Louise Shelley

Violence and crime in cross-national perspective

This prizewinning reference work provides data on crime in 110 nations and 44 major cities, making it possible for the first time to examine the patterns and causes of violent crime on a cross-national basis. Winner of the 1985 Prize for Behavioral Science Research from the American Association for the Advancement of Science Winner of the 1986 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Associations Criminology Section Winner of the 1985 Award for Outstanding Scholarship given by the Society for the Study of Social Problems Winner of the Gordon Allport Prize from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues

Methods Not Motives: Implications of the Convergence of International Organized Crime and Terrorism

Transnational organized crime and corruption are topics that security planners are increasingly visiting in their analyses of terrorism, most often examining how terrorism and transnational organized crime intersect and diverge. Clarifying these relationships is vital to approaching the current turbulence in global politics. This article examines the relationships between these two entities to arrive at the conclusion that transnational criminal organizations and terrorist groups often adopt similar methods, they are inherently striving for divergent ends. Crime is primarily an economically driven enterprise, while terrorism remains rooted in political pursuits. While we note that such a relationship results in a number of consequences for policymakers and practitioners from both the US and the larger global community, an important conclusion we revisit throughout the article is the need for scholarly research on this relationship.

The Nexus of Organized Crime and Terrorism: Two Case Studies in Cigarette Smuggling

This article examines two case studies that illustrate how two different types of actors were involved in a cigarette smuggling‐terror nexus. The first case examines R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Companys alleged deliberate sales of its products in Iraq in contravention of the UN embargo and U.S. law. R.J. Reynolds used criminal actors as suppliers and provided financial compensation to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a recognized terrorist organization, and Uday Hussein (Saddam Husseins son) to facilitate this transport. The second case examines a Hezbollah cell operating out of Charlotte, North Carolina. The cell trafficked cigarettes from North Carolina to Michigan, reaping significant profits by exploiting the difference in cigarette tax rates between the two states. The two case studies revealed that terrorist financing occurs in the United States and as a result of the actions of a terrorist support cell and a U.S.‐based company. In both cases, a legitimate commodity was used for illicit purposes.

Corruption and Organized Crime in Mexico in the Post-PRI Transition

President Fox has made the improvement of public safety and reduction in corruption priorities of his government. Backed by an educated urban middle-class electorate, he faces fundamental challenges to the achievement of his goals. These include a legacy of institutionalized PRI (Institutionalized Revolutionary Party) corruption, limited respect for the rule of law, and the penetration of drug trafficking groups into the state structure. Mexicos long border with the United States has contributed to the rapid rise in organized crime and the use of Mexican territory by foreign crime groups. Mexicos past may preclude the transition to a more democratic and open society despite the best of presidential intentions and the desires of much of the Mexican population.

Human Traffic and Transnational Crime: Eurasian and American Perspectives

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Human Trafficking: A New Challenge for Russia and the United States Chapter 3 Criminal Transportation of Persons: Trends and Recommendations Chapter 4 Classifying the Elements of Human Trafficking Crimes Chapter 5 Russian and Chinese Trafficking: A Comparative Perspective Chapter 6 Trafficking in Women in the Russian Far East: A Real or Imaginary Phenomenon? Chapter 7 Female Labor Migration Trends and Human Trafficking: Policy Recommendations Chapter 8 An Evaluation of Ukrainian Legislation to Counter and Criminalize Human Trafficking Chapter 9 Legal Cases Prosecuted under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000

The trade in people in and from the former Soviet Union

This paper focuses on the trafficking and smuggling of human beings fromand through the former Soviet Union. It explores the reasons for the risein the illegal movement of people; the groups which facilitate it; the demographics of the people who are moved and the business side, includingthe profits, the disposition of profits and the use of corruption to facilitatethe trade. With the disintegration of state control over national territory, this mass movement of people often violates national laws and the national sovereignty of the countries of the Soviet successor states and the countrieswhere the former Soviet citizens move illegally. The paper concludes that thistrade mirrors and contributes to the overall downward development of thepost-Soviet economies. In contrast, a comparative look at the respective Chinese developments indicates that trade in human beings tends to facilitatethe growth of both the Chinese legitimate and illegitimate economies.

Post-Soviet organized crime

A psychological game which is designed to be used mainly as a tool to enhance personal exploration and growth. The essential pieces include a base with a multiplicity of recesses and a multiplicity of spheres of varying colors which can be fitted into the recesses. Each sphere has a portion which can be writton on. The game is used by writing answers to specific questions on each sphere of the same color and then arranging all of the spheres to form a tetrahedron. The arrangement of specific color patterns adds significance when used in the processes of the invention.

The Geography of Soviet Criminality

A distinct geographical distribution of criminality exists in the Soviet Union as a result of the measures of social control exercised over the mobility and residence of the population, and that differentiates Soviet crime from that of both developing and developed countries. In the USSR increasing urbanization is not correlated with higher rates of criminality. As a result of the internal passport system and the difficulties of moving to large cities, the rates of criminality in the Soviet Union have shifted from the most populous cities of the USSR to the newly established cities of the far eastern and far northern parts of the USSR and to the rapidly expanding smaller urban centers.

Privatization and Crime: The Post-Soviet Experience

This paper examines the criminalization of the privatization process now occurring in the former Soviet Union. The different means by which the economy has been criminalized and its impact on the citizenry are examined. This paper argues that former Communist Party elite and organized criminal groups have purchased the majority of the states assets. The absence of careful planning and proper legal protections in implementing the massive privatization program are given as important explanations for the failure of this process. Though special attention is given to Russia, this analysis applies to the other states of the former Soviet Union as well.

Human Rights as an International Issue

Human rights currently constitute an issue of great concern. Several conditions, resulting from cumulative postwar developments and the current political situation, account for the present change in attitude toward human rights. They are (1) institutional developments of the past forty years; (2) the growth of citizen human rights organizations; (3) decline in superpower involvement in international and regional military conflicts; (4) the current focus of national leaders on human rights; and (5) significant political changes in the most abusive nations. This article focuses on the change in the conceptualization of human rights in Latin America and the Soviet Union and the current priority given in these areas to the issue of human rights. It also focuses on the utility of the human rights issue for these countries. The dynamics in the human rights arena have changed in the 1980s, but there is no guarantee that the present conditions will continue.