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How does organized crime affect foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing countries? Some research examines the effects of crime, such as homicide rates, on FDI. However, we know little about how organized crime in particular might affect such investment. This paper examines organized crime and FDI in Mexican states between 2000 and 2018. This case is important because Mexico is one of the top global recipients of FDI. At the same time, criminal violence has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Mexico in recent years, and scholars seek to understand the violence's wider effects. We explain how organized crime competition, as opposed to crime generally, should shape investors' decisions. Analyses using original data on criminal organization territory find that higher numbers of criminal groups are associated with lower levels of new FDI. Other measures of crime, such as homicide rates or crime rates, are not associated with foreign investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ubiquity of technological devices producing video and audio recordings, violent crimes are increasingly captured digitally and used as evidence in the criminal justice process. This paper presents the results of a qualitative study involving Canadian criminal justice professionals, and asks questions surrounding the treatment of video evidence and the rights of victims captured within such images. We argue that loss of control over personal images and narratives can re-traumatize survivors of sexual violence, creating technologically-facilitated cycles of abuse that are perpetuated each time images are viewed. We find that the justice system has little to no consistent policy or procedure for handling video evidence, or for ameliorating the impact of these digital records on survivors. Subsequently, we assert that the need for a victim-centred evidence-based understanding of mediated evidence has never been greater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the reformation of Ukrainian criminal procedural legislation and the conviction of individual scholars in the necessity of applying a methodological approach to scientific research, new ideas on the nature and procedure of criminal procedural evidence have started to emerge in the domestic scientific literature. The purpose of the paper is to distinguish scientific concepts to criminal procedural proof and substantiation of the expediency of isolation and use of the complex and systemic approach. This study of criminal procedural proof was performed using a methodological approach, the essence of which is to change the attention of the researcher from the object as such to the means and methods of their own thought. The application of an activity-based methodological approach in scientific research allows us to further develop other conceptual ideas about criminal procedural proof, which will contribute to a deeper and more complete study of this legal phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the UK Police and Criminal Evidence Act introduced tape recorders to police interview rooms in 1984, the insights gained from audio- (and, more recently, video-) recorded police interview data have enabled forensic psychologists to analyse the cognitive and behavioural processes of interview participants, leading to sweeping changes in the way that interviewing is taught and practised by British police officers. However, less attention has been paid to the language of police interviewing and police interviewing methods practised in other parts of the world, such as the Reid Technique, which is ubiquitous in North America. This paper seeks to address both these deficiencies by introducing a linguistic perspective to the analysis of data drawn from an Australian corpus of recorded police interviews. This analysis examined the 'roles' that speakers take up when producing talk as a way of showing how the speaker aligns to the content of the talk. It finds that voluntary confessions by suspects differ in role alignments from police assertions. When evaluating the quality of evidential information obtained in an interview, it is critical to the robustness of the case that the brief is prepared on the basis of volunteered information and not police suggestions. Linguistic theory about role alignments provides a simple tool for distinguishing between talk that is initiated by the suspect and represents new intelligence in the interview, and information that is introduced by the police. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a widely held belief that questioning vulnerable witnesses is a specialist skill. In England and Wales vulnerable witness advocacy training built around ‘20 Principles’ has been developed and is being delivered. The 20 Principles do not cite a tested theoretical framework(s) or empirical evidence in support. This paper considers whether the 20 Principles are underpinned by research evidence. It is submitted that advocacy training and the approach to questioning witnesses in the courtroom should take into account the already available research evidence. The authors make recommendations for revision of the training and for a wider review of the approach taken to the handling of witness evidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents updates on the criminal law in Great Britain. Royal Assent has been given to the Health and Safety (Offenses) Act 2008 on October 16, 2008. This law increases the penalty for certain offenses concerning health and safety. It will be implemented on January 17, 2009. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 Order 2008 was implemented on October 27, 2008.

Reports that the U.S. Attorney General has submitted a report to Congress based on a nationwide survey on the use of DNA and its utility in Great Britain.

This article reviews the approaches taken by the courts to the admissibility of voice identification evidence in four jurisdictions: England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Each jurisdiction addresses the question in a different way and each approach is open to criticism. This paper will argue that a contextualised approach to the problem would allow for improvements which would enhance the quality of the evidence and the adjudicative process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews Police Research Series Paper 15, The Presentation of Police Evidence in Court (Stockdale and Gresham, 1995), and the role of police officers giving testimony in court. In particular, consideration is given to the recommendations made and subsequent developments, or lack thereof, in police literature and practice. Police officers are well prepared to manage the pre-trial investigation but still receive little preparation, or guidance from researchers, for performing as witnesses at court. Key factors in effectively presenting evidence are reviewed and directions outlined for building knowledge on preparing police officers to perform in court whilst upholding obligation to victims and the legal standard of public interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of a study of the victimization of queer people in Russia before and after the 'gay-propaganda' bill was signed into law in 2013. Despite the development of hate crime legislation, few violent incidents against LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and questioning) individuals are recorded in the Russian legal system. An original method of court rulings analysis is put forward in order to move towards an actual number of criminal offences against these groups. All court decisions that mention non-heterosexual victims are reviewed to identify whether these cases could have been considered hate crimes. As a result, 267 first-instance criminal court rulings dealing with 297 LGBTIQ victims are identified in 2011–16. Descriptive statistical analysis demonstrates that the number of victims grew substantially after 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the consequences of unenthusiastic criminal justice reform through the case study of special measures provision in England and Wales. These measures provide assistance to vulnerable people giving evidence in criminal trials. For witnesses other than the accused, the law's development followed a standard process: public concern; governmental inquiries; legislation; and a period of inception to prepare for its implementation. The development of special measures for the accused did not follow this same pattern. Instead, it was gradual, ad hoc and somewhat reluctant. This article argues that the way and the context in which special measures developed for the accused has had a negative impact on the extent to which they are embedded within the criminal justice system. This, in turn, has negatively affected their uptake in practice. It is concluded that the way in which the law is reformed is important to its success in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual assault cases have historically resulted in persistent victim dissatisfaction with, and alienation from, the prosecution process. As a result, some adversarial jurisdictions have moved contentiously towards integrating victim participation rights within the legal process to address sexual assault victims' procedural and substantive justice concerns. The introduction of section 34 of the Sex Offenders Act 2001 (IRE), which allows a victim to access state-funded legal representation to oppose a defendant's application for the introduction of the victim's sexual history evidence in court, is one such example. Drawing from five interviews conducted with high-level criminal justice professionals, legal stakeholders and victim support workers, and an analysis of primary source documents, including legislation and reports, this article argues that, although section 34 represents a unique response to the problems raised by the use of a victim's sexual history evidence in criminal trials, its shortcomings may hinder its capacity to improve sexual assault victims' procedural justice experiences in ways unanticipated from its introduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the conclusion of criminal proceedings, criminal evidence sometimes survives in what is described here as an afterlife. In its afterlife, criminal evidence is preserved in various locations; this article explores the museum as a repository for evidentiary exhibits. It examines the case of Lindy Chamberlain, the victim of Australia’s most notorious miscarriage of justice, and the evidence that has survived since her exoneration. Drawing upon interviews with Chamberlain herself, and also the curator of the Chamberlain collections at the National Museum of Australia, this article examines the challenges posed by curating a wrongful conviction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing efforts in the United Kingdom to establish “triage” programs at the police gateway to the criminal justice system have met mixed success. This article reviews the evaluations of these programs, most of which use clinical rather than actuarial models of forecasting risk. Drawing on a recent experiment in diverting low-risk defendants from prosecution in Birmingham, this article suggests the design and implementation of an actuarial approach to risk assessment that would provide an evidence-based triage tool for processing arrestees in police stations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The admissibility of hearsay evidence in criminal proceedings in England and Wales is now governed by provisions of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, a result of Law Commission reform proposals. The Law Commission's Report left several issues concerning the admissibility of confessions in the context of its proposed hearsay regime unclear, some of which have not yet been clarified by the post-2003 Act jurisprudence. In particular, whilst the authorities have established that confessions made by third parties may be admissible in exceptional circumstances, the courts have not yet engaged with s. 128(2) of the 2003 Act which limits the extent to which confessions made by defendants may be admissible under the 2003 Act's provisions. Moreover, whilst the Court of Appeal has recognised both that certain confessions may exist outside the 2003 Act's statutory framework and that the admissibility of such a confession for the prosecution when made by a defendant is governed by s. 76 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, other issues concerning the admissibility of such confessions have not yet been resolved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Along with other forms of narrative evidence, s. 120 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 rendered parties' previous statements admitted to rebut suggestions of fabrication admissible evidence of any matter stated. In R v Athwal the Court of Appeal sought to situate this variety of evidence within the Act's general hearsay regime. This article questions whether s. 114 of the 2003 Act did successfully integrate such statements into other exceptions to the hearsay rule, explores the scope of this little-studied exception to the rule against narrative, and offers some thoughts both on the taxonomy of hearsay in general and on how courts might deal with an apparent drafting defect in s. 114. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the arguably most interesting pieces of evidence used during the trial of Slobodan Milošević at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia—more than two hundred recordings of intercepted conversations that took place in 1991 and 1992 between Milošević, Radovan Karadžić, Dobrica Ćosić, and various other protagonists on the Serbian side of the wars in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Analysis of the intercepts presented in this article makes several important contributions to the interpretation of events in former Yugoslavia during that period. First, it identifies the ideological foundations of Milošević-led Serbian war campaigns in the political influence of Dobrica Ćosić and his platform of "unification of Serbs." Second, it contributes to the vigorous debate regarding the possible deal between Milošević and the Croatian president Franjo Tudjman for the division of BiH. It confirms that negotiations took place, but that Milošević and his associates had no intention of respecting any agreement and wanted the whole of BiH until at least late 1991. Third, it provides indications that Milošević held the position of the de facto commander-in-chief in the operations of the Yugoslav People's Army in Croatia and BiH. And fourth, it establishes that the two institutions of force Milošević had direct legal control over—Serbia's State Security Service and Ministry of Interior—were his principal means of control over Croatian and Bosnian Serbs and instruments in the aggression against BiH even after its international recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a court case wherein the defendant was convicted for his possession of hypophosphorous acid based on the evidence that he ordered for the substance from a company and that he received a box with a label indicating that it contained the substance. It examines the decision of the Court of Appeal in New Zealand about the case, and its implications on the application of hearsay rule in the country. It also discusses the relevance of the nation's Evidence Act 2006 on the case.

Confession evidence is powerful but flawed, often in nonintuitive ways. Contradicting widely held beliefs, research reviewed in this article suggests the following: Despite special training in how to conduct interviews, police cannot distinguish better than the layperson whether suspects are lying or telling the truth. Suspects in custody routinely waive their self-protective rights to silence and to counsel—especially if they are innocent. Certain legal but deceptive interrogation tactics increase the risk that innocents will confess to crimes they did not commit. Judges and juries are easily fooled, unable to distinguish between true and false confessions. Appellate courts cannot be expected to reasonably determine whether the error of admitting a coerced confession at trial was harmless or prejudicial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 98(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 exempts misconduct evidence that ‘has to do with the alleged facts of the offence with which the defendant is charged’ from the bad character rules that otherwise would govern its admissibility. The exception is far from precisely drafted and on a number of occasions the Court of Appeal has now had opportunity to consider the scope of application of this provision. This article critically analyses those decisions, and speculates on themes that in the future may play a role in the interpretation of s. 98(a). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeal between January 2005 and December 2006 in cases in which the issues involved concerned search and seizure law. The specific areas of search and seizure law that are addressed include the exclusionary rule, probable cause, stop and frisk, the search incident to arrest exception, the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement, consent searches, automobile searches, plain view, and open fields. The cases were chosen on the basis of current issues in search and seizure law.

This article sets out to re-examine the rationale for the presumption of innocence, and then assesses four contemporary threats to the presumption—through confinement, by defining offences so as to reduce the presumption's impact; erosion, by recognising more exceptions; evasion, by introducing more civil and hybrid procedures; and side-stepping, by increasing restrictions on liberty to little short of its full deprivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much academic literature explores the reliability of expert evidence in criminal proceedings in England and Wales. However, almost no attention has been paid to misconduct by experts giving evidence in criminal cases. Whilst rare, its serious impact on the administration of justice and public trust in it means that this area requires analysis. This article explores possible responses to expert witness misconduct occurring in the context of criminal proceedings in England and Wales, noting particularly the differences in responses available, depending firstly upon whether the expert is a registered professional, and secondly whether the expert has stepped outside of their expertise; did not have relevant expertise at all, or was dishonest. Professional disciplinary procedures focus on 'fitness to practise', and it is argued that this is sufficient where a registered professional has overstepped their expertise, but has not displayed mala fides. On the contrary, where someone gives evidence purporting to have expertise that they do not, or lies about their conduct as an expert in the case, criminal sanctions are available, appropriate, and should be used. These include contempt of court; perverting the course of justice; fraud by false representation, and perjury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]