ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic instantly changed the day-to-day practices of the criminal justice system. The court system, traditionally reliant on face-to-face interaction, had to quickly alter operations to decrease the virus' spread while remaining functional as an integral role in the criminal justice system. The current exploratory study examines the response strategies U.S. court systems implemented, impacts on case processing, case backlogs, and additional consequences endured due to the pandemic. Using responses from self-report surveys of court staff (e.g., judges, clerks), results indicated that courts prioritized the types of cases heard and implemented multiple mitigation strategies that were deemed effective, some of which may be sustainable post-pandemic. Despite an increase in virtual jury trials and hearings, many courts saw a surge in backlogged cases and complications in assembling juries. The overall findings may inform judiciary policy and practice concerning short and long-term pandemic outcomes on court processing and future pandemic preparedness.
ABSTRACT
While there are no new frauds, internet technology provides new opportunities for fraudsters by facilitating volumes of attacks that law enforcement then struggles to address. Moreover, since context can affect how potential victims respond to frauds, crisis context influences how fraudsters design frauds. This article assesses fraudsters' fraud design strategies during two external crisis events that impacted Australia: The Black Summer Bushfires that occurred from September 2019 to March 2020 and the onset and first year of the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred from January 2020 through January 2021. Targets, during these crises, were more likely to be vulnerable according to Steinmetz's model victim for social engineering framework. This study shows that, in both crises, fraudsters deployed the social engineering techniques of "authority” and "scarcity,” techniques that are more likely to be successful based solely on initial contact. Fraudsters designed their requests to be easily actioned and crafted their scams to reference very recent events as the external crisis events evolved. Thus, they targeted broad audiences with minimal personal involvement. Furthermore, this study shows that fraudsters, when disseminating their scams via social media outlets, attempted to build "social proof” to expand their potential victim pool to include the marks' social circles.
ABSTRACT
Based on a participatory study design, this article describes how a group of family members of people deprived of liberty (PDL) experienced the COVID-19 control measures implemented in Mexico's prisons. We conducted 28 in-depth interviews and analyzed them using ATLAS.ti. We found that the measures implemented in Mexican prisons to avoid the spread of COVID-19 focused mainly on suspension of visitation and PDL confinement. The isolation imposed on PDL impacted their living conditions, making them more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 due to lack of access to essential services, food, and hygiene supplies. Visit restrictions and PDL isolation also impacted PDL relatives' health and socioeconomic conditions. Our findings indicate that the consequences of COVID-19 control actions in Mexican prisons differ according to the gender and jurisdiction of PDL. Women in federal prisons were more isolated, while those in local ones were more deprived of basic supplies. Imprisoned women's isolation has especially severe effects on the mental and physical health of their elderly parents and children. The results show how the measures adopted to control COVID-19 outbreaks in Mexican prisons have exacerbated the preexisting systemic violence experienced by PDL and their families and how they have failed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these settings. These findings provide support for the health-informed penal reform of Mexican prisons.
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The COVID-19 pandemic had a critical impact on the Thai criminal justice system. The goal of this study is to explore policies and practices of Thailand's Department of Probation as it responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study surveyed probation officers in Thailand (N = 534) from March to April 2021, focusing on probation practices and case management issues prior- and post- COVID-19. Data reveals that, overall, the frequency of officer-offender contacts remained steady even though the type of contact changed after COVID-19. In-person contact was replaced by remote contact strategies, specifically telephone calls, which increased significantly following the onset of the pandemic.
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The aim of the law is to ensure personal, material and organisational conditions for safe work without endangering human health, to prevent work accidents and occupational diseases by defining the rights and obligations of the state, employers and employees. Since 2003, the concept of occupational safety and health commissioning has been included in the law, which plays a prominent role in the commissioning of dangerous technology or work equipment in health care. [...]of the epidemic, not only the so-called back office area, but also in patient care, the concept of remote work appeared in the field of telemedicine, and some other areas, such as in the case of finding analysis. According to the legislation, the employer must register and Investigate all accidents at work. [...]of this, a wave of insourcing started and in several health institutions they started to employ their own doormen again, wh ich raises further problems.
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PurposeThis study aims to discuss the consequences of trade-based money laundering (TBML) and informal remittance services on the sustainability of the position of balance of payments and net foreign assets of a small open economy.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a case study design using facts related to TBML and informal remittance services on the balance of payment and net foreign assets of Sri Lanka.FindingsThe contextual analysis reveals that the growth of the informal economy promotes informal remittance services in Sri Lanka. The policy decision to peg local currency to US dollars as a result of a shortage of foreign exchange had forced people to use informal channels for different purposes. The unclear and vague customer due diligence process of the anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime also has forced people to use informal remittance services. Criminals especially drug traffickers have grabbed the promoted informal remittance services to transfer proceeds from Sri Lanka to overseas drug suppliers. On the other hand, systematic deficiencies in monitoring and regulation of movement of fund transfers and merchandise across borders provide opportunities for criminals to use different TBML techniques to transfer funds. These limitations force policymakers and regulators to think of developing a comprehensive payment ecosystem to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. Therefore, the global initiative is required to move towards a payment ecosystem from a recommendation-based AML/CFT regime to reduce global crimes.Research limitations/implicationsThis study was designed to discuss the implications of TBML and informal remittance services on the balance of payments and net foreign assets in a small open economy. The structure and size of the economy, the strength of the overall economy and the AML/CFT regime will play an important role in controlling criminal activities and combating money laundering of an economy;hence, the impact of TBML and informal remittance services will vary accordingly across the countriesOriginality/valueThis paper is an original work done by the authors, which discusses the implications of TBML and informal remittance services on the balance of payments and net foreign assets of an emerging market context.
ABSTRACT
Violent crime tends to be concentrated in economically disadvantaged, racially minoritized communities, particularly among youth. Emerging research suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated the drivers of violence in these communities but provides limited insight into its effects in a single locale, especially small to mid-size cities, and on those on the frontlines of youth violence (i.e., youth service workers). In the current study, we provide an in-depth, qualitative examination of these dynamics in vulnerable neighborhoods in Lansing, Michigan, centering the voices of those instrumental to violence prevention and community resilience. Specifically, we explore youth service providers' perceptions of how COVID-19 changed youth violence and impacted families, communities, and organizations working to prevent and control youth violence. We use the socioecological model adopted by the public health field to explain and prevent violence to guide our work, as this framework recognizes the interlocking and interactive effects of systemic, community, and relational experiences on youth behavior. As such, it allows us to situate community-based organizations and youth service providers' perceptions within the broader contexts that shape violence. Our findings suggest the need for increased support for community-based prevention and for interventions that rectify structural inequalities.
ABSTRACT
The advent of COVID-19 prompted the enforced isolation of elderly and vulnerable populations around the world, for their own safety. For people in prison, these restrictions risked compounding the isolation and harm they experienced. At the same time, the pandemic created barriers to prison oversight when it was most needed to ensure that the state upheld the rights and wellbeing of those in custody. This article reports findings from a unique collaboration in Ireland between the Office of the Inspector of Prisons – a national prison oversight body – and academic criminologists. Early in the pandemic, they cooperated to hear the voices of people ‘cocooning' – isolated because of their advanced age or a medical vulnerability – in Irish prisons by providing journals to this cohort, analysing the data, and encouraging the Irish Prison Service to change practices accordingly. The findings indicated that ‘cocooners' were initially ambivalent about these new restrictions, both experiencing them as a punishment akin to solitary confinement, and understanding the goal of protection. As time passed, however, participants reported a drastic impact on their mental and physical health, and implications for their (already limited) agency and relationships with others, experienced more or less severely depending on staff and management practices. The paper also discusses the implications for prison practices during and following the pandemic, understanding isolation in the penological context, and collaboration between prison oversight bodies and academics.
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The purpose of this study was to determine the role and obstacles faced by Fishery Civil Servant Investigators (FCSI) in the prevention and handling of Fisheries Crimes in the Buton Regency. With empirical legal methods, research data were obtained from direct interviews, showing that in 2018 there were two cases of destructive fishing using the fish bombing method, three cases in 2019, namely one case of fish bombing, and two cases of exploitation of protected marine habitats, while in 2020 and 2021, there were two cases of fish bombing each. The results showed that Fisheries FCSI's role constitutes prevention and prosecution for fisheries crime involving the destruction of ships that do not have permits for fishing vessels with sizes above 5 GT, exploitation of protected fish habitats, and fishing vessels failing to demonstrate proper seaworthiness. Fisheries crime cases that occur are fishing practices that involve the destruction of fish resources and aquatic habitats such as fish bombing, fish anesthesia, and the use of cyanide poison. Law enforcement during the covid-19 pandemic over these cases is carried out online at the witness examination stage or at a stage that involves the investigation of the suspect through a video conference interview. Provided that there is a Summoning Letter, based on Article 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code, the obstacles experienced by the Fisheries FCSI are influenced by internal factors in the form of lack of quality and quantity of supervision facilities and infrastructure, human resources, budget, and poor handling of evidence. Meanwhile, external factors involve the lack of public awareness to prevent the occurrence of fisheries crime, the lack of supporting facilities and infrastructure for the Supervisory Community Group, and weak coordination between law enforcement institutions. © 2022, University of Muhammadiyah Malang. All rights reserved.
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Currently, the volume of sensitive content on the Internet, such as pornography and child pornography, and the amount of time that people spend online (especially children) have led to an increase in the distribution of such content (e.g., images of children being sexually abused, real-time videos of such abuse, grooming activities, etc.). It is therefore essential to have effective IT tools that automate the detection and blocking of this type of material, as manual filtering of huge volumes of data is practically impossible. The goal of this study is to carry out a comprehensive review of different learning strategies for the detection of sensitive content available in the literature, from the most conventional techniques to the most cutting-edge deep learning algorithms, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each, as well as the datasets used. The performance and scalability of the different strategies proposed in this work depend on the heterogeneity of the dataset, the feature extraction techniques (hashes, visual, audio, etc.) and the learning algorithms. Finally, new lines of research in sensitive-content detection are presented.
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The current study estimates the impact of the SAH order on violent crimes across public and residential locations: assault, battery, homicide, robbery, and sexual assault. Using interrupted time series analyses, it analyzes weekly crime data in Chicago, Illinois, from 2017 to 2020. The SAH order caused significant decreases in battery and sexual assault across public and residential locations. It also decreased assault in public locations only. Such decreases in assault, battery, and sexual assault were greater under the SAH order when social distancing was strictly enforced, as opposed to during the relaxation of social distancing. On the other hand, there were significant increases in homicide across public and residential locations. Robbery increased in public locations only. There were greater increases in homicide and robbery during the relaxation of social distancing, as opposed to under the SAH order. The study ultimately indicates that the impacts of the containment measures are conditional upon the offense location, type of crime, and level of social distancing being mandated. From a public policy perspective, it is important to allocate staffing and resources for law enforcement accordingly during the enduring pandemic.
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At the beginning of the pandemic, experts expected an increasing number of hospitalizations in forensic settings, uncontrollable outbreaks of COVID-19, and deterioration of mental health of residents within institutions. Certain publications corroborated these concerns;however, no synthesis of the results of empirical publications at the initial stage of the pandemic has yet been conducted. Three rapid reviews were conducted on these topics. Besides almost a two-fold decrease in the total number of urgent consultations/hospitalizations, there were no changes in the number of involuntary hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and psychoses. The COVID-19 morbidity and mortality rates in secure institutions were compatible with the general population. However, the lockdown period was associated with a significant increase in self-harm in secure settings.
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PurposePresident Cyril Ramaphosa, in his 2018 State of the Nation Address, stated that "Thieves who are stealing public funds should be arrested and prosecuted”, and called for lifestyle audits of public-sector employees. The gross misuse of COVID-19 relief funds by public officials indicated the urgent need to execute these audits as an anti-corruption measure. This paper aims to provide a review of the existing state of affairs with regard to the application of lifestyle audits in South Africa.Design/methodology/approachThis paper critically analyses the literature available on the current position of South Africa concerning lifestyle audits in the public sector, based on the mandates of some of the anti-corruption agencies that could be responsible for the conducting and processing of such audits.FindingsSouth Africa has only recently seen a framework for applying lifestyle audits, developed by the Department of Public Service and Administration. Although these first steps in developing a standard practice are laudable, the practical process of dealing with misconduct and/or criminal matters remains to be seen. It is recommended that South Africa consider a legislative approach to dealing with unlawfully obtained wealth by either criminalising the act of illicit enrichment (per the United Nations Convention Against Corruption) or creating an Unexplained Wealth Order, as seen, for example, in the UK.Originality/valueSouth Africa is in dire need of addressing corruption in the public sector. Despite lifestyle audits being called for, the lack of proper implementation is negating any positive outcomes. Therefore, alternative solutions should be investigated.
ABSTRACT
Providing face-to-face support to victims entails one the most intense stress- and trauma-laden exchanges of law enforcement tasks, which frequently triggers long lasting negative effects on police officer's psychological wellbeing. When exploring this phenomenon, police resilience is often interpreted as police officers' and organization's capacity to react and recover from negative experiences and impediments, and as such it may be perceived as both a trait and a trainable and promotable skill. Yet, in very recent times, police resilience has faced new or transformed challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as victims, citizens, and public institutions have encountered new needs and situations. Drawing from a unique qualitative, in-depth research with police officers that provide support to victims of gender-based and domestic violence, this paper analyzes officers' needs and challenges regarding their interactions with victims, colleagues, superiors, and other occupational demands, as they interplay into stress and trauma that may lead to burnout and compassion fatigue. Illustrated with the empirical findings of the case study of the Catalonia's Mossos d'Esquadra police corps, the paper explores how officers negotiate individuals' expectations, needs, and procedures signals towards potential challenges and threats to their psychological wellbeing with implications for police forces and other public and private institutions. The specific needs and demands of the participants' policing, related to support to gender-based and domestic violence, presents an in-depth analysis of how stress and trauma are understood and experienced from the police officers' perspectives.
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Stakeholder and consumer participation is generally seen as a critical part of effective alcohol policy making as it has a direct impact on policy implementation. In the advent of COVID-19, the views and experiences of stakeholders and consumers were integral to how countries responded to the virus. The involvement of alcohol stakeholders and consumers raises critical questions about policy making practices. Using Grounded Theory (GT) methods amongst 20 drinkers and six alcohol stakeholders, I examined the views and experiences of stakeholders and alcohol consumers in Botswana during COVID-19. I identified two interrelated core categories of Balancing the Drinking Act and Problematic Youth Drinking that were prominent as the country dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. First, I argue that balancing the drinking act suggests the need for government to balance alcohol regulation with the needs of drinkers. Second, I highlight that problematic youth drinking relates to an emerging yet consistent belief that young people in Botswana are collectively responsible for alcohol "problems." These key themes center consumer and stakeholder participation in alcohol policy development. Moreover, the current analysis demonstrates the interplay between alcohol use and prohibition during COVID-19, and how it might be mediated by cultural scripts used by consumers and stakeholders in Botswana.
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Democracy has increasingly come under pressure as democratic norms are being eroded. This article explores why democratic processes are at risk in Europe and the United States and what might replace them. It reflects the thinking of the Study Group on Democracy convened under the auspices of the International Association for Intelligence Education in 2022. Its deliberations identified a set of underlying key drivers, documented how they manifested, and speculated on what new forms of governance might replace democratic rule. Recent trends cited include the corruption of norms, the disruptive influence of social media, the growing diversity of society, the shift from community-based problem-solving to reliance on identity politics, the emergence of existential threats, and the need for strong leadership. The group concludes that prospects for sustaining democratic institutions can best be understood by viewing future trends along two perspectives: the complexity of society and modes of decision-making.
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Intelligence education and practice require significant adaptations to the global heating crisis, pandemic disease, and environmental threats. The latter are now and will increasingly influence traditional national security, yet most security analysis focuses almost exclusively on human agency, not complex environmental risks. This unique era in human history possesses unprecedented "wicked" security drivers altering more familiar international economic, geopolitical, and military variables. The security drivers present an acute cultural, intellectual, and institutional adaptation problem. The Intelligence Community (IC) community remains limited by bureaucratic tribalism, inertia, predictable human cognitive security biases, and fundamental knowledge gaps. U.S. politically driven controversies about climate and pandemics threaten its professional analytical effectiveness. The IC must go beyond business-as-usual incrementalism toward much greater interdisciplinary integration of science and natural systems into intelligence education and practice.
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In March 2020, the UK was placed in lockdown following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Just as legitimate workplaces made changes to enable their employees to work from home, the illicit drugs trade also made alternative arrangements, adapting its supply models to ensure continuity of operations. Based upon qualitative interviews with 46 practitioners, this paper assesses how front-line professionals have experienced and perceived the impact of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines drug supply in the UK. Throughout the paper, we highlight perceived adaptations to the County Lines supply model, the impact of lockdown restrictions on detection and law enforcement activities aimed at County Lines, and on efforts to safeguard children and young people from criminal exploitation. Our participants generally believed that the pandemic had induced shifts to County Lines that reflected an ongoing evolution of the drug supply model and changes in understanding or attention because of Covid-19 restrictions, rather than a complete reconstitution of the model itself. Practitioners perceived that Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on some young people's vulnerability to exploitation, on the way in which police and frontline practitioners respond to County Lines and child criminal exploitation, and on the way illegal drugs are being moved and sold.
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Criminological research on COVID-19 and its repercussions on crimes, criminals and law enforcement agencies is still in its infancy. This paper fills that void with regard to the influence of COVID-19 on organized crime and the work of law enforcement agencies' investigations of organized crime in Germany by presenting empirical findings from a nationwide qualitative interview study. Through the methodological combination of Grounded Theory and Situational Analysis, we find three central narratives (us vs. them, nationalization vs. internationalization, conservatism vs. innovation) that were provided by law enforcement personnel in terms of the way in which COVID-19 influenced both organized crime groups and their work in the investigation thereof. Following a reflexive approach, the implications of COVID-19 on the research process itself are also discussed.
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This research provides information related to the use of data analytic tools for preventing and detecting COVID-19 pandemic frauds. The IRS-CI (Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation) Agency continues to conduct investigations involving billions with these frauds. With the data analytic tools, people can be stopped from fraudulently taking advantage the government during critical life or death times.