Thesis--Wisconsin. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 46-48).

This thesis investigates the practices and compositions of gangs in Greater Manchester, England. Primarily drawing from qualitative data gathered in two adult, men's prisons, it explores gang members' activities, how these practices develop on 'the street', and how they are later affected by imprisonment. The thesis also explores the links between race, geographical area and gang affiliation, analysing how a gang member's racial background and area of origin may relate to his gang. The results show the strong influence of gangs at the sample prisons, and how gangs affect the ways in which prisoners negotiate the carceral space: violent practices, gang allegiances and rivalries developed on 'the street' are regularly transplanted into prison. These high levels of gang 'importation' into the sample prisons result in the social and cultural significance of street gangs often penetrating prison walls. Area of origin and shared racial background are strong unifying 'banners' under which many prison gangs operate, and violence is an integral part of life in 'the gang'. However, reflecting the academic literature, gang members often contest the terminology around 'gangs', showing the polarized discourse around these topics. The thesis attempts to resolve some of these debates by presenting a comprehensive gang typology shaped by theory and prisoners' testimonies.

Thesis (M.P.A.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1998. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2938. Abstract appears on leaves 2-3. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis is an investigation into the effects of the 1992 böryokudan countermeasures law (böryokudan taisaku ha or, more simply, bötaihö) on Japan's organised crime syndicates (böryokudan or yakuza). Underlying this examination is a functionalist perspective of organised crime which rests on the premise that, far from being unambiguously socially dysfunctional, organised crime groups exist because they satisfy needs held by various sections of society (both in the upper and underworlds). This approach demystifies many of the supposedly unique aspects of the böryokudan/yakuza (such as yakuza-authority symbiosis) and places Japan within the compass of modem organised-crime studies. An empirical overview of the böryokudan's development from 1945 to 1992 shows that the prime dynamic behind this evolution has been the legal and law-enforcement environment within which these groups exist and that frequently the impact of these changes has been socially undesirable. Attempts to examine whether or not the bötaihö has similarly exacerbated organised criminality in Japan are hampered by the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in 1990. This event had profound consequences for boryokudan groups rendering many activities unviable, whilst simultaneously creating new opportunities. Despite these extraneous considerations, the bötaihö has had an observable impact on many aspects of the böryokudan's activities and some of these consequences have been socially undesirable. The legal analysis of the bötaihö is placed in the wider context of international organised-crime control measures, in particular America's RICO statutes and European laws, both of which were highly influential in the debate within Japan concerning the framing of new anti-böryokudan laws. The thesis concludes by arguing that the radically different structure of the bötaihö, vis-ä-vis these alternative models, is part of a wider reversion to pre-war legal and policing norms in which, in addition to enforcement of the criminal law, the police also exercise considerable administrative powers.

The gang has been a focal concern in UK media, political discourse, policy, and policing interventions in the last decade, occupying the position of contemporary ‘folk devil’. Despite the heightened attention on urban ‘gang culture’, sociological research on gangs in the UK is limited. However, some sociologists do stress a deterministic relationship between gangs and black urban youth, rendering urban men a source of fascination and repulsion, easy scapegoats in explaining street violence. Arguably, current work that privileges the idea of gang membership misunderstands much about the lives of some men involved. This thesis contributes to correcting that misunderstanding. The study adopts a social constructionist perspective in understanding the (multiple) ways urban men in an inner city area of London construct their lives when immersed in what they refer to as being ‘on road’, a symbolic space in which everyday lives are played out. As a broadly ethnographic study, the data for the thesis were generated using participant observation and semi-structured interviews with a range of participants, including young and adult men. The study identifies three distinct ways in which some men become trapped in difficult experiences and identities ‘on road’. It focuses on the implications of the notion of ‘trappedness’ on their experiences in public space, employment opportunities and, self- identity. The ‘on road’ lives of the men in the study represent a paradox: the road appears to offer opportunity to build masculine identity but entangles them further in a trap, restricting freedom and stunting personal growth. This study has significance for sociological theory. Theoretically, the idea of being ‘on road’ can be understood as a discourse that persists in the language and symbolism that flows through these men’s experiences and narratives. As such the idea of ‘onroadness’ powerfully shapes all aspects of their lives. It is argued that more focus is needed on the psychosocial factors that force some men into volatile social worlds, and the personal contexts that frame local narratives of ‘on road’ culture, especially within wider experiences of friendship, faith, and identity. The thesis suggests that this form of analysis offers a critical explanatory framework within which it is possible to understand the lives of some of the young and adult men in certain inner city areas in the UK.

<p>Over the past few decades, issues of school violence and crime have received international attention. High profile events, such as the Columbine or Virginia Tech school shootings, have led schools and boards of education world-wide to create and implement numerous policies and procedures in an attempt to keep students safe. However, data on school violence trends demonstrate a far more equivocal situation. School violence trends demonstrate stability over time at low levels of actual violence. In this dissertation, I attempt to account for the gap between the high number of school responses and the relatively low and stable trends in the prevalence of school crime and violence. Three main hypotheses, stemming from the culture of fear, institutional theory, and confirmatory bias, account for this gap. The culture of fear hypotheses suggests that the gap has been created by widespread fear that is pervasive, decoupled from the ecology of school crime and violence, and generated widely by the mass media. Although this is a cultural theory, institutional theory takes an organizational approach to account for this gap. Institutional theory suggests that the gap has been created by institutional processes of schools seeking legitimacy and reflecting how centralized hierarchies respond to the institutional environment, where fear takes a more loosely coupled form, and can be sensitive to the ecological variation of school crime and violence. The third hypothesis is a cognitive one, and suggests that confirmatory bias processes are the mechanisms by which scattered and sporadic acts of school violence receive large scale exposure, and therefore not only are able to generate cultures of fear, but also serve to legitimate policy. These three hypotheses are tested using a mixed-methods approach, including 66 interviews with key-players associated with schools (students, teachers, administrators, and parents), descriptive analyses of existing survey data (e.g., National statistics; Safe Schools Survey), and a content analysis of the media’s presentation of issues surrounding school crime and violence. This mixed methods approach provides a unique and holistic approach to test these hypotheses, asking several different research questions of various levels of analysis (from the individual to the community). Explaining the gap between school violence trends and school responses provides a unique contribution to the literature: it furthers our understanding of the complexities associated with school safety; it operationalizes and tests the culture of fear theory which, to date, has not been accomplished, and; it utilizes institutional theory and confirmatory bias in new ways, by applying them to issues of school safety.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Hur påverkar högre utbildningsnivå brottslighet? Den här uppsatsen undersöker effekt av eftergymnasial utbildning på våldsbrott respektive stöld-, rån- och häleribrott. Vår första hypotes är att eftergymnasial utbildning har en minskande effekt på våldsbrott genom högre alternativkostnad av brott samt att psykologiska faktorer påverkas positivt. Vår andra hypotes är att eftergymnasial utbildning har en ökande effekt på stöld-, rån- och häleribrott via högre avkastning till följd av mer kunskap för planering och utförande av denna typen av brott. Vidare förmodas en högre utbildningsnivå  generera mer tillgänglig egendom vilket leder till tilltagande incitament för stöld-, rån- och häleribrott. Förhållandena analyseras ekonometriskt med paneldata över Sveriges 21 län under tidsperioden 2000 till 2008. Prais-Winsten estimering används för skattning av linjär regression, där kontrollvariabler för bland annat demografi och arbetsmarknadseffekter inkluderas. Resultatet visar att eftergymnasial utbildning har en signifikant negativ effekt  på våldsbrott. Vi finner vidare att verkan av eftergymnasial utbildning på stöld-, rån och häleribrott är signifikant positiv. / How does higher education affect crime? This thesis examines the effect of post-secondary education on crime of violence and property related crime. Our first hypothesis is that a higher education level reduces crime of violence through higher opportunity costs and that psychological factors are affected in a positive way. Our second hypothesis is that a higher education level raises the return of property related crimes and therefore increases the same. This is due to more knowledge to be used for planning and execution of this type of crime and that the available property is assumed to be of a greater magnitude, which in turn leads to higher incentives for property related crime. The relationships are being econometrically analyzed with panel data consisting of observations of the 21 Swedish regions over the time period 2000 to 2008. The method of Prais-Winsten estimation is used to estimate a linear relationship, controlling for variables such as demographic and labor market effects. The results show that a higher education level has a significant negative effect on crime of violence. Furthermore we find that the effect of a higher education level on property related crime is significantly positive.

Bakgrund: Forensisk omvårdnad handlar om gränslandet mellan omvårdnad och rättssystem. Våldsutsatta patienter är vanligt förekommande i dagens sjukvård. Sjuksköterskor bör ha en grundläggande förståelse för forensiska frågor för att garantera patienters säkerhet och möjliggöra bästa möjliga vård. Syfte: Syftet var att belysa sjuksköterskors kunskap kring forensisk omvårdnad. Metod: En allmän, systematisk litteraturöversikt har genomförts enligt Fribergs (2022) metod. Åtta artiklar har analyserats och bearbetats. Som teoretisk referensram har Jane Watsons omsorgsteori (1992) använts i diskussionsdelen. Resultat: Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskor upplever brister i utbildning och tillgång på verktyg som kan användas i det forensiska arbetet. Utan kunskap om forensisk omvårdnad är det svårt för sjuksköterskor att identifiera dessa patienter och ge dem rätt omvårdnad. Avsaknad av rutiner och protokoll leder till att sjuksköterskor har svårt att upptäcka våldsutsatta patienter, ta hand om bevis och säkerställa god omvårdnad. Slutsats: Våld innebär konsekvenser för våldsutsatta, familjer och samhällen, både fysiska, psykiska och ekonomiska. Sjuksköterskor behöver få utbildning och rätt verktyg för att kunna ge värdig vård åt denna patientgrupp. Med ett bättre samarbete mellan vården, rättsväsendet och samhället skulle våldsutsatta patienter få den vård de har rätt till och befrias från onödigt lidande. / Background: Forensic care deals with the interface between nursing and the legal system. Patients of violence are common in today's healthcare system. Nurses should have a basic understanding of forensic care to ensure patient safety and provide the best possible care. Aim: The aim was to highlight nurses' knowledge about forensic nursing. Method: A general, systematic literature review was conducted according to Friberg's (2022) method. Eight articles have been analyzed and processed. Jane Watson's theory of care (1992) has been used as a theoretical frame of reference in the discussion section. Results: The results showed that nurses experience a lack of training and access to tools that can be used in forensic care. Without knowledge of forensic care, it is difficult for nurses to identify these patients and provide them with the right care. The lack of procedures and policy documents makes it difficult for nurses to identify patients of violence, handle evidence and ensure good nursing care. Conclusions: Violence has physical, psychological and economic consequences for victims, families and communities. Nurses need training and the right tools to provide dignified care to this patient group. With better cooperation between health, justice and society, forensic patients would receive the care they deserve and be spared unnecessary suffering.

The aim of the theses is to elaborate on the problematics of theoretical aspects of victims of criminal acts. The work's main concern is the area of problematics of workplace victimization. This topic shall therefore be investigated deeply in the theoretical part of the theses as well. The practical part of the work will depict and process the specific characteristics of the mentioned problematics and in relation to it workplace victimization of employees of Czech Republic's Employment Bureau will be further looked on. In the theses we mention and define the basic terms connected to the chosen problematics. The aim of that is to point out their importance in relation to other disciplines, especially those which are related to victimological research and problematics of victims of criminal acts. Nowadays, the topic of workplace victimization, in other words victimization undergone when in work, is more and more frequently researched and looked up by laics, academic people and even the media. The dominant of the second part of the theses is a focus on employees of Czech Republic's Employment Bureau. In the work we analysed, from the data provided by the Bureau, the criminal or violent incidents which happened on the workplace there. The data set chosen originated from the Moravskoslezský region, as...

The aim of this study is to assess the implementation of the Youth Crime Prevention Desk (YCPD) programme in the Ekurhuleni North Cluster in Gauteng. Since the Social Crime Prevention Strategy was introduced in the South African Police Service (SAPS), no study has been conducted in the organisation to assess whether this strategy has yielded the expected results in line with its objectives. Data was collected by means of in-depth interviews as well as focus group interviews with Community Policing Forum (CPF) members, YCPD programme community volunteers, SAPS social crime prevention coordinators, Department of Community Safety (DoCS) social crime prevention coordinators and a station commander in the Ekurhuleni North Cluster. These participants are closely involved with the YCPD programme and freely expressed their views, understanding, knowledge and beliefs in relation to the implementation and associated activities of the YCPD programme. In addition, the researcher conducted a comprehensive literature study of the national legislation, SAPS policies and directives that oversee and promote social crime prevention in South Africa, as well as library resources and international studies. Various objectives were fulfilled in the execution of this study:  It was determined that social crime prevention guidelines are not complied with regarding the implementation of the YCPD.  It was determined that the YCPD is not achieving its proposed aims and objectives. In addition, this study and its results provide a framework for mitigating the challenges encountered during the implementation of strategies for improving the establishment of the YCPD in the Ekurhuleni North Cluster. The findings of the research indicate that the YCPD programme has not been effectively implemented within the Ekurhuleni North Cluster, since it became evident that the YCPD role-players are confronted by various challenges, which impede the proper implementation of the programme. Based on the findings of this study, a Youth Crime Prevention Desk Implementation Framework was developed. This framework could serve as a guideline advising the South African Police Service, Department of Community Safety, Community Policing Forums and Youth Crime Prevention Desk programme’s community volunteers in the Ekurhuleni North Cluster how the implementation of the programme could be improved. This framework could also contribute towards further identifying best practices with a view to benchmarking such a framework in other areas in South Africa. This study makes a significant contribution to the improvement of the implementation of the Youth Crime Prevention Desk programme in the Ekurhuleni North Cluster and to youth social crime and violence in general. / Police Practice / D. Litt. et Phil. (Police Science)