The Victimology of State Crime

States have been committing crimes and victimizing people since the advent of the state itself. Yet it has only been since the 1990s that criminologists have turned their attention to describing, theorizing, and analyzing state crimes. While the study of state crime has made significant progress since then, the same is not true for the victimology of state crime. Currently, the victimology of state crime does not represent a cohesive subfield within criminology or victimology. Nevertheless, drawing upon essential works from criminology, victimology, other disciplines like human rights law, as well as established subfields like critical criminology, critical victimology, and the state crime literature, the victimology of state crime offers essential insights into the nature of mass victimization by states. Although much work remains, the victimology of state crime literature has created a solid foundation for lines of future scholarship and inquiry.

Determinants of cyber-safety behaviors in a developing economy

In a world increasingly driven by digital technology, cyber-safety is becoming a pressing concern for Internet users. This article contributes to sociological, psychological, and criminological literature on digital risks by investigating the determinants of individuals’ cyber-safety behaviors. Our study adds new insights to digital inequalities studies, cognitive health behavior models, and fear of crime literature by developing and testing a comprehensive theoretical model in a developing economy (Uruguay). To validate our model, we fit structural equations with data from the 2017 WIP+DiSTO Uy survey, a representative sample of Uruguayans (N=653). We found that operational digital skills were the strongest predictor of cyber-safety, while also providing support for the sequentiality of the digital divide hypothesis, as education and age-based disparities affect cyber-safety through their effect on Internet use, which in turn affects digital skills. Additionally, findings contribute both to cognitive behaviors and fear of crime literature, by attesting that gender and age-based disparities only have an indirect effect on cyber-safety, which is mediated by user beliefs regarding the severity of cyber-victimization. The study also provides evidence for the generalization of cyber-safety behavior theories — originally formulated based on data from developed economies — to developing ones, by stressing the role of digital skills and perceptions of victimization severity as the main direct antecedents of cyber-safety.

A Review of Gang Literature

Having outlined the purpose of the book in Part I, in the last chapter, chapter 2 reviews existing US and British gang literature. This chapter breaks down the gang concept and analyse literature form three resulting perspectives: the environment; the structure; and activities. This allows aspects of the gang to be analysed while also accounting for a holistic picture as well. The chapter then looks to explain how research has gradually brought closer concepts of ‘the gang’ and ‘drug harms’ - in that drug distribution has become a central feature when conducting gang research. After reviewing gang research the chapter then provides a brief overview on organised crime literature. This explains how aspects of the gang, at all levels, has come to be tied to various aspects of organised crime terminology. As a consequence, such perceptions retain potentially net-widening and criminalising properties.

Corruption crime and punishment: evidence from China’s state corruption audits

Purpose This paper aims to answer the following two research questions: Do corruption cases present different features before and since the new administration in China? How are criminal penalties affected by these corruption features? Design/methodology/approach The investigation is based on the online disclosure of 269 state corruption audits and their consequences, which have been made public by China’s National Audit Office since 2011. By manual coding, these official reports were analyzed, and an appropriate-sized sample of corruption cases was chosen. The authors then adopted Welch’s t-test and regression model methods to test the research hypotheses relevant to the two research questions. Findings The authors find that larger embezzlement or bribery amounts and more organizational corruption cases have been detected and punished since the anti-corruption campaign was launched by the new administration. They also conclude that significantly tougher criminal penalties were given to corruption cases involving large monetary amounts, that bribery cases were more harshly punished compared to other occupational crimes and that individual perpetrators received tougher criminal penalties than organizational criminals. In addition, the authors observe a trend that criminal penalties for corruption have been increasingly harsher in recent years. Research limitations/implications The limitations of this study are quite clear as the Chinese corruption cases in this sample only include state corruption audit cases and does not refer to high-profile corruption cases investigated by the Central Commission of Discipline Inspection. However, this study suggests that state corruption audit results are a good research sample, which can be used to extend empirical tests to archival data acquired from state audit practices and can encourage more studies on public sector auditing and occupational financial crime. Practical implications State corruption audits can be an effective approach to successful anti-corruption campaigns, and the conclusions can be useful to policy makers and legislators in China and other developing countries. Originality/value This paper bridges some gaps in the existing financial crime literature. First, this study on corruption features is located within the context of a political administrative change; second, the state audit is highlighted as a supervising agency in the anti-corruption campaign; and third, the authors’ contribution adds to the empirical testing of data sets of state corruption audits within the existing financial crime literature.