published_or_final_version / Criminology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Thesis (LLD (Public Law))—University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Aggression is regarded as one of the core crimes under customary international law, but the definition of aggression is still contentious. At present there is no international instrument that provides for effective individual criminal liability for the crime of aggression. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) provides for the inclusion of the crime of aggression within the court’s jurisdiction, but the Statute needs to be amended to include a definition of aggression and conditions for the exercise of jurisdiction by the ICC. This dissertation seeks to identify the elements of the international crime of aggression, for purposes of individual criminal liability. It is submitted that the creation of the ICC provides the international community with an historic opportunity to establish effective jurisdiction over the crime of aggression.

<p>People outside of prison tend to imagine sex in prison as violent gang attacks on defenceless individuals, but in actual fact, sex in prison is more complicated than the isolated gang rapes that take place. For the purpose of this study, the researcher followed the qualitative research approach from a constructivist perspective to understand how participants portrayed or constructed their experiences of victimization and/or perceprion of rape.</p>

Since the inception of the Higher Education Reauthorization Act of 1998 by the United States Congress, there has been limited research conducted on parental notification policies on campuses of Higher Education concerning alcohol and drug offenses committed by students. This study surveyed parents of incoming freshmen at the University of North Texas regarding their perceptions of Parental Notification policies and their perceptions of underage alcohol offenses by gender, age, ethnicity, and parental status. The relationship between parental notification and underage alcohol offenses was also examined. This study, conducted in the summer of 2002, at the University of North Texas had 539 respondents. An instrument developed to determine parental perceptions of underage alcohol use and parental notification consisted of 20 dichotomous questions. Chi-square tests of independence were used to analyze the data because it could calculate the relationships between two sets of nominal data. Data show that most parents want to be notified in all situations involving underage alcohol offenses and their offspring. Generally, parents do not believe their offspring will use alcohol underage as they enter college and that they are not binge drinkers. Females want to be notified about their student's underage alcohol offenses at a higher rate than males. Males want to be notified at a higher rate than females if using alcohol jeopardizes housing or enrollment in school for their student. Native Americans have great concern for their students in all areas of alcohol use and binge drinking. Parents should stay actively involved in the lives of their offspring as they attend institutions of higher education as well as stay involved with the University community in which their student attends.

The problem of this study concerns the perception of the seriousness of corporate and property crime by groups from various social classes and groups with diverse exposure to prison. Hypotheses relating sex, race, age, exposure to prison, and social class to the perceived seriousness of the two types of crime are presented. In order that these hypotheses be tested, the 211 respondents from prison- and the 182 respondents from the general population ranked five corporate and five property crimes according to seriousness. The findings reveal no significant differences by sex, race, and age. Within all social classes and all categories of exposure to prison, no significant differences between the perceived seriousness of corporate and property crimes.exist.

The final thesis is focused on the environmental protection in the Czech republic in the field of criminal law. Chapters are concentrated on the explanation of the basic elements, relations and principles for better orientation in the issue of criminal law environmental protection (Chapter 2). It also analyzes the evolution of the environmental protection in the Czech republic, in the European Union and on the international level in general (Chapter 3). The final thesis is mostly focused on the subject of the substantive criminal law (Chapter 4). The elements of a crime are defined and analyzed. Furthermore the attention is directed towards a criminal liability and sanctions in case of a violation of the environmental protection rules covered by criminal law justice. In its final chapter, the thesis concentrates on the procedural part of the criminal law (Chapter 5).

Le développement des technologies de l’information et de la communication s’est accompagné de l’apparition de phénomènes violents et/ou infractionnels, qui se tiennent sur, ou grâce à, Internet. Existe-t-il une spécificité de ces conduites de cyberviolence, qui s’inscrivent dans ce que l’on nomme cyberespace ? La psycho-criminologie et la cyberpsychologie seront convoquées afin de proposer une réponse à cette question. Le présent travail étudiera, dans une approche clinique et qualitative, des situations d’infractions à caractère sexuel envers mineurs réalisées sur Internet. Ce travail proposera, à partir des données recueillies, une grille de lecture de la cyberviolence, qui s’intéressera au rapport du sujet auteur d’infractions avec la conduite infractionnelle, la victime, et le cyberespace. La cyberviolence naît d’une rencontre, celle d’un sujet vulnérable avec un cyberespace porteur d’opportunités. Il s’agira alors d’interroger cette rencontre, afin de saisir les processus et les dynamiques qui l’animent. / The development of information and communication technologies was followed by the emergence of violent and/or offensive phenomena that exist on or thanks to the Internet. Is there a specificity to these behaviors of cyberviolence, which are rooted in what one calls cyberspace? This question will be answered partly thanks to psycho-criminological and cyberpsychological theories. This work takes a close look at sex offences against minors on the Internet. Thanks to the collected data, this work will offer a perspective on cyberviolence, with an interest in the relationship between the offender and the offence, the victim, and cyberspace. Cyberviolence arises from an encounter between a vulnerable subject and a cyberspace bearing opportunities. This encounter will thus be questioned, in order to understand the process and dynamics it stems from.

O corrente estudo intenta investigar o escopo das alterações realizadas pelo governo do Estado de São Paulo na instituição responsável pela execução das medidas socioeducativas de internação no Estado. Tais alterações foram consubstanciadas, especialmente, na mudança de nomenclatura da Fundação Estadual do Bem Estar do Menor (FEBEM) para Fundação Centro de Atendimento Socioeducativo ao Adolescente (Fundação CASA). Esta alteração possibilitou trazer para o sistema de execução das medidas socioeducativas aportes teóricos e metodológicos, resultantes, tanto do processo de municipalização quanto das relações de parcerias que a nova fundação estabeleceu. Estas alterações tinham em vista a adequação da Fundação CASA aos princípios da Constituição Federal e do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, consubstanciados no SINASE. A pesquisa se iniciou em 2004 se estendendo até o ano de 2009. Foram observadas 15 unidades, sendo cinco delas pertencentes ao Complexo Raposo Tavares - que faz uso de modelos tradicionais de aplicação da medida - e as demais, fora da Capital - que fazem uso de novos modelos pedagógicos, de gestão e arquitetônico. Para a coleta dos dados foram utilizados métodos tais como a observações direta e indireta, visitas in loco, entrevistas com gestores, agentes de segurança, educacionais e da equipe técnica, além de conversas informais com adolescentes e funcionários. / The current study intends to investigate the scope of the changes made by the government of the State of Sao Paulo in the institution responsible for the implementation of educational measures of confinement in the State. These changes were especially implemented based on the name change (from Fundação Estadual do Bem Estar do Menor FEBEM - to Fundação Centro de Atendimento Socioeducativo ao Adolescente - Fundação CASA). This change has allowed the implementation of social-theoretical and methodological measures in the system, resulting from both the municipalization process and partnerships that the new foundation has established. These changes aimed the adequacy of the CASA Foundation to the principles of the Federal Constitution and the Statute of Children and Adolescents, based on SINASE. The research began in 2004 and ended in 2009. 15 units were observed, five of them belonging to the complex Raposo Tavares - which use traditional correctional measures - and the others, outside the capital which use new pedagogical, management and architecture models. For data collection, methods such as direct and indirect observations, site visits, interviews with administrators, security officers, educational and technical staff, and informal conversations with people and officials were used.

La mise en œuvre de la prescription de l’action publique n’est pas, en principe, subordonnée à la connaissance de l’infraction par les personnes pouvant déclencher les poursuites pénales. Le législateur retient en effet comme point de départ du délai de prescription le jour de la commission des faits et non celui de leur découverte. Cette règle connaît toutefois une exception lorsque l’infraction est dite clandestine. Parce que le ministère public et la victime n’ont pas pu avoir connaissance de l’existence de cette infraction, la prescription ne court pas tant que les faits ne sont pas apparus et n’ont pu être constatés dans des conditions permettant l’exercice de l’action publique. L’exception de clandestinité empêche donc le temps de produire son effet destructeur sur l’action publique. Sa mise en œuvre évite ainsi que certaines infractions restent impunies par le seul jeu de l’écoulement du délai. S’il ne fait aucun doute que la clandestinité d’une infraction constitue un obstacle à la prescription de l’action publique, la notion même de clandestinité reste à circonscrire. Elle recouvre en effet, en droit positif, de multiples réalités qui rendent impossible sa systématisation. Aux termes de la recherche, il apparaît que le critère déterminant de la clandestinité consiste dans l’ignorance légitime de l’existence de l’infraction par les personnes habilitées à mettre en mouvement l’action publique. En application de l’adage contra non valentem agere non currit praescriptio, cette ignorance caractérisée devrait autoriser le report du point de départ de la prescription de l’action publique de toute infraction au jour où les faits peuvent être constatés par le ministère public ou par la personne lésée. / In criminal matters, the setting of the time limit for prosecution is theoretically not subject to the knowledge of the offense by the people who can trigger criminal proceedings. Indeed, according to the law, the starting point of the said time limit period is the day the offense was committed, and not the day it was discovered. However, an exception to this rule exists when the offense is said to be clandestine. When both the prosecutor and the victim could not have know of the existence of this offense, the time-limit period does not run until the facts appear and can be noticed in the same conditions. An exception of clandestinity prevents time to produce its destructive effect on the prosecution. It avoids certain offenses to remain unpunished by the single flow of time. Undoubtedly, clandestinity is an obstacle to the prosecution of an offense. Yet, the notion itself remains to be circumscribed. In substantive law, clandestinity refers to a wide variety of realities ; its systematization is thus impossible. In a prospective approach, a criterion is to be found in the justifiable ignorance of the offense by those who can initiate a criminal action. Under the adage “contra non valentem agere non currit praescriptio”, this specific ignorance allows postponement of the starting point of the time limit for prosecution of any offence on the day on which the facts have been noticed by the prosecutor or the victim.

This study investigates changes in rates of property crime in the United States from 1958 to 1993. Predictor variables include changes in rates of economic factors (inflation, technological/cyclical/frictional unemployment), arrest rates for property crimes disaggregated by race (ARPCDR), interaction of ARPCDR and technological unemployment, alcohol offenses, interaction of alcohol offenses and poverty, drug abuse violations, and interaction of drug abuse violations and poverty. Changes in poverty, population growth, and police presence are employed as control variables. The Beach-McKinnon Full Maximum- Likelihood EGLS AR1 Method (accompanied by residual analysis) is used to test seven hypotheses. Significant positive effects upon changes in aggregate property crime rates are found for five predictors: (a) inflation, (b) cyclical unemployment, (c) frictional unemployment, (d) the interaction of white arrest rates and technological unemployment, and (e) the interaction of rates of alcohol offenses and poverty. To explain changes in property crime rates, further research should decompose aggregate rates particularly those pertaining to the economy. Also, the relationship between the interaction of poverty and drug abuse violations, at the aggregate level, and changes in property crime rates should be clarified. This research has important policy implications related to the impact of social, economic, and educational issues on mainstream society and its criminal elements. Law makers should consider this type of research in all macro and micro-oriented policies.