SpringerBriefs in Criminology

This brief addresses the question of the various ways in which mental health-related issues have become police responsibility.  It provides a detailed understanding of the myriad of ways in which police are often called upon to be the primary responder to mental health-related issues, well beyond the standard media images of individuals in extreme crisis.

Drawing upon the results of two separate ethnographies of police practices in Canada, this volume examines how public policing has become entangled in cases of persons with mental illness (PMI). It examines two aspects of the police role and mandate that brings police officers into contact with individuals dealing with mental health disorders: public safety, and crime prevention and response. It explores police perceptions towards the roles they play in the lives of PMI, and police demands in these types of calls for service that have transformed aspects of public policing.

Criminology has until recently neglected the nature and levels of crime outside the urban realm. This is not a surprise as crime tends to concentrate in urban areas and the police directs resources where the problems are. Yet, there are many reasons why scholars, decision-makers and society as a whole should care about crime and safety in rural areas. This book highlights 20 reasons why crime and safety in rural areas is a topic of relevance. We attempt to untangle currently simplistic views of the rural by discussing a number of facets of the countryside as both safe and criminogenic, and more importantly, a hybrid place worth to be examined in its own right. We adopt the notion of a  rural-urban continuum  that captures the nuances of places of varied nature, spanning from remote and desolate spaces to accessible and connected environments of the urban fringe. Areas on the rural-urban continuum may be in constant transformation given local and global influences, which imposes challenges for policing and long-term social sustainability.

Then, the book critically reviews a rich body of English-language literature in rural criminology that extends over more than four decades—a scholarship that has engaged researchers and practitioners in all continents. The books finishes with a discussion of the emergent research questions of the field, and offers implications for practice and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

This brief examines various dimensions of the immigration-crime relationship in the United States. It evaluates a range of theories and arguments asserting an immigration-crime link, reviews studies examining its nature and predictors, and considers the impacts of immigration policy. Synthesizing a diverse body of scholarship across many disciplinary fields, this brief is a comprehensive resource for researchers engaged in questions of linkages between crime and immigration, citizenship, and race/ethnicity, and for those seeking to separate fact from fiction on an issue of great scientific and social importance.

This brief describes the theory and evidence of a form of social control known as place management. Created by property owners, place management is an alternative to the two other domains of social control: formally created by the state and informally created by residents. It helps explain the high concentration of crime and disorder at a relatively small proportion of addresses and facilities. This volume examines the specifics of place management and extends it in three ways: to show how high crime places may radiate crime into their surroundings; to reveal networks of places that create crime hotspot spanning blocks; to demonstrate how networks of place managers influence crime throughout neighborhoods. Finally, it shows that the policy implications of place management extend far beyond the police and should include regulatory policies.

• The backstory, purpose, and structure of the international criminal justice system followed by how the regime could and should be extended to encompass aggravated sex trafficking.
• The role of culturally-shaped neutralization theory in understanding decision-making in sex trafficking on the individual level
• Historico-cultural  context, including competing elements of tradition and modernity
• Longstanding gender attitudes, particularly evaluating violence against women
• Interviews with Albanian sex traffickers and victims

By evaluating Albanian sex trafficking through this lens, this book aims to identify international criminal justice as a more appropriate and effective approach to prosecuting aggravated sex trafficking and to suggest future opportunities for further research that can aid in improved policing and prisoner management as it relates to Albanian sex trafficking. This book is ideal for students and academic researchers interested in international criminal justice and sex trafficking studies.