scholarly journals Organized crime and the outline of a new structure of security in Europe

2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Fatic
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The State ◽  
Transitional Region ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Southeastern Europe ◽  
Terrorist Organizations ◽  
Political Legitimation ◽  
The Right

The modern security threats in Europe, and especially in the transitional region of Southeastern Europe, are considerably different from the traditional military threats arising from statehood-related aspirations of the minorities, or from unresolved border issues between neighbours, or between regional aspirations of the former superpowers. Today's security threats emanate primarily from organized crime and terrorism, two curses that have spread their realm across the globe, and that threaten to establish breeding grounds in Southeastern Europe, due to the relatively soft and porous borders, unresolved status of ethnic communities in neighbouring states, internal instability and weakness of the institutions in the region?s states, as well as contradictory and sometimes counterproductive signals that are sent to the region by the large international organizations and influential countries. A particular danger for the region arises from the newly developing "netted" structures of organized crime, which present organized criminal gangs not only as an alternative "industry" to various legitimate social services, an industry whose parts mutually compete, but increasingly as an aspiring government in itself, namely an industry whose parts cooperate, rather than competing, and which tend to reduce the level of competition and increase the level of cooperation across the region, thus threatening the very foundations of the state, and hijacking the state agenda by co-opting various state agencies and officials through corruption, intimidation, or manipulation into collusion. This paper briefly outlines the main currents of development of the structures and aspirations of organized criminal gangs in the region their changing roles in the region's societies, and the perspectives of their organized synergy with terrorist organizations occurring. It also discusses the most effective methods to address these problems and the conditions for their development and implementation in the region. Namely the paper espouses a central argument that aims to show that the logic of development of terrorism in Europe implies that, sooner or later, especially Islamic terrorist organizations will be faced with a very real dilemma of whether or not to establish systematic cooperation with organized crime. Such cooperation would offer tremendous operational advantages to terrorists, with logistics for terrorist actions being provided by organized crime, while at the same time terrorism could provide an umbrella of "political legitimation" through "service to the right cause" of those who see themselves as structurally oppressed, for the classic operations of organized crime. Such quasilegitimation is already commonplace in Latin America, where traders in poppy flower, who pass the produce on to enter the chain of production and trafficking of heroin to the western markets sometimes enjoy the status of those who care for the entire communities of poor, poppy-growing Latin American farmers. Similar structures of quasilegitimation could be established in areas populated mainly by Islamic inhabitants, should the international offensive led by the US against Islamic countries continue unabated, and synergies with organized crime could be used by the particularly "entrepreneurial" leaders of certain terrorist groups. The author warns against allowing such synergies to take place by the continuing aggression on the international front, which causes an increase in terrorism through the simple action and reaction mechanism.

scholarly journals Feminicide, Women's Bodies and Impunity

10.3823/2592 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cícero Ferreira Freitas ◽  
Modesto Leite Rolim Neto
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Cultural Patterns ◽  
Vulnerability Factors ◽  
Women's Bodies ◽  
Self Mutilation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

Background: One must take into account the conditions that develop the lives of several women who are at risk, above all, in terms of mental health. In addition, Latin American countries dominate the 10 ranking on feminicide. Objective: To understand the chaotic scenario that haunts the reality of many women around the world. Dark, bloody and restrained are common adjectives to the silent daily suffering they experience. Results: In general, there’s also a reluctance in some communities to acknowledge violence against women as a problem. Thus, it is noted that such taboos make it difficult to debate the topic. As a consequence, the chauvinism culture silences an already voiceless problem because of the lack of financial support experienced by these women to raise their children. At this stage, demanding justice and upholding the law guaranteeing the right to life of all citizens often seems to be the only way to punish the perpetrators of these women. Limitations: Although it is a current theme, faced with the situational framework, it is difficult to find evidence about this aspect, it's important to highlight that those vulnerability factors are also risk factors for mental health disorders following assault. It was found that factors such as age, personal characteristics such as the life history of each person, involvement with self-mutilation, participation and support in mental or social services suggest to be more important than the type of aggression as predictors of mental disorders health. Conclusion: At first sight it seems that it is impossible to give what you do not have for someone who does not want to, but this is only a psychological contradiction if you consider indifference and love, or anger and love, or hatred and love as opposing feelings, as long as those feelings can exist simultaneously. It is necessary for society to reclaim humanity for women to exercise freedom. Because based on what was seen are still cultural patterns, like misogyny, discrimination and the ideal of male superiority that support the guilty of the assaulted rather than the aggressor.

Between Legitimation and Decentralisation

2016 ◽  
pp. 400-440
Author(s):  
Gustavo Xavier Bonifaz
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Party System ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
The State ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
American States ◽  
Country Case Study ◽  
Political Legitimation ◽  
The Relationship

The present paper aims at answering why a country that shared, with other Latin American states, a centralist tradition that was even strengthened in the aftermath of its 1952 revolution, became one of the most radical and complex decentralisers in the region. The present is a country case study in which, using a process-tracing analysis, the evolution of decentralisation in Bolivia will be explained up to its current complex structure from a perspective of the relationship between political legitimation under competitive elections and the way in which the party system processed longstanding tensions between the state and different segments of society.

scholarly journals Improvement of the system of social work through activation ombudsman

2021 ◽  
pp. 52-58
Author(s):  
Iryna Surovtseva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
The Right

The article is devoted to the partnership of social workers and ombudsmen as an influential tool for the citizens' rights protection. The common aspects of professional activity of social workers and ombudsmen in the citizens' rights protection of Ukraine and European countries are analyzed. Analyzed the annual reports of the National Ombudsman, clarified the dynamics of the receipt of citizens' reports about violations of their rights. There is a growing number of human rights violations in the field of social protection. The ombudsman has the right to make recommendations to the central executive bodies, which are ripe after the monitoring visits. Through the activities of social workers and the ombudsman, the state assumes the main functions of ensuring human rights in the social sphere. Foreign experience on the significant role of «natural allies» (social workers and ombudsmen) in drafting a formal protocol of strategic and tactical cooperation to optimize the residents' interests based on a friendly advisory approach have been highlighted. Most often, social workers and ombudsmen are forced to act as intermediaries between people and the state or other bodies to uphold justice and provide protection in cases where measures taken by the state in the interests of society as a whole threaten the rights and freedoms of individuals or groups. There is a need to intensify cooperation between the ombudsman's offices, social protection departments and social service providers (for example, through the joint Commissions on the quality of social services establishment, joint investigations into unsatisfactory social or medical care complaints). It seems relevant to expand the positions of specialized ombudsmen (for social protection (security), military ombudsman) as independent officials in communities (municipalities) for Ukraine.

scholarly journals Whether the right of pursuit is constitutional property interest protectible against the state II part

2018 ◽  
pp. 89-105
Author(s):  
Nenad Tešić
Keyword(s):  
Organized Crime ◽  
The State ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
Property Interest ◽  
Freezing Procedure ◽  
Proceeds Of Crime ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Right ◽  
Subjective Rights

The author, in this paper, is looking for Ariadne’s thread, which would help us to find the way through the legal labyrinth composed of justified reaction of the state in the war against organized crime, from one side and what is considered an appropriate protection of secured creditor’s subjective rights, from the other side. He points out that in resolving a dilemma, does the mortgagee have the right to enforce its debt against the Republic of Serbia (right of pursuit), in case if the extended confiscation of property (proceeds of crime) includes subject-matter of mortgage, the court should take into account does the mortgagee know or should know about criminal origins of encumbered assets. The court should evaluate a good faith of the mortgagee, bearing in mind all the circumstances of the case, especially: 1) The moment of a mortgage establishment, i.e. whether the registration of mortgage is prior in time to the initiation of a property freezing procedure; 2) Overall business and other relations between mortgagee and mortgagor, i.e. are these parties associated in any other way? 3) Objective changes in the economic position of mortgagee and mortgagor, i.e.is the security agreement true or simulated, in particular, whether the value of the secured claim actually enhanced the property of the mortgagor and at what consideration.

2. Organized crime structures around the globe

2018 ◽  
pp. 9-49
Author(s):  
Georgios A. Antonopoulos ◽  
Georgios Papanicolaou
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
The State ◽  
Cultural Contexts ◽  
Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs ◽  
Italian American

‘Organized crime structures around the globe’ looks at how different structures of organized crime exist in particular contexts worldwide. It begins by considering the connection between organized crime structures and particular national or cultural contexts as traditionally, and often in popular culture, organized crime has been understood through the lens of ethnic links. The nature, characteristics, and links with the sphere of the ‘upperworld’ (legal businesses, law enforcement, politicians, the state, nationalist organizations, etc.) are also looked at. The key structures of organized crime studied include Italian and Italian-American, British, Russian, Turkish, Latin American, Chinese, Japanese, and outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Affectionate Mothers and the Colossal Machine: Feminism, Social Assistance and the State in Uruguay, 1910-1932

2001 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Ehrick
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Public Assistance ◽  
Social Assistance ◽  
The State ◽  
Liberal Feminism ◽  
Point Of Entry ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Right

In 1910, the Uruguayan Public Assistance Law established the concept of universal poor relief, declaring that “anyone … indigent or lacking resources has the right to free assistance at the expense of the state.” Nothing better than this law qualifies Uruguay for its distinction as the ‘first welfare state’ in Latin America. As in other countries, much of the first social assistance legislation targeted poor women and children and relied on elite women for much of its implementation. In the Uruguayan case, the primary intersections between public assistance and private philanthropy were the secular “ladies’ committees” (comités de damas), charitable organizations without direct ties to the Catholic Church. These organizations were also an important catalyst for liberal feminism in Uruguay, whose chronology—from the foundation of the National Women's Council in 1916 through the women's suffrage law of 1932—closely parallels the history of the early Uruguayan welfare state. Following a discussion of the formation of the National Public Assistance and its significance for class and gender politics in Uruguay, this article will summarize the evolving relationship between the Uruguayan social assistance bureaucracy and one of these groups, theSociedad“La Bonne Garde,” an organization that worked with young unmarried mothers. It then discusses how a formal and direct relationship with the state helped make the Bonne Garde and other groups like it a principal point of entry for many elite women in the early phases of Uruguayan liberal feminism. Finally, this article shows how processes set in motion in the 1910s resulted in a relative marginalization of elite women from both state welfare and organized liberal feminism in the 1920s. Through an examination of the history of these ladies’ committees, we gain new insight into both welfare state formation in its earliest Latin American example as well as some of the elements and circumstances which helped shape liberal feminism in Uruguay.

scholarly journals The right to a reasoned order on determination of special evidentiary actions and (critical) review of the practice of the European court of human rights

Crimen ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-215
Author(s):  
Krsto Pejović ◽  
Nina Paović
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
Criminal Behavior ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
European Court ◽  
One Step ◽  
The Right

Increasingly dangerous, and internationally distributed, (organized) crime has caused the need for states to find adequate means to put an end to all this. Of course, today, as many years before, we can hear that criminals are "one step ahead of the state." That, when we look at the situation around us, is unfortunately not far from the truth. However, faced with this problem, states at the normative level, in order to anticipate criminal behavior, as well as, if the crime has already been committed, to reliably identify the perpetrators, stipulate (besides general evidentiary actions) special evidentiary actions/techniques in national legislation. That is quite legitimate. However, when the state prescribes certain rules, or conditions under which certain (evidentiary) actions must be taken, then it is more than unusual that state does not respect what it has prescribed. In the following lines, we were dealing with special evidentiary actions, predominantly the general characteristics of the same and in connection with them the practice of the ECtHR. All this with the aim of trying to present (from our point of view) a plausible practice, with the hope that we will break with the previous one, which in our opinion is not good.

scholarly journals Organizational Foundations of Social Entrepreneurship: Features of Contractual Structures

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (91) ◽  
pp. 54-58
Author(s):  
U.B. Filatova ◽  
◽  
E.O. Ganeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
The State ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Legal Nature ◽  
The Right ◽  
Contractual Structures

The article is devoted to the research of the Institute of social entrepreneurship. The authors identify the features of the organization of contractual relations in relations mediating the provision of social services. Attention is drawn to the fact that the legislation does not have a unified approach to understanding social services, as well as an exhaustive list of services related to social services. Based on the analysis of current legislation on social entrepreneurship, the article identifies problems related to determining the legal nature of the state (municipal) social order. The authors consider various theoretical approaches to defining the concept of state order. In the doctrine, the state order is considered as a managerial administrative act, as a set of administrative and legal acts, as a task or assignment of the state, and even as a public law institution for implementing the Constitution, laws, and functions of the Russian state in the form of an administrative regime of relations between the state and private law subjects. As a key category that links together all other components of the procurement process, the state order has not found conceptual certainty either in legislation or in legal science. It is proved that a social order by its nature is a private legal act, and the placement of such an order should be considered as a unilateral transaction to provide the authorized body with the right to meet the needs of citizens in social services. At the same time, such a transaction is aimed at organizing relations between state authorities, local self-government bodies and service providers. It is concluded that actions for placing a state (municipal) social order aimed at creating preliminary relations for the provision of social services are a one-sided organizing transaction.

scholarly journals Breaking the cycle: Solidarity with care-leaver mothers

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Jenny Krutzinna
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
The State ◽  
Care Experience ◽  
Care Leaver ◽  
The Right

A significant proportion of child protection cases involve care-experienced mothers, which reveals a continuous cycle of mothers who lose their children to social services after having been in state care themselves as children. While the importance of protecting children requires little explanation and forms the justificatory basis for child protection interventions, it is important to remember that care-experienced mothers were once children entrusted to the state’s care, and who arguably have been failed by the state in that their parenting opportunities are significantly reduced. This paper aims to address this underexplored dilemma between protecting children and safeguarding mothering opportunities for care-experienced mothers. Appealing to the concept of solidarity, I argue that the state has an obligation to increase its compensatory efforts to secure the right of care-experienced women to not only become parents but to be able to be parents, with the aim of breaking the cycle of care experience.

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