By Yennesit Palacios Valencia and Ignacio García Marín

Colombia is among the countries with the highest levels of violence and crime in the world, despite the peace agreements between the State and different armed groups, including the FARC. This is partly due to the fact that the Colombian case is complex and multifaceted because of the variety of participants in the armed conflict context and due to the mutation of new actors, under the modality of organized crime. Based on the above, the objective is to study the Colombian reality, contextually and diachronically, from theoretical and epistemological elements to demonstrate how violence and criminality factors intersect in the context of the armed conflict. The study concludes, among other findings, that in Colombia the ambiguity and the multiplicity of terms used to name the emerging criminal groups presents a legal problem because of their hybrid composition and regarding their treatment within or outside of the armed conflict.   

Dossiê - Criminalidade, Justiça e Estado-nação no Brasil e na América Latina • Tempo 29 (3) • Sep-Dec 2023 

By Karl Dodd, Paul M. Salmon, Colin Solomon, Scott McLea

Background: Sporting organisations and governing bodies are facing increased pressure to prevent child sexual abuse (CSA) in sport. This has led to an increase in investigative reports into CSA that include recommendations on how sporting organisations could improve child safeguarding. Current peer reviewed literature on the prevention of CSA in sport, indicates that the majority of research has been on interventions at the levels of the victim and perpetrator, rather than on broader components of the sports system. However, it is not clear whether this is the case in investigative reports. Objective:  The aim of this study was to analyse investigative reports into CSA in five Australian sports (Swimming, Cricket, Gymnastics, Football, and Tennis), to evaluate the extent to which a systems thinking approach was adopted to understand the broader systemic factors enabling CSA in sport.  Method: Factors enabling CSA detailed in the reports, as well as their accompanying recommendations, were mapped to a systems thinking-based framework. The identified enabling factors and recommendations were then evaluated to determine the extent to which a whole of systems focus had been adopted in the investigative reports. Results: In total, 30 enabling factors to CSA were identified, with the majority focused at the higher levels of the sports system (e.g., Governance, Policy, Reporting/Handling issues etc.). This contrasts with the peer reviewed literature. Conclusions: The findings indicate that the identified enabling factors to CSA align with a systems thinking approach, whereas the recommendations to safeguarding partially adhere to the tenets of system thinking.

By Luana Marques-Garcia Ozemela,  A lessandra Conte, Guilherme Sedlaceck, Leopoldo Laborda

We test for racial differences in crime victimization between whites and Afro-descendants in the form of thefts, robberies, sexual and physical assaults and police aggressions in Brazil. We explore the presence of skin color tone bias in victimization by the police. Methods With a novel dataset produced by the Ministry of Justice of Brazil in 2012, we use 6 different logit regression models to estimate marginal effects. We found that the probabilities of thefts and verbal aggressions by the police, even after controlling for all the considered individual and community variables, are higher for Afro-descendants. African descent women are more likely to be victims of theft and physical aggression by the police, while white women are more likely to be robbed. In the case of men, Afro-descendants have higher probabilities of being victims of thefts, robberies and verbal aggressions by the police. Regarding skin color bias, the probability of verbal and physical victimization by the police is higher for darker skin individuals. Because of its strategic importance to citizen security policy-making, further race-based data collection is needed, as well as research on the effectiveness of police targeting practices.

Washington DC: IDB, 2019. 37p.

By Patricio Domínguez Kenzo Asahi 

This paper studies the effect of ambient light on crime, taking advantage of the daylight saving time (DST) policy, which imposes exogenous variations in daylight exposure at specific hours of the day. The paper uses a rich administrative database managed by Chile’s national police, a centralized agency that collects detailed information regarding each crime incident. A 20% decrease (increase) in crimes is found when the DST transition increases (decreases) the amount of sunlight by one hour during the 7-9 p.m. period. Importantly, no significant response is detected induced by DST associated with a plausible demand-side response such as the population’s commuting time pattern, and no substantial short-term displacement is found. Most of the changes in property crime due to the DST policy are driven by robbery in residential areas.

Washington DC: IBD, 2019. 73p.

By Patricio Domínguez 

This paper models crime rates as a function of the interaction between potential offenders and victims. In particular, the paper studies robbery of bus drivers, a crime that remains common in cities throughout the world. Exploiting the timing of a significant reform introduced in Chile in the public transportation sector and detailed administrative data on crime incidents, the paper shows how victims' propensity to resist an attack can alter the level and nature of criminal activity. The paper also finds a large decline in crime after the implementation of a technological innovation that eliminated cash transactions on buses. The results suggest a strong relationship between victims incentives, cash presence, and crime.

Washington DC: IDB, 2020. 70p.

By Spencer Chainey Nathalie Alvarado Rodrigo Serrano–Berthet

Hot spots policing (HSP) is an effective approach for decreasing crime. This guide is designed to help police agencies better understand and make practical use of this policing strategy. The guide explains how HSP works in helping to decrease crime, and describes the processes involved in implementing a successful program in Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC). It also offers practical advice on how to address many of the challenges involved in implementing HSP, how to evaluate its impact, and how to complement it with other policing approaches to help sustain decreases in crime. Included throughout the publication are case studies from the region that help illustrate how HSP is applied. The guide also answers questions that are often asked about HSP, such as issues associated with the displacement of crime.

Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank - IDB 2024. 149p.

By Simone Cecchini and Jorge Martínez Pizarro

In Latin America and the Caribbean, where every country is a country of origin, destination, return or transit, international migration is becoming ever more complex and intensive. Migratory flows are increasingly characterized by irregularity; and migrants represent one of the most vulnerable population groups, as victims of stigmatization, discrimination, xenophobia and racism. However, migrants contribute to sustainable development through work, entrepreneurship, remittances and tax payments, in addition to their culture. To enhance these contributions, public policies and migration governance are needed at the multilateral, national and local levels, based on the interaction between migration and development and fulfilment of the countries’ human rights obligations.

CEPAL Review No. 141 • December 2023

By the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

The Americas have the highest regional homicide rate in the world, and high rates of homicidal violence related to organized crime. This research brief, excerpted from the UNODC Global Study on Homicide 2023, notes several recurrent patterns with respect to factors shaping criminal homicides in Latin America and the Caribbean: › Homicides related to organized crime and gangs are significantly more volatile than homicides perpetrated by intimate partners or other family members. › Subregions, countries and cities with a high homicide rate tend to be associated with a larger proportion of firearm-related homicide. › Settings with a high homicide rate also typically report a large proportion of homicides involving male victims. › High homicide rates are also usually associated with a proportionately higher number of homicides related to organized crime. Where there is a higher density of criminal organizations, there is a higher risk of homicidal violence. › Drug markets alone do not predict homicide but they are frequently associated with lethal violence, especially in the context of multiple competing criminal factions. Amid mounting public concern with violent crime and low trust in police, some Latin American and Caribbean governments are enacting “states of emergency” in response to organized crime and violent gangs. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about the human rights impacts of states of emergency introduced to address organized crime and violence1, while the Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace policy brief 2 notes that over-securitized responses can be counterproductive and can reinforce the very dynamics they seek to overcome, as their far-reaching consequences – blowback from local populations, human rights violations and abuses, exacerbation of gender inequalities and distortion of local economies – can be powerful drivers for recruitment into terrorist or armed groups.  

Vienna: UNODC, 2024. 42p.

By Jinmei Feng, Hong Ma, Mingzhi Xu, Wei You

This study estimates the causal impact of the massive installation of surveillance cameras on crime, using novel data from China between 2014 and 2019. Using the number of preexisting local camera producers as the instrument for the density of camera installation, we find that cities with denser surveillance networks experienced significantly faster declines in crime. The reduction is more pronounced for publicly visible crimes. Enhanced surveillance is associated with higher satisfaction with the government and a greater sense of security, leading to longer hours worked, especially for women. A back-of-envelope calculation shows preventing a crime costs approximately $5,922, which is highly cost-effective.

Unpublished paper, 2024 

By Kellen R. Funk & Sandra G. Mayson

How did criminal bail work in the Founding era? This question has become pressing as bail, and bail reform, have attracted increasing attention, in part because history is thought to bear on the meaning of bail-related constitutional provisions. To date, however, there has been no thorough account of bail at the Founding. This Article begins to correct the deficit in our collective memory by describing bail law and practice in the Founding era, from approximately 1790 to 1810. In order to give a full account, we surveyed a wide range of materials, including Founding-era statutes, case law, legal treatises, and manuals for magistrates; and original court, jail, administrative, and justice-of-the-peace records held in archives and private collections.The historical inquiry illuminates three key facts. First, the black-letter law of bail in the Founding era was highly protective of pretrial liberty. A uniquely American framework for bail guaranteed release, in theory, for nearly all accused persons. Second, things were different on the ground. The primary records reveal that, for those who lived on the margins of society, bail practice bore little resemblance to the law on the books, and pretrial detention was routine. The third key point cuts across the law and reality of criminal bail: both in theory and in practice, the bail system was a system of unsecured pledges, not cash deposits. It operated through reputational capital, not financial capital. This fact refutes the claim, frequently advanced by opponents of contemporary bail reform, that cash bail is a timeless American tradition. The contrast between the written ideals and the actual practice of bail in the Founding era, meanwhile, highlights the difficulty of looking to the past for a determinate guide to legal meaning.

Harvard Law Review, VOLUME 137, ISSUE 7, MAY 2024

By Michael J. Zoorob, ; Ju Nyeong Park, ; Alex H. Kral,  et alBarrot H. Lambdin, PhD3; Brandon del Pozo, PhD, MPA, MA1,2

IMPORTANCE-  With the implementation of Measure 110 (M110) in 2021, Oregon became the first US state to decriminalize small amounts of any drug for personal use. To date, no analysis of the association of this law with overdose mortality has fully accounted for the introduction of fentanyl—a substance that is known to drive fatal overdose—to Oregon’s unregulated drug market. OBJECTIVE -  To evaluate whether the decriminalization of drug possession in Oregon was associated with changes in fatal drug overdose rates after accounting for the rapid spread of fentanyl in Oregon’s unregulated drug market. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In this cohort study, the association between fatal overdose and enactment of M110 was analyzed using a matrix completion synthetic control method. The control group consisted of the 48 US states and Washington, DC, all of which did not decriminalize drugs. The rapid spread of fentanyl in unregulated drug markets was determined using the state-level percentage of all samples reported to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System that were identified as fentanyl or its analogues. Mortality data were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2022. Data analysis was performed from fall 2023 through spring 2024. EXPOSURES Measure 110 took effect in Oregon on February 1, 2021. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome assessed was fatal drug overdose rates per half-year. A changepoint analysis also determined when each state experienced a rapid escalation of fentanyl in its unregulated drug market. RESULTS In this analysis, rapid spread of fentanyl in Oregon’s unregulated drug supply occurred in the first half of 2021, contemporaneous with enactment of M110. A positive crude association was found between drug decriminalization and fatal overdose rate per 100 000 per half year (estimate [SE], 1.83 [0.47]; P < .001). After adjusting for the spread of fentanyl as a confounder, the effect size changed signs (estimate [SE], −0.51 [0.61]; P = .41) and there was no longer an association between decriminalization and overdose mortality in Oregon. Sensitivity analyses were consistent with this result. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this cohort study of fatal drug overdose and the spread of fentanyl through Oregon’s unregulated drug market, no association between M110 and fatal overdose rates was observed. Future evaluations of the health effects of drug policies should account for changes in the composition of unregulated drug markets.

  JAMA Netw Open. 2024;7(9):e2431612. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.3161

By Byongook Moon, John McCluskey,  Guan Saw

This report summarizes a research project on violence against teachers in the 50 largest school districts in the U.S. The report discusses the project’s main goals and objectives; research design and methodology, including data collection and sample; and research findings. It also examines school policies, and notes some conclusions and implications for practice. The results section explores the prevalence of seven distinct types of victimization that occurred during Waves I and II of the research project, along with negative impacts on victimized teachers, such as emotional distress and distrust of students. The report also examines how school administrators respond to incidents of teacher victimization and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of victimized teachers regarding the school responses. The Appendix documents include four manuscripts that have either been accepted or are under review for publication in academic journals, providing detailed examinations of the primary goals and key findings of the research.

Final report to the U.S. National Institute of Justice, 2024. 29p.

By Isabelle Sin, Shannon Minehan, Janet Fanslow, Alayne Mikahere-Hall

Drawing upon longitudinal data from the Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) study, this research looks at the barriers to mothers leaving partners who use violence. The persistence of conflict or abuse experienced by mothers over the antenatal to 9-month period, and over the 54-month to 8-year period was examined. For these two periods, the association between intimate partner violence (IPV) at the start of the period and the relationship breaking up during this period was explored.

Key findings

• Mothers with fewer financial resources are less able to leave partners who use violence. 

• Younger mothers, mothers who lack access to a car, mothers with poor physical health, mothers who are not part of a community, mothers who place high importance on maintaining cultural traditions (who are largely non-Europeans), and mothers whose partners have low education or earnings may also be less able to leave partners who use violence.

• Mothers who report conflict or IPV in one survey wave are quite likely to report it again in the following survey wave (one to several years later). However, a considerable proportion of such mothers report no IPV in the following wave, either because their partners stopped using violence or their relationship ended. Working Paper.

Wellington, NZ: Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, 2024.

By Nina Jankowicz, Isabella Gomez-O’Keefe, Lauren Hoffman and Andrea Vidal Becker

Technology facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) is not an in­tractable problem. But it must no longer be the responsibility solely of women’s advocacy groups. Others – technology companies, governments, civil society organizations, law enforcement, businesses, schools – must step up and work in unison to combat TFGBV in order to to reflect its main­streamed effects on society. This report, drawing on a case study around the online harassment of Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, assesses the state of research on TFGBV as well as recent global policy progress made on this issue, and offers a number of practical solutions to make women and girls safer online. The authors argue that TFGBV must be mainstreamed to be mitigated, centering women’s experiences in broader policy debates. Technology companies, governments, civic tech organizations, law enforcement, employers, schools, and others must mainstream their work to combat TFGBV to reflect its mainstreamed effects on society. To this end, the authors recommend a number of practical solutions to the specific and pressing issues that women and girls face online today. Addressing the urgent changes described here will not only make women and girls safer and ensure their voices are heard, but also improve the safety and free expression for everyone who uses the internet, building more robust, representative democracies.

The recommendations are presented under the following themes:

• Ensuring platform accountability and action

• Urgently addressing deepfake image-based sexual abuse

• Supporting victims and survivors of TFGBV

• Deepening research and mainstreaming advocacy.

New York: Columbia University, Institute of Global Politics, 2024. 41p.

By Scott Phillips ,  Justin F. Marceau,   Sam Kamin ,  Nicole King

In this essay, we update and expand David Baldus’s famous study of Georgia homicides in the 1970s to uncover the impact of the race and sex of homicide victims on whether a defendant was sentenced to death and ultimately executed. We show that the odds of a death sentence were sixteen times greater if the victim was a White woman than if the victim was a Black man, even when other factors that might explain the disparity were taken into account. Furthermore, we identified a clear hierarchy among victims with regard to whether a death sentence was ultimately carried out. Among the defendants who were sent to death row for killing a White woman, 30% were executed. But the share drops to 19% if the victim was a White man, 10% if the victim was a Black woman, and 0% if the victim was a Black man. We then use contemporary, nationwide Supplemental Homicide Report (SHR) data to show that the effect we identified in Georgia in the 1970s generalizes to the nation as a whole and to the present day. We argue that these disparities, which cannot be explained by factors extrinsic to the victim’s race and sex, are further evidence that the ultimate question of who lives and  dies in our criminal justice system remains unconstitutionally tainted by outdated notions of chivalry and White supremacy.   

114 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 67 (2024).

By Jai Gupta

This article aims to explore the relationship between weather and crime by answering the question: To what extent does the weather in cities with varying year-round temperatures have different relationships with both property and violent crime? The current literature has found a significant correlation between the increase in outside temperature with the increase in crime. However, this relationship has not been compared between warm and cold cities with relatively similar city variables, such as demographics, poverty rates, and others. The researcher performed a quantitative, correlational, ex post facto study to address this gap in the literature. The researcher examined three weather variables: average average temperature, average high temperature, and average low temperature across six cities. These six cities were split into three pairs, each pair having a warm and cold city. The researcher found four principle findings: cities with colder year-round temperatures had a more significant correlation between weather and crime; of the weather variables examined, the average low temperature had the strongest relationship with crimes across all cities; between violent and property crime, property crime had a stronger correlation with all weather variables on average; and lastly, as temperature increases across all weather variables, crime, on average, also increased. While more research should be conducted, these findings hope to serve local policy makers and law enforcement on better predicting crime.

Unpublished paper,  (April 30, 2024).

By  Aika Hui , Paul Salkovskis, Joshua Rumble-Browne

The current systematic review aimed to critically examine the growing body of literature proposing that there is an ‘intergenerational cycle’ of violence, whereby victims of abuse during childhood are posited to have a higher propensity of becoming perpetrators during adulthood. Specifically, this review examined whether there is quality evidence supporting the relationship between childhood sexual abuse victimisation and interpersonal violence perpetration (sexual/physical) in adult men. 20 studies published between 1992 and 2022 were included in this review. The quality of studies was systematically assessed to provide a weighted conclusion to the primary research question. Overall, there was limited evidence to confidently support or reject the link between childhood sexual abuse and physical and/or sexual violence in adulthood for men. The current review found that whilst there were studies that found associations on a univariate and multivariate level between childhood sexual abuse and interpersonal violence in adult men, only 25 % of the papers included in this review were deemed high-quality and significant methodological issues limit the validity of conclusions made. Addi tionally, a sizeable proportion of high-quality studies at both univariate and multivariate levels of analysis suggest mixed results or did not find a significant relationship. Implications for future research studies in this area in terms of the encouragement of a more critical stance towards the assumption of ‘intergenerational cycles’ of violence as well as recommendations for methodological improvements of studies were discussed.  

Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume 78, September–October 2024, 101928

By Brandon C. Welsh , Steven N. Zane ,Daniel P. Mears 

The present state of calls for and efforts to implement evidence-based policy provide a powerful foundation for propelling a movement toward bringing about rational, cost-efficient, and humane policies for reducing aggression, crime, and violence. The main aim of this article is to report on new developments in evidence-based policy (EBP)—what we view as giving rise to a new era in crime and violence prevention and social justice. The article describes major advances, both in research and policy, and discusses pressing challenges that confront EBP in crime/violence and justice, drawing on key findings from a new, comprehensive book project. The overall conclusion of the findings is heartening and yet sobering. Research and policy have made substantial progress, but there is much more to be done. The specific details of this work are organized around three questions that are foundational to evidence-based crime/violence and justice policy today: (a) How is research contributing to and guiding EBP? (b) What are productive and new ways to think about EBP? and (c) What are strategies for pro moting greater use of EBP?    

Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume 77, July–August 2024, 101940

By David Weisburd, Taryn Zastrow  , Kiseong Kuen  , Martin A. Andresen

Our paper reports on a systematic review of crime concentration studies over the last 35 years. We identify 47 papers that report on crime concentrations at a micro geographic unit of analysis. These papers produced 49 estimates of general crime concentration for crime incidents at streets segments for a specific cumulative proportion of crime. The median concentration for these estimates is 50 % of crime found at 4.5 % of streets, and 25 % of crime at 1.25 % of streets. The bandwidth for 50 % crime concentration is 9.3 % (1.7–11.0 %), and for 25 % crime concentration 3.0 % (0.4–3.4 %). Using the interquartile range to exclude outliers, we found a bandwidth of 2.5 % (3.2–5.7 %) for 50 % of crime, and 1.4 % (0.8–2.2 %) for 25 % of crime. Crime concentration was generally stronger for specific types of crime, and bandwidths of concentration were generally smaller. Using alternative measures of crime and different micro geographies produces similar conclusions regarding strong crime concentration at place with narrow bandwidths. Our review shows that a general framework of a law of crime concentration applies across a large number of cities across many regions around the world. 

Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume 78, September–October 2024, 101979

By The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

Focus on Illicit Payments: The document examines transnational bribery in the context of international investment agreements (IIAs) and other related instruments, highlighting efforts to combat corruption at various levels.

Legal Definitions and Jurisdiction: It discusses the legal definition of bribery, the role of public officials, and the complexities of jurisdiction and international cooperation in addressing transnational bribery.

Enforcement and Sanctions: Emphasis is placed on the enforcement of anti-bribery laws and the sanctions imposed on those involved incorrupt practices, including the responsibilities of transnational corporations (TNCs).

Policy Options: The document outlines policy options for addressing illicit payments in IIAs, ranging from non-inclusion to substantive provisions that tackle transnational bribery issues comprehensively.

United Nations, 2001 , 101 pages