Policing organized crime : a new direction

Recent criminological research in the Netherlands underscores the fact that organized crime is embedded in society and the overall picture makes it clear that police emphasis on a crime fighting model of the police, based solely on criminal law will not be entirely effective. Therefore, the Twente police force developed a new strategy of policing organized crime in their region. This strategy is based on criminological knowledge and on the approach of community policing: preventive, pro-active and integrated actions taken by various partners of the police in order to reduce illegal activities of organized crime groups. This strategy, however, can only succeed when two conditions are satisfied. First, this approach can only function in an open democratic society in which numerous public and private organizations and the public feel responsible for the emergence of organized crime in their environment. Secondly, the police force and their partners must be (relatively) free of corruption. This implies that this strategy can only be effective in societies in which organized crime has not deeply penetrated democratic institutions and business organizations

Percepciones de justicia por mano propia y confianza en la policía

Este artículo describe una prueba empírica de la asunción común que confianza en la policía afecte percepciones de justicia por mano propia. Aparte de testear el papel de la confianza difusa (general) en la policía, también testeamos si la reacción de la policía en un nivel situacional afecte como el público ve un acto subsiguiente de justicia por mano propia. En un estudio experimental (N = 385), participantes recibieron una viñeta (un caso específico) sobre justicia por mano propia. Usando un diseño inter-sujeto, variamos la reacción policial al delito original (activa/pasiva) y la violencia del justiciero (alta/baja). Encontramos que con más confianza difusa en la policía hubo menos apoyo para el vigilantismo. Adicionalmente, los otros factores experimentales tuvieron un impacto importante. Los ciudadanos están sensitivos a la variación situacional cuando juzgan un delito. Además, nuestros resultados ponen énfasis en la importancia de la acción policial al nivel situacional en la formación de la opinión pública.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Differential association theory reconsidered: an extension and its empirical test

In 1974 the German methodologist Karl-Dieter Opp expounded and expanded Sutherland's differential association theory. In this article an empirical test of this version of the theory is presented based on data for 1196 boys and girls in the age range 12 to 17 years. Furthermore, some new and additional theoretical specifications about the social influence of others on the individual, all in accordance with the original ideas of Sutherland, are proposed and empirically tested. The differential association theory according to the version of K.-D. Opp is fairly well corroborated by the data. Only three of the postulated relationships are rejected. The theory explains 51% of the variance of criminal behavior, even considering that no “criminal” population is used for the test and only minor offenses are measured. The test also shows that the impact of the frequency of contacts with deviant behavior patterns on the development of positive definitions and on the frequency of communication about relevant techniques is substantial and cannot be ignored by criminologists. Furthermore, special analyses show that several propositions favor the theory. It is the deviancy of others that has the most substantial impact: the more youngsters have contact with their friends, the stronger the impact of the deviancy of their friends on the development of positive definitions or on the frequency of communication about techniques. The tests also show that the more youngsters identify themselves with others, the stronger will be the impact of the deviancy of the others on their norms. These results support the modification of the DA theory according to Opp and falsify some propositions of social control theory