Asian Journal of Criminology最新文献

The article considers the methodological opportunities and challenges associated with three large-scale ethnographic studies conducted in Bangladesh, China, and Nepal. It reflects on how locally and regionally embedded cultural practises and meanings shape Asian criminological research projects. The article argues that conducting research in certain Asian contexts benefits from an awareness and sensitivity to specific modalities of culture in these regions. The following deliberations reflect on the importance of developing authenticity and building connections, embedded within concepts specific, and relevant to research in Asia—relationality, guanxi, patronage, and adda. The challenges of the research projects, of which there were many, are also discussed and include dichotomies between research conducted in the global North and global South, coloniality, ethics, and issues faced by a British researcher, conducting research in Asia.

Abstract

Like most criminological research, much of the research on hacking has predominantly focused upon the Northern Metropolis. As a result, there is a lack of focus on cybercrime within the Global South, particularly on illegal intrusions into computer systems, more colloquially known as hacking. This article provides a critical overview of hacking in the Global South, highlighting the role of strain in this offending behaviour. In particular, the authors note the role of Australian, American, and Taiwanese immigration policies that act to block offenders’ transitions from illicit hacking to legitimate employment in technological hubs outside of the Global South. To address these blocked opportunities, this article suggests the use of innovative justice paradigms, particularly restorative justice and regulatory self-enforcement, that respond to innovation-based cybercrime while also facilitating offender movement into “white hat” employment, even in cases of technology-facilitated sexual violence.

Trust is a vital part of society and is critical for organizations. The main forms of organizational trust are management trust, supervisor trust, and coworker trust, each of which allows organizations to function and operate efficiently. This is particularly true for police agencies. Yet, few studies have examined how organizational trust affects police officers. The job of a police officer can be demanding, often resulting in heightened job stress. It is unclear whether organizational trust can reduce job stress or, conversely, whether low or non-existent organizational trust contributes to job stress. The current study explored the effects of management trust, supervisor trust, and coworker trust on job stress among Indian police officers, while also assessing the effects of job autonomy, views on quality training, role overload, role underload, and perceived dangerousness of the job. A sample of 827 police officers was drawn from two districts in the state of Haryana in India. Supervisor and coworker trust had statistically significant negative effects on job stress, while management trust had nonsignificant negative effects. Job autonomy and views on quality training also had significant negative effects, while perceptions of the job as dangerous and role overload had significant positive effects. Role underload had nonsignificant effects. The results indicate that building coworker and supervisor trust, increasing job autonomy, improving views on quality training, and reducing role overload and perceptions of the job as posing a risk should reduce job stress for police officers.

This article discusses “penal populism” and its conflict with criminological expertise. It considers the proper balance between professional expertise and community sentiment in the formulation of crime control and penal policy—especially in respect of policy measures where moral rather than instrumental considerations are involved. It raises theoretical questions about the nature of “public opinion”—does it exist other than as an artifact of survey instruments?—and its proper role in a democratic polity. And it considers the professional responsibility of criminological experts in relation to policy formation and political debate. The performance of public health experts during the COVID pandemic is presented as an instructive case in point. Can criminology establish itself as a credible form of social scientific knowledge worthy of public trust? And how should criminologists comport themselves when engaging with questions of public policy and political controversy?

This study uses a citizens’ awareness survey to gauge the impact of crime prevention initiatives based on big data. Crime prevention activities using large datasets inevitably involve reasonable concerns over: (a) the excessive concentration of information power to law enforcement agencies and (b) possible privacy violations by the state. This study explores the trends in this area through the application of the police legitimacy theory. It aims to gather insights into the use of big data to strengthen preventive responses to crimes by law enforcement agencies while also considering the citizens initiatives based on big data abuses. The survey conducted by the Korean Institute of Criminology in August 2015 was used for analysis through structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that, among important factors in police legitimacy theory, three primary items drew support for crime prevention activities based on big data: “distributive fairness,” “lawfulness,” and “effectiveness.” These overshadowed the “procedural fairness” variable, which has been emphasized in previous police legitimacy studies. This suggests that the law enforcement agencies should focus on the promulgation of the following: (1) big data as an aid to guaranteeing citizens’ rights in civil society, rather than the unilateral strengthening of national power, and (2) the effective and lawful use of big data as a method of stabilizing citizens’ personal security.

This study contributes to the scholarship on perception of the police by testing a theoretical interaction between morality and self-control, expanding the notion of morality to include both proscriptive and prescriptive morality, and investigating institutionalized populations. Survey data from a rare, large sample of inmates from three Chinese prisons indicate that the prisoners hold strikingly negative sentiments toward the police. While self-control does not affect inmates’ perception of the police after controlling for morality variables, both proscriptive and prescriptive morality are positively related to inmates’ attitudes toward the police. Furthermore, the positive effect of prescriptive morality on inmates’ perceptions of the police increases as the level of self-control elevates. Proscriptive morality and self-control, meanwhile, do not interplay in shaping such perceptions. Findings of the study have meaningful implications for using criminological theories to explain justice perceptions.

Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs (OMCG) have been growing in almost every nation in the world. Men across the world are forming new clubs using the Hells Angels’ model of outlaw clubs. East Asia is seeing exponential growth of clubs and the arrival of foreign clubs. But these events are not uniform across the region. Nonetheless, it is strange that a very American model of social deviance could become popular in the communitarian cultures of East Asia. The expansion of the culture presents the possibility of local adoption of the criminogenic culture of Western OMCG. This paper tracked the rise of locally formed clubs in each nation of East Asia as well as the arrival of international clubs with chapters in the region. It compared club growth to GDP per capita, the gender inequality index and authoritarianism of governments, to determine if there were correlations. The study found 310 locally formed clubs in East Asia, most of which have formed in the last two decades. No substantial correlations were found to club growth by local clubs or arrival of international clubs.

Despite immediate and unavoidable punishment, some inmates under incarceration still choose to commit violence, which raises doubts over whether these inmates have the ability to think and act in a rational manner. This paper, based on semi-structured interviews with inmates who have committed inmate-on-inmate violent acts, examines violence as a process and explores which factors are weighed before and during the commission of violence in the context of China’s prisons. Unlike quantitative research on the correlates of prison violence, inmates’ accounts of their violent experiences are the focus of analysis. By identifying the inmates’ understanding and interpretation of violence, the implications for interventions aimed at reducing prison violence are also discussed.