International Criminal Justice Review

- Publisher:
- Sage Publications, Inc.
- Publication date:
- 2021-09-06
- ISBN:
- 1057-5677
Issue Number
Latest documents
- Patterns of Repetition, Intermittency, and Harm Escalation in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis of 1,000 Days of National Police Records in Sweden
In recent years more attention has been given to the ways in which mixed-sex and same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) couples report crimes to the police. Specifically, what patterns of repetition, intermittency between contacts with the police, and harm trajectories over time exist, and are there variations between same-sex and mixed-sex dyads? We explore all eligible IPV reported in Sweden over 1,000 days (n = 14,939) and use descriptive statistics to examine differences between different victims and offenders. We code IPV offences within three levels of harm recognized by law and develop a tiered approach to harm quantification that supports the growing evidence that not all IPV harm is the same. Based on official records, IPV usually ends following the first contact with the police, as nine out of ten dyads never call again. Variations across cisgender and sexual identity groups exist: Repeat same-sex IPV is not as common as mixed-sex IPV but is reported more quickly to the police after it had occurred once. In the 1,000-day follow-up period, same-sex dyads do not call the police more than four times and the repeated incidents trends seem to be driven primarily by outliers. Moreover, we find an overall pattern of decreasing time intervals between each additional contact, but no overall pattern of escalating severity over time. However, the overall severity trend it driven by female-victim-male-offender dyads: male offenders are more likely to cause escalation of harm, while two out of five male–male repeat IPV experience escalation in harm. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, which overall illustrate the importance of observing IPV in typological terms, rather than as a continuum.
- Is Cross-Group Friendship Related to Less Perceived Criminal Threat of Immigrants and Less Negative Attitudes Toward Immigrants to the United States?
In recent years, the U.S. public has become increasingly concerned about the immigration issue. Criminological research and group threat theory suggest that harsh immigration policy preferences may be driven by perceived criminal threat of immigrants. More research is needed to understand how to reduce perceived immigrant criminality and negative attitudes toward immigrants. Using intergroup contact theory and an American adult sample (N = 1,037), the current study tests if cross-group friendship with foreign-born immigrants may reduce negative immigration attitudes both directly, and indirectly by lowering perceived criminal threat of immigrants. Results from regression analyses showed that perceived criminal threat was positively related to negative immigration attitudes. Cross-group friendship was directly related to less perceived criminal threat and less negative immigration attitudes. However, results from mediation analyses showed that cross-group friendship did not further reduce negative immigration attitudes indirectly via lowered perceived criminal threat. The results highlight the importance of meaningful cross-group friendship in mitigating negative immigrant perceptions and call for future research to further investigate ways to correct criminal typification of immigrants.
- Reforms and Media Depictions of the Death Penalty in Malaysia
Malaysia has retained the death penalty for violent crimes and some nonviolent drug offenses. Major news dailies, controlled by political parties in the ruling coalition, have helped justify this stance in the past. This situation changed over 22 months when a new coalition, which campaigned on abolishing capital punishment, took office and sparked renewed public discussion on this issue. Depictions of the death penalty debate were analyzed by conducting a content analysis of two major English-language newspapers, The Star and New Straits Times. Our findings suggest that The Star provided more international coverage and the New Straits Times prioritized domestic coverage. While both outlets provided comprehensive, and sometimes, critical coverage of executions elsewhere, they downplayed the fact that Malaysia engages in the same practice. There was no evidence to indicate that they were pushing an agenda as neither took a formal position on the issue. Content to transmit the differing views on the subject, neither functioned as forums to air nor shaped policy positions. This posture was possibly shaped by preconceived notions of what their readership wants and/or self-censorship—a legacy of past subjugation that will hopefully change when press freedom is perceived as a right, not a privilege.
- Exploring Perpetrator Trauma Among a Cohort of Violent Juvenile Offenders
Globally, extensive research has been conducted on psychological trauma. The main intention of this scientific enquiry was to provide insights into the explanatory and etiological factors of such trauma, as well as provide measures of how to manage and treat it effectively. However, much of these research studies on psychological trauma have focused primarily on victims and witnesses of trauma, completely overlooking and neglecting offenders (perpetrators) and their trauma. This study set out to explore perpetrator trauma among juvenile offenders incarcerated for violent offenses. The study was qualitative in nature, using descriptive phenomenology to provide descriptive accounts of perpetrator trauma as experienced by the participants. A single case study design was utilized as a research design. The data were collected using semistructured audio-recorded individual interviews with 10 participants. The findings supported the existence of perpetrator trauma as the offenders experienced multidimensional consequences from their actions. They experienced various symptoms related to or associated with their offenses and victims, including reliving symptoms, psychotic symptoms, psychogenic amnesia of the offense and the victims, and experienced a persistent negative emotional state. They also engaged in reckless and self-destructive behaviors, avoidant behaviors, and significant behavioral changes could be noted in their behavior.
- Book Review: The Rohingya Crisis and the International Criminal Court by H. Takemura
- ICJR Publications Received May-July 2024
- Book Review: Disassembling Police Culture by Mike Rowe
- Book Review: Genetics and the politics of security: A social science perspective by J. Vailly
- Unraveling the Patterns of Complexity in Transnational Corporate Bribery
Scholarship on white-collar and corporate crime often notes that these crimes are complex due to their scale, longevity, and hidden, layered, and global nature. Embedded in these discursive descriptions is the assumption that complexity is unidimensional and operates solely in a linear fashion. Yet, corruption and transnational bribery are the results of a complex system that involves diverse actors interacting in dynamic environments, which can produce multiple classes of outcomes that may include different patterns of complexity in crime. In this paper, we empirically explore potential variability in patterns of complexity in transnational corporate bribery using official data from cases prosecuted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the United States. Our findings indicate that crime “complexity” can take different forms, suggesting that the relationship between variables can unfold in dynamic ways. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
- Book Review: Doing Indefinite Time: An Ethnography of Long-Term Imprisonment in Switzerland by I. Marti
Featured documents
- Understanding Compliance Dynamics in Community Justice Settings
This article seeks to expand the existing literature on compliance in community justice settings by highlighting the importance of service user participation in efforts to achieve compliance. The article’s central argument is that although co-productive strategies can enhance service user...
- Drug Market Criminology
There is a divide between economic and criminological research on illicit drug markets. Economists have focused on modeling markets at an abstract level, while criminologists have focused on offending in individual street-level marketplaces. This article combines the economic and criminological...
- The Perceived Effect of a Witness Security Program on Willingness to Testify
To encourage witnesses to testify, witness security programs have been established to protect people who testify against offenders. Research on the impact of witness protection programs on the willingness of people to testify, however, is scarce. To fill the gap, this research was conducted in...
- Community Safety Officers in Western Canada
Community safety officers (CSOs) have been prominent local security providers in the United Kingdom, Australia, and elsewhere for two decades. Examining the establishment of CSOs in cities in Western Canada, this article responds to calls for international, comparative research on CSOs. We...
- Book Review: Exploring green criminology: Toward a green criminological revolution
- Public Space and the Situational Conditions of Crime and Fear
This special issue explores the situational conditions of crime and perceived safety in public spaces. In this foreword, we first examine the concept of public space and then discuss how public spaces relate to crime and fear of crime. In the final session we introduce the different articles that...
- Book Review: Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate
- Subnational Predictors of Racially Motivated Crime
This study draws upon theories of intergroup prejudice and bigoted violence to examine the effects of subnational correlates on the levels of racially motivated crime across different regions in four European countries between 1997 and 2013. To facilitate comparisons of hate crime across different...
- The Systemic Model of Social Disorganization and Homicide and Suicide Trajectories in South Korean Community Areas: Testing the Stream Analogy of Lethal Violence
The stream analogy of lethal violence (SALV) argues that homicide and suicide are similarly driven by frustration and aggression. SALV research has examined forces of production (i.e., lethal violence rate [LVR]) and forces of direction (i.e., suicide-homicide ratio [SHR]). The current study...
- Patterns of Repetition, Intermittency, and Harm Escalation in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Intimate Partner Violence: An Analysis of 1,000 Days of National Police Records in Sweden
In recent years more attention has been given to the ways in which mixed-sex and same-sex intimate partner violence (IPV) couples report crimes to the police. Specifically, what patterns of repetition, intermittency between contacts with the police, and harm trajectories over time exist, and are...