Sex, crime and morality

Over the last few decades, there has been a marked increase in media and debate surrounding a specific group of offences in modern Democratic nations which bear the brunt of the label ‘crimes against morality’. Included within this group are offences related to prostitution and pornography, homosexuality and incest and child sexual abuse. This book examines the nexus between sex, crime and morality from a theoretical perspective. This is the first academic text to offer an examination and analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of sex-related crimes and social attitudes towards them and the historical, anthropological and moral reasons for differentiating these crimes in contemporary western culture. The book is divided into three sections corresponding to three theoretical frameworks: - Part 1 examines the moral temporality of sex and taboo as a foundation for legislation governing sex crimes - Part 2 focuses on the geography of sex and deviance, specifically notions of public morality and the public private divide - Part 3 examines the moral economy of sex and harm, including the social construction of harm. Sex, Crime and Morality will be key reading for students of criminology, criminal justice, gender studies and ethics, and will also be of interest to justice professionals.

Drawing the line : the legal status and treatment of the 17-year-old accused in Queensland

Seventeen year olds who come into contact with the police in Queensland are classified as adults and are not afforded the protections available under the Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) (YJA). As with any other adult, their offences are dealt with under a raft of legislative provisions including the Criminal Code 1889 (Qld) (the Code), the Police Powers and Responsibilities Act 2000 (Qld) (PPRA) and the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) (PSA). This article argues that this situation is unfair and contravenes international human rights agreements which Australia has ratified, in particular the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CROC). Article 1 of that Convention defines a child as a person under the age of 18. The youth offences legislation in Queensland only applies to those who have not yet turned 17. This article examines the effects of this anomaly in Queensland, focusing in particular on the pre-adjudication treatment of ‘17 year old adults’.

Green criminology and dirty collar crime

As a contribution to literature drawing together green criminology and studies of organised and corporate crime, this paper provides a case study of crimes and public health harms linked to the Naples garbage disposal crisis. The context is the inability of modern consumer society to cope with the problem of mass production of waste. In turn this leads to opportunities for both legal and criminal entrepreneurs to offer services that promise but fail to ‘dispose’ of the problem. The analysis draws upon environmental law and classic studies of organised crime.

Air pollution and invisible violence

In recent years air pollution has been referred to as an ‘invisible killer’, and ‘an invisible health crisis’ (European Respiratory Society 2012). As other chapters in this collection have argued, the invisibility of crime is manifested through various lenses: lack of knowledge, lack of political and media attention, an absence of policing and regulatory focus, and an unwitting and ill-informed public. All such arguments pertain to air pollution; however, toxic emissions are also literally invisible from sight and consciousness, as are the associated consequences.

Green Cultural Criminology : Constructions of Environmental Harm, Consumerism, and Resistance to Ecocide

Over the last two decades, "green criminology" has emerged as a unique area of study, bringing together criminologists and sociologists from a wide range of research backgrounds and varying theoretical orientations. It spans the micro to the macro—from individual-level environmental crimes and victimization to business/corporate violations and state transgressions. There have been few attempts, however, to explicitly or implicitly integrate cultural criminology into green criminology (or vice versa). This book moves towards articulating a green cultural criminological perspective. Brisman and South examine existing overlapping research and offer a platform to support future excursions by green criminologists into cultural criminology’s concern with media images and representations, consumerism and consumption, and resistance. At the same time, they offer an invitation to cultural criminologists to adopt a green view of the consumption landscape and the growth (and depictions) of environmental harms.

Environmental Crime and Specialist Courts: The case for a ‘One-Stop (Judicial) Shop’ in Queensland

The increasing international political, public and scientific engagement in matters of environmental sustainability and development has produced a rapidly expanding body of environmental law and policy. The advent of international protocols, directives, and multilateral agreements has occurred concomitantly with the harmonisation of widespread environmental regimes of governance and enforcement within numerous domestic settings. This has created an unprecedented need for environmental legal apparatuses to manage, regulate and adjudicate legislation seeking to protect, sustain and develop global natural habitats. The evolving literature in green criminology continues to explore these developments within discourses of power, harm and justice. Such critiques have emphasised the role of dedicated environmental courts to address environmental crimes and injustices. In this article, we examine the important role of specialist courts in responding to environmental crime, with specific reference to the State of Queensland. We offer a critique of existing processes and practices for the adjudication of environmental crime and propose new jurisdictional and procedural approaches for enhancing justice. We conclude that specialist environmental courts endowed with broad civil and criminal jurisdiction are an integral part of an effective response to environmental crime.

"Secoituxesta järjettömäin luondocappalden canssa" : Perversiot, oikeuselämä ja kansankulttuuri 1700-luvun Suomessa

Bestiality was in the 18th century a more difficult problem in terms of criminal policy in Sweden and Finland than in any other Christian country in any other period. In the legal history of deviant sexuality, the phenomenon was uniquely widespread by international comparison. The number of court cases per capita in Finland was even higher than in Sweden. The authorities classified bestiality among the most serious crimes and a deadly sin. The Court of Appeal in Turku opted for an independent line and was clearly more lenient than Swedish courts of justice. Death sentences on grounds of bestiality ended in the 1730s, decades earlier than in Sweden. The sources for the present dissertation include judgment books and Court of Appeal decisions in 253 cases, which show that the persecution of those engaging in bestial acts in 18th century Finland was not organised by the centralised power of Stockholm. There is little evidence of local campaigns that would have been led by authorities. The church in its orthodoxy was losing ground and the clergy governed their parishes with more pragmatism than the Old Testament sanctioned. When exposing bestiality, the legal system was compelled to rely on the initiative of the public. In cases of illicit intercourse or adultery the authorities were even more dependent on the activeness of the local community. Bestiality left no tangible evidence, illegitimate children, to betray the crime to the clergy or secular authorities. The moral views of the church and the local community were not on a collision course. It was a common view that bestiality was a heinous act. Yet nowhere near all crimes came to the authorities' knowledge. Because of the heavy burden of proof, the legal position of the informer was difficult. Passiveness in reporting the crime was partly because most Finns felt it was not their place to intervene in their neighbours' private lives, as long as that privacy posed no serious threat to the neighbourhood. Hidden crime was at least as common as crime more easily exposed and proven. A typical Finnish perpetrator of bestiality was a young unmarried man with no criminal background or mental illness. The suspects were not members of ethnic minorities or marginal social groups. In trials, farmhands were more likely to be sentenced than their masters, but a more salient common denominator than social and economical status was the suspects' young age. For most of the defendants bestiality was a deep-rooted habit, which had been adopted in early youth. This form of subculture spread among the youth, and the most susceptible to experiment with the act were shepherds. The difference between man and animal was not clear-cut or self-evident. The difficulty in drawing the line is evident both in legal sources and Finnish folklore. The law that required that the animal partners be slaughtered led to the killing of thousands of cows and mares, and thereby to substantial material losses to their owners. Regarding bestiality as a crime against property motivated people to report it. The belief that the act would produce human-animal mongrels or that it would poison the milk and the meat horrified the public more than the teachings of the church ever could. Among the most significant aspects in the problems regarding the animals is how profoundly different the worldview of 18th century people was from that of today.

O Caso Simone A. Diniz: a falta de acesso à justiça para as vítimas dos crimes raciais

Em 2006, a Comissão Interamericana dos Direitos Humanos da OEA (CIDH) condenou o Estado brasileiro pela prática habitual de não assegurar às vítimas dos crimes raciais e do racismo o acesso às garantias jurídicas do Pacto de São José da Costa Rica, o que constitui uma violação dos direitos humanos internacionais. No presente trabalho, desenvolvo uma análise dessa decisão da CIDH e do fato interno que lhe deu origem: uma denúncia de prática de crime racial que foi indevidamente arquivada pela justiça brasileira. O meu objetivo é analisar a decisão da CIDH, a fim de buscar explicações e sugerir possíveis soluções para uma contradição histórica: porque o Brasil tem leis vigentes e válidas contra os crimes raciais e o racismo que não têm efetividade (?). Essa decisão da CIDH é uma importante fonte de informações sobre as nossas práticas racializadoras que geram a (1) falta de acesso à justiça e a (2) falta de justiça para as negras e os negros que são vitimados pela discriminação racial. Acredito que esse tipo de análise fomentará a produção de diagnósticos que auxiliarão na criação, execução, avaliação e monitoramento das políticas públicas focadas na promoção e na garantia da igualdade entre os direitos dos nossos cidadãos e cidadãs, independentemente da cor, raça, gênero ou origem.

Teoria dos crimes omissivos

O trabalho está voltado à elaboração de uma teoria dos crimes omissivos, com o sentido de obter uma limitação de sua expansão. Para alcançar esse objetivo, são postas em discussão todas as concepções do crime omissivo, tanto no aspecto dogmático quanto de política criminal. Na primeira parte, estão apresentados os problemas práticos da omissão, sua evolução legislativa e sua importância. A partir daí, são discutidas as elaborações doutrinárias quanto à sua natureza, à sua estrutura e à sua punibilidade. Quanto à sua natureza, a omissão é analisada como forma de ação, como forma equiparada de ação e como forma correspondente de ação. Quanto à sua estrutura, a omissão é vista sob o enfoque de seu tratamento legal, que requer um aprofundamento da composição da norma e de seus elementos comunicativos. Quanto à sua punibilidade, são destacados seus aspectos contraditórios referentes à falta de simetria entre sua estrutura empírica e normativa, de um lado, e as consequências pelo descumprimento do dever, de outro lado. Na segunda parte, formata-se uma conclusão dogmática crítica de toda a discussão em torno da natureza, da estrutura e da punibilidade da omissão. Inicia-se sob uma crítica dos objetivos da dogmática e se projeta sobre todas as questões fundamentais que envolvem os crimes omissivos. São feitas assertivas sobre a tipicidade, a antijuridicidade e a culpabilidade da omissão, assim como sobre o concurso de pessoas e suas fases de execução. Para não sobrecarregar o texto, são tratados em anexo os temas relacionados ao concurso de crimes e aos delitos omissivos culposos. Tendo em vista que a segunda parte constitui uma conclusão de todo o desenvolvimento crítico da omissão, realizado na primeira parte, não foram enumerados tópicos conclusivos. O método empregado está baseado no princípio dialético construtivista de Holzcamp.

Criminalidade econômica e extradição: a questão dos crimes fiscais

Busca-se uma reflexão sobre o uso da extradição para a recuperação do delinquente econômico. Inicialmente, expõe-se brevemente os elementos estruturais do Direito Penal Econômico, com ênfase suas características diferenciadoras do modelo tradicional e em suas questões mais controvertidas que dificultam a persecução penal de seus agentes. Em segundo momento, analisam-se as principais formas de cooperação jurídica em matéria penal, entre as mais clássicas, como a homologação da sentença estrangeira, e as mais modernas, como o auxílio direto. Destaca-se ainda o uso da extradição como uma das mais importantes formas em que ainda precisa se respaldar a comunidade internacional, fazendo-se necessário expor suas características e principais questões. Em seguida, cuida-se das limitações quando o crime imputado for de Direito Penal Econômico, vislumbrando questões insurgentes dessa conjugação, bem como o tratamento conferido pela jurisprudência. Constata-se a evolução que essas limitações sofrem para impedir a impunidade decorrente de problemas de formalidades, um grande risco dada as características especiais aos crimes econômicos e, sobretudo, os tributários, de que se ocupa a derradeira parte deste trabalho. Para estes já se observa em tratados a mitigação do requisito da dupla tipicidade e indaga-se quanto à possibilidade de esta fundamentar uma extradição sem crime.

Social and demographic factors of young fathers in the UK and USA

Research on disadvantaged young fathers has been minimally addressed in the literature, particularly in the UK. In both countries teenage pregnancy rates are high and costly in terms of social policy and community provision. This paper explores 2 studies involving 24 young men with an average age of 17 on the transition to young fatherhood; one study was conducted in the UK with white young men and the other in the USA with black young men. The findings from both studies indicated common themes from their stories, particularly with regard to the high levels of disadvantage and social exclusion they had been exposed to in their demographic environments and the anti-social behaviour they described engaging in, prior to the birth of their child/ren. Specifically, a significant proportion of the young men described how they had been immersed in drug and gun crimes and how this shaped their lives and neighbourhoods. Becoming fathers is presented by both sets of young men as rescuing them from this criminal lifestyle.

ASR emotional speech: Clarifying the issues and enhancing performance

There are multiple reasons to expect that recognising the verbal content of emotional speech will be a difficult problem, and recognition rates reported in the literature are in fact low. Including information about prosody improves recognition rate for emotions simulated by actors, but its relevance to the freer patterns of spontaneous speech is unproven. This paper shows that recognition rate for spontaneous emotionally coloured speech can be improved by using a language model based on increased representation of emotional utterances. The models are derived by adapting an already existing corpus, the British National Corpus (BNC). An emotional lexicon is used to identify emotionally coloured words, and sentences containing these words are recombined with the BNC to form a corpus with a raised proportion of emotional material. Using a language model based on that technique improves recognition rate by about 20%. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Illusions of Post-Feminism, Ghosts of Gender and the Discourses of Law

This article seeks to consider evidence of post-feminist and "post-equality" gender narratives contained in the discourses of law in the UK and European contexts. Analysis of perennial ghosts of gender in the areas of gender-neutrality in policy, legislative regulation of sexual crimes, and the adjudication of gendered issues by judges will be undertaken in order to renew and reinstate the focus of the legal feminist project and advocate for continued scrutiny in these three practical areas.

Globalization and the State in Contemporary Crime Fiction:A World of Crime

Why has crime fiction become a global genre? How do writers use crime fiction to reflect upon the changing nature of crime and policing in our contemporary world? This book argues that the globalization of crime fiction should not be celebrated uncritically. Instead, it looks at the new forms and techniques writers are using to examine the crimes and policing practices that define a rapidly changing world. In doing so, this collection of essays examines how the relationship between global crime, capitalism, and policing produces new configurations of violence in crime fiction – and asks whether the genre can find ways of analyzing and even opposing such violence as part of its necessarily limited search for justice both within and beyond the state.

L'apport des théories morales de la responsabilité pour penser l'imputabilité des crimes de guerre

réalisée en cotutelle entre les Universités de Montréal et de Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France)