1,721,038 research outputs found
Dancing on the head of a pin? Addressing police white-collar crime
No full textRecent global episodes have called attention to crime and social harms created by private enterprises. Less attention has fallen on crimes by public sector actors and, when it does, most commonly focuses on high-impact, tragic events. Scrutiny of police agency crimes, for instance, has prioritised exciting or ‘dirty’ activities, including fatalities or graft, rather than lower-order deviance. Instead this paper highlights police agency breaches of taxation, procurement, financial management and data protection laws and regulations. It then examines the oversight, regulatory and legal responses to such acts. In line with Sutherland’s original framing of white-collar crime, the paper argues that broadly such responses are intentionally found wanting, resulting in costs for others and uneven treatment of ‘moral’ persons relative to ordinary criminals. Thereafter the paper considers at what point deficient oversight might constitute negligence and what, if anything, this implies about likely domestic or EU action against public actors. The paper concludes by querying Sutherland’s contention that white-collar crime by public actors impacts on social relations
Protecting whom and what exactly?: EU handling of official misconduct
No full textThis paper addresses the institutional evolution, democratic legitimacy, and rule of law themes of the conference. It argues that, despite the advent of EU regulatory bodies to challenge misconduct by official/state actors after 1999, such efforts remain insufficient. This is demonstrated using one example at the EU level, involving Frontex, and one example at the point between the EU and member state level, concerning misuse of EU funds within the Irish national police agency. The paper contends that these examples necessitate reflection on the EU capacity and willingness to hold officials/states to account and the impact for outsiders, such as migrants and private citizens. Here the regulatory roles of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Investigation and Disciplinary Office of the Commission, and the European Anti-Fraud Office will be principally examined. The paper concludes with considerations for the evolution of each of these bodies and their implications for the renewal of the European project. It does so mindful of the commitment to accountability in the final plenary of the Conference on the Future of Europe in April 2022 but also the theoretical and empirical vulnerabilities of regulatory approaches
Police Misconduct:Mapping its location, seriousness and theoretical underpinning
Full text linkPolice misconduct and the location of street crimes and deviance have received much research attention. The location of police misconduct, by contrast, has not. Taking the case of Ireland, where policing underwent significant reform in 2007, police oversight data are mapped to determine the location and nature of complaints and any clustering of police misconduct, particularly in areas of greatest deprivation usually associated with people coming into most frequent contact with police. The implications of the findings for police, police oversight, and existing theories by which geography of deviance is framed are discussed.</p
Electronic Monitoring and Monitoring Probation- the case of Ireland
No full textSet against an environment of diverse reforms across the domestic criminal justice system, including new oversight arrangements, the current article considers how probation in Ireland has almost entirely escaped notice. A case for probation oversight is made on the basis of its caseload size but also a decade of unaccounted use of electronic monitoring (EM). Global EM use highlights questions about domestic probation standards, research and planning. Shortcomings within the legislative consultation process around the tool’s role, the lack of any evaluation of EM suppliers and increasing focus on data management to date also bolster a case for oversight of Irish probation. A principal issue within this set of challenges for probation is how EM might adjust traditional agency values. Overall, the contention is made that the assumed exceptionalism of Éire’s criminal justice system, that which acts as a buffer to change, including creeping severity in criminal justice models evident elsewhere, may no longer be valid
Dual-speed, single outcome: regulating legal professional misconduct in Ireland
No full textRecently, the horizons of white-collar crime and deviance have widened to include a range of previously unaccountable or overlooked professions. In the Irish case, the misconduct of the two legal practitioner groups, barristers and solicitors, have been partly unified under a new, single regulatory regime. This paper highlights the different statutory governance arrangements prior to and the professions’ submissions on the new regime as well as outstanding structural critiques against it. Thereafter, the paper examines how, while the new regulatory apparatus is still in its formative stage, a reduction in punishment, increase in impediments against complaint-making, and loss of transparency characterise its operation so far. The Irish regulatory regime’s performance is situated in terms of existing comparative literature on the roles and performance of regulators and ombudsmen in legal and other sectors. In doing so, the paper concludes with arguments on the position of the consumer as complainant, the stress laid on a ‘lesson-learning’ approach, the power of elite groups, and notions of justice
Book review. Crime and Deviance in the Colleges- Elite Student Excess and Sexual Abuse, by Maurice Punch. Bristol, Bristol University Press, 2022, 214 pp., £80 (hardback), ISBN 978-1529228106, £28.99 (ebook), ISBN 978-1529228113
No full textPolice oversight in Ireland: who complains, who gains?
No full textAccounts of police complainants and their experiences of oversight largely reflect North American data. This article examines how complainants fare in Ireland, where police crisis and reform have repeatedly occurred since 2005. Quantitative analysis of the independent police oversight agency’s complaint processing highlights patterns in allegations submitted, complaint-handling mechanism applied, and outcomes realised. In doing so, this article draws attention to the experiences of Irish Travellers, the homeless and prisoners. Findings show that socially marginal complainants submitted more serious allegations, secured higher investigation designations but were less likely to have complaints substantiated. Overall, substantiation was below international levels and police investigations were more likely to substantiate complaints than was the oversight agency. Consequently, the article then considers the frequent theoretical characterisation of police oversight in term of ‘justice’ or ‘agency’, arguing for inclusion of ‘agency self-interest’ by the oversight body in future research
Pyramids or Sandcastles? Regulating police conduct in Ireland
No full textResponsive regulation advances the idea that overseers should act cautiously against misconduct, imposing increasingly harsher methods in a phased approach depending on the response of the errant actor. Responsive regulation is assessed here in relation to the Irish policing model since 2007, seeking to determine whether it has been and remains a suitable way to deal with police misconduct that has emerged time and again in that jurisdiction. Using complaint data, it is argued that police overseer treatment of low-level and serious misconduct has not met the expectations of responsive regulation. Further, there has been no evident police commitment to distinguish praiseworthy police officer performance in line with a later version of responsive regulation. Both issues have implications for retention of responsive regulation as a guiding theory for continued police oversight and reform
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