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The present paper compares how police in Hunts Point, South Bronx, New York City and Frankfurt am Main Germany manage street prostitution as a quality-of-life offense. Methods utilized for this research include observation and "conversation" in public spaces with prostitutes, police, and community members. This paper deals with characteristics of street prostitutes, police enforcement, actual interaction between police and street actors, and impact of these methods on prostitutes. For decades, broken windows policing has been utilized to counter quality-of-life offenses in urban neighborhoods such as NYC, and evidence regarding its effectiveness has often been questioned. In attempts to address prostitution, two variant policing models were identified and examined through the framework of broken windows theory: Punitive/Criminalization Policing and Containment/Laissez-Faire Policing. Broken windows policing probably lowered the incidence of quality-of-life offenses including street prostitution. However, broken windows theory does not take into account socially constructed myths that persist about prostitution, nor the realities that counter them. This paper addresses these myths and how they may inform policing practices, resulting in negative corollary effects which must be eliminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on research undertaken as part of the EU funded EPPIC project, this paper aims to update and elaborate on the relationship between drug use and offending behaviours by exploring variations within a cross-national sample of drug-experienced young people in touch with criminal justice systems. Adopting a trajectory-based approach, interviews were undertaken with 198 young people aged 15–25 in six European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland, and UK). Data were analysed by applying the Bennett and Holloway categorization of the drugs-crime link, with a focus on the concept of social exclusion as developed by Seddon. Three main types of mechanisms (economic, pharmaceutical, and lifestyles) are used to interpret the data, showing how the relationship between drugs and offending can vary according to type of substances and over time. Furthermore, it can be associated with very different degrees of social exclusion and needs. The results suggest that while economic inequalities still play key roles in explaining drug use and offending, both behaviours can originate from a state of relative deprivation, resulting from the contradictions inherent in 'bulimic societies' that raise aspirations and desires while providing young people scarce opportunities for self-realisation and social recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "National Socialist Underground" (NSU) is one of the most severe cases of terrorism in Germany after World War II. For more than twelve years, three neo-Nazis had lived under false identities in Germany. The group murdered ten people and committed several crimes. At first sight, this seems to be a case of domestic terrorism, but a closer look exposes transnational facets and turns it into an example of transatlantic ties between far-right groups. In their strategy and in their ideology, the German neo-Nazis and their circle of friends and supporters have been influenced by actors and incidents in the U.S. As the article shows, a powerful tradition of anti-Americanism in the milieu of Germany's far right does not contradict an alliance of anti-Semites and white supremacists in both countries. Drawing on police files, intelligence reports, parliamentary hearings and court proceedings, the article lays out and analyzes the intertwining of German and U.S. militant right-wing actors. It examines references and connections to the Ku Klux Klan, "The Turner Diaries," and to the U.S. terrorist group "The Order." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The years between 1939 and 1945 have been called ‘the darkest chapter in the history of German psychiatry.’ This is an understatement. The history of this period is one of daily malpractice, crime, and murder. We focus this paper on the impact of National Socialist ideology on the practice of psychiatry in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

All major sporting events result in a variety of impacts upon the host community. To date, the majority of existing studies have focused upon the wider economic impacts, with few empirical studies of the social impacts upon local residents. This paper explores the perceived impacts of the 2006 Football World Cup upon residents of one of the host cities-Munich. Using a multi-stage sampling technique, 180 Munich residents were randomly selected. Of these, 132 agreed to participate in face-to-face interviews. Findings from the study suggested that the impacts were largely perceived as positive by residents, especially in terms of urban regeneration, increased sense of security, positive fan behaviour and the general atmosphere surrounding the event. Negative impacts, such as increased crime, prostitution, and displacement of local residents were perceived by fewer respondents. Further analysis demonstrates that such perceptions are not dependent upon socio-demographic factors such as age, gender or length of residence in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organised crime networks are often characterised as being held together by bonds of trust, but the conventional wisdom regarding the relation between trust and organised crime lacks a comprehensive theoretical and empirical underpinning. The purpose of this paper is to explore where deeper research on this issue may lead and how it can potentially contribute to a better understanding of organised crime in general. Drawing on the general sociological literature, it provides a preliminary conceptualisation of trust in the context of organised crime centred around a fourfold typology along the micro-macro dimension. The authors use anecdotal evidence from their research on illegal markets for highly taxed goods in Norway and Germany to illustrate that there are different types of trust, that there are different consequences of the violation of trust, and, finally, that there are criminal relations not based on trust at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years an historical reappraisal has been carried out of one of the worst crimes – outside of prisons and concentration camps – committed in Germany by the SS and Wehrmacht in the final months of the Second World War: the execution of 208 forced labourers by firing squad in the Arnsberg Forest near Warstein and Meschede (Westphalia, western Germany) by the 'Division for Vengeance' of the SS in March 1945. The use of archaeological research methods allowed us to (1) pinpoint both the scenes of the crimes and the events, (2) recover and classify finds attributed to both the victims and the perpetrators and (3) uncover and record in their historical context concrete finds and features from when the atrocity occurred, the period of the initial burial of the victims by US troops in May 1945 and their exhumation in 1964, with the aim of preserving them for future presentations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between offending and being a victim of crime, whereby victimization is often a consequence of delinquent behavior. Therefore, impacts of explanatory variables on victimization might only occur as a noncausal by-product induced by their influences on delinquency. This study investigates the influences of neighborhood characteristics on violent victimization while also considering the role of delinquency as a potential mediator. Using a sample of 3,065 15-year-old students from a long-term study on crime conducted in Germany, structural equation modeling is applied to examine the influence of neighborhood characteristics on offending and victimization. Additionally, influences on victimization are decomposed into direct and indirect effects to examine mediation via delinquency. The results show that – when analyzing offending and victimization simultaneously – influences on victimization are actually mediated through delinquency. Neighborhood context (disorder, leisure opportunities, perceived safety) mainly shapes offending. This investigation cannot provide evidence for direct influences of neighborhood characteristics on victimization that are independent of a person's delinquent behavior. Effects on violent victimization emerge from mediation via delinquency, particularly violent offending. These findings help to further disentangle impacts on victimization risk and point out implications for crime and victimization prevention within neighborhoods and cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the underlying normative principles for criminal justice, the right to a fair trial in particular, in the context of international law. The discussion centers on the framework of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in Nuremberg, Germany, which played a pivotal role in the evolution of international criminal law and international institutions. It evaluates the concept of a fair international criminal trial based on the influence of the IMT. Social and moral functions of criminal trials are also discussed.