Human trafficking, the recruitment and transportation of persons by use of force, coercion, or deception for exploitation is one of the largest illicit industries worldwide. In the execution of... Show moreHuman trafficking, the recruitment and transportation of persons by use of force, coercion, or deception for exploitation is one of the largest illicit industries worldwide. In the execution of anti-trafficking policies to combat this phenomenon, nation-states have assigned a decisive role to criminal justice actors as they are not only responsible for the detection, investigation, and prosecution of perpetrators but also for the identification and (legal) protection of victims of human trafficking. However, research has shown that criminal justice actors encounter many challenges whilst carrying out their tasks, which is also reflected in the low numbers of successful prosecutions and identified victims. To our knowledge, the reasons behind this observation have never been studied systematically. This systematic review aims to collect and synthesise empirical literature on factors that influence the criminal justice response to human trafficking to better understand and identify gaps in knowledge. In total, 35 empirical studies were included. Findings were discussed in light of theory and previous research and were used to provide recommendations for policy and future research. These studies suggest that factors such as prevailing stereotypes, an absence of legal guidance and a lack of capacity and expertise interact and even amplify each other and that strengthening the criminal justice response to human trafficking requires a multi-layered approach that simultaneously addresses several challenges. Show less
Anrango Narváez, D.; Medina Sarmiento, J.E.; Real, C. del 2023
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
This article provides a reflection on the jihadist threat, the policies and actors that deal with this threat and the impact of jihadism and counterterrorism in Western Europe in the past twenty... Show moreThis article provides a reflection on the jihadist threat, the policies and actors that deal with this threat and the impact of jihadism and counterterrorism in Western Europe in the past twenty years. It describes how the threat, counterterrorism policies and their impact have developed over time and demonstrates how threat perceptions in society and the political arena have not always been aligned with the actual threat. There have been periods of disbalance between the threat and responses to it, leading to both overreactions and inflated threat descriptions and fear levels, as well as periods with limited attention that might have contributed to unpleasant surprises at a later stage. Against this backdrop, the article criticises the incident-driven approach to counterterrorism and warns against both overreactions as well as ‘jihadism fatigue’. 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
Border control has changed significantly in recent decades. Whereas globalisation appear s to have diminished the relevance of international borders, states have simultaneously sought ways to... Show moreBorder control has changed significantly in recent decades. Whereas globalisation appear s to have diminished the relevance of international borders, states have simultaneously sought ways to regain some form of control over cross-border mobility. In this process, alternative and novel means of border enforcement have emerged. What do these bordering practices look like? How are they implemented on the ground and experienced by those subjected to them? These are the main questions this dissertation aims to answer. To that end, it looks at bordering practices in the Netherlands through the lens of crimmigration, the term used to refer to the growing merger of criminal justice and migration control. Relying on extensive empirical fieldwork – including observations, focus group discussions, surveys, and in-depth interviews – the dissertation examines two border ing practices: intra-Schengen migration policing and the punishment and deportation of criminally convicted non-citizens. The different empirical chapters highlight the various ways these contemporary bordering practices are shaped by and in their turn shape the criminal justice system, and how this ultimately results in considerable challenges for the legitimacy of both the migration control and the criminal justice system. Show less
Controlling mobilities in the EU is increasingly depending on information and information technology. Abolishing permanent border control between Schengen Member States has created the dilemma... Show moreControlling mobilities in the EU is increasingly depending on information and information technology. Abolishing permanent border control between Schengen Member States has created the dilemma of economic benefits versus security issues of the freedom of movement. The solution to this issue is often sought in the development and implementation of information technology. While expectations of information and information technologies are high, empirical research on how such border technologies are used in practice is scarce and subsequently little is known about to what extent the envisioned benefits are actually achieved. This dissertation aims to gain more insight in the use of information and information technology in controlling mobilities in intra-Schengen border areas by using a case study of the Mobile Security Monitor as carried out by the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee. Through extensive observations of border checks, focus groups with border patrol officers, interviews with Marechaussee staff members, discourse analysis of political debates and policy documentation and quantitative data, this dissertation aims to gain insight in the decision-making process on the political, organizational and street-level and the role of information and information technology therein. Show less
The links between protests and state responses have taken on increased visibility in light of the Arab Spring movements. But we still have unanswered questions about the relationship between... Show moreThe links between protests and state responses have taken on increased visibility in light of the Arab Spring movements. But we still have unanswered questions about the relationship between protest behaviors and responses by the state. We frame this in terms of concession and disruption costs. Costs are typically defined as government behaviors that impede dissidents’ capacity for collective action. We change this causal arrow and hypothesize how dissidents can generate costs that structure the government’s response to a protest. By disaggregating costs along dimensions of concession and disruption we extend our understanding of protest behaviors and the conditions under which they are more (or less) effective. Utilizing a new cross-national protest event data set, we test our theoretical expectations against protests from 1990 to 2014 and find that when protesters generate high concession costs, the state responds in a coercive manner. Conversely, high disruption costs encourage the state to accommodate demands. Our research provides substantial insights and inferences about the dynamics of government response to protest. Show less
This edited collection forms part of a broader, ongoing, research project, ‘The Policing European Metropolises Project’ (‘PEMP’). The Project has its origins in a network of researchers interested... Show moreThis edited collection forms part of a broader, ongoing, research project, ‘The Policing European Metropolises Project’ (‘PEMP’). The Project has its origins in a network of researchers interested in the significance of sub-national policing for understanding processes of convergence and divergence in policing across Europe. The Project commenced in 2013 and reported the findings of its first phase (‘PEMP_1’) in a special issue of the European Journal of Policing Studies (Ponsaers, Edwards et al., 2014). The initial aim of the project was to address the question: ‘To what extent is a local police still present in European metropolises and how is this reality linked with other actors in the security field?’ (Ponsaers, Edwards et al., 2014: 4). This question was defined in relation to current debates in policy discourse and social science about the relationship of sub-national, specifically metropolitan, policing to developments in the European ‘internal security field’ (Bigo & Guild, 2005). This includes developments in supra-national policing policy, including the European Union’s objective of creating a Union-wide ‘Area of Freedom, Security and Justice’ (AFSJ), transnational policing arrangements, such as the Schengen Agreement, and the continued importance of national policing strategies given the variegated historical experiences of European countries, for example those in transition from former Soviet regimes in Eastern and Central Europe or Latin countries in transition from former dictatorship. In questioning any continued ‘local reality’ of policing, the Project seeks to distinguish itself from theories of convergence in European policing as a consequence of, for example, ‘Europeanisation’ (Bigo & Guild, 2005), ‘securitisation’ (Waever, 1995; Hallsworth & Lea, 2011), ‘responsibilisation’ (Garland, 2001), ‘neo-liberalisation’ (Wacquant, 2001) the formation of a ‘transnational state’ (Bowling & Sheptycki, 2012) or the promotion of ‘plural policing’ (Jones & Newburn, 2006). Rather, the Project acknowledges these ‘tendencies’ but seeks to identify their uneven impact and the adaptation of local policing to alleged master narratives of policing change. In turn, this interest in divergence has been stimulated by arguments about the particular importance of metropolises in the constitution of ‘global’ security threats and policing responses. These arguments reflect wider debates in social science about ‘glocalisation’ or the idea that, as a consequence of the greater mobility of capital, labour, goods and services across national borders, it is powerful metropolises or, in the argot of public policy, ‘city-regions’, that become a key focus of comparative social research. They become the principal centres of power through which globalisation is accomplished as they project their political, economic and cultural powers onto other, less powerful, localities, circumventing if not subordinating nation state authorities. This is akin to the concept of an evolving ‘world urban system’ (King, 1997) in which national states represent only one centre of authority within other circuits of power (Clegg, 1989; Edwards et al, this volume). In these terms, certain metropolises become the key nodal points (Castells, 1996) or ‘command centres’ (Sassen, 2001) in more networked and globally integrated social relations whilst other metropolises have to adapt to these forces with minimal protection from national authorities. In a further development of this argument it is suggested that national governing programmes are often subordinated to, and increasingly oriented around, the interests of powerful city-regions (Scott, 2012). A key implication of these broader debates is a need for comparative research capable of understanding the role of metropolitan authorities in driving policing change and whether this role enables a greater diversity in policing policies, generating opportunities for comparing and contrasting rival approaches and their outcomes, or whether the involvement of metropolitan authorities in transnational networks creates tendencies toward policy convergence (Pollitt, 2001). An important corollary of this research aim is to identify the political agency and discretion available to metropolises to define and accomplish their own policing agendas and to question what the role of social science can be in constituting such agendas. However, in pursuing these research aims, it is necessary to address major challenges of translation in cross-cultural analysis: linguistic, conceptual and disciplinary. These challenges can be elaborated through reference to developments in policy and social scientific discourse about public policing in Europe. Show less
In this chapter we analyze the politics of policing, with a specific focus on policing agendas in the two largest cities in The Netherlands: Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Both metropolises are... Show moreIn this chapter we analyze the politics of policing, with a specific focus on policing agendas in the two largest cities in The Netherlands: Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Both metropolises are considered metropolises facing ‘glocal’ challenges related to multicultural populations in urban areas, social inequalities in terms of household income, international harbors, crime and disorder. The term ‘glocal’ refers to the interlinkages between global challenges and local communities. In order to get an understanding of the tendencies towards divergence and convergence in urban policing in the metropolises under study we start with a summary of general trends in policing in the Netherlands in the second section. In the third section national, regional and local governmental constitutional arrangements, discretionary powers and public police management are presented. The remainder of the chapter compares and contrasts policing agendas in Amsterdam and Rotterdam and concludes with an overview of their regimes and possible explanations for convergence and divergence in the politics of policing in these metropolises. The search for the regimes in the background of policing agendas in these two embedded case studies reveals both convergence and divergence towards the national agenda and between the agendas in both metropolises. Possible explanations for these trends could be found in the political ‘circuits of power’ (Devroe, Edwards, Ponsaers, this volume) of the municipal ruling coalition and in wider institutional arrangements in place. Show less
