This investigation seeks to evaluate the impact on individuals, and society, of Self-Generated Images (SGI’s) in online pornography. It presents an inquiry into the extent, and modes, of SGI use among a large sample of adult internet users. This form the initial platform for a theoretical analysis of the rapidly emerging topic, alongside an empirical investigation into how SGI’s are used, and criminally abused. A mixed research method strategy was consequently adopted, employing a quantitative anonymous online survey (Stage 1), qualitative face-to-face interviews with serving Metropolitan Police Service officers in the SOECA unit (Stage 2), and qualitative Skype interviews with active SGI users (Stage 3). The thesis is divided into three main sections. Firstly, in chapters one-to-four, the context for this study into SGI’s is explained, including the specific UK statute laws regarding licit and illicit pornographic images. Commonly used pornographic terminologies are defined. Furthermore, existent research on the topic of SGI’s/online pornography is scrutinized, and several theoretical issues are given a discourse in relation to SGI’s. An analysis of the free speech/online pornography debate is included, together with an examination of the criminal abuse of SGI’s. The second part, chapter five, provides a rationale for the adoption of a mixed research methods strategy in pursuing the aims of this study. Many methodological issues regarding the three stages of the primary fieldwork are addressed; these include: ontology, epistemology, research paradigms and axiology, ethical underpinnings, practical considerations, and the strengths and limitations of methods chosen. In the third section, chapters six-to-eight, the study’s key findings include a taxonomy of the six main types of SGI. Passive SGI viewing is very pervasive, particularly among the key demographic groups of younger adults, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) and males, and may be becoming the norm. Free PornTube websites are predominately used; but also, increasingly, social network sites (SNS’s) and messaging/image sharing apps. Most adults use SGI’s safely for sexual stimulation; however, some use them for educational and humorous purposes. For a minority of active creators of SGI’s, disastrous personal consequences can result because of subsequent criminal abuse, including cyber-bullying/trolling, sextortion, etc. Gay and bisexual men have highly accelerated rates of SGI use on hooking-up sites, often leading to hazardous risk taking. Children face grave dangers from making and sharing sexualised SGI’s as online child sexual abuse (CSA), grooming and sextortion, etc. may transpire. In the UK’s schools, Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE), and Sex and Relationships Education (SRE), are in a parlous state regarding the issues and dangers of SGI’s. Finally, this inquiry provides some original insights into the areas of applying and generating theories, using mixed research methods, and the empirical findings uncovered.

This thesis explores two topics. Chapter 1 evaluates leniency programmes in light of crime and corruption. Chapters 2 and 3 explore the issue of delegation of authority in the presence of non-contractible costs. In chapter 1, we evaluate Leniency Programmes (LPs): forgiving self-reporting criminals, in a society of heterogeneous criminals and heterogeneous bureaucrats. Social welfare goes up immediately after the LP is introduced as supply (size and composition of bureaucrats) is held fixed. In the intermediate run, some bureaucrats leave the agency because they lose a source of income (bribe) causing a dip in the welfare. However, we observe that welfare can go up in the long run. Chapter 2 focuses on delegation of authority using a principal-agent model. Agents have private information (signals) relevant for making a correct decision. Agents and principal incur non-contractible costs if a wrong decision is made. We characterize truth-telling equilibria. Among other cases, we see what happens when agents have asymmetrical non-contractible costs and the principal also incurs a non-contractible cost. Our main result is that there are situations where the principal delegates the decision making authority to the agent whom she is less aligned with in terms of preferences (non-irrelevancy) provided there is a sufficient degree of information asymmetry between the two agents. Chapter 3 extends the analysis of chapter 2 to situations where truth-telling equilibria does not exist. Information is not aggregated efficiently under non truth-telling because of the incentive constraints of the agents. We show that the non irrelevancy result arises in this chapter when the signal precisions of the two agents are equal.

The problem with the populist approach to the question of corruption that focuses on micro-institutional changes is that it regards corruption as a top-down incentive-design problem. This approach, which is informed by the principal-agent theory, emphasises the need to restrain bureaucrats and politicians by changing incentive structures. This entails dealing with institutional factors that affect the decisions of individuals through compliance-enhancing policy measures. One of the problems with this approach is that it focuses on formal institutions whereas in reality, public officials respond to a mix of formal and informal constraints. Hence, comprehending corruption and its causes requires going beyond analysing the functioning of formal institutions that structure individual behaviour and constrain their decision-making preferences, to evaluating the complex network of informal institutions so as to gain a better understanding of the incentives driving individual behaviour. This thesis argues that the best way to conceptualise the problem of corruption is as a process in socio-economic and political development that is more than a problem of individual morality or market imperfections. Consequently, it is argued that by analysing corruption as part of a broader process in a society's socio-economic structure, societal power relations that sustain the process and the institutions that have been internalised can be better understood, thus leading to more effective anti-corruption strategies. In order to address the theoretical gap and explain the potential impact of formal institutions in constraining corruption or the role of informal institutions in the persistence of corruption, this thesis broadens the institutional analysis to include both formal and informal institutions.

Transnational crime is an increasing phenomenon in a diverse and complex late modern societies. This research explores responses to transnational crime in Vietnam, and the place and role of efficiency, fairness and legitimacy therein. Its purpose is to assess the effectiveness and the legitimacy of the policing system for the investigation of transnational crime in Vietnam. Documentary sources and qualitative research interviews are undertaken to identify and evaluate the compliance with effectiveness and legitimacy in the investigation of transnational crime in Vietnam, within laws, policing strategies, and practices of the investigation of transnational crimes. In addition, a comparative research method is used at some points in the research to suggest possible policy transfers from England and Wales into Vietnam. To attain this objective, the research investigates the phenomenon of transnational crime and the extent to which it impacts on transnational crime investigations in Vietnam. Using a ‘cosmopolitanism’ perspective and its key ethical values of effectiveness, fairness and the rule of law, this research first analyses the policing institutional arrangements that are responsible for transnational crime investigation in Vietnam. The research then focuses on the criminalisation of transnational crime and the impact of this on transnational crime investigations. Next, the research considers the legal powers of the police in transnational crime investigation, and assesses the empowerment of investigatory powers to the police, as well as the effectiveness, fairness and the rule of law of those investigatory powers for effective and fair transnational crime investigations. Finally, this research provides conclusions to suggest that the policing system for investigating transnational crime can be advanced considerably by adopting changes based on standards of legitimacy and effectiveness.

No description available.

The economic approach to crime issues is a recent field of research, which spawned from Becker’s (1968) seminal work. In this PhD thesis we contribute to the existing literature with three original research papers. The first paper deals with an under-explored field of research, namely the origins of the Sicilian Mafia. We follow an approach closer to that of historians such as Lupo (2004) and Pezzino (1987). In their work, Mafia was strictly linked with the socio and economic struggles amongst emerging classes which took place after the end of feudalism. We tested this hypothesis using a new measure of Mafia activity and new explanatory variables derived from previously under-explored primary sources. Our key findings are that Mafia was likely to be active in councils dominated by large properties, with high land values, lower density of population and where there were few peasants who owned the land. In the second paper, we explore the channels that favoured the expansion of Italian gangs in the centre and north of Italy in the second half of the XX century. We empirically investigate the role of forced re-settlement and migration through the creation of a panel dataset at the provincial level for the period 1983-2008, again using data from previously under-explored primary sources. Consistent with the community network approach (Bauer and Zimmermann, 1997; Moretti, 1999), we find that migration is by far the most important predictor of Mafia presence in the hosting provinces. In the final paper, we evaluate the impact of trust on crime in five Caribbean countries: Jamaica, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Dominican Republic. We use individual data taken from Americas Barometer for 2010, which contains information on victimization experiences. In order to tackle endogeneity we employ an instrumental variable approach. The results show that our measure of trust exerts a crime reducing effect on property but not violent crimes. As we argue in the introductory chapter, all three contributions could be considered in the light of the new institutional economics approach. In particular, both organised crime and social capital provide extra legal solutions to securing property rights.

This research critically engages with the long-term protection of trafficked persons. In particular it assesses whether, and the conditions under which, trafficked persons can be considered as refugees under the Geneva Refugee Convention. The importance of international refugee law in this context is determined both by the number of trafficked persons seeking international protection and by its suitability to overcome the shortcomings of existing protection provisions in anti-trafficking instruments which remain discretionary, conditional and limited in scope. Trafficked persons, as examples of modern victims of human rights abuse par excellence, are examples of who refugee law- with its humanitarian and human rights imperatives- should be protecting. This thesis demonstrates that while a liberal interpretation of the refugee definition has been attempted by lawyers and courts alike to cover trafficked persons, a significant number of trafficking-based claims could be made out even if a more restrictive interpretation is adopted. It builds on judicial decisions from a variety of jurisdictions to elaborate on the fundamental inter-sectionality of issues and instruments which should underpin any assessment of trafficking based asylum claims. After a brief introduction to the content and structure of the thesis, Chapter 1 provides an overview of the definitions and legal context for the research, as well as outlines the methodological approach. Chapter 2 engages with the existing protection provisions under the anti-trafficking instruments, arguing that alone they are insufficient to adequately protect trafficked persons and that refugee law offers a viable alternative. Chapters 3 to 5 discuss the three main components of the refugee definition as applied to trafficked persons namely: well-founded fear (including [lack of] State Protection), persecution and the Convention ground nexus. Chapter 6 elaborates on the relevance of exclusion and cessation clauses to traffickers and trafficked persons who commit serious offences, whilst Chapter 7 examines some of the procedural issues in the context of determining throughout the thesis as briefly outlined above.

Violence is widely associated with organised crime, specifically drug markets, and is one of the features that differentiates illegal capitalism from legitimate business. This thesis is informed by a series of ethnographic interviews and informal conversations with former drug market participants and examines the causes of business related violence Dublin’s illegal drug trade. The research also investigates the interpersonal dynamics of violence amongst actors and provides insight into the characterological traits of violent people. The thesis begins with an examination of the role of violence amongst addicts in the street retail market and situates violent acts in the context of a compulsive disorder that suppresses moral standards and diminishes sympathy with victims. The relationship between profit oriented dealers and their often addicted customers is analysed to understand the intricacies of debt enforcement in the drug trade, and the thesis offers an explanation of dealers violence that is, at least in part, a response to the credit based system of commerce that the trade depends on. Paranoia is rampant amongst actors in the drug trade and they often suspect betrayal from within their own circle of friends and associates. Further, many of these men have a great sense of self-regard and are highly sensitive to the humiliation of personal insult. The research also looks at the violent practice of the more powerful actors in the illegal drug trade; the dominant criminals who maintain their positions for many years and accumulate great wealth. Many of these men suffer as a result of their way of life and can experience deterioration of their psychological health and emotional wellbeing as a result of living with the intense pressure of interpersonal conflict. Desistance from crime is possible for some of the men who have been very violent in the pursuit of profit and power.

This thesis examines the evolution of the animal rights movement and its impact on the pharmaceutical research community. It explores the methods used by animal rights activists and the development of its tactics. It considers the approaches adopted by the research community and presents an analysis of their behaviours and processes applied. The research and analysis of the results is based on semi-structured interviews achieving saturation with 20 participants from within the community. The greatest challenge to this research has been gaining access to a closed practitioner community through the necessary development of specific networks and gatekeepers. This research has been the first to gain access to this community. Those engaged are drawn from universities, contract research organisations (CROs), equipment manufacturers, and strategic security advisers. The research identified organisations within this community as operating in three distinct ways in their responses to the animal rights movement. These have been defined as: passenger; pilot; and engineer. The findings highlight that the guidance available provided no specific instruction with regard to the threat presented by the animal rights movement. The data shows that the primary targets are CROs and Equipment Manufactures, who have generally acted in a reactive way, and are denominated as pilots. The university sector has generally received limited attention and security strategists have experienced no actual attacks. Both groups are considered ineffective in their approach and identified as passengers.

Gang violence in London is an increasing problem that has gained momentum in the last two decades. Finding workable solutions to reduce gang violence or interventions in the current economic climate is a constant challenge for practitioners. This study examines the use of mediation as a tactic for reducing gang violence. Through data analysis, outcomes of this intervention are explored. The initial research conducted shows that there is a significant correlation between reductions in violent reoffending between those referred for mediation and those not referred. Further analysis of 17 semi-structured interviews conducted in the UK suggests that individuals do not have to engage in the mediation process for it to have an effect. Very often, the fact that an individual has been referred will be sufficient to deter continued violent offending. This research suggests that the implications for practice requires a unified co-ordinated response to violence that includes the proactive provision of joined up activity from the authorities, such as education, housing, health, social services and employment agencies. Their services need to be adequately funded, properly resourced and intelligently delivered in order to provide the necessary support required to end the cycle of gang related violence and offending generally.