Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

1
Comparative Criminal Justice Systems

• CRIME, TRANSNATIONAL CRIME, AND JUSTICE
• CHAPTER TWO
• Reichel

2
Questions

• Why measure crime
• and compare crime data ?
• What do comparative criminoligists study?
• What do comparative criminal justice
• scholars study?

3
Limits of Comparative Criminal Justice

• Variation in crime rates (crime as a social
  phenomenon) must first be established before
  behavioral explanations (crime as social
  behavior) are offered.

4
Limitations of International Crime Data

• Underreporting social and political reasons
• Nonstandard Definitions
• Differences in collection and recording
  practices inconsistencies and politics

5
Underreporting

• Social Reasons
• Citizens fail to report many crimes because of
• No insurance
• Accessibility to police
• Limited telephone access
• Fear of reprisals fear or dislike of police
  (mistrust)
• Wish to protect the perpetrator
• Not serious/no loss
• Different social norms in different countries,
  i.e., rape in U.S. and Mexico

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Underreporting(contd)

• Political Reasons
• Countries fail to report crime because
• Some countries lack the technical resources and
  knowledge necessary to report crime data.
• Some countries are concerned that crime data will
  negatively affect their nations world standing
  or tourist trade.
• Some countries are concerned that crime data will
  indicate a weakness in their political
  philosophy.
• Some countries are too involved in civil war to
  keep track of crime problems.

7
Nonstandard Definitions

• Major issue
• Determining what is a crime versus what is legal
• Interpol and the United Nations request
  countries report to report crime according to
  their categories, however, this creates confusion
  and controversy.
• Laws and legal codes in some cases are so
  different that it is difficult to make
  comparisons, i.e., rape Italy and Croatia.
• In other words, comparing a specific crime in two
  countries may not actually compare similar acts.

8
Differences in Collection and Recording Practices

• Styles of different interviewers and recorders
  may vary considerably.
• Inconsistency in crime data collection and
  recording by police departments (both within and
  across countries).
• Countries in developing countries lack manpower
  and technology to efficiently collect, record,
  and report crime data.
• Many countries do not have a unified criminal
  justice system, thus they may not be able to
  collect crime statistics on a national level.
• Some countries count crimes when they are
  reported to police, other countries count crimes
  when police forward them for prosecution.

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Data Sets for Crime Comparison

• Interpol data
• Council of Europe surveys
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime surveys
• United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and
  Operations of Criminal Justice Systems
• International Crime Victim Survey

10
Crime Trends

• Crime survey results cannot be used to rank
  countries, they are appropriate for assessing the
  direction of change in crime.
• In other words, they are useful
• for identifying trends over time.

11
Questions

• Does the availability of guns influence a
  countrys violent crime rate?
• Why would homicide rates be a reliable indicator
  of that crime across countries whereas many
  crimes are not comparable indicators ?

12
Transnational Crime

• It is difficult to define transnational crime,
  however, it normally includes the reliance of
  several individuals and groups in many countries
  working together to complete the crime. It often
  has an organized component, i.e., transnational
  organized crime.

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Transnational Crime Types

• Aircraft Hijacking
• Computer crime/cyber crime
• Corruption and Bribery of public and political
  officials
• Environmental crime
• Drug Trafficking
• Arms Trafficking

• Money Laundering
• Sea Piracy
• Theft of art and artifacts
• Trafficking in persons
• Trafficking in human body parts
• Terrorism

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Characteristics of Terrorism

• Distinction between domestic and international
  terrorism, i.e., Oklahoma City September 11,
  2001.
• Political in aims and motives.
• Exploitation of fear (terror) through violence or
  the threat of violence.
• Psychological effects (fear through
  intimidation).
• Perpetrated by a subnational group or non-state
  entity.

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Characteristics of Terrorism(contd)

• Designed to create power when there is no power.
• To terrorists, there are no rules of warfare or
  codes of conduct.
• The goal is that through the publicity generated
  from their violence, terrorists will have the
  leverage to effect political change.
• Perpetrated by some organizational entity with an
  identifiable chain of command capable of
  conspiratorial conduct.

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Terrorism Typologies

• Nationalist seek to form a separate state for
  their own national group, i.e., freedom fighters.
  Examples include IRA, Basque Fatherland and
  Liberty, and Kurdistan Workers Party.
• Religious use violence to further what they
  believe are divinely commanded purposes a
  spiritual rather than a military objective.
  Examples include Al-Qaeda, HAMAS, Hezbollah,
  Aum Shinrikyo.

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Terrorism Typologies(contd)

• State-Sponsored Used by radical states as
  foreign policy provide a cost effective way to
  wage war covertly through terrorists, i.e., U.S.
  embassy Tehran (1979). States considered to
  sponsor terrorism include Cuba, Iran, Iraq,
  Libya, North Korea, Sudan, Syria.

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Terrorism Typologies(contd)

• Left-Wing, Right-Wing, and Anarchist Left-wing
  groups seek to destroy capitalism and replace it
  with a communist social regime. Right-wing
  groups seek to create fascists states.
  Anarchists are revolutionaries who seek to
  overthrow all forms of government. Examples
  include Left-Wing (Red Brigade, Baader-Meinhof
  Gang, Japanese Red Army) Right-Wing (Neo-Nazis,
  skinheads, white supremacists) and, Anarchist
  (contemporary anti-globalization groups).

19
Question

• Why should we care about
• transnational crime?
• What is the general response toward transnational
  crime - both in the U.S. and in other countries?