By Ardi Janjeva, Alexandria Reid and Anton Moiseienko.

The distribution of copyright-infringing audio-visual content, also known as ‘piracy’, is a major profit-generating crime that offers significant opportunities for criminal gain. The idea that piracy is solely carried out by otherwise law-abiding, opportunistic individuals is no longer tenable. Piracy is an increasingly professionalised crime, yet the current response lacks the required urgency on numerous levels, from an incomplete understanding of pirate business models to the often low priority attached to tackling it by law enforcement agencies, regulators and online service providers and the limited awareness in the financial sector about intellectual property crime. This report explores how criminals make money from piracy and provides recommendations for how the UK government, law enforcement and private sector stakeholders can decrease the profitability of doing so. Its recommendations are addressed to UK audiences, but almost all of them are internationally applicable. This is particularly true of those aimed at rights holders, the financial sector and online service providers working across multiple geographies.

London: Royal United Services Institute, 2021. 84p.

By Sebastian Blesse and André Diegmann.

Does the administrative organization of police affect crime? In answering this question, we focus on the reorganization of local police agencies. Specifically, we study the effects police force reallocation via station closures has on local crime. We do this by exploiting a quasi-experiment where a reform substantially reduced the number of police stations. Combining a matching strategy with an event-study design, we find no effects on total theft. Police station closures, however, open up tempting opportunities for criminals in car theft and burglary in residential properties. We can rule out that our effects arise from incapacitation, crime displacement, or changes in employment of local police forces. Our results suggest that criminals are less deterred after police station closures and use the opportunity to steal more costly goods.

Mannheim: ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, 2018. 55p.

By H. Goudriaan.

Victim reports are the main source of information for the police regarding where crimes are committed, and also the basis for most subsequent actions of the criminal justice system. Therefore, the victims' decision to report to the police is crucial. However, much criminal victimization is not reported and, consequently, many offenders are never prosecuted. Why are some crimes reported and others not? Substantial differences in reporting are found across crime locations, neighborhoods and countries. In this book, a socio-ecological model of victims' decision-making is introduced which endeavors to explain these contextual differences in reporting. To empirically test the main hypotheses derived from this model, several data sources are used and different research strategies are employed, with which the effects of crime, victim and contextual factors on victims' reporting behavior are simultaneously analyzed. Factors constituting the context in which crime incidents take place (e.g. whether the location is in the private or public domain), as well as factors composing the neighborhood context (e.g. the neighborhood social cohesion) and – to a lesser extent – the country context in which victims reside, were found to play a role in victims's decision (not) to report.

Leiden: University of Leiden, 2006. 213p.

By A. Ojebode; B.R. Ojebuyi; N.J. Onyechi; O. Oladapo; O.J. Oyedele and I.A. Fadipe .

The problem of ineffective policing still persists in post-colonial Africa and as a result, both donors and governments are seeking non-state alternatives or complements to the state apparatuses. These alternatives include private sector provision, donor-driven interventions and community-based or community-driven crime prevention practices. There is no shortage of community-based crime prevention (CBCP) practices in Africa and they come in a variety of forms and models: neighbourhood watches, vigilantes, religious and ethnic militias, and neighbourhood guards. However, the effectiveness of CBCP practices is still a subject of controversy despite the widespread prevalence of these practices. This study looks at the effectiveness of CBCP practices, considers possible reasons for their effectiveness or ineffectiveness, and on the basis of the research, makes some policy recommendations.

Brighton, UK: Institute of Development Studies, 2016. 59p.

By Riekje Pelgrim.

In the last two decades, the Northern Province of South Africa has experienced hundreds of so-called witch attacks: violent assaults in which individuals or groups of people are accused of practicing witchcraft. Since the mid 1980s, the attacking and killing of people believed to be witches has become an increasingly problematic social issue in this part of the world. Narrations of witchcraft related violence have been numerous in the press, police reports and the academic world. South African newspapers and television have covered the issue of witchcraft related problems extensively: a quick review of backdated articles and television programmes reflects the ever-growing social problem caused by the belief in witchcraft. During my six-month fieldwork period in the Northern Province, both The Mirror and the Soutpansberger, two local weekly newspapers, carried on average one witchcraft related article per edition. Even the Mail & Guardian and the Sowetan, national newspapers of substantial influence and objective reputation, have published numerous articles dealing with witchcraft related issues. Additionally, police reports of witchcraft related crime have been numerous. Statistics show that between 1990 and 2001, the number of witchcraft related cases has increased from an estimated 50 cases per year to over 1300 a year. As a result, special attention has been paid to this type of crime: the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) has been collecting statistical data and organising rallies and workshops. In this manner, the police have tried to raise awareness regarding the serious consequences of this type of crime and hope to diminish it.

Leiden: African Studies Centre, 2003. 171p.

Edited by: Emmanuel Onyeozili, Biko Agozino, Augustine Agu, and Patrick Ibe.

One result of the Black Lives Matter movement has been to focus attention on police brutality in all its forms around the globe. Nowhere is the situation more dire than in Nigeria where the now infamous SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squads) have, for years, inflicted excessive abuses on Nigeria’s citizenry. In response, many young people have taken to the streets to demand an end to the brutality in the now historic #ENDSARS nationwide protest. Community Policing in Nigeria is a timely and much-needed intervention into the policing problems in Nigeria. Written collaboratively by four authors with deep knowledge of Nigerian policy and of criminal justice more broadly, the book examines models of community policing around the world and points out best practices and flawed practices that may serve as guides for Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

Blacksburg, VA: Virginia Tech Publishing, 2021. 182p.

Innovative Approaches in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Arab Region (Edition 1). Edited by Silvia Matuk and Kosta Mathéy. Urban violence has become a major threat in big cities of the world. Where the orthodox protection through the police and individual target hardening remain inefficient, the population must organize itself. This book contains first-hand accounts on a selection of the most innovative experiences in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Arab region and is of interest likewise for academics and urban practitioners, policy makers, international cooperation experts or travelers preparing a visit of one of the affected countries.

Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2014. 321p.

By Hannah Doyle.

Terrorism, the use of military force in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, and the fatal police shootings of unarmed persons have all contributed to renewed interest in the ethics of police and military use of lethal force and its moral justification. In this book, philosopher Seumas Miller analyzes the various moral justifications and moral responsibilities involved in the use of lethal force by police and military combatants, relying on a distinctive normative teleological account of institutional roles. His conception constitutes a novel alternative to prevailing reductive individualist and collectivist accounts. As Miller argues, police and military uses of lethal force are morally justified in part by recourse to fundamental natural moral rights and obligations, especially the right to personal self-defense and the moral obligation to defend the lives of innocent others. Yet the moral justification for police and military use of lethal force is to some extent role-specific. Both police officers and military combatants evidently have an institutionally-based moral duty to put themselves in harm's way to protect others. Under some circumstances, however, police have an institutionally based moral duty to use lethal force to uphold the law; and military combatants have an institutionally based moral duty to use lethal force to win wars. Two key notions in play are joint action and the natural right to self-defense. Miller uses a relational individualist theory of joint actions to construct the notion of multi-layered structures of joint action in order to explicate organizational action. He also provides a novel theory of justifiable killing in self-defense. Over the course of his book, Miller covers a variety of urgent topics, such as police shootings of armed offenders, police shooting of suicide-bombers, targeted killing, autonomous weapons, humanitarian armed intervention, and civilian immunity. New York: Oxford University Press 2016, 312p.

By Silvia Staubli.

The police can be seen as a governmental institution or as an organizational body, where especially the work – effectiveness, or fairness in encounters – is valued. Through the combination of these approaches and the inclusion of social trust and criminal victimization, Silvia Staubli offers an understanding beyond existing literature on institutional trust and procedural fairness. Moreover, due to analyses for Eastern and Western Europe, she addresses experts from sociology, political science, criminology, and social anthropology equally. Beyond, the study offers an insight to the public on how public opinions towards institutions are shaped Bielefeld, Transcript Verlag, 2017. 201p.

By Deniz Kocak.

In 2014, United Nations Security Council resolutions on security sector reform (SSR) and on police operations as part of UN missions confirmed the stated aim to seek the sustained implementation of a “community-oriented approach” to policing in the respective mission countries.1 While promoting the implementation of community-oriented policing since for more than a decade,2 a clarification of what this approach should actually entail and how exactly the UN missions and operating UN agencies in as diverse country contexts such as Papua-New Guinea, Ukraine, or South-Sudan should pursue this approach is still missing. Community policing has often been promoted, particularly in liberal democratic societies, as the best approach to align police services with the principles of good security sector governance (SSG). The stated goal of the community policing approach is to reduce fear of crime within communities, and to overcome mutual distrust between the police and the communities they serve by promoting police citizen partnerships. This SSR Paper traces the historical origins of the concept of community policing in Victorian Great Britain and analyses the processes of transfer, implementation, and adaptation of approaches to community policing in Imperial and post-war Japan, Singapore, and Timor-Leste. The study identifies the factors that were conducive or constraining to the establishment of community policing in each case. It concludes that basic elements of police professionalism and local ownership are necessary preconditions for successfully implementing community policing according to the principles of good SSG. Moreover, external initiatives for community policing must be more closely aligned to the realities of the local context.

London: Ubiquity Press Ltd., 2018. 69p.

Edited by Georgios Leventakis, M. R. Haberfeld.

Community policing started in the United States in the second half of the century when the rise of social disorder and crime rates was so high that LEAs had to rethink about the efficiency of their relationship with citizens and about the crimefighting model in place (Crime Stoppers International 2017). The need for a new police model involved also Comparisons across Eastern and Western Europe in Europe. Recognizing that police can rarely solve public safety problems on their own, community policing encourages interactive partnerships with relevant stakeholders. Its philosophy influences the way that departments are organized and managed (personnel and technologies), encouraging the application of modern management practices for efficiency and effectiveness. Cham: Springer, 2018. 151p.

By Gabriele Bammer.

Grappling with uncertainties is at the heart of investigating serious crime. At a time when such crime is becoming more complex and resources are increasingly stretched, this book draws together research and practice perspectives to review fruitful approaches to uncertainties and to chart the way forward. Scene setting chapters describe the consequences of globalisation and the spread of sophisticated information technologies (Sue Wilkinson), as well as advances in understanding and managing uncertainty (Michael Smithson). Ways of enhancing responses from statistics (Robyn Attewell), risk analysis (Richard Jarrett and Mark Westcott) and the psychology of decision making (Mark Kebbell, Damon Muller and Kirsty Martin) follow. These are complemented by insights from law (the Hon. Tim Carmody SC), politics (the Hon. Carmen Lawrence) and business (Neil Fargher), which all have significant intersections with policing. Synthesis is provided by the four final chapters which present the outlooks of the investigating officer and investigation manager (Peter Martin), the provider of policing higher education (Tracey Green and Greg Linsdell), the capacity-building consultant (Steve Longford), and the leader of a law enforcement agency (Alastair Milroy).

Canberra: Australian National University Press, 2010. 226p.

By Kutnjak Sanja Ivković, Jon Maskály, Ahmet Kule, Maria Maki Haberfeld.

This book explores the contours of the code of silence and provides policy recommendations geared toward creating an environment less conducive for police misconduct. It responds to the recent calls for police reform, in the wake of the perceived illegitimacy of police actions and the protection that the code of silence seems to provide to the police officers who violate the official rules. Using a case study of a medium-sized U.S. police agency, this book employs the lens of police integrity theory to provide empirically grounded explanations of the code of silence. It examines the potential effects of organizational factors and the attitudes of individual police officers on their willingness to adhere to the code of silence in cases of police corruption, the use of excessive force, interpersonal deviance, and organizational deviance. The book focuses on the following factors that could influence the police code of silence in the times of change: The impact of organizational rule dissemination, discipline, and disciplinary fairness on the scope of the code of silence The role organizational justice plays in shaping police officer willingness to report misconduct The effect that police officers’ self-legitimacy has on their decisions to adhere to the code The influence of peer culture on individual police officer amenability to maintain the code The relationship between officers’ views of themselves, the organization, and the community on their willingness to report misconduct.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2022. 129p.

By Abi Dymond.

Building on five years of research, and drawing on criminology, science and technology studies (STS), socio-legal studies and social psychology, this book is the first non-medical book written on electric-shock weapons, of which the best well known is the TASER brand. The police’s ability to use force is one of their most crucial powers, yet one that has been relatively neglected by criminology. This book challenges some of the myths surrounding the use of these weapons and considers their human rights implications and impact on members of the public and officers alike. Drawing on STS, it also considers and role and impact of electric-shock technologies, examines the extent to which technologies and non-human agency may also play a role in shaping officer decision making and discretion, and contributes to long standing debates about police accountability.

London; New York: Routledge, 2021. 202p.

Edited by Katarzyna Chałubińska-Jentkiewicz, Filip Radoniewicz, Tadeusz Zieliński.

Presents a comprehensive and synthetic approach to issues related to the cybersecurity system of the Republic of Poland. Provides a research perspective that adopts issues of state security and citizen security as the fundamental level of analysis. The first part of the book is an introduction to cybersecurity issues. In the main part of the publication, the authors, guided by the systematics of the Act, discuss the role of individual entities included in the cybersecurity system, Part II presents tasks and competences of entities responsible for ensuring cybersecurity under the national cybersecurity system (“imperious entities”, e.g. competent authorities, CSIRTS), Part III describes the obligations of other entities included in the national cybersecurity system (“participants” of the national cybersecurity system, especially operators of essential services and digital service providers). The last part is dedicated to cybercrime and combating this phenomenon.

Cham: Springer, 2022. 506p.

Edited by Henrik Tham. The drug policies of the Nordic countries have been relatively strict. Since this seems to contradict the internationally recognized liberal criminal policy in general, analyses have been devoted to try to understand this gap. Why doesn’t the “Scandinavian exceptionalism” apply to the drug policies? The new question in relation to drug policy is, however, if and how the Nordic countries will adapt to a situation when several countries all over the world are questioning ‘the war on drugs’ and orienting themselves in the direction of decriminalization and legalization.

Stockholm: SWE: Stockholm University Press., 2021. 324p.

By Wilhelm Heitmeyer Simon Howell Sebastian Kurtenbach Abdul Rauf Muhammad Zaman Steffen Zdun. This book is the first comprehensive study of the street code concept attempting to determine if this concept and process exists in milieus beyond the United States, and if so where, and when it does, its extent, and how and why it is manifested. In sum, the purpose of the study is to provide “an international, cross-cultural comparison of the norms which define and make meaningful violence in three countries, namely Germany, South Africa, and Pakistan.

Open Access (2019) 196p.

By Grover Maurice Godwin.

Hunting Serial Predators is unique in that each chapter, written in detail, explains how to research and interpret, psychologically, the crime scene actions of serial killers. The book provides the reader an empirical facet model of the crime scene actions of American serial murderers based on information available to a police inquiry; an overview of the related scientific knowledge, introducing a new method to classify the serial predator, and accounts of the process and difficulties of profiling the serial murderer.

CRC Press (1999) 319 pages.

By Geoff Pearson and Mike Rowe.

Police Street Powers and Criminal Justice analyses the utilisation, regulation and legitimacy of police powers. Drawing upon six-years of ethnographic research in two police forces in England, this book uncovers the importance of time and place, supervision and monitoring, local policies and law. Covering a period when the police were under intense scrutiny and subject to austerity measures, the authors contend that the concept of police culture does not help us understand police discretion. They argue that change is a dominant feature of policing and identify fragmented responses to law and policy reform, varying between police stations, across different policing roles, and between senior and frontline ranks.

Hart Publishing (2020) 243 pages.

Georgios Leventakis M. R. Haberfeld Editors.

Presents new approaches and innovative challenges to address bringing technology into community-oriented policing efforts. “Community-oriented policing” is an approach that encourages police to develop and maintain personal relationships with citizens and community organizations. By developing these partnerships, the goal is to enhance trust and legitimacy of police by the community (and vice versa), and focus on engaging the community crime prevention and detection efforts for sustainable, long-term crime reduction.

(2018) 110 pages.