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On August 2, 2004, Citigroup traders based in the UK sold short more than $13 billion worth of government bonds only to buy them back seconds later at a profit of about $18.2 million dollars. This strategy was carefully planned, the consequences acknowledged by key participants, and it was profitable to the serious detriment of other market participants. The event is ethically questionable because it violates the spirit of European regulation. The purpose of this study is to investigate disclosures made by and about Citigroup surrounding a regulatory investigation into this short-sale within the contexts of legitimacy and institutional anomie theories.

Institutional anomie theory (IAT) explains the variation in crime at the societal level by the combination of cultural features, and the institutional balance of power between Economy and non-economic institutions. IAT has had empirical support at the national level as well as within country variation to explain both street and white-collar crimes. This study sought to explore embezzlement trends within IAT framework via the economic, family, political and educational institutions in Japan (1985-2005), a country that emulates some elements of American capitalism yet has strong collective cultural norms that is known for exerting strong informal social control. By converting the original rate data into z-scores the trends were standardized on the same scale, so variations in economic and structural conditions over time on Japanese embezzlement were easier to observe. The implications for IAT were discussed.

Despite the increase in terrorism research post September 11, 2001, little is known about domestic terrorism though it occurs at overwhelmingly higher rates as compared to transnational terrorism. Although the use of criminological theory and methods to study terrorism has increased recently, there are relatively few terrorism studies within the criminological literature. Drawing upon extant criminological theories of violence among countries, this study uses the recently created Global Terrorism Database to examine the distribution and correlates of domestic terrorism among 72 developed nations between 1970 and 1997. This study examined the following questions. First, do prior established predictors of criminal violence (i.e., economy, inequality, social welfare, political orientation, ethnic fractionalization, population, and pre-existing violence) also predict domestic terrorism at the country level? Second, is the relationship between these macro-structural and cultural variables in the same direction as found in the previously published literature? Using a series of contemporaneous cross-sectional analyses and lagged cross-sectional analysis, the results from this study indicate that there is considerable similarity between the correlates of cross-national homicide and correlates of domestic terrorism. There was considerable evidence for the relationship between population size and overall levels of domestic terrorism. This relationship was robust across short time intervals (1970s), the full time span (1970-1997), as well as in the long and short term lagged analyses (1970-1990 predictors of domestic terrorism in 1991-1997 and 1991-1994 predictors on 1995-1997 domestic terrorism). On the contrary I did not find evidence that large youth populations are significantly related to higher levels of domestic terrorism. Income inequality (GINI) also emerged as a significant correlate of domestic terrorism in the long and short term contemporaneous analyses. Those countries that had higher overall levels of income inequality for the entire time span also had higher levels of domestic terrorism, compared to those countries with low levels of income inequality. Contrary to theoretical expectations yet supportive of prior criminological research, this study found that stronger democracies actually have more domestic terrorism. In particular, those countries with more restrictions placed on executive decision-making power, tend to have more domestic terrorism events, compared to those countries with less restrictive executive decision-making processes. This study concludes with a discussion of the results within the larger criminological literature as well as future avenues of research.

The United States has unusually high rates of violence among developed nations, including the victimization of and perpetration by youth. Using Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) as the theoretical framework, this study analyzes the relationships between social institutions and crime and the interactive relationships among the institutions in a sample of Virginia localities. Multivariate analyses are conducted to produce additive and multiplicative models, and simple slope analyses are conducted to clarify interaction/moderation effects. Findings yield mixed support for IAT. Localities with higher levels of monthly welfare per recipient (a measure of polity) have lower juvenile violent crime arrest rates, and welfare moderates the relationship between income inequality and juvenile violent crime arrests. Controlling for all variables, no support was found for the direct effects of any other institution on juvenile violent crime arrests. Policy recommendations include maintenance of welfare programs and improvement of work participation supplementary programs.

Japan has been seen as a safe country in the world. Previous studies that show societal and cultural characteristics have contributed to the comparative low crime rates. Also, the roles of criminal justice system are critical. Today, Japanese society favors a more punitive approach towards offenders. The present study examined which variables of economic factors, socio-structural factors, and deterrence factors affected Japanese crime rates (i.e., homicide, robbery, and larceny), testing for Institutional anomie theory (IAT) and deterrence theory. I conducted visual examination of co-variation with Z-scores and an ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average), with Japanese governmental data from 1955 to 2012. The results indicated homicide rates were explained by neither IAT nor deterrence variables. Robbery rates were significantly related with unemployment rates and divorce rates, supporting IAT. Larceny rates were strongly associated with clearance rates, giving support to deterrence theory. Based on the results, practical implications and limitations were discussed.

The financial misconduct and corruption at the very top of the class system that in 2008 caused the collapse of the world economy saw no reaction from the criminal justice system. In contrast, the 2011 English Riots at the bottom rungs of society, estimated to have caused 200 million pounds of damages, produced a ruthless response from the judiciary where sentences were almost treble the usual rate. Politicians were quick to condemn the rioters as mere wanton criminals and framing their actions within a behavioural explanation calling for severe punishments. My thesis’s aim is to show that it was instead decades of neoliberal policies that pushed these people to vent their frustration through rioting. Their ensuing anomic ethic is understood by considering the rioters’ actions through the prism of both Strain Theory and Institutional Anomie Theory. To contextualise their place within today’s capitalist society I categorized them within an emerging social class: The Precariat. Through a qualitative analysis of 17 interviews’ extracts, all that transpired was their desires to be active consumers by grabbing what they could; the riots were merely an excuse to bypass the structurally imposed limits that stood before the desired higher social status. This research speaks of an increasingly unequal society, which positions individual economic success above collective well-being. These disturbances are symptoms of a deep seated malaise and of a stripped-down manifestation of what neoliberalism really is. To reverse it, we ought to implement holistic socioeconomic policies that empower people through the creation of secure and well-paid jobs, encourage collectivism over individualism and that promote better education towards sustainable living and happiness.

Unga Vuxna utanför arbete eller studier är ett fenomen som växer både nationellt- och internationellt vilket gör att det därmed krävs mer forskning för att skapa bättre åtgärder för dessa grupper. Denna studie har visat att konsekvenser som psykisk ohälsa i form av depression och svårigheter med att etablera sig på arbetsmarknaden är förekommande konsekvenser för Unga vuxna utanför arbete eller studier. För denna studie har semistrukturerade intervjuer utförts där tematisering av ämnet har skett. Med hjälp av den metoden har studien kunnat fokusera på ett delområde, konsekvenser i och med att intervjufrågorna förblev de samma för alla tre intervjuerna har en jämförelse i analysen bland svaren kunnat ske i studien. Studiens tre teorier differential association, anomiteorin och stigma har möjliggjort en koppling till lett resultat och diskussion. Denna studie har även påvisat att ytterligare forskning är nödvändig för att få en ökad förståelse över detta fenomen samt för att möjliggöra individuella kartläggningar av barns behov för att sedan kunna tillsätta rätt åtgärd.