The present study employs a randomized control trial design to evaluate the impact of deterrence and procedural justice on perceptions of legitimacy and cooperation with law enforcement among... Show moreThe present study employs a randomized control trial design to evaluate the impact of deterrence and procedural justice on perceptions of legitimacy and cooperation with law enforcement among individuals in Quito, Ecuador. Specifically, a sample of 308 premises where alcohol is sold were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: an experimental group (n = 156) in which officers received training in the implementation of a procedural justice-based script, and a control group (n = 152) in which officers were not provided with any specific instructions. Results indicate that the manipulation of procedural justice was associated with a significant enhancement in perceptions of legitimacy and a greater willingness to cooperate with the police. Show less
Traditional police tactics such as rapid response and reactive enforcement continue to dominate the police response against human trafficking despite knowledge about the challenges and potential... Show moreTraditional police tactics such as rapid response and reactive enforcement continue to dominate the police response against human trafficking despite knowledge about the challenges and potential harm of using these tactics. Through the case of illicit massage businesses (IMBs), this study examines why police continue to rely on strategies that have received little empirical support. In-depth interviews with police, prosecutors, and other practitioners indicate that citizen concerns about human trafficking trigger police responses such as reactive investigations, sting operations, and shutdowns of IMBs. While law enforcement officials recognize the limited effectiveness and potential harm of the current response, adapting how police respond to IMBs is challenged by perceptual and institutional barriers. With these findings, the study contributes to the research and theory on traditional policing and informs targeted and victim-centered anti-trafficking efforts. Show less
In 2016, the European Union adopted the Directive on damages actions, which seeks to ensure full compensation for victims who have suffered harm caused by antitrust infringement. With regard to... Show moreIn 2016, the European Union adopted the Directive on damages actions, which seeks to ensure full compensation for victims who have suffered harm caused by antitrust infringement. With regard to mass harm situations, the Directive does not include provisions on collective actions, which may have significant impact on the achievement of full compensation. Instead, the non-binding Recommendation on collective redress was adopted, which has brought hardly any development in antitrust collective litigation. The aim of this dissertation has been to assist in the development of an appropriate approach of collective redress for better achievement of full compensation. Therefore, two private antitrust enforcement models were compared: the deterrence-based in the US and the compensation-oriented in the EU. It was found that collective redress actions would contribute to achieving full compensation only if US style deterrence-based measures were allowed in the EU. However, even if the best possible collective redress mechanism was introduced, the impact on full compensation would be limited, as the achievement of this objective requires fulfilling very high standards. Nevertheless, collective actions should not be denied, because they allow vulnerable victims to defend their rights in courts, as due to the low value harm, individual litigation becomes financially irrational. Show less
The research considers structures and practices of regulatory inspections and enforcement, and particularly the relevance and effects of purported “smarter inspections” methods, e.g. risk... Show more The research considers structures and practices of regulatory inspections and enforcement, and particularly the relevance and effects of purported “smarter inspections” methods, e.g. risk-based ones, and how they compare with previously existing practices. Specifically, it considers efficiency and effectiveness of inspections in terms of achieving public welfare, and their economic impact. The first part considers the history of regulatory inspections and how specific inspection institutions started to appear from the 19th century onwards. Of particular interest is how path dependency resulted in important differences in structures and methods between different fields and countries, and how these in turn produced different effects for the public. The second part looks at existing research on the interconnected issues of regulatory compliance drivers, regulatory discretion and risk and regulation. It concludes to the importance of combining several compliance drivers to achieve better results, to the appropriateness of structuring discretion in inspections and enforcement, and to the adequacy of “risk” as an instrument to do so. The third part looks at several case studies (in particular occupational safety and health in Britain and Germany) to consider whether risk-based, ‘smart’ approaches effectively deliver better results with lower burden, and tentatively concludes to the affirmative. Show less
This thesis concerns coercive strategies, in particular ‘compellence’, the counterpart of the better-known notion ‘deterrence’, both holding a special position in the contemporary International... Show moreThis thesis concerns coercive strategies, in particular ‘compellence’, the counterpart of the better-known notion ‘deterrence’, both holding a special position in the contemporary International Relations theory. Compellence is defined as, “the use of threatened force — and at times the actual use of limited force to back up the threat — to induce an adversary to reverse an intolerable action he has taken earlier.” The dissertation provides a framework for the analysis of compellence processes. By means of this framework, it investigates the circumstances affecting the (successful) application of compellence. The framework can be useful to explain – ex post – the development of a particular compellence case. Furthermore, it can provide a basis for future research to expound – ex ante, given particular circumstances – the probable outcome of a compellence case. The analysis made shows that ‘motivation’ is the most important ‘critical success factor’ in a compellence process. Application of the framework also demonstrates that ‘targets’ have, in general, an advantage over ‘compellers’. Moreover, it shows that compellence strategies that imply the gradual increase of pressure on an opponent tend to be failure prone. Finally, a remarkable conclusion is that there is insufficient proof to support Robert Pape’s often quoted assertion that, in general, ‘compellence by denial’ is preferable to ‘compellence by punishment’. Show less
