Crime As Proxy For Disorder

CRIME WAVE: RAIN CITY

A CRIME WAVE setting

Anti-social Punishment — LessWrong

Why do some societies exhibit more antisocial punishment than others? Martin explores both some literature on the subject, and his own experience liv…

The crimes against dopamine

For they be many and grievous

When police pull back: Neighborhood‐level effects of de‐policing on violent and property crime, a research note

Abstract Many U.S. cities witnessed both de‐policing and increased crime in 2020, yet whether the former contributed to the latter remains unclear. Indeed, much of what is known about the effects of proactive policing on crime comes from studies that evaluated highly focused interventions atypical of day‐to‐day policing, used cities as the unit of analysis, or could not rule out endogeneity. This study addresses each of these issues, thereby advancing the evidence base concerning the effects of policing on crime. Leveraging two exogenous shocks presented by the onset of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and social unrest after the murder of George Floyd, we evaluated the effects of sudden and sustained reductions in high‐discretion policing on crime at the neighborhood level in Denver, Colorado. Multilevel models accounting for trends in prior police activity, neighborhood structure, seasonality, and population mobility revealed mixed results. On the one hand, large‐scale reductions in stops and drug‐related arrests were associated with significant increases in violent and property crimes, respectively. On the other hand, fewer disorder arrests did not affect crime. These results were not universal across neighborhoods. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of debates concerning the appropriate role of policing in the 21st century.

Predictive Policing and the Politics of Patterns

Abstract Patterns are the epistemological core of predictive policing. With the move towards digital prediction tools, the authority of the pattern is rearticulated and reinforced in police work. Based on empirical research about predictive policing software and practices, this article puts the authority of patterns into perspective. Introducing four ideal-typical styles of pattern identification, we illustrate that patterns are not based on a singular logic, but on varying rationalities that give form to and formalize different understandings about crime. Yet, patterns render such different modes of reasoning about crime, and the way in which they feed back into policing cultures, opaque. Ultimately, this invites a stronger reflection about the political nature of patterns.

Clues by Sam

A daily logic puzzle where you deduce who is a criminal!

What About the Rapists and Murderers?

Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, murder, torture, ablelism, trauma.

Wrecking (crime)

Wrecking was a crime specified in the criminal code of the Soviet Union in the Stalin era. It is often translated as "sabotage"; however, "wrecking", "diversionist acts", and "counter-revolutionary sabotage" were distinct sub-articles of Article 58, and the meaning of "wrecking" is closer to "undermining".

Why Elite White-Collar Criminals Are Rarely Punished

White-collar criminals benefit from institutionalized non-enforcement practices, regulatory policies, and legal representation not available to street criminals.

The Decline of Deviance

Where has all the weirdness gone?

Against the Couple-Form | LIES Journal

Libidinal flows cut through the social world. Amorous and sexual relations do not exist in some domain safely taped off from the rest of society. Rather they are constituent elements of nearly every aspect of social life. Desire flows and circulates amongst places of employment, intellectual debates, political organizing, artistic circles, playgrounds, and cemeteries. The elderly patient grabs at the breast of a nurse hunched over him. A governmental official strips his newly hired intern down to her leopard print thong during an important briefing in his office. The incarcerated man holds his hand up to the glass of the visiting booth, attempting to touch his wife after twenty years of their bodily separation. These flows of libidinal desire operate within and amongst broader social mechanisms, such that they help animate the dynamics of economic and political life. Often a locus of politics, desire permeates the so-called ‘public’ terrain.

Criminal Justice Fact Sheet

A compilation of facts and figures surrounding policing, the criminal justice system, incarceration, and more.

Prediction as extraction of discretion

I argue that prediction is not primarily a technological means for knowing future outcomes, but a social model for extracting and concentrating discretionary power. Prediction is a ‘relational grammar’ that governs this allocation of discretion: the everyday ability to define one's situation. This extractive dynamic extends a long historical pattern, in which new methods for producing knowledge entail a redistribution of decision-making power. I focus on two contemporary domains: (1) crime and policing are emblematic of how predictive systems are extractive by design, with pre-existing interests governing what is measured and what persistently goes unmeasured. (2) The prediction of productivity demonstrates the long tradition of extracting discretion as a means to extract labour power. Time after time, making human behaviour more predictable for the client of prediction (the manager, the police officer) often means making life and work more unpredictable for the target of prediction (the employee, the urban citizen).

Prediction as extraction of discretion

I argue that prediction is not primarily a technological means for knowing future outcomes, but a social model for extracting and concentrating discretionary power. Prediction is a ‘relational grammar’ that governs this allocation of discretion: the everyday ability to define one's situation. This extractive dynamic extends a long historical pattern, in which new methods for producing knowledge entail a redistribution of decision-making power. I focus on two contemporary domains: (1) crime and policing are emblematic of how predictive systems are extractive by design, with pre-existing interests governing what is measured and what persistently goes unmeasured. (2) The prediction of productivity demonstrates the long tradition of extracting discretion as a means to extract labour power. Time after time, making human behaviour more predictable for the client of prediction (the manager, the police officer) often means making life and work more unpredictable for the target of prediction (the employee, the urban citizen).