Women’s Safety Concerns and Academia: How Safety Concerns Can Create Opportunity Gaps

The present work documents the safety concerns of men and women in academia and how these concerns can create opportunity gaps. Across five samples including undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty ( N = 1,812), women reported greater concerns about their safety than did men, and these concerns were associated with reduced work hours in libraries, offices, and/or labs afterhours. Additionally, although we were unable to manipulate safety concerns among women, in an experiment with men ( N = 117), increasing safety concerns decreased willingness to use the library afterhours. Finally, in an archival study of swipe access data ( N = 350,364 swipes), a crime event that made safety concerns salient for women was associated with a decreased likelihood that women worked in their office afterhours and a decreased likelihood that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics women worked in their labs later at night. Collectively, these data suggest that women’s safety concerns can restrict their work.

Our love was a two-person game. At least until one of us died, and the other became a murderer: sexual homicide perpetrated by intimate partners

Purpose The analysis of previous studies showed that research pertaining to the examination of the crime scene and Modus Operandi variables in intimate partner homicide (IPH) is scarce. Additionally, to our knowledge, there are no studies investigating sexual homicide perpetrated by intimate partners. This study aims to address that void. Thus, the study examined various components of the crime event and as such, it was exploratory in nature. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of male sexual killers, who perpetrated against pubescent female victims (14 years old and over) and served a custodial sentence within Her Majesty’s Prison Service in England and Wales. Variables for the study were chosen on the basis of previous research examining IPH and sexual homicide. Descriptive analyses were used in this exploratory study. Findings Descriptive analyses indicated that the most prevalent aggravating circumstances in the lead up to the killing included conflict with the victim before the offence and substance use by the perpetrator around the time of the killing. Stalking was present in approximately a quarter of cases. The results of the analyses of sexual behaviours showed that in 54.9% of the sample the act of killing was purely instrumental whereas in 39.4% of the sample the underlying drive of the act of killing was closely related to the sexual aspect. Originality/value This is a unique study on a topic not yet explored.

Out-group Threat and Xenophobic Hate Crimes - Evidence of Local Intergroup Conflict Dynamics between Immigrants and Natives

This study examines the relationship between crimes attributed to immigrants and hate crimes against refugees at the local level. We argue that localized crime events attributed to immigrants can lead natives to exact retribution against uninvolved out-group members. We investigate such intergroup conflict dynamics between immigrants and natives in Germany, a country that has in recent years experienced a sharp increase in both the foreign-born population and hate crimes. Our empirical analysis leverages fine-grained geo-coded data on more than 9,400 hate crimes and 60,000 immigrant-attributed crime events between 2015 and 2019. Using a regression discontinuity in time design (RDiT), we show that the daily probability of hate crimes doubles in the immediate aftermath of an immigrant crime event in a local community. Additional evidence points to mobilization rather than legitimization as a likely mechanism. Our results speak to growing concerns about xenophobic violence in Western democracies.

Forensic diagnostics: Concept, meaning, and scope of implementation

The current stage of development of forensics is described by an active search for the latest cognitive methods and tools, which fully include forensic diagnostics. The relevance of the subject matter is conditioned by the need to form a modern terminology of the forensic science, further development of the scientific concept of forensic diagnostics, and prospects for creating an appropriate forensic teaching. The purpose of the study is to analyse modern scientific approaches to understanding the concept of forensic diagnostics, its features, structure, integrative functions, and differences from other paired forensic categories. To achieve this goal, such general scientific and special research methods as dialectical, historical, Aristotelian, system-structural, sociological, statistical, the method of legal forecasting and modelling, system and semantic analysis were used. It is proved that the term «forensic diagnostics» should be considered in practical and theoretical terms. In practical terms, forensic diagnostics is a method of recognising the state of objects, cognition of phenomena and processes related to the circumstances of the crime event, determined by the latter. This is a kind of tool at the disposal of an expert, investigator, detective, judge to know the object (event, phenomenon) by its reflection. In the theoretical sense, forensic diagnostics is considered as a separate forensic teaching, which constitutes a system of theoretical provisions on the regularities of recognising objects (situations) by their features and properties, based on the analysis of changes that occurred in them under the influence of the circumstances of the crime event and its participants, in order to carry out evidence in criminal proceedings. It is noted that the theoretical basis of forensic diagnostics comprises information on the patterns of occurrence of diagnosed objects, data on typical models of event reflection (action, behaviour). It is noted that forensic diagnostics as a separate forensic teaching (theory) is at the stage of its development, constantly increasing its scientific potential and expanding the scope of practical implementation. Further development of the theory and practice of diagnostic research involves systematisation and classification of diagnostic features and sets of features of objects, events, phenomena in accordance with the solution of diagnostic problems, classification of typical situations, development of methods and techniques of diagnostic research

Let’s Get Ready to Rumble: Assault in Space and Time

Building on the growing literature of the spatial examination of criminality, this study examines the stability of crime related to mass gathering events over time. Specifically, we examine the impacts of baseball games on assault patterns in the Bronx and Queens, New York, using a nonparametric permutation approach to examine the spatial distribution of point patterns at the neighborhood level over multiple seasons. Findings demonstrate that Mets and Yankees game days have significant impact on the number of assaults when compared to a sample of similar non–game days providing further support for environmental criminological theories. Implications for practitioner use of the tool as well as its use as a method for researchers who seek to compare crime event patterns across several temporal bandwidths are discussed.

ON THE TAXONOMY OF COURTROOM NARRATIVES

The study is based on the assumption about the narrative nature of courtroom discourse and aims at analyzing the structure and varieties of courtroom narrative. Courtroom narrative is defined as a way of organizing courtroom discourse whose propositional content is a story with crime event elements included in this story in their chronological sequence that correlate with reality and the speaker’s experience. Four classification criteria for courtroom narrative practices are proposed: 1) the degree of completeness; 2) the ways of description; 3) the type of determinants; 4) the way of reality representation. By the degree of completeness, there are complete and truncated narratives; by the way of description - neutral and evaluative; by the type of determinant - phenomenological and professional; by the way of representing reality - narrative construction and narrative reflection. The article concludes that the study of courtroom narrative is a promising research field, since there are avenues for researchers such as the status of interpretive schemes in the narrative, narrative structures in different legal cultures, the ratio of narrative and recontextualization.

THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL FEATURES AND ENVIRONMENT ON CRIME IN URBAN NEIGHBOURHOOD AREAS

The physical design of features and environment will stimulate a safe and sustainable development of the neighbourhood. Despite possessing a proper form, a private space which does not control and keep could even raise fear and crime incident. Therefore, this study planned to analyse the fear, perception and potential feature that caused the crime event in neighbourhoods. Three years of burglary data got from the Royal Malaysia Police helped to explain the crime trend and pattern. Besides, a statistical analysis conducted to examine the fear level and perception towards crime incident using a set of questionnaires. Next, the potential features and visibility level examined in the unit of a house that has experienced the burglary event. The purpose is to find any element that can affect crime event. Results prove that actual crime data not associated with fear and perception of the crime. Besides, accessibility, visibility and crime pattern were the key elements to consider for crime prevention.

Fraud reporting in Catalonia in the Internet era: Determinants and motives

Fraud has been identified as one of the most prevalent property crimes in the Internet era and underreporting represents one of the most pressing challenges to prevention and policing. Like fraud itself, the issue is not new and therefore traditional findings and approaches designed to foster reporting may also be applicable to online fraud. This study performs a series of regression models to analyse data on fraud victims from two editions of the representative Catalan Public Security Survey. The aim is to identify and compare socio-demographic, context and crime event determinants of online and offline fraud reporting, as well as the reasons for not reporting. Thus, the article contributes to the literature regarding cybercrime and traditional crime a/symmetries. The findings show that, surprisingly, online fraud is reported at a higher rate than offline fraud, mainly owing to the greater odds of being considered a crime by the victim. In general, fraud reporting appears to involve a rational component because financial and non-financial harms and the expected utility of reporting are more relevant to the decision than socio-demographic factors. In addition, the most common reasons for not reporting refer to the opportunity costs of doing so. The demographic predictors of online reporters show only slight differences from their offline counterparts, but more associations are found regarding the reasons for not reporting. Finally, the implications for policy are discussed.