SOCIAL DEVIANCE AND CONTEMPORARY MORALITY - THE ROOTS OF PROGRESS OR THE ROOTS OF CRIMINOGENESIS?

Author(s): Neda Savić,Milica Stanković / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Social norms and social deviance, and their causal link with criminogenesis and civilization progress, are highly variable categories. One of the key problems concerning this subject matter is a difficulty in recognizing certain social deviations as such, including a lack of awareness that certain phenomena should not be categorized as social deviance at all. This paper first focuses on the concept of socially deviant types of behaviour and their etiology through the perspective of various schools of thought, particularly sociological and criminological ones. Then, it presents the typology of aberrant behavior as well as the causal link between different aberration types and criminogenesis and/or social progress. By exploring the representative socio-pathological issues, the authors give a critical review of individual aberration types, and provide an overview of the complex and comprehensive nature of this classification process. The ultimate result of this categorization is a relativistic element which characterizes aberration, progress and crime.

СТРАХ ОД КРИМИНАЛИТЕТА НА ТЕРИТОРИЈИ ГРАДА НИША: ИСПИТИВАЊЕ РОДНИХ РАЗЛИКА

Author(s): Slobodanka Konstantinović Vilić,Nevena Petrušić,Natalija Žunić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 2/2016

The fear of crime is a significant social problem which has a negative impact on the quality of life of an individual and the society as a whole. When examining the fear of crime, it is therefore necessary to consider this issue from the gender perspective because different security problems in a community have a different impact on women, girls, men, boys, and persons of different sexual and gender identities. There are also huge differences among them in terms of their subjective perceptions of danger, real causes of their insecurity, etc. The paper presents the theoretical framework, key findings and final results of the authors’ research into the gender dimensions of the fear of crime on the territory of the City of Niš. The research results provide an insight into different perceptions of fear of crime in men and women, which may be observed not only in terms of actual everyday situations but also as related to specific types of crime. The identification of these different perceptions contributes to a better assessment of security needs of both men and women, which should be taken into account in the process of creating security policies and strategies on the national as well as the local level.

Report on the meeting of the Correctional Pedagogy Group with the Committee of Pedagogical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 29.01.2016

Author(s): Aneta Skuza / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2016

Különös kegyetlenséggel...

Author(s): Olga Tóth / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 4/2016

Review of the book "Emberölést elkövető fiatalkorúak és fiatal felnőttek kriminológiai vizsgálata" by National Institute of Criminology (OKRI, Budapest, 2015)

Viktimizaciją patyrusių ir delinkvencinio elgesio patirties turinčių 7–9 klasių moksleivių ypatumai

Author(s): Svetlana Justickaja,Renata Giedrytė-Mačiulienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 94 (2)/2017

During past decades criminological studies have confirmed the relationship between juvenile delinquency and victimization. In this way, the earlier prevailing opinion that juveniles who experienced victimization and committed delinquent acts are two completely different groups of adolescents was denied. This article presents the results of the Third International Self- Report Delinquency Study (ISRD-3) which enables not only to observe the overall prevalence of youth delinquency and victimization but also to examine the links between the groups of those who committed delinquent acts and those who became victims of criminal offences. ISRD-3 in Lithuania was carried out in five cities (Vilnius, Šiauliai, Kretinga, Plungė, Telšiai). 2 824 pupils from 7th, 8th and 9th grades were surveyed. The first results of ISRD-3 showed that there is a link between delinquency and victimization. Those pupils who be¬came victims of criminal offences were more likely to commit delinquent acts themselves. In this article the further research is continued and the features of minors who experienced victimisation and committed delinquent acts are analysed. The hypothesis that the group of juveniles who experienced victimization and committed delinquent acts (VD group) differs in many ways from other groups (like those who only became victims of crime (V group) or those who only committed delinquent acts (D group)) was tested. The results of the analysis revealed that pupils of VD group had significant higher risk of victimization in comparison with minors of V group. The results of the analysis also showed that minors of VD group had significant higher risk of delinquency in comparison with mi¬nors of D group. However, there were no big differences while comparing personal attitudes (morality, shame, self-control, opinion of significant others) of the minors of VD group and D group. It can be assumed that delinquent behaviour of pupils of VD group is determined by the lack of abilities to resist to risk factors much more than by the lack of personal attitudes.

Atkuriamojo teisingumo priemonių taikymas mokyklose

Author(s): Renata Giedrytė-Mačiulienė,Judita Venckevičienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 88 (2)/2015

This article examines the application of restorative justice measures in schools. Schools are one of the major social institutions where different conflicts could be observed. Such conflicts are often resolved by non-constructive measures, e.g., aggression, violence and bullying. The most common response to such behaviour is the punishment of the conflict initiator. However, punishment is not an effective response to such behaviour. It is a merely passive expression which requires a minimal or even completely does not require any consciousness or look for the solutions of the conflict. On the contrary, punishment often leads to greater resistance to the school system and encourages even greater violation of the rules. This article aims to show how conflicts in schools can be effectively resolved by using restorative justice measures, especially one of its models – mediation and why the application of restorative justice measures could be important in Lithuanian schools.Researches carried out in different countries show that by using the restorative justice measures the downward of the control and punishment measures applied, decreasing delinquent behaviour, the rise of feeling of security in schools could be observed. In Lithuania there is some practise of application of restorative justice measures. However, there is no common practise. The application of restorative justice initiatives is more sporadic, often based on the schools communities initiatives to apply restorative justice measures in their schools. Data on suicides, studies on violence, safety and bullying in Lithuanian schools show that the combination of existing violence prevention programs and new restorative justice measures could likely contribute to a more efficient problem solving of violence in Lithuanian schools.

Street of Pleasure – Hungarian Sex for Euro

Author(s): Fanni Dés / Language(s): Hungarian Issue: 2/2017

STREET OF PLEASURE – HUNGARIAN SEX FOR EUROS1 BY VERA MUNK (BUDAPEST, BOOKLINE BOOKS, 2017)

Uloga forenzike u otkrivanju zloupotrebe digitalne slike

Author(s): Ranko Petrović,Irini Reljin / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 1/2017

Considering that the development of information technology has completely changed the way of accessing, processing and sharing of information, and that nowadays, thanks to the Internet, the vast amount of information is literally at our fingertips, negative consequences of this phenomenon increasingly come to the fore, especially when it comes to multimedia data. Thanks to the sophisticated softwares, it has become relatively easy to preform manipulation of the image, audio or video material in order to undermine their integrity and authenticity without leaving any trace that man can visually notice. This paper analyses the current problem of manipulation of the digital image which role may be to hide, emphasize or to completely change some specific information in the image, with consequences ranged from trivial to catastrophic ones. Moreover, the focus of this paper is the role of digital forensics in detecting and proving performed manipulations. Regarding to this, the paper briefly describes the most common manipulations that can be performed on the image, copy-move or cloning and splicing or photomontage. Copy-move manipulation is achieved by copying a specified region of the original image and pasting it to another part of the same image in order to conceal useful information, while splicing manipulation is achieved by combining parts of two different images into one, final image. This paper also presents concrete examples of copy-move manipulations done in Corel Photo Paint X5 program, as well as changes in the image histograms caused by the manipulation, which proves that the image has undergone some changes. However, every manipulation of the image leads to disrupting of certain regularities that each image owns and which originate from the natural environment, the camera and the image itself. It is exactly these regularities and their deviations that detection techniques are based on. Accordingly, we distinguish detection techniques based on statistics, geometry and physics, then detection techniques based on sensor and noise of the camera that is used, and lastly detection techniques based on the format and quality of the image, compression and so on. The paper also discusses the active and passive approach of digital forensics in accordance with ability to modify the process of generating images itself by inserting specific identification marks such as watermark or digital signature. At the end, the process of forensic technique based on the image format, so-called double JPEG, is described. It is shown how the double compression, which is almost inevitable in the process of manipulation, introduces some specific effects that do not exist in the single compressed image. The aim of this paper is to highlight the need and importance to preserve the identity and authenticity of digital images, as well as to point to the possibilities of manipulation of the image, and finally, if the manipulation has been performed, to reveal it and irrefutably prove it, and digital forensics certainly plays the main role in it.

Criminal Legal and Psychological Aspects in Prooving the Aliby of the Suspected Person, of The Accused and of the Witness

Author(s): Osman N. Jašarević / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

There is a constant battle between the person who did the crime and the state's punitive organs. In that battle the state organs should be always a step ahead and react to all kinds of crime on time. But in reality that is not always the case. Due to the modern science's, technique's, electronic high development, a very wide circle of people can educate themselves and improve their education level. But this process also gives opportunity to potential and future criminals to improve their techniques, especially the ones in hiding and destroying clues, the subjects of the attack, the crime weapons and in hiding the witnesses of the alibi (false-defending alibi). On the other hand there are lots of legal proving materials and weapons that are provided in the criminal procedure laws. Unfortunately, some very successful methods and materials are not provided in our criminal procedural laws. One of them is the alibi. That is the reason why the alibi (as a proving weapon) has been a part of my interest for several years (since the time of working on my master thesis). Since then I have been trying to find and to show in a very systematic way all domestic and international scientific researches, developments and discoveries on this matter. This also includes scientific discoveries in psychology, legal psychology, psychopathology, legal medicine, criminology, criminalistics, criminal procedural law and other common disciplines. In the alibi (as a proving material) researches I have always considered it important to have in mind the matter of its time and geography, and history of this institute, giving some very interesting, truthful and illuminating examples that show the entire importance and complexity of the alibi. Some casuistic examples of scientists (for example Prof. Vladimir Vodinelić, etc.), as well as the scientific literature, legal regulation, theoretical discoveries and legal practice that are considered in this article, took a very important place in the science of ex Yugoslavia, whose legal system was very well established; this all gives this article a high recommendation. The aim of this article is to introduce and to present the topic of alibi to the students of legal and criminal sciences, judges, prosecutors and police officers whose job is to find the guilty ones. The author hopes that this article will be useful for them in the process of finding the facts and the truth, using the alibi as a proving weapon.

Mediation as an Alternative of Criminal Procedure

Author(s): Ivona Shushak,Emilija Mateska / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

One of biggest challenges of the penal reform is recognizing its limitations, its weaknesses and accepting the need of expanding the view towards alternative procedures and adapting the theoretical part to new challenges in order to overcome problems that occur in everyday life. Considering the fact that mediation in modern societies is used as an alternative to criminal proceedings and that it is flexible and helps in the final resolution of disputes and agreement of parties in criminal proceedings, this paper will serve in better understanding of basic mediation concepts in criminal procedure, its revival, especially of mediation proceedings against minors. Through mediation we get more constructive and less repressive solutions, therefore the active involvement of the parties makes this procedure different from the traditional one, where main parties are the court and the defendant. In the paper we will analyse the mediation procedure, principles, course and way of its completion, according to Macedonian law, also the outcome of the procedure and the effects of it, in relation to the parties and the risks of its unsuccessful end. This paper provides a brief overview of the juvenile justice system, basic information for restorative justice and mediation between victims and perpetrators, its effects, the international legal framework and experiences in implementation, in direction of further promotion and support of this kind of mediation in the Republic of Macedonia. We will highlight the positive aspects of mediation in criminal proceedings for settlement of civil and economic relation between parties that are directly related to crime, and efficiency and speed, which will contribute in reducing civil disputes for release fee legal claims and faster elimination of the inconvenience between the parties.

Preventive Effect of Capital Punishment (Death Penalty) to Delinquents

Author(s): Bojan Jovčevski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Especially interesting issue when performing an analysis of the relationship between criminal law and the system of moral values is the question of the death penalty, which in recent decades has been very popular as a subject of broad discussions. The death penalty (poena capitalis) is actually a deprivation of life of the convicted perpetrator of crime. You must first ask the fundamental question: who has the right to punish, and what is the source of that right (ius puniendi)? The right to life is an inalienable human right and it coincides with the chance that a man is changing and improving. Retribution and prevention determine the meaning and function of criminal law as a whole, including its system of sanctions, in which penalties play the main role. No other legislation, which in the register of sanctions has the death penalty, can deny the revenge as a motive for punishment and intimidation as a preventative reason for its existence. Society, with the death penalty, tries to defend itself from dangerous offenders, because otherwise it can not preserve its values and legal norms. The job of the criminal law and punishment is that future inmates do not do new crimes, while others do not follow the example of the delinquent behavior. There are more arguments “for” and “against” the existence of the death penalty in law. Arguments “for” are: elimination and reduction of crime; death penalty deters citizens from crime; death penalty provides satisfaction for the family of the victims; the killer deserves proportionate punishment (some crimes are so horrible that adequate punishment is only execution); only the death penalty definitely removes dangerous criminals off the streets. Arguments against are: there is no evidence that the death penalty actually deters citizens from crime; the death penalty is irreversible, especially in cases where the convicted person is later proved innocent; the death penalty is unfairly implemented; there are better ways of punishment and prevention.

Comparative Review of the Organizational Structure of the Scientific Research Centers for Criminalistics in Some Balkan Countries

Author(s): Martin Nedelkovski,Martina Nedelkovski,Dragan Miloseski / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2016

Confronting crime and its prevention is not possible without education. Education is one of the most important prerequisites for successful action and prevention of the complex forms of crime. The specificity of the police profession and contemporary security challenges necessarily impose strategic acting by specialized professionals on appropriate theoretical and empirical ground, which would be a reflection of the security needs of the system, and therefore of the society as a whole. For the reason that fighting against crime does not tolerate improvisation, any reform of the security system should be based on scientific theoretical - practical research, which will thus increase the expertise of the staff arising from higher educational institutions that produce professionals in the field of security, and by that the quality of the performed tasks will be increased. Police officers in this process are placed in front of a specific and delicate task, which involves the application of legal regulations, which in specific terms requires certain predispositions for a good performance of the same. The essence of a good police officer who, among the other, represents the interests of a democratic society, is particularly in the theoretical foundation that was formed in his Criminalistic education, which as such, is one of the major guiding factors to a good career progress. The unstoppable development of the Criminalistic science imposes the need for theoretical clarification of certain criminalistic questions that will contribute to improving of the ways and methods of detection, proving and prevention of crime, and which apart from the students would be of a great benefit also to the practitioners dealing with discovering and proving of the crime.

Bendruomenės vaidmuo nusikalstamumo prevencijoje: užsienio šalių patirties analizė

Author(s): Simonas Nikartas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 72 (2)/2011

This article is based on materials of foreign researches and presents an analysis of the role of community in crime reduction. The article is focused on structural elements of the community, such as (1) informal social control, (2) strong community-based (social) relations, (3) and internal potential of community resources (self-sufficiency) within the framework of a concept of strong social ties in a community. Informal social control is an element of society directly related to crime and consequently is a central scientific research topic. The effectiveness of informal social control depends on different factors in the community. Presumption that strong social bonds in the community ensure an effective social control had prevailed in academic literature for a long time. However, the latest studies have shown that informal social control is often weak in communities that are characterized by strong social cohesion. Misinterpretation of the role of social relations was caused by abstracting the social bonds, inaccurate perception of their role in a structure of social capital and oblivion of cultural sphere as a factor of social control. The article also discusses risks of strong social ties on a practical level. Research has revealed that in certain cases strong community ties may foster social isolation, intolerance and discriminatory behaviour regarding different social groups, disregarding interests of local population in favour of the goals of a smaller group that identifies itself as a community. These theoretical and practical problems led us to reconsideration of the role of community or its elements and to provision of alternative approach which has also been discussed in the article. Firstly, research has revealed that weaker social ties can help to ensure an effective social control and to facilitate the circulation of social and economic resources among the local population. Secondly, the role of the key factors of the informal social control should be acknowledged not to strong social ties but to people mutual trust and willingness to solve their local problems together (Sampson’s collective efficacy). Thirdly, for the effective social control (crime prevention) vertical relationships to transmit the wider social and economic resources are inevitable. Importance of the relation between the formal and informal social control must be mentioned: on the basis of scientific studies it can be assumed that informal control is dependent on the quality of performance of the formal control institutions and their approach to problem solving in a local population.

Nusikaltimų prevencija Lietuvoje: perėjimas nuo intuityvios prie įrodymais grindžiamos

Author(s): Svetlana Justickaja / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 71 (1)/2011

“Efficiency revolution” which occurred at the end of the last century radically changed view on efficiency of crime prevention. It refuted the presumption that any crime prevention action is produces intended changes in criminality. This presupposition was replaced with the opposite one: no crime prevention is efficient unless the opposite is proven. This means that the efficiency of any prevention program or action must be supported by evidences (evidence-based crime prevention). The evidence-based crime prevention is the mainstream approach in developed countries (USA, Canada and G. Britain). Efficiency evidences must be provided each time when financial or any other support is sought. This provided an opportunity to improve crime prevention, to make it more efficient, to change situation in crime prevention. Quite different situation is observed in developing countries (also in Lithuania). The transition from traditional, obscene crime prevention paradigm to the modern one proceeds in a highly conflicting way (Akpokodje, Bowles, Tigere, 2002). Despite huge destructive effect of criminality upon economy and social life in these countries the new approach to crime prevention meets great resistance. The aims of this report are: To assess the rate of transition to the modern crime prevention in Lithuania; to reveal factors behind the resistance to this transition. To answer the first question we investigated 132 crime prevention projects designed in Lithuania. In every project ways in which its efficiency is ensured have been studied. To answer the second one Lithuanian legislature regulating the design and assessment of crime prevention project and guiding literature on crime prevention have been reviewed. A broad pull of crime prevention actors were questioned. The study showed that Lithuania is quite similar to other developing country as for its situation in crime prevention. It was shown that resistance to the change of paradigm in crime prevention rises from all three sources: legislation, instruction of people involved in crime prevention and their traditional ideas on prerequisites of successful crime prevention.

Galingųjų nusikaltimai: tarpdalykinis atvejis antikriminologijai

Author(s): Vincenzo Ruggiero / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 67 (1)/2010

In this article the author argues that the study of the crimes of the powerful may help re-vive critical criminological analyses and discourses. This specific arena of research, in his view, may lead us to experience anti-criminological moments and to elaborate some anti-criminological notions. By anti-criminological moments and notions he simply means those small revolutions in our disciplinary paradigm, those ruptures which throw the discipline into a temporary crisis, before being at times slowly absorbed, thus enriching the discipline itself. He regards differential association, labelling theory and feminist criminology as the major creators of such moments and ruptures. There is a general feeling, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon world, that criminology is experiencing unprecedented developments. This, it is suggested, is driven by a number of forces, most obviously growing concerns about security and crime control (Smith, 2004). Such issues tend to be mainly associated with the presence in Europe of the ‘other’, namely the foreigner, the recent migrant and the asylum seeker. It could be argued, however, that these recent developments are also a consequence of the growing belief that technical, administrative, environmental, architectural or policing strategies are the only ones capable of responding to crime. In other words, we may suggest that criminology is gaining unprecedented respectability because officials and policymakers have abandoned broader social concerns and adopted the view that the problem of crime arises from the mere lack of its institutional control. To authors mind, anti-criminology should abandon the search for omnipresent social conditions, for an ‘original sin’, in brief, for a primary, universal cause of criminal behaviour. How could we do otherwise? If we, for example, identify variables such as financial success, the pursuit of status, or the accumulation of resources as the primary causes of crime, we end up expanding the criminal label to cover all behaviour. Success and financial gain, in fact, are also the main motivations of legitimate behaviour. On the contrary, if we focus on variables such as lack, deficiency, deficit (of opportunities, socialisation or resources), we end up excluding from the criminal rubric all those illegitimate practices caused by abundance, wealth and excess. The study of affluence and its effects, of its criminogenic nature, may be among the tasks of anti-criminology. This leads author to the other area of potential analytical development. After examining a number of ‘crimes of the elite’, critical criminologists might be tempted to conclude that the excess of resources and opportunities, rather than the lack of both, is the major cause of criminal activity. This conclusion may derive from subjective evaluation of the overall social damage caused by the crimes of the powerful when compared with that caused by the crimes of the powerless. But, against the backdrop of what the author have termed the etiology of the contraries, one should note that both the deficiency and the abundance of legitimate opportunities may lead to criminal activity. Anti-criminology, however, may analyze the selective processes that are in place whereby only some of those who are involved in such activity are also exposed to social stigma and institutional penalization.

Pagrindiniai bendruomeninės nusikalstamumo prevencijos veiksmingumo aspektai

Author(s): Simonas Nikartas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 67 (1)/2010

The article analyzes different aspects of community crime prevention, referring to the studies conducted by foreign researchers. It also discusses the concept of community crime prevention and its main forms of implementation. The main attention is paid to the effectiveness of this type of crime prevention. The article also analyzes the objective and subjective conditions of the effectiveness of community crime prevention, emphasizing the interrelation balance between communities’ internal characteristics and the form of prevention activities. This scientific analysis allows to get acquainted with the effective recipes of foreign countries community crime prevention experience which could enable to develop hypotheses for the researches on possibilities of effective community crime prevention implementation in Lithuania.

Skaitmeninės erdvės reguliavimas ir kontrolė: saugumo aspektai

Author(s): Vaidas Kalpokas / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 70 (4)/2010

Information technologies have opened the new dimension of human existence – digital space. In the beginning of the 2011 there will be more than 2 billion inhabitants using it. Nevertheless these tempting possibilities that attract more and more new settlers inevitably relate to certain threats and dangers. What kind of dangers are these? Are the mechanisms sustaining inner order and inevitably used for survival of any other community needed in this special space? Who or what and in what ways could warrant the working of these mechanisms in the extraterritorial decentralized derivative – internet? These are the questions that are partially faced in this article. The growing society’s dependence upon fluent functioning of IT infrastructure shows the need to regulate digital space. It is also related to the interests of national security (protection of objects of critical infrastructure) and to the creation of safer environment for users. The author of the article draws attention to the need of constant and conscious communication among all the players at the international and local levels. The systemic approach while the roles and responsibilities are distributed among the different levels of security is the main premise of such communication.

Recidyvinis nusikalstamumas: tyrimo galimybės ir perspektyvos Lietuvoje

Author(s): Svetlana Justickaja,Aušra Gavėnaitė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 65 (3)/2009

The article gives an overview of the current situation of recidivism studies and researches in Lithuania. It also presents some insights for possible directions of national research development in future. Despite the researches on recidivism are of great importance and needed the sources of information on this issue are very poor in Lithuania. Official statistics is the main and almost the only source of information. This kind of data allows to describe but not to explain the situation of recidivism. Our country does not collect information on two important aspects of recidivist offences: (1) the causes of repeated offences that have occurred despite preventive actions have been taken and (2) latent part of repeated offences that were not grasped by criminal justice system. The studies on recidivism only give the overview of current recidivism situation (level, dynamics, structure), but supply no information that is needed for effective preventive practice in Lithuania. There are some European countries that are at the same starting point as Lithuania in recidivism studies. Nevertheless there are also very advanced countries that exhaustively use the current science achievements and advanced methods of research in criminal career studies. The most important point is that the results of such researches make the scientific basis to create, implement and monitor preventive measures on recidivism. The article also shows that strategic aim in the field of research for Lithuania is to start the creation of modern and effective system of recidivism prevention. It also names the necessary data that should be collected and problems that should be solved in order to create such system.

Socialinės tvarkos ir saugumo prielaidos mieste: aplinkos kriminologijos teorijų taikymo patirtis Vakaruose ir perspektyvos Lietuvoje

Author(s): Aušra Pocienė / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 66 (4)/2009

The article aims to show that the issue of city safety could be tackled through maintenance of physical and social order and through the wise urban planning besides the organized police efforts. City planners and architects should take an active part in this activity. Safety or the sense of safety is one of the most important components of quality of life. Nevertheless crime is not the only factor that determines them. The status of social order and the integrity of local community influence safety feelings too. Indeed crime is the manifestation of long lasting process of social disorganization. Therefore efforts to maintain social order and security should start as soon as first evidence of disorganization appears. The article presents the main ideas of environmental criminology and the range of space based criminological theories (namely, defensible space, crime prevention through environmental design, space syntax theory and etc.) that have started in the middle of XX th century in the West and are still popular now. They had influenced practice and make a core of current situational crime prevention. These theoretical approaches explain how physical environment and distribution of objects in the city space create or prevent crime and influence the safety of city inhabitants. These approaches do not explain the causes of crime but give recommendations how to control or prevent crime in various city spaces. Article also notes how safety criterions have been integrated into urban planning in some countries of North America and Europe. USA and United Kingdom are the most eminent among them. The evaluation of Lithuanian case showed that urban planning and security of safety are still separated spheres here. There is also little or no scientific discussion on the topics of interrelation of social and physical environment, urban planning and environmental design and crime and safety.

Kriminologinio žinojimo konstravimas: valdžios vaidmuo

Author(s): Margarita Dobrynina / Language(s): Lithuanian Issue: 66 (4)/2009

The article discusses the problem of criminological knowledge, analyses the role of the politics and government constructing scientific discourse. Starting with the analysis of the power and knowledge interrelationship from the social constructionism theory perspective, the article further deals with the politics and control of criminological knowledge. Criminological knowledge is integral with the questions of social control and, accordingly, their political nature. The knowledge produced by criminologists is not neutral, but rather is constructed on the basis of power relations. Hence, it is important to deconstruct criminological discourse systematically, questioning the existing social reality of crime, the notion of social order and control. The article presents the fundamental ideas of critical criminology school concerning the influence of power and politics on the content and contours of criminological knowledge. It should be also noted that in order to better understand the state of criminological knowledge in certain state, it is vital to consider its past and present political, economical and social transformations. Herein, the article describes the peculiarities of the criminological knowledge in post-Soviet countries. Attention is also given to the problems of the construction of contemporary criminological knowledge in the context of two main criminological perspectives – administrative and critical criminology.