Criminology & Criminal Justice

Criminal justice refers to the system by which justice is dispensed onto those who have committed a crime. It includes the crime a defendant allegedly committed, the law enforcement officers who arrested him, the court system that prosecutes and defends him, and how the defendant is punished if he is convicted. Law enforcement agencies, the courts system, and the detention and supervisory agencies for offenders all work together to maintain a society’s rule of law. Criminal justice systems have existed in some form or other for centuries, although the forms they have taken have changed with time. There have always been acts deemed by a society to be unacceptable, but the way society has punished those behaviors (and who was empowered to do the punishing) have changed. For example, stealing has been punished for centuries by mutilation and branding, but imprisonment is a relatively “modern” invention that was not widely used until the 19th century. Watchmen, the ancestors of our modern police, have similarly existed for thousands of years in many different parts of the world. In England, watchmen were codified into law in the 13th century. Unlit streets brought danger after dark. These volunteer groups of men were responsible for patrolling the streets of their local town or parish at night to keep the peace, watch out for fires, and enforce curfew ordinances. An increase in both population and crime in the late 18th and early 19th centuries made the effectiveness of this volunteer, local-level force both inefficient and untenable, and they were replaced by the first paid, state-run modern police force, London’s Metropolitan Police, in 1829, which cast the model for today’s law enforcement agencies.

Sea Robbery and Maritime Business Operations in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Sea Robbery and Maritime Business Operations in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The main thrust of this study was to examine sea robbery and maritime business operations in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The Routine Activity Theory propounded in (1979) by Lawrence .E. Cohen and Marcus Felson served as the theoretical guide. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to select respondents from three littoral states in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The sample size for this study was 400; this was derived using the Taro Yamane formula. Questionnaire and oral interview were used as methods of data collection. Four null hypotheses were formulated and tested. The data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMC). The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between sea robbery and artisanal fishing, sea robbery and water transportation, sea robbery and tourism development, also sea robbery and coastal trading in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The implication is that the continuing existence of the activities of robbers in the waterways of the Niger Delta region will impact negatively on the economy of business operators as well as scare investors from investing in the region. In addition, these waterways will continue to maintain their notorious posture and ranking as dangerous waterways by the international maritime watchdogs such as the International Maritime Bureau and International Maritime Organization. Furthermore, it was concluded from the study that sea robbery is rife in the Niger Delta region because of the following criminogenic factors (a) the endowment of crude oil in the study area (b) other commercial activities which are transported by the waterways and (c) the absence of adequate surveillance. Consequent upon this, it is recommended from the study, among others, that problem oriented policing at sea robbery hotspots be adopted as a measure to guarantee safety of life and property along the waterways and creeks in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

Legal Framework and Economic Analysis for the Valuation and Management of External Costs caused by Depreciation of Public Goods

Legal Framework and Economic Analysis for the Valuation and Management of External Costs caused by Depreciation of Public Goods

Assigning a value to a pubic good is a challenge mainly due to the lack of commercial value. This type of goods, being non marketable, cannot be validated by means of supply and demand. From the other, the evaluation is necessary. A number o economical and social parameters are affected by the assigned value of a public good and in turn, they affect the price of marketable goods. This kind of parameters are taxation, management and preservation of the environment, full use of natural and social resources. The provider of the good- usually the state- have to evaluate rationally and correctly the price in monetary units to avoid loss of capital or failure to preserve and protect the good, something that might lead to the final loss of the good. It therefore necessary the development of specific methodologies that will allow the direct and relatively easy evaluation of public goods. Directness and simplicity are the mainframe for the challenge faced in the present study. The abstract nature of the majority of public goods leads, at best, to difficulties in describing benefits and costs. In the worst case, a non-expert, a simple citizen asked to pay tax for such a provision, more often than not has complete lack of awareness even for the existence of the specific good, even if he benefits from it in everyday life.

Property Registration and the Institution of Expropriation - a Comparative Constitutional Study of Law and Economics

Property Registration and the Institution of Expropriation – a Comparative Constitutional Study of Law and Economics

Vilfrendo Pareto describes the excellent distribution of economic resources which simultaneously achieves maximum productive efficiency and social justice. The Constitution of Greece describes the process of compulsory expropriation of property when there is a public need. The compensation criteria for this expropriation do not take into account the positive and negative externalities that the subsequent public project will cause. The consequence of this is the unjust social distribution of economic resources. The aim of this paper is to investigate this weakness of the compensation system that does not meet the criteria for Pareto improvement, while a constitutional analysis of comparative law concerning the provision of property is made. An appendix to the case law of the Greek Court of Audit is provided. The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) is proposed as the most complete for the experimental assessment of the maximum amount of compensation of owners during the process of forced expropriation through Experimental Economics tools.