International Journal of Law Crime and Justice最新文献

General purpose artificial intelligence (GPAI) is a form of advanced AI system that includes the recently introduced ChatGPT. GPAI is known for its capacity to understand and emulate human responses, and potentially offers an opportunity to reduce human error when conducting tasks that involve analysis, judgement, and reasoning. To support officers to do this, the police presently use a range of decision-making support tools, one of which is called THRIVE (Threat, Harm, Risk, Investigation, Vulnerability, and Engagement). THRIVE is designed to provide police practitioners with a model to improve their identification and response to vulnerability. Despite the existence of such decision models, a 2020 meta-analysis of police cases resulting in death or serious injury identified contributory failures that included poor risk identification, risk management, failure to adhere to evidentiary processes, poor criminal investigations, and inadequate police engagement with victims, including the level of care and assistance provided (Allnock, et al, 2020). Importantly, this report outlined human error as being a major underpinning factor of the failures.

Although GPAI offers an opportunity to improve analysis, judgement, and reasoning, such systems have not yet been tested in policing, a field where any reduction in human error, particularly in the assessment of threat, harm, risk, and vulnerability can potentially save lives. This study is the first attempt to do this by using the chain-of-thought prompt methodology to test the GPAI ChatGPT (3.5 vs 4) in a controlled environment using 30 life-like police scenarios, crafted, and analyzed by expert practitioners. In doing so, we identify that ChatGPT 4 significantly outperforms its 3.5 predecessor, indicating that GPAI presents considerable opportunity in policing. However, systems that use this technology require extensive directional prompting to ensure outputs that can be considered accurate, and therefore, potentially safe to utilize in an operational setting. The article concludes by discussing how practitioners and researchers can further refine police related chain-of-thought prompts or use application programming interfaces (APIs) to improve responses provided by such GPAI.

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has caused catastrophic impacts on public health and shrunk economic activities that reshaped nearly every ordinary person's daily life. The objective of this manuscript is to compare the pandemic-caused lifestyle alterations, public health orders and enforcement, societal responses, and pandemic policing in two democracies - the U.S. and Taiwan. Both societies experienced rapid changes of daily routines among residents, and non-medical interventions like quarantine, social distancing, and shelter-in-place/lockdown were implemented. The police were used to enforce public health laws and orders, although the structures of the police were different. The pandemic-related tasks that the police have been assigned or chosen to enforce might have reshaped their images and redefined their roles in both societies that are similar in political system and urban-rural difference but different in socioeconomic status and social-historical context. Unfortunately, both Americans and Taiwanese scapegoated a small group of citizens for either bringing in the virus or failing to defend the homeland. Through comparing these two societies, this paper concludes that internal unity and collaboration is more important than democracy itself in determining public health success or failure. This paper also concludes with implications of police training and education in the post-COVID-19 era.

The initial hearings of the criminal justice system are a space where, when deciding on the legality of detention, the police power to arrest people can be evaluated. This study analyses the control of detention in the criminal justice system of Mexico City based on two dimensions that have an impact on the better or worse protection of the rights of detainees by the police. The first, an informative dimension about the reconstruction of the “facts”, the second, a political-normative dimension derived from the punitive context in which the justice system is questioned for releasing “criminals”. Based on the observation of 776 initial hearings in criminal courts in Mexico City and interviews with judicial officials, we analyze 1. the balance of the information entered regarding detention; and 2. the difference in the result of detention control between priority crimes of public security policy versus other crimes. The results indicate that: a) the facts of a detention are reconstructed with a clear bias towards the views of police and prosecutors; and b) when dealing with crimes that are a priority for the city's crime policies, a detention is less likely to be declared illegality.

The prevention of fraud against older adults and other age groups, has been the subject of limited research with very few systematic attempts to map different tools and strategies that are used. This paper using the UK and South Korea as a starting point, but other countries too, maps some of the most common tools and strategies used to prevent frauds that target older adults. It develops the first comprehensive typology of strategies built upon the degree to which they embrace modern technology. It shows much of the prevention used is low tech, but high-tech solutions rooted in the fourth industrial revolution technologies are emerging and growing. The paper draws these different strategies and tools together to offer a holistic model for the prevention of fraud against older adults for further debate and utilisation by professionals.

Given the exceptional situation occasioned by an unprecedented health crisis, countries adopted extraordinary measures to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The enforcement of these measures has significantly resulted in human rights violations of various forms. This study draws from the Nigerian case to explore incidents of arbitrary arrests and detention of those adjudged by the police to have violated the lockdown rules. Using a victim-centered approach, 32 interviews with people arrested and detained by the police for contravening COVID-19 lockdown rules were conducted, and a thematic analysis of the narratives was carried out. Findings indicated that participants were arrested and detained in police cells for breaking stay-at-home rules largely for extortive purposes. In the process of arrests and detention, they endured physical and psychological abuses, were exposed to the risk of contracting COVID-19, and suffered economic extortions. Practical and policy implications were provided to enhance police legitimacy.

Since the September 11 attacks, prevention and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) programs have rapidly increased worldwide, garnering significant interest among researchers. This paper is a systematic review focusing on the evaluations of primary, secondary and tertiary prevention programs from 2001 until 2020. The review identified 74 program evaluations that included satisfactory measures and metrics. Only 32% of the studies deemed the intervention successful, 55% described limited success, and 8% deemed the program had failed. Many of the programs evaluated failed to reach their objectives; some generated negative outcomes such as community disdain and an increase in the likelihood of alienation and stigma. Success was largely a self-assessed measure by the facilitators or stakeholders of the programs or the evaluators of the study. Success indicators can be operationalized as the degree of enhanced sense of belonging (connectedness to the community, social connection), trust and willingness to engage in programs, development of critical thinking skills (integrative complexity theory), and a strong sense of worth (quest for significance). Without a generally accepted set of metrics and no cohesive framework for conducting evaluations, this review offers an important addition to the field on the evidence suitable for program evaluations. An important aim of this systematic review was to identify what makes an effective and successful countering violent extremism program. The key findings indicate that enhancing belonging, identity, trust and community engagement, acknowledging perceptions of injustice, religious mentoring, and the promotion of critical thinking/self-reflection are associated with successful programs. The findings press upon policymakers, funders, and researchers the need to consider and support high-quality evaluations of programs.

Little research has examined the “powder keg” theory (that escapes are inherently violent), which has been used in U.S. courts to apply sentencing enhancements to people convicted of escaping. We examine open-source data on 610 escapees from jails and prisons to understand the prevalence and scope of escape-related violence, and the relationship between theoretically relevant covariates and these outcomes. Though our data is not representative of all U.S. escapes, we found that 19.2% of the incidents in our sample resulted in violence, with more violence occurring at the breakout (10.9%) than in the community (8.4%) or during recapture (5.7%). Escapees were more likely to use violence when they were in secure custody or outside the facility, if they fled during morning or evening hours, or if they were incarcerated in a jail rather than a lower security prison. These findings yield numerous implications for theory, policy, and practice.

With the growing importance of penal sector volunteers, it is necessary to provide effective information for potential volunteers and clarify the factors related to the willingness to serve. This study aimed to determine factors influencing the willingness of penal sector volunteers in Japan. We administered an online survey of 800 people to determine their willingness to volunteer in ten different types of rehabilitation activities, both formal and informal, targeted at criminal justice-involved people of all ages. A multiple-regression analysis showed the importance of examining the psychological and demographic factors to explain volunteer willingness. Structural equation modelling revealed that the most important factor is the perception of personal benefits offered by penal sector volunteers; therefore, providing information about the personal benefits of volunteering may improve volunteer willingness. This study identifies important implications regarding volunteer psychological factors which can be used to design interventions to change public attitudes.

Public participation in criminal justice is a major topic in criminological research. Recently, an empirical study in Japan coined the term “criminal justice participation” and provided preliminary results for this concept. The present study aimed to identify the correlates of criminal justice participation using data collected from 846 Japanese adults. Our findings show that, among the three groups of correlates, internal efficacy was a consistent predictor of experience and intention to participate in criminal justice. In addition to its relationship with internal efficacy, experience was related to low external court efficacy, stronger support for harsher punishment, and intention to participate. Intention to participate was related to support for rehabilitation and fear of crime. Based on the finding regarding support for harsher punishment and rehabilitation, we discuss the risk that the opinions of those who are more supportive of harsher punishment are overrepresented in society due to their active participation.

This study focuses on identifying factors that, from the perspective of prisoners, contribute to positive perceptions of rehabilitation (correction) in prison. A survey was conducted of 645 soon-to-be-released inmates (530 males and 115 females) in five institutions, with questions covering demographics, incarceration details, access to social services, and personal values. The research revealed that male inmates tended to hold more positive views on penitentiary rehabilitation than female inmates. However, it was observed that the rigidity of the prison regime and the existence of chronic illnesses among inmates negatively influenced these positive perceptions towards rehabilitation. Furthermore, the implementation of diverse rehabilitation-focused initiatives by non-governmental organisations (NGOs), coupled with an awareness of rights and responsibilities and the presence of strong family values, has been linked to fostering positive perceptions of rehabilitation. These findings highlight the critical need for enhanced cooperation between non-governmental organisations and prison facilities, as well as the introduction of social work practices within Kazakhstan's prison system. Policymakers should consider these factors when designing evidence-based rehabilitation strategies, emphasising the utilization of social work technologies.