides a new understanding of the social processes by which MHCs operate, while narrative stories from MHC participants illustrate both the potential and limitations of these courts. Concluding by charting potential improvements for the functioning and effectiveness of MHCs, the author suggests potential reforms and 'best practices' for the future in tandem with rigorous analysis. This book will be of value and interest to students and scholars of criminology, law, and social work, as well as practitioners.

This book presents the first detailed inquiry into the nature of cross-border drug trafficking between Laos People's Democratic Republic and Vietnam, using an exploratory approach. It draws upon qualitative and quantitative methods, case studies, interviews and survey data from criminal investigation police and drug-related crimes officers (CIPDRC) from six border provinces which are directly and indirectly involved in investigating these cross-border cases. The author demonstrates that drug markets in Vietnam are not controlled by monopolistic, hierarchical organizations or 'cartels' but small structures, based on family ties and fellow-countrymen relations, which are fluid and loosely organized. They are very adaptable and sophisticated with diverse modus operandi and multiple divisions of labour which present particular challenges to law enforcement agencies, which the author discusses.

In the 1980s there existed wide and often acrimonious disagreement over the purposes and objectives of police organizations, the ways in which their activities were structured, and their relations with the wider society. Interpreting policework requires a rounded conception of policing, based on both a thorough critique of the main theoretical trends in police sociology, and close familiarity with actual patterns of policing, on the streets, in the stations, and inside the police headquarters where key policies are formulated. Originally published in 1987, the achievement of this book is that it combines rigorous theoretical analysis with a wealth of descriptive material drawn from first-hand observation of policing and decision making at all levels, and thus relates sociological theory to practice and political debate at the time. The introduction provides a careful analysis of central theoretical and political strands in police sociology, and proposes a new general conception of policework. The authors go on to provide vivid illustrations of this conception from the worlds of uniformed unit beat patrols and resident beat officers, and from the fora in which policy for operational practice is considered. A final section draws the wider lessons of these concrete analyses for sociological theory and for our understanding of past policy shifts from one form of beatwork to another, and spells out the radical implications of the study for the political debate on the future of policing. Interpreting Policework thus had relevance to students and researchers in police studies, sociology, public policy and the law at the time and will still be of historical interest today. The authors are experienced researchers, practised in investigating a wide range of criminological and social control issues.

The Joy of Stats offers a reader-friendly introduction to applied statistics and quantitative analysis in the social sciences and public policy. Perfect as an undergraduate text or self-study manual, it emphasizes how to understand concepts, interpret algorithms and formulas, analyze data, and answer research questions. This brand new edition offers examples and visualizations using real-life data, a revised discussion of statistical inference, and introductory examples in R and SPSS. The third edition has been extensively reorganized with shorter chapters and closer links between concepts and formulas, while retaining useful pedagogical features including key terms, practice exercises, a math refresher, and playful inserts on "the mathematical imagination." The Joy of Stats also places a strong emphasis on learning how to write and speak clearly about data results. Supported by a companion website with data sets and additional resources, The Joy of Stats is a superb choice for introducing students to applied statistics and for refreshing and reviewing stats as a social scientist, public policy professional, or community activist.

The purpose of this edited volume is to examine the disconnect in the sexual violence prevention field between legislation, research and practice. The work is focused primarily on United States policies and initiatives, with key case studies internationally. Contributions show that current policies are mainly based on repeat offenders: residence restrictions, registration and notification statutes, and post-sentence initiatives. While these initiatives address public fears, they are not evidence-based and do not necessarily reduce offending. Research shows that post-sentence policies may destabilize offenders and limit their ability to reintegrate with society at a critical period, therefore increasing the chances of recidivism. Furthermore, the majority of sex crimes (95%) are committed by first time offenders. This innovative book is divided into two parts juxtaposing what is currently being done legislatively with what the research evidence suggests would be best practice.

With urban poverty rising and affordable housing disappearing, the homeless and other "disorderly" people continue to occupy public space in many American cities. Concerned about the alleged ill effects their presence inflicts on property values and public safety, many cities have wholeheartedly embraced "zero-tolerance" or "broken window" policing efforts to clear the streets of unwanted people. Through an almost completely unnoticed set of practices, these people are banned from occupying certain spaces. Once zoned out, they are subject to arrest if they return-effectively banished from public places.
Banished is the first exploration of these new tactics that dramatically enhance the power of the police to monitor and arrest thousands of city dwellers. Drawing upon an extensive body of data, the authors chart the rise of banishment in Seattle, a city on the leading edge of this emerging trend, to establish how it works and explore its ramifications. They demonstrate that, although the practice allows police and public officials to appear responsive to concerns about urban disorder, it is a highly questionable policy: it is expensive, does not reduce crime, and does not address the underlying conditions that generate urban poverty. Moreover, interviews with the banished themselves reveal that exclusion makes their lives and their path to self-sufficiency immeasurably more difficult.
At a time when more and more cities and governments in the U.S. and Europe resort to the criminal justice system to solve complex social problems, Banished provides a vital and timely challenge to exclusionary strategies that diminish the life circumstances and rights of those it targets.

This book offers a theoretically-based study on crimes against protected wildlife in mainland China with first-hand empirical data collected over five years. It provides an overall examination of crimes against protected and endangered wildlife and an extensive account of the situation in China, where a significant portion of the illegal wildlife trade is currently happening. This emerging field has become an important topic for enforcement and governments alike yet remains an under-researched area. The collected data covers illegal tiger-parts trade, the illegal ivory trade, and the consumption of protected wildlife. The book will serve as a useful reference for scholars, law-enforcement agencies, lawyers, and conservation and wildlife-protection NGO groups to facilitate their understanding of the growing illegal trade in protected and endangered wildlife. The Illegal Wildlife Trade in China has three general aims: first, to contribute to the general development of green criminology and specifically to the literature of the illegal transactions of protected wildlife at the distribution stage. Second, it aims to understand how illegal transactions are carried out to create insights for policy makers and law enforcement professionals. Finally, Wong seeks to apply theoretical frameworks (such as that of trust, networks, and situational crime prevention) to the understanding of the distribution of illegal wildlife products in order to make contributions to ongoing sociological and criminological discussions.

This book explores how different social psychology theories and concepts can be applied to practice. Considering theories from attribution theory to coercion theory, social identity theories to ostracism, the authors offer a greater understanding and appreciation of the ways in which social psychology can contribute to forensic practice. The book argues that social psychology is useful for carrying out assessments (including risk assessments), formulations, and interventions with clients in forensic settings, as well as for psychological consultation, training, and the development of services. These theories are also important when understanding multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working, staff-client relationships, and peer-to-peer relationships. Through illustrative composite case examples, taken from the authors' experiences in forensic settings, the chapters demonstrate effective ways to pursue a theoretically informed practice. Exploring a broad range of theories and a timely topic, Social Psychology in Forensic Practice will interest a wide readership including graduate and undergraduate students and researchers in criminology, sociology, and forensic, social and clinical psychology. It will also be of practical use to health professionals and non-health professionals working in forensic settings as well as policy makers and others commissioning forensic services.

In the past, defining municipal policing was easier as it incorporated local authority duties, crime prevention and police patrol. However in the contemporary setting, police resources are regularly overstretched and novel ways of alleviating their workloads are continually being sought. One method of achieving this goal is by involving other people and technology to assist the police in their everyday tasks. A system of partnership and technology, underpinned by legislation, has made this ambition possible. This book reviews how traditional municipal policing has evolved in a number of European Union countries discussing topics such as history, police civilianization, police auxiliaries, community policing, surveillance, politics and governance, with predictions as to what may lie ahead for municipal policing in the EU. Municipal Policing in Europe provides an exclusive vista of the evolving model of local policing in the EU member states at a time when police forces are increasingly collaborating together.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) is an important actor in the American gun debate. While popular explanations for the group's influence often focus on the NRA's lobbying and campaign donations, it receives lesser attention for the mass mobilization efforts that make these political endeavours possible. On Target explores why the NRA is so influential and how we can understand the group's impact on firearms policy in the United States. The book looks at how the NRA both draws upon and shapes historical meta-narratives regarding the role of firearms in America's national identity and how this is part of a larger effort to expand the community of gun owners. Noah S. Schwartz demonstrates how the NRA portrays a vision of the past through events such as its annual meeting; communications such as American Rifleman magazine and NRA TV; and points of contact including the National Firearms Museum. Based on fieldwork in Indiana and Virginia, including participant observation at NRA events and firearm safety classes, thematic analysis of audio-visual material, and interviews with NRA executives and members, On Target sheds light on the ways in which the NRA tells stories to build and mobilize a politically motivated network of gun owners.

* Provides a unique perspective on how to consider the spatial patterns of where and when crime occurs * Offers a cutting-edge perspective on the plethora of data produced by the growing number of studies of crime in neighborhoods * Bridges the areas of Crime and Place and the area of Communities and Crime

* Provides a unique perspective on how to consider the spatial patterns of where and when crime occurs * Offers a cutting-edge perspective on the plethora of data produced by the growing number of studies of crime in neighborhoods * Bridges the areas of Crime and Place and the area of Communities and Crime

This collection offers a comprehensive review of the origins, scale and breadth of the privatisation and marketisation revolution across the criminal justice system. Leading academics and researchers assess the consequences of market-driven criminal justice in a wide range of contexts, from prison and probation to policing, migrant detention, rehabilitation and community programmes. Using economic, sociological and criminological perspectives, illuminated by accessible case studies, they consider the shifting roles and interactions of the public, private and voluntary sectors. As privatisation, outsourcing and the impact of market cultures spread further across the system, the authors look ahead to future developments and signpost the way to reform in a 'post-market' criminal justice sphere.

1. Unlike more conventional texts, this book offers over 50 pithy and thought-provoking essays on a wide range of socially and legally prohibited acts, offering students a critical analysis of these issues. 2. Each entry offers further readings and suggestions for other media to develop the reader's understanding of these issues. 3. The new edition has been updated and extended and includes new entries on issues such as the alt-right, protest, online abuse, cybercrime, drug trafficking, populism and use of weapons.

1. The concept of social harm is gaining in ground in Criminology as an alternative way of reconceptualizing crime within a wider context. This book offers a major intervention in taking stock of the field and suggesting ways forward. 2. This book would certainly be used as supplementary reading across a number of courses in criminological and social theory, as well as upper level courses on social problems and advanced criminological theory. 3. This book is multi-disciplinary, moving beyond criminology to consider liberal political economic theory and moral philosophy.

Based on a reading of contemporary philosophical arguments, this book accounts for how punishment has provided audiences with pleasure in different historical contexts. Watching tragedies, contemplating hell, attending executions, or imagining prisons have generated pleasure, according to contemporary observers, in ancient Greece, in medieval Catholic Europe, in the early-modern absolutist states, and in the post-1968 Western world. The pleasure was often judged morally problematic, and raised questions about which desires were satisfied, and what the enjoyment was like. This book offers a research synthesis that ties together existing work on the pleasure of punishment. It considers how the shared joys of punishment gradually disappeared from the public view at a precise historic conjuncture, and explores whether arguments about the carnivalesque character of cruelty can provide support for the continued existence of penal pleasure. Towards the end of this book, the reader will discover, if willing to go along and follow desire to places which are full of pain and suffering, that deeply entwined with the desire for punishment, there is also the desire for social justice. An accessible and compelling read, this book will appeal to students and scholars of criminology, sociology, philosophy and all those interested in the pleasures of punishment.

Through analysis of data held by the National Crime Agency on organised crime groups, and in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews with convicted fraudsters and enforcement professionals, this detailed study fills a significant gap in the contemporary literature on organised crime groups involved in fraud. Throughout the chapters, the perspective of convicted offenders and those involved in its policing are juxtaposed to show the ease of committing fraud from the perspective of offenders on the one hand, and the investigative challenges experienced by law enforcement officers on the other. May and Bhardwa's insights shed light on offender motivations, routes into fraud and organised crime, and the nature and shape of organised crime groups and their operations. Alongside the offender perspective the law enforcement interviews provide a unique interpretation of the procedural and legislative weaknesses that appear to allow this type of offender to make considerable financial gain. The key recommendations based on empirical findings will greatly benefit those interested in understanding the links between fraud and organised crime in the UK and those seeking to improve enforcement efforts.

The Joy of Stats offers a reader-friendly introduction to applied statistics and quantitative analysis in the social sciences and public policy. Perfect as an undergraduate text or self-study manual, it emphasizes how to understand concepts, interpret algorithms and formulas, analyze data, and answer research questions. This brand new edition offers examples and visualizations using real-life data, a revised discussion of statistical inference, and introductory examples in R and SPSS. The third edition has been extensively reorganized with shorter chapters and closer links between concepts and formulas, while retaining useful pedagogical features including key terms, practice exercises, a math refresher, and playful inserts on "the mathematical imagination." The Joy of Stats also places a strong emphasis on learning how to write and speak clearly about data results. Supported by a companion website with data sets and additional resources, The Joy of Stats is a superb choice for introducing students to applied statistics and for refreshing and reviewing stats as a social scientist, public policy professional, or community activist.

1. Interest in violence as a phenomenon stretches across criminology, sociology, political science and philosophy. This concise and engaging book would be compelling supplementary reading. 2. This book offers useful summaries of key thinking on violence across the social sciences.

This books demonstrates the difficulty of protecting victims of human trafficking from being held liable for crimes they were compelled to commit in the course, or as a consequence, of being trafficked, under current European law. The legislation remains vague and potentially inadequate to recognise victimhood, safeguard the human rights of victims, and avoid further victimisation. Muraszkiewicz explains how the non-liability principle is rooted in criminal and human rights law, and proposes a more efficient provision and framework which would protect trafficked persons, and do better to encourage victims to act as witnesses in criminal proceedings against the perpetrators. In doing so the book will provide relevant stakeholders, including policy makers and law enforcement authorities, with a better understanding of the non-liability principle and how it ought to be used in practice.

1. This is still the leading book on the market offering an introductory overview of Queer Criminology. The new edition has been fully updated to include new development in theory and research and offers further coverage of international issues and a new chapter on intersectionality. 2. This book is useful supplementary reading for courses on gender and crime, law and sexuality, multiculturalism and criminal justice and diversity and criminal justice and can also be used as a core text on the growing number of courses covering Queer Criminology. 3. The original edition was winner of the 2016 Book Award from the American Society of Criminology, Division of Critical Criminology.

1. This books cuts across various subjects within criminology, including juvenile justice, sentencing and punishment, community corrections, and delinquency. 2. The books ethnographic approach makes this an engaging read, and could easily be set as reading on courses such as juvenile delinquency and community corrections. 3. Diversion is a big topic in youth and juvenile justice, and this book offers fresh and innovative new data.

This book offers rich ethnographic and narrative accounts of men who have been engaged in serious violence and organised crime in the West Midlands of England, using several theoretical paradigms. Through case study examples, it also considers contract killers and the nefarious position that 'hitmen' occupy in the criminal underworld. By charting insider perspectives from retired law enforcement agents, informants, ex-military personnel and ex-offenders, this book speaks to those who have a vested interest in violence, organised crime and ethnography.