Jeremy M. Wilson

Human trafficking in the heartland: variation in law enforcement awareness and response

This analysis explores the extent and characteristics of human trafficking in Columbus and Toledo, Ohio, including the response to the problem by law enforcement agencies. Through a content analysis of newspaper accounts and interviews with criminal justice officials and social service providers in each city, the authors identified 10 cases of juvenile sex trafficking and forced prostitution in Toledo and 5 cases of trafficking for the forced labor of noncitizens in Columbus. The offenders and victims involved in the sex trafficking cases were largely from the local area, whereas those involved in the labor trafficking cases primarily involved foreign nationals, thereby illustrating at least one role the heartland plays in transnational crime. The authors compare the different responses to human trafficking in the two cities and suggest how to raise awareness about human trafficking and improve the responses of law enforcement agencies to the problem.

Community policing in America

1. Introduction 2. Defining Community Policing and Reseaching its Implication 3. Police Organizations as Open Systems 4. Organizational Context and Community Policing 5. Organizational Structure and Community Policing 6. Organizational Context and Organizational Structure 7. Models, Data, and Analysis 8. Findings 9. Conclusions and Policy Implications

Urbanity, Rurality, and Adolescent Substance Use

An important but understudied aspect of substance use research is its relationship to characteristics of the community, including if there are differences in the association between peer and family factors with use between youth living in rural and urban areas. The results of this study are based on a statewide survey of approximately 4,400 youth in a southwestern state. It tested for the inequality of coefficients from regression equations on three measures of substance use: an overall scale, alcohol use, and marijuana use. The relationship of peer influence on substance use was stronger among urban-located youth; however, there were no rural-urban differences for family factors.

Riverboat Gambling and Crime in Indiana: An Empirical Investigation

Despite the proliferation of riverboat gambling, few studies have rigorously investigated a link between riverboat gambling and crime. Literature regarding routine activities theory and resort and traditional casino tourism suggests that offenses may increase with the enhanced opportunities for crime provided by the influx of gamblers. Focusing on Indiana communities, this study explored the connection by examining via interrupted time series analyses index offenses and simple assaults over 286 weeks in Hammond and index, driving under the influence, public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and prostitution offenses over 57 months in Rising Sun. The casinos were not found to increase crime in Hammond but were associated with increases in aggravated assaults and thefts in Rising Sun. These somewhat attenuated effects on crime suggest the enhanced criminal opportunity created by riverboat casinos did not increase the overall frequency of individual offenses as might be expected from routine activities theory and related tourism literature.

Product Counterfeits in the Online Environment An Empirical Assessment of Victimization and Reporting Characteristics

The growing pace of e-commerce has facilitated the sale and distribution of counterfeit products. One reason may be that consumers cannot fully validate goods for sale online, thus creating tremendous opportunities for fraud. Despite the growth of online product counterfeiting specifically, little research has examined this crime which limits our basic understanding of the problem and victim reporting. Drawing on 2009 and 2010 complainant data from the Internet Crime Complaint Center, we examine the characteristics, costs, and reporting of online auction and non-auction product counterfeiting incidents. In light of the limitations of this study, we discuss the contribution of our findings for advancing theory and future research.

Advancing a police science: Implications from a national survey of police staffing

Data analysis can lead to innovative ways to address some of the most pressing criminal justice problems. Data collection and measurement, for example, supported the implementation of several successful crime-reduction strategies in recent decades. Ideally, data collection, measurement, and analysis could help police agencies develop evidence-based tenets of personnel management and planning as well as address problems of recruitment and retention. Police administrative data on these topics, however, have many problems, including incompleteness and inaccuracies. This article examines the extent of these as evident in a recent survey of large police agencies regarding personnel experiences and practices. It summarizes the issues that must be addressed for data analysis to yield insights on personnel issues.

Articulating the dynamic police staffing challenge: An examination of supply and demand

Purpose – This work aims to summarize literature on police recruitment and retention and how changing conditions may affect these. It uses a bucket metaphor to conceptualize and present visually how these can interact with each other and create a dynamic police staffing challenge.Design/methodology/approach – The literature review includes more than 150 works on police recruitment and retention, organized into discussions on the demand for police, the supply of police, and how systemic and episodic changes affect each.Findings – Existing research suggests police agencies face a threefold challenge in meeting the demand for officers: attrition is likely to increase, sources of new recruits might be decreasing, and police responsibilities are expanding. Attrition might increase because of baby‐boom generation retirements, military call‐ups, changing generational expectations of careers, budget crises, and organizational characteristics. Sources of new recruits might be decreasing because of a decrease in th...

The nexus between terrorism and product counterfeiting in the United States

Terrorists use a wide variety of methods to fund their operations, obtain profits and carry out ideologically driven goals. Terrorist organisations have increasingly been linked to product counterfeiting crimes, but evidence for this connection is mostly anecdotal and speculative, lacking systematic empirical evaluation. This study mines open-source data to capture known product counterfeiting schemes linked to known extremists in the United States since 1990. We utilise the Extremist Financial Crime Database (EFCDB) and the Michigan State University Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protections (A-CAPP) Incident Database to provide an overview of both the schemes and the individual suspects involved in these crimes. We uncovered ten product counterfeiting schemes linked to terrorism, while the vast majority of suspects involved are non-extremist collaborators motivated by profit, not extremist ideology. These findings indicate the need for policies focusing on criminal networks broadly, expanding beyond restrictive efforts only targeting terrorists.

Product counterfeiting at the state level: An empirical examination of Michigan-related incidents

Product counterfeiting represents a range of criminal activities associated with intellectual property rights infringement of material goods. Virtually, any product, from pharmaceuticals and food to auto parts and electronics, can be counterfeited. Although the precise extent of product counterfeiting is not known, by most accounts the problem is substantially large and growing, and affects many, including consumers, industry, and governments. Despite the scope and scale of the problem, to date there are few empirical examinations of product counterfeiting. To address this gap and help policymakers better understand and respond to this problem, this article systematically examines the nature of product counterfeiting incidents related to Michigan as evident in the open-source literature. We develop initial evidence-based policy lessons to generate discussion about this crime and highlight directions for future research.

Distinguishing Counterfeit From Authentic Product Retailers in the Virtual Marketplace

Product counterfeiting is a large and growing crime that has many forms of victims, from consumers and corporations to governments and societies. Contributing to this growth, the Internet offers a means by which counterfeiters can easily apply their illicit trade around the globe with relative anonymity. However, little is known about the ways in which counterfeiters market their products online and whether and how they can be distinguished from authorized retailers selling authentic product. In this research, we empirically explore authorized and counterfeiter business-to-consumer websites for a luxury apparel maker and an audio electronics company. Building on the extant literature, we statistically distinguish the websites based on effective website design features, including interactivity and navigation, functionality, marketing, and security. We find that counterfeiter websites are different from authorized retailers on many key attributes. Additionally, some of these differences hold between industries, whereas as others are industry specific. We discuss these findings relative to advancing ideas on how counterfeiters target victims, conceptualizing crime and place, and opportunity for e-displacement. We conclude with a brief summary of some implications for the detection and prevention of these crimes by law enforcement, industry, and consumers.