Corruption and control: a corruption reduction approach

Published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13590791211266377Purpose – Corruption is a significant financial crime which is estimated by the World Economic Forum to cost about 5 per cent of global GDP or $2.6 trillion dollars. Explanations of corruption, like explanations of crime, tend to focus on the individuals who commit corruption and the wider conditions which give rise to corrupt behaviour. Approaches designed to reduce corruption usually propose stiffer sanctions, institutional reforms and the passing of new laws. The purpose of this paper is to outline a complementary perspective with which to consider corruption. Design/methodology/approach – Grounded in situational crime prevention and related criminological theory, the paper argues that opportunities in the immediate environment play a causal role in generating corruption. It proposes that corruption can be minimised by removing or reducing opportunities which are conducive to corrupt behaviour. In total, five cases are chosen as illustrative examples of how situational crime prevention might usefully be applied to corruption, focussing on the Type, Activities, Sectors and Places (TASP) that comprise corruption events. Findings – A framework is developed for the empirical study of corruption in local settings. Originality/value – The paper explores how situational crime prevention can usefully inform the analysis and prevention of corruption

Evidence-based policing and police receptivity to research: evidence from Taiwan

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate how evidence-based policing (EBP) is understood by police officers and citizens in Taiwan and the influence of police education on police recruit's receptivity to research evidence in policing. / Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a cross-sectional design that includes Taiwanese police officers (n = 671) and a control group of Taiwanese criminology undergraduate students (n = 85). A research instrument covering five themes is developed, and after a pilot test the final scale remains 14 items. / Findings: The analysis suggests that police officers in Taiwan generally hold a positive view towards the role of research and researchers in policing, more so than is often observed in similar studies conducted in Western countries. Receptivity to research was found to be significantly higher among the non-police sample compared to the police sample. Moreover, time spent in police education was significantly associated with lower levels of receptivity to research. / Originality/value: The paper makes two original contributions to the literature on police officer receptivity to research. It is the first paper to (1) empirically examine police officers' openness to, and use of research in an Asian setting and (2) to compare police officers' receptivity to research with those of a relevant non-police group

The diffusion of police innovation: A case study of problem-oriented policing in England and Wales

There is significant evidence demonstrating that when done well, problem-oriented policing is associated with meaningful reductions in crime and public safety concerns. And yet, history shows that the implementation and delivery of problem-oriented policing is challenging, and that police organisations have generally not adopted it and even when they try to it is often rejected over time. This article draws on the concept of ‘diffusion of innovation’ (Rogers, E. (2003) Diffusion of Innovations, 5th edn. New York: Free Press) to unpick aspects of the processes through which problem-oriented policing has been adopted or otherwise among police forces in England and Wales. This article shows how factors related to the nature of problem-oriented policing – notably its incompatibility with prevailing norms and values of the police service, its complexity and unobservability – have influenced its adoption. Implications are also discussed

Further evidence on the extent and time course of repeat missing incidents involving children: A research note

This study examines the extent and time course of repeat missing incidents involving children. Using data from one UK police force (n = 2,251), we find (1) that the majority (65%) of missing incidents are repeats, (2) that a small group of repeatedly missing children (n = 43; 6%) account for a sizable proportion of all missing incidents (n=739, 33%) and (3) that the likelihood of a child going missing repeatedly is elevated in the weeks immediately following a previous missing incident. The implications of our findings for future research and for the prevention of missing incidents are discussed

Project MARGIN: Conceptual report: defining the indicators defining demographic, socioeconomic and socio-geographic determinants of insecurity

In Deliverable 2.1 of the MARGIN project, a database was collated to enable a comparative analysis between police recorded crime data and crime victimisation surveys across five European countries. In the present report, we present such an analysis in order to identify a range of demographic, socioeconomic, and socio-geographic determinants of insecurity. The available data enable two dimensions of insecurity to be addressed. The first, victimisation, can be measured through two sources: police recorded crime data and responses to questions regarding victimisation in a crime victimisation survey. This dimension of insecurity is known in the MARGIN project as the objective dimension as it attempts to capture individuals’ actual experiences with crime. The second, perceived insecurity, relates to questions in the crime victimisation survey surrounding respondents’ thoughts about crime, safety, and how their perceptions about crime alter their habits. This aspect is known as the subjective dimension. It has been shown previously that, although related, perceived insecurity and victimisation capture different aspects of insecurity. Moreover, there are some instances where people who have a very small risk of experiencing victimisation in fact have very high levels of perceived insecurity (see Doran and Burgess (2012) for a review). In this report, we analyse consistencies in the MARGIN database with respect to a range of indicators of insecurity. It is important to determine indicators of insecurity in order to identify marginalised communities who tend to experience a disproportionate amount of victimisation and who also have high levels of perceived insecurity and fear of crime. Identification of such communities can enable directed policies to reduce levels of insecurity. The results of this analysis are intended to inform the development of the MARGIN victimisation survey being developed in Work Package 4. In what follows, we first conceptualise the objective dimension by examining victimisation rates across the different study areas, as obtained from both police recorded crime and victimisation survey data. Next, we consider the subjective dimension by considering questions relating to different aspects of perceived insecurity. After describing a number of problems that arise when attempting to directly compare questions across the different victimisation surveys, we turn to the identification of a range of demographic and socioeconomic indicators which we find to be associated with particular aspects of perceived insecurity. We present the results of a range of regression analyses performed with this data. Finally, we discuss a range of potential sociogeographic indicators of insecurity, focusing particularly on the example of street robbery in Barcelona. We also discuss a range of other points to be considered in the identification of marginalised communities

A systematic review of tagging as a method to reduce theft in retail environments

Background: Retailers routinely use security tags to reduce theft. Presently, however, there has been no attempt to systematically review the literature on security tags. Guided by the acronym EMMIE, this paper set out to (1) examine the evidence that tags are effective at reducing theft, (2) identify the key mechanisms through which tags are expected to reduce theft and the conditions that moderate tag effectiveness, and (3) summarise information relevant to the implementation and economic costs of tagging. Methods: In this mixed-methods review, we performed systematic keyword searches of the published and unpublished literature, hand searched relevant journals, conducted forward and backward citation searches and consulted with four retailers. Studies were included if they reported an explicit goal of reducing the theft or shrinkage of items through the use of security tags in retail environments. Results: We identified 50 eligible studies, eight of which reported quantitative data on the effectiveness of tags in retail environments. Across these eight studies, five showed positive results associated with the introduction of tags, but heterogeneity in the type of tag and reported outcome measures precluded a meta-analysis. We identified three mechanisms through which tags might plausibly reduce theft-increase the risks, reduce the rewards, increase the effort-which were found to vary by tag type, and their activation dependent on five broad categories of moderator: retail store and staff, customers (including shoplifters), tag type, product type, and the involvement of the police and criminal justice system. Implementation challenges documented in the literature related mainly to staffing issues and tagging strategy. Finally, although estimates are available on the costs of tagging, our searches identified no highquality published economic evaluations of tagging. Conclusions: Through applying the EMMIE framework this review highlighted the complexity involved in security tagging in retail environments, whereby different kinds of tags are expected to reduce theft through different casual mechanisms which are dependent on a distinctive configuration of conditions. Based on the available evidence it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of tags as a theft reduction measure, albeit there is suggestive evidence that more visible tags are associated with greater reductions in theft than less visible tags

Project MARGIN: Factors affecting insecurity

The research undertaken in Work Package 3 has identified a number of indicators of insecurity following the analysis of victimisation surveys and police recorded crime data from each study region of the MARGIN project. From this analysis, it is clear that insecurity is a multi-faceted concept, with different factors acting at the individual, neighbourhood and even country levels. Despite this complexity, the analysis has identified several robust correlates of insecurity that should be focused on in the subsequent research of the MARGIN project. In this report, we discuss these factors with the intention of guiding future research. Work package 3 was designed to undertake analysis of the MARGIN database. Resulting from this analysis, a taxonomy to enable the selection of two neighbourhoods in each of the five cities of the MARGIN project—in which future research will be conducted—was defined. More detailed descriptions of these findings can be found in Deliverables 3.1 – 3.3. In this report, we give an overview of our findings and comment on how they largely conform to concepts and trends found in the existing research literature (which overwhelmingly focusses on trends within rather than between countries). We also discuss the limitations of our findings. Many of these limitations are familiar problems associated with cross-national comparisons of administrative surveys with little consistency in survey design. A further factor limiting any survey based research is that there will inevitably be questions that could have been asked but were not. In the final part of this report, we consider whether there are any areas of enquiry that could usefully be included in the MARGIN survey, which would help us to further understand the emergence of insecurity within marginalised communities

Missing children: risks, repeats and responses

Investigating reports of missing children is a major source of demand for the police in the UK. Repeat disappearances are common, can indicate underlying vulnerabilities and have been linked with various forms of exploitation and abuse. Inspired by research on repeat victimisation, this paper examines the prevalence and temporal patterns of repeat missing episodes by children, as well as the characteristics of those involved. Using data on all missing children incidents recorded by one UK police service in 2015 (n = 3352), we find that: (a) 75% of missing incidents involving children were repeats, i.e. attributed to children who had already been reported missing in 2015; (b) a small proportion of repeatedly missing children (n = 59; 4%) accounted for almost a third of all missing children incidents (n = 952, 28%); (c) over half of all first repeat disappearances occurred within four weeks of an initial police recorded missing episode; and (d) children recorded as missing ten times or more over the one year study period were significantly more likely than those recorded missing once to be teenagers, in the care system or to have drug and/or alcohol dependencies. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research and the prevention of repeat disappearances by childre

Vehicle Exhaust Remote Sensing Device Method to Screen Vehicles for Evaporative Running Loss Emissions

Vehicle hydrocarbon (HC) emissions can be emitted from either tailpipe or non-tailpipe locations and understanding their fleet apportionment is important for successful air pollution policy. Vehicles initially misidentified as having elevated tailpipe HC emissions first indicated that roadside exhaust sensors could detect the presence of evaporative HC emissions as increased noise in the HC/carbon dioxide (CO2) correlation measurement. The 90th percentile of the largest residual of the HC/CO2 correlation is defined as a running loss index (RLI) for each measurement. An RLI that is three standard deviations or greater above the instruments noise indicates possible evaporative running loss emissions with the probability increasing with larger RLI values. Two databases of vehicle emission measurements previously collected in West Los Angeles in 2013 and 2015 were screened using this method. The screening estimated 0.09% (31/33,806) and 0.18% (49/27,413) of the attempted measurements indicated evaporative running loss emissions from a 9-year-old fleet. California LEV I certified vehicles (1994 – 2003 model years) accounted for the largest age group for both. Minimum detection limits for the instrument used were estimated at 2.8 and 1.6 g/mile on a propane basis for the 2013 and 2015 data respectively or 32 to 56 times the Federal Tier 2 and Tier 3 standards of 0.05 g/mile

A configurative synthesis of evidence for fear in the criminal decision-making process

This paper reviews what previous research has found on the role of fear and other associated feelings in the criminal decision-making process, and the techniques that might plausibly amplify such emotions so as to reduce or disrupt intent. To this aim, we conduct a systematic review of the offender decision-making literature (23 studies), incorporating a qualitative synthesis of the role of fear in the criminal decision-making process. The results section is formed of six parts based on dominant themes identified in our eligible studies, namely evidence of fear in offender decision-making, the presumed sources of fear, variation in levels and/or the effect of fear across offenders, the specific role of fear across aspects of the crime process (before, during, after), the results of fear and offender fear management processes. We conclude with a discussion of the implication for crime prevention policies