scholarly journals The open-access availability of criminological research to practitioners and policy makers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew P J Ashby

Criminology produces policy-relevant research and criminologists often seek to influence practice, but most criminological research is confined to expensive subscription journals. This disadvantages researchers in the global south, policy makers and practitioners who have the skills to use research findings but do not have journal subscriptions. Open access seeks to increase availability of research, but take-up among criminologists has been low. This study used a sample of 12,541 articles published in criminology journals between 2017 and 2019 to estimate the proportion of articles available via different types of open access. Overall 22% of research was available to non-subscribers, about half that found in other disciplines, even though authors had the right to make articles open without payment in at least 95% of cases. Open access was even less common in many leading journals and among researchers in the United States. Open access has the potential to increase access to research for those outside academia, but few scholars exercise their existing rights to distribute freely the submitted or accepted versions of their articles online. Policies to incentivise authors to make research open access where possible are needed unlock the benefits of greater access to criminological research.

2021 ◽  
pp. 118-142
Author(s):  
David Bosco

As national claims to ocean space proliferated, diplomats tried to set new rules for the oceans. The idea of the oceans as humanity’s “common heritage” gained support as an alternative to freedom of the seas. The negotiations featured divisions between the leading maritime powers, who were most concerned about preserving open access to the oceans, and many coastal countries more concerned with protecting regional waters. The diplomats eventually crafted an elaborate compromise that expanded the territorial sea to 12 miles and created a large new economic zone within which coastal states would have the right to regulate marine resources. A host of other provisions dealt with questions including passage through international straits, regulation of ice-covered areas, and the ocean rights of archipelagic countries. The United States, the leading maritime power, ultimately turned against the agreement, primarily because of concerns about how the treaty would regulate seabed mining.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Michael A. Helfand

In recent years, the United States has seen a resurgence of debates over the propriety of various religious accommodations afforded religious individuals and institutions from otherwise valid laws. The crumbling consensus over religious accommodations appears largely due to growing skepticism over whether religious accommodations, once granted, can be limited to the “right” kind of cases without bleeding into the “wrong” kind of cases. Some courts and scholars have responded to these growing worries by proposing limits on the scope of legally recognized accommodationist claims; for example, some have argued that commercial entities should, per se, be denied claims for religious accommodation and others have argued that claims for accommodation should not be granted where the theological burden is deemed by a court to be de minimis or non-existent. By limiting the types of recognized accommodationist claims, such arguments hope to prevent religious objections from trumping other important rights and values; if the claims never get off the ground, so the logic goes, there is no need to worry about their potential consequences. This tactic, however, stands on dangerous footing. At bottom, such arguments put government in the position of giving unequal weight and credence to claims for accommodation based upon religious and theological criteria, thereby creating inequalities among religious claims. As an alternative strategy, courts should avoid threshold doctrinal tests for accommodation claims; instead courts should explicitly balance religious claims against important government interests in order to determine whether or not to grant an accommodation. Such an alternative approach pulls courts out of the business of distinguishing between different types of religious claims, encouraging them instead to impose limits on religious accommodation by directly considering governmental interests, precisely the type of inquiry courts are well-equipped to address.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Nassauer

Objective: This article analyzes how convenience store robberies work and why some take an unexpected turn and fail. It examines the situational dynamics of crime by studying behavioral and emotional dynamics between clerks and perpetrators during robberies comparatively. The focus is on perpetrators’ displays of threats and clerks’ seemingly irrational acts of noncompliance and resistance. Method: The sample is comprised of 20 successful and failed robberies in the United States between 2010 and 2016. By qualitatively analyzing closed-circuit television (CCTV) recordings, the study assesses what happens during such crimes. Analyzing footage uploaded to online video platforms such as YouTube, the study uses growing databases so far unexplored by sociological and criminological research. Findings suggest that successful store robberies follow specific situational rituals in which actors display adequate behaviors and emotions. Rituals are broken if perpetrators or victims act out of character and display, even unintentionally, unexpected behaviors or emotions. Conclusion: This exploratory study suggests that microlevel factors play a crucial role in what manifests as a robbery versus attempted robbery. Further, it highlights challenges and advantages of analyzing CCTV recordings uploaded online when studying crime caught on camera.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14
Author(s):  
Rosemary Ann Blanchard

The right of ethnic, linguistic and indigenous minorities to an education for their children that supports their linguistic identity and cultural continuity is a universally-recognized human right throughout the world community. The United States, while a signatory to the main international agreements which establish this right has yet to adequately domesticate its interpretation and implementation. Educators and policy makers at every level of government and society have both the ethical responsibility and the opportunity to incorporate the fundamental elements of the human right to culture into their educational planning, program development, instruction and assessments. As Justice Black noted more than 50 years ago, “Great nations, like great men [and women] should keep their word.


Author(s):  
Mauricio Drelichman ◽  
Hans-Joachim Voth

Why do lenders time and again loan money to sovereign borrowers who promptly go bankrupt? When can this type of lending work? As the United States and many European nations struggle with mountains of debt, historical precedents can offer valuable insights. This book looks at one famous case—the debts and defaults of Philip II of Spain. Ruling over one of the largest and most powerful empires in history, King Philip defaulted four times. Yet he never lost access to capital markets and could borrow again within a year or two of each default. Exploring the shrewd reasoning of the lenders who continued to offer money, the book analyzes the lessons from this historical example. Using detailed new evidence collected from sixteenth-century archives, the book examines the incentives and returns of lenders. It provides powerful evidence that in the right situations, lenders not only survive despite defaults—they thrive. It also demonstrates that debt markets cope well, despite massive fluctuations in expenditure and revenue, when lending functions like insurance. The book unearths unique sixteenth-century loan contracts that offered highly effective risk sharing between the king and his lenders, with payment obligations reduced in bad times. A fascinating story of finance and empire, this book offers an intelligent model for keeping economies safe in times of sovereign debt crises and defaults.


Author(s):  
Anne Nassauer

This book provides an account of how and why routine interactions break down and how such situational breakdowns lead to protest violence and other types of surprising social outcomes. It takes a close-up look at the dynamic processes of how situations unfold and compares their role to that of motivations, strategies, and other contextual factors. The book discusses factors that can draw us into violent situations and describes how and why we make uncommon individual and collective decisions. Covering different types of surprise outcomes from protest marches and uprisings turning violent to robbers failing to rob a store at gunpoint, it shows how unfolding situations can override our motivations and strategies and how emotions and culture, as well as rational thinking, still play a part in these events. The first chapters study protest violence in Germany and the United States from 1960 until 2010, taking a detailed look at what happens between the start of a protest and the eruption of violence or its peaceful conclusion. They compare the impact of such dynamics to the role of police strategies and culture, protesters’ claims and violent motivations, the black bloc and agents provocateurs. The analysis shows how violence is triggered, what determines its intensity, and which measures can avoid its outbreak. The book explores whether we find similar situational patterns leading to surprising outcomes in other types of small- and large-scale events: uprisings turning violent, such as Ferguson in 2014 and Baltimore in 2015, and failed armed store robberies.


Author(s):  
Kenneth Bo Nielsen ◽  
Alf Gunvald Nilsen

The chapter examines the fairness claim of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act (LARR), 2013. The author uses the utilitarian fairness standard proposed by one of the most influential American constitutional scholars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Frank Michelman, whose study of judicial decisions from an ethical perspective by introducing the concept of “demoralization costs” has shaped the interpretational debate on takings law in the United States. Michelman’s analysis is particularly relevant for the land question in India today since there is a widespread feeling that millions of people have been unfairly deprived of their land and livelihoods. The chapter looks at the role of the Indian judiciary in interpreting the land acquisition legislation since landmark judgments affect the morale of society. It concludes that using Michelman’s standard would help in bringing about greater “fairness” than what the new legislation has achieved.


2021 ◽  
pp. 089124162110218
Author(s):  
John R. Parsons

Every year, hundreds of U.S. citizens patrol the Mexican border dressed in camouflage and armed with pistols and assault rifles. Unsanctioned by the government, these militias aim to stop the movement of narcotics into the United States. Recent interest in the anthropology of ethics has focused on how individuals cultivate themselves toward a notion of the ethical. In contrast, within the militias, ethical self-cultivation was absent. I argue the volunteers derived the power to be ethical from the control of the dominant moral assemblage and the construction of an immoral “Other” which provided them the power to define a moral landscape that limited the potential for ethical conflicts. In the article, I discuss two instances Border Watch and its volunteers dismissed disruptions to their moral certainty and confirmed to themselves that their actions were not only the “right” thing to do, but the only ethical response available.


Author(s):  
Shefali Juneja Lakhina ◽  
Elaina J. Sutley ◽  
Jay Wilson

AbstractIn recent years there has been an increasing emphasis on achieving convergence in disaster research, policy, and programs to reduce disaster losses and enhance social well-being. However, there remain considerable gaps in understanding “how do we actually do convergence?” In this article, we present three case studies from across geographies—New South Wales in Australia, and North Carolina and Oregon in the United States; and sectors of work—community, environmental, and urban resilience, to critically examine what convergence entails and how it can enable diverse disciplines, people, and institutions to reduce vulnerability to systemic risks in the twenty-first century. We identify key successes, challenges, and barriers to convergence. We build on current discussions around the need for convergence research to be problem-focused and solutions-based, by also considering the need to approach convergence as ethic, method, and outcome. We reflect on how convergence can be approached as an ethic that motivates a higher order alignment on “why” we come together; as a method that foregrounds “how” we come together in inclusive ways; and as an outcome that highlights “what” must be done to successfully translate research findings into the policy and public domains.


1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Barbara Orlans

Attitudes toward the Three Rs concept of refinement, reduction and replacement in the United States in research and education are widely divergent. Positive responses have come from several sources, notably from four centres established to disseminate information about alternatives. Funding sources to support work in the Three Rs have proliferated. The activities of institutional oversight committees have resulted in the nationwide implementation of important refinements. In the field of education, student projects involving pain or death for sentient animals have declined, and the right of students to object to participation in animal experiments on ethical grounds has been widely established. However, there is still a long way to go. Resistance to alternatives is deep-seated within several of the scientific disciplines most closely associated with animal research. The response of the National Institutes of Health to potentially important Congressional directives on the Three Rs has been unsatisfactory. The prestigious National Association of Biology Teachers, which at first endorsed the use of alternatives in education, later rescinded this policy, because of opposition to it. An impediment to progress is the extreme polarisation of viewpoints between the biomedical community and the animal protectionists.


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