Assessing the missing data problem in criminal network analysis using forensic DNA data

Missing data is pertinent to criminal networks due to the hidden nature of crime. Generally, researchers evaluate the impact of incomplete network data by extracting or adding nodes and/or edges from a known network. Statistics on this reduced or completed network are then compared with statistics from the known network. In this study, we integrate police data on known offenders with DNA data on unknown offenders. Statistics from the integrated dataset (‘known network’) are compared with statistics from the police data (‘reduced network’). Networks with both known and unknown offenders are bigger but also have a different structure to networks with only known offenders.     

Crime, Crime News, and Crime Views

This paper compares police, newspaper, television, and publicimages of crime trends for the seven FBI index crimes over time,the relative frequency of occurrence of these offenses, andthe characteristics of persons committing them. Media presentationsof crime trends over time are found generally unrelated to trendsin police statistics. Newspaper presentation of the relativedistribution of crimes approximates police figures more closelythan does the television presentation. Public views of the relativedistribution of crimes but not of crime trends more closelyapproximate media presentations than police presentations. Television'simpact on public views of crime is apparently minor. Reasonsfor these findings and their implications for crime news reportingare discussed.     

Examining Gambling-Related Crime Reports in the National Finnish Police Register

The aim of this study is to examine the connection between gambling and criminal activity in the National Finnish Police Register. First, a method was created that enabled the search for gambling-related police reports in the National Finnish Police Register. The method is based on finding gambling-related police reports by using gambling-related headwords. Second, all police reports from 2011 that included any mention of gambling were read through (n = 2,233). Suspected gambling-related of crimes (n = 737) were selected from these reports. Those suspected gambling-related crimes were then described and categorized into six different categories: suspected online-related crimes; suspected crimes that were related to lifestyle-gaming; suspected crimes that involved a gambler as a victim of a crime; criminal activity related to problem gambling; casino-connected crimes, and intimate partnership violence resulting from gambling problems. This study, being the first in Finland, generated information on the connection between gambling and criminal activity from the perspective of police reports. Moreover, the study highlights methodological issues that are involved in studying police reports.     

Narratives of Crime and Criminals: How Places Socially Construct the Crime Problem1

A common narrative about crime in the contemporary United States is that offenders are primarily young black men living in poor urban neighborhoods committing violent and drug‐related crimes. There is also a local context to community, crime, and fear that influences this narrative. In this article, I address how narratives of crime and criminals play out differently within particular places. The article is based on participant observation and interviews conducted in two high‐crime Boston‐area communities. Although both communities are concerned with stereotypical offenders, there are differential community constructions of crime, formed through interactions between crime narratives and place identities. In one, crime is a community problem, in which both offenders and victims are community members. In the other, outsiders commit crime against community members. Media portrayals of crime and community, community race and class identities, and concerns over neighborhood change all contribute to place‐specific framing of “the crime problem.” These frames, in turn, shape both intergroup dynamics and support for criminal justice policy.     

Self-report to self-control? A note

This note establishes that escalating penalty regimes with the option to self-report crimes may allow present-biased offenders to obligate themselves to refrain from committing future crimes. Self-reporting of a committed crime increases the expected costs of future criminal opportunities, possibly allowing offenders to deter their future selves from seeking immediate gratification.     

THE INFLUENCE OF CLASS POSITION ON THE FORMAL AND INFORMAL SANCTIONING OF WHITE-COLLAR OFFENDERS

Although researchers have investigated formal legal reactions to white-collar crime, few data exist on informal reactions to white-collar lawbreakers and how these reactions influence sentencing decisions. Even so, commentators often assert that whitecollar offenders receive lenient criminal penalties because judges sympathize with such offenders due to the losses they incur through informal sanctions. In this light, a causal model is used to explore the influence of class position on an important informal sanction—loss of job—and the influence of loss of job on sentence severity. Class position is found to determine the likelihood of loss of job but not that of incarceration. Further, offenders who commit large-scale offenses are less likely to suffer loss of job than those who commit small-scale crimes. Social reactions to white-collar crime are inconsistent, and class position more strongly influences informal, nongovernmental social control than social control through law.     

Spatial and temporal aspects of alcohol-related crime in a college town

OBJECTIVE: The authors aimed to clarify crime "movement" through the city of Madison to focus efforts to address consequences of student drinking. The authors examined all crime reported by police during the 2003 year. METHODS: Using geographical information system (GIS) mapping and 2003 crime data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the city of Madison, the authors investigated the relationships among high-density alcohol outlets and various city neighborhoods. RESULTS: Different categories of crime showed different temporal and spatial patterns: Serious crimes peaked between 2 and 3AM, coinciding with bar closing time. Less serious crimes peaked between 11PM and midnight. Reports of vandalism peaked in the morning and afternoon. "Hotspots" for different crimes moved throughout the downtown. Results were consistent with problems associated with high-risk student drinking in college communities. CONCLUSION: These results and maps generated by GIS led directly to changes made by city and university officials to address high-risk drinking.     

An exploration of the relationship between police presence,crime and firms in developing countries

Economic theory predicts that a rise in police presence will reduce criminal activity. However several studies in this field have found mixed results. This study adds to the literature by exploring the relationship between the size of the police force and crime experienced by firms. Using survey data for about 12,000 firms in a cross‐section of 27 developing countries it is found that increasing the size of the police force is negatively associated with crime experienced by firms. Results are confirmed using a panel of firms for a subset of countries for which data are available. It is also found that this negative relationship is stronger under certain macroeconomic circumstances.     

Spatial and Temporal Aspects of Alcohol-Related Crime in a College Town

Objective: The authors aimed to clarify crime "movement" through the city of Madison to focus efforts to address consequences of student drinking. The authors examined all crime reported by police during the 2003 year. Methods: Using geographical information system (GIS) mapping and 2003 crime data from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the city of Madison, the authors investigated the relationships among high-density alcohol outlets and various city neighborhoods. Results: Different categories of crime showed different temporal and spatial patterns: Serious crimes peaked between 2 and 3AM, coinciding with bar closing time. Less serious crimes peaked between 11PM and midnight. Reports of vandalism peaked in the morning and afternoon. "Hotspots" for different crimes moved throughout the downtown. Results were consistent with problems associated with high-risk student drinking in college communities. Conclusion: These results and maps generated by GIS led directly to changes made by city and university officials to address high-risk drinking.     

Who lives and dies on death row? Race, ethnicity, and post-sentence outcomes in Texas

A substantial body of research has explored the extent to which the race of offenders and victims influences who receives a death sentence for capital crimes. Little is known about how race and ethnicity might pattern death-row outcomes. Drawing upon evidence from male offenders sentenced to death in Texas during the years 1974 through 2009, we extend recent research by examining whether the race and ethnicity of offenders and victims and a number of offender, victim, and crime attributes influence the likelihood of executions and sentence relief (whereby prisoners leave death row). Cox regression analyses are used in conjunction with a multiple-imputation method for handling a modest amount of missing data. The results show that cases involving minorities—with black or Latino offenders or victims—have lower hazards of execution than cases in which both offenders and victims are white. Victim and offender race and ethnicity have little to no independent effect upon the hazard of sentence relief.     

Cyber child sexual exploitation

A 2-year review of 285 child cyber crime cases reported in the newspaper revealed how the Internet offenders were apprehended, the content of child pornography, and crime classification. A subsample of 100 cases with data on offender occupation revealed 73% of cases involved people in positions of authority. The dynamics of child cyber crime cases direct the implications for nursing practice in terms of evidence-based suspicion for reporting, categorizing the content of Internet images, referral of children for counseling, and treatment of offenders.     

URBANIZED PERIPHERIES: A REGIONAL STUDY OF CRIME IN ISRAEL

This study explores the regional patterns of crime in Israel for the first time. It examines crime rates and interregional crime by comparing the home region of offenders and the region of the offense. In a society small in size and population, urbanization has a limited impact on crime rates. This analysis, based on variables drawn from a national census and police crime statistics, stresses three types of peripheral region: regions that "attract" property offenses, regions that "export" property offenders, and regions of a "typical" peripheral nature. However, the findings indicate that some urban characteristics serve to shape the crime situation in peripheral regions. It is suggested that regional variations in crime are best explained by a multicausality approach.     

visualizing white‐collar crime

This study examines how film‐makers construct images of white‐collar crime in genre film. Data consist of twenty‐four white‐collar films in two genres: thrillers and comedies. Results indicate that images of white‐collar crime vary significantly by genre. Thrillers contain few visuals of white‐collar crimes and white‐collar offenders. Instead film‐makers use more familiar images of violence to create thrills. Comic film‐makers use standard sight gags to make images of white‐collar offenders and their crimes funny. When comic film‐makers find humor in the content of the subject matter, they construct images of white‐collar criminals and their crimes to clearly communicate the structure of each joke to the audience. Visual images of victims are not predominant in these films, especially in white‐collar comedies. The analysis reveals more than film‐making techniques. It begins to uncover cultural codes that frame white‐collar crime and illuminate its relative unimportance in the public arena, especially when compared to other crimes.     

‘Green‐Collar Crime’: Environmental Crime and Justice in the Sociological Perspective

One of the more neglected areas of research in the field of criminology are the crimes committed by ‘white collar’ offenders. An even more understudied area is the corporate crimes that are committed against the environment for profit. Despite this dearth of research, there have been several sociologically significant examinations into some of the more serious environmental crimes committed over the last three decades. While some of this research is theoretically underdeveloped, more recent studies have attempted to develop a coherent framework to study environmental crime. By linking and synthesizing two literatures in both white‐collar criminology and environmental justice, sociologists have begun to develop a framework for examining ‘green crimes’, the motivations, opportunity context, victimology, and enforcement issues. This article will be a survey of these studies and development literature along with some typological and definitional issues relevant to the subfield. This aims to map where criminology has been in the sub‐field of environmental crime and provides directions for where future research should be headed.     

Missing data in networks: exponential random graph (p1) models for networks with non-respondents

Survey studies of complete social networks often involve non-respondents, whereby certain people within the “boundary” of a network do not complete a sociometric questionnaire—either by their own choice or by the design of the study—yet are still nominated by other respondents as network partners. We develop exponential random graph (p¹) models for network data with non-respondents. We model respondents and non-respondents as two different types of nodes, distinguishing ties between respondents from ties that link respondents to non-respondents. Moreover, if we assume that the non-respondents are missing at random, we invoke homogeneity across certain network configurations to infer effects as applicable to the entire set of network actors. Using an example from a well-known network dataset, we show that treating a sizeable proportion of nodes as non-respondents may still result in estimates, and inferences about structural effects, consistent with those for the entire network.If, on the other hand, the principal research focus is on the respondent-only structure, with non-respondents clearly not missing at random, we incorporate the information about ties to non-respondents as exogenous. We illustrate this model with an example of a network within and between organizational departments. Because in this second class of models the number of non-respondents may be large, values of parameter estimates may not be directly comparable to those for models that exclude non-respondents. In the context of discussing recent technical developments in exponential random graph models, we present a heuristic method based on pseudo-likelihood estimation to infer whether certain structural effects may contribute substantially to the predictive capacity of a model, thereby enabling comparisons of important effects between models with differently sized node sets.     

Neighborhood Organizations and Resident Assistance to Police1

Police and scholars note that successful crime fighting requires police and residents to “co‐produce” public safety. However, residents are often reluctant to get involved in policing initiatives or even report crimes they witness. One possible means of stimulating resident involvement in crime‐control activities is through neighborhood organizations. This research, conducted on 1,313 residents of 42 neighborhoods in western South Carolina, investigates whether neighborhood organization participation increases the likelihood of assisting police in crime‐control efforts. Results indicate that organization participants are more likely to assist police than are nonparticipants, even after controlling for social cohesion, perceptions of police legitimacy, various policing strategies, fear of crime, and demographic factors.     

Normative advice to campus crime victims: effects of gender, age, and alcohol

Three studies investigated the appropriateness of calling the police as a function of crime, victim, and subject factors. In particular, the studies focused on whether and how the victim's consumption of alcohol affected normative advice to report the crime, as opposed to other options. Across the three studies, subjects viewed reporting as more appropriate for female victims, for victims who were 21 or older, and for victims who had not been drinking. In addition, females were more likely than males to believe reporting to the police was appropriate whereas males were more likely than females to favor some type of private action. Subjects viewed reporting as particularly inappropriate when the victim was underage and had been drinking. Results suggest that, because of the perceived stigma attached to victims who have been drinking, even serious victimizations may go unreported.     

Understanding hate crimes against immigrants: Considerations for future research

Following the passage of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990, hate crime research grew with the ability to use data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Nevertheless, limitations in the data collection led to a dramatic decline in research by the end of the 20th century. This review provides an overview on the development of the hate crime legislation and data collection in order to address and understand the prevalence of hate crimes in the United States. Despite the limitations found in the national hate crime data collected by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, a rise in the level of hate crimes against immigrants has renewed scholarly interest in identifying the causes and effects of hate crimes. Recent studies have taken a different approach to explain the rise in the level of hate crimes against immigrants given the passage of anti‐immigrant legislation and inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants. By examining the link between hate crimes against immigrant groups and the demographic, economic, and political changes within the local context, researchers can begin to explain the variation in hate crimes and inform future research as well as local policies and practices to prevent these crimes from occurring.     

Criminal history and assault of dating partners: the role of type of prior crime, age of onset, and gender

Some studies of assaults on intimate partners have found that most of the perpetrators are not violent outside the family, which suggests a specialized type of crime. However, other studies found domestic violence offenders tend to have extensive criminal histories. To further investigate the extent to which partner assaults are part of a more general pattern of criminal behavior or a specialized type of crime, we studied the dating relationships of 653 university students. Thirty-one percent reported assaulting a partner in the previous 12 months. The rate of assault on partners by females did not differ significantly for males (29%) and females (32%). We also found high rates of other self-reported crime, and much higher rates by males. For example, over one half of the male students and almost one third of the female students reported having stolen money. The male students reported an average of 3.4 crimes committed, and the female students an average of 1.4 crimes. These high crime rates and gender differences are consistent with many previous studies. Logistic regression analysis revealed that a history of prior criminal acts is associated with an increased probability of assaulting a partner. The relationship was greater when there was prior violent crime compared to property crime, when there was early onset of criminal behavior, and when the offender was female. The implications of the findings for understanding partner assaults, criminal careers, and gender differences in the etiology of violence against intimate partners are discussed.