Abstract
What accounts for the steady decline in misdemeanour arrest rates in the United States following their peak in the mid-1990s? This article links the fluctuation in low-level law enforcement ...to changes in the budget and staffing resources cities devoted to policing. This materialist explanation contrasts with accounts that emphasize policy changes like the adoption of community policing. Dynamic panel regression analyses of 940 municipalities indicate low-level arrest rates declined most in places that reduced their police expenditure and personnel, net of crime and other controls. The adoption of community policing was unrelated to misdemeanour arrests. Findings suggest lawmakers should consider how increasing police budgets or police force sizes will likely be accompanied by increases in misdemeanour arrests and their attendant harms.
In the Republic of Serbia there are three kinds of unlawful acts: crimes, misdemeanours and economic offences. The Criminal Code prescribes that a crime is an act which is foreseen as such by law, ...which is illegal and for which guilt has been established. The legislator has, with the Misdemeanour Law, prescribed that a misdemeanour is an illegal act, prescribed by law or another act by the competent body and for which a misdemeanour sanction is prescribed. The Law on Economic Offences prescribes that an economic offence constitutes a harmful breaking of the rules of economic or financial legislation which has caused or might have caused serious consequences and which has, by an act of the competent body been prescribed as an economic offence. According to, above all, the social danger and prescribed sanctions, crimes are the most serious unlawful acts, in comparison to misdemeanours and economic offences. The author's goal in this work is to highlight that the responsibility for a crime is not necessarily the most serious form of penal liability. The responsibility for a misdemeanour, in certain cases, can be more serious for the offender, than the responsibility for a crime. In the work articles of the Criminal Code and the Misdemeanour Law are pointed out, based on which the author draws the conclusion that the responsibility for a committed crime can in certain cases be 'milder' for the offender, in comparison to the responsibility for a misdemeanour.
U radu se definiraju prekršaji protiv javnog reda i mira, navode se statistički podaci o navedenim prekršajima na području Republike Hrvatske i posebno na području za koje je nadležna Policijska ...uprava splitsko-dalmatinska, te se citira odgovarajuća sudska praksa. Obzirom da je policija stvarno nadležna za procesuiranje prekršaja protiv javnog reda i mira, posebno su analizirane odluke o javnom redu miru koje su donijele jedinice lokalne samouprave u Županiji splitsko-dalmatinskoj, kojim odlukama se, uz one propisane Zakonom o prekršajima protiv javnog reda i mira, propisuju prekršaji protiv javnog reda i mira odnosno stvara normativni okvir za utvrđivanje i sankcioniranje navedenih prekršaja. Zaključak autora je da je materijalno-pravni okvir za procesuiranje prekršaja protiv javnog reda i mira dostatan, a iz postojećih podzakonskih akata (odluka) je potrebno izostaviti: odredbe sadržane u zakonima, odredbe koje su zastarjele i ne odgovaraju duhu vremena i svrsi propisa te odredbe kojima se krši komunalni red, dok u lokalnim propisima o javnom redu i miru treba propisati (samo) specifične protupravne radnje kojima se na određenom (lokalnom) području remeti javni red i mir.
The article defines misdemeanours against public order, provides statistical data on these misdemeanours in the Republic of Croatia, particularly within the jurisdiction of the Police Administration Split-Dalmatia. It also refers to relevant case law. Since the Police is responsible for processing these misdemeanours, the decisions on public order made by local government units in the Split-Dalmatia County are analysed in detail. These decisions, in addition to those prescribed by the Law on Misdemeanours against Public Order, establish a normative framework for determining and sanctioning these offenses. The authors conclude that the legal framework for prosecuting misdemeanours against public order is sufficient, but it is necessary to remove provisions contained in laws, outdated provisions, and those that violate municipal regulations from sublegal acts. The local regulations on public order should regulate only specific unlawful actions that disrupt public order in particular (local) areas.
The text analyses normative solutions concerning the right to defence in Polish proceedings in cases of offences. It discusses the formation of selected elements of the right to defence, from the ...pre-war solutions to modern times. The author highlights the autonomy of the solutions in force in the 2001 Code of Proceedings in Misdemeanour Cases, and their similarities to the right to defence in criminal cases, constituting the most comprehensive model of this right.
In this paper, the authors deal with specific aspects of misdemeanour sanctions, with special emphasis on misdemeanour sanctions prescribed by the Law on Environmental Protection and certain related ...decisions of lower legal power. Although misdemeanours are considered the least dangerous offenses, the authors strive to show that sanctions for certain misdemeanours should not be easily ignored, as sometimes they could be even more severe than criminal sanctions. One of the topics discussed in this paper is the forced collection of misdemeanour fines as well as the entry of convicts into the misdemeanour records. Since not only the law can prescribe misdemeanours, rather they could be prescribed by ordinance or even by some decision of local governing bodies, there is a huge number of existing misdemeanours in the area of environmental protection, which is the argument for special attention to the topic of this article. The authors would try to highlight certain inconsistencies in specific local governing bodies' decisions, as well as their misalignment with the Misdemeanour Law.
Based on life-story narratives of trans women, this article aims to shed light on the role of the law in their exclusion from public spaces in urban Turkey over the last four decades. In the light of ...Giorgio Agamben’s work on the sovereign exception, I argue trans women in Turkey routinely find themselves in the position of homo sacer: the bare life that has been rendered politically disqualified and consigned to death. Unlike in Agamben’s account, in which subjects are turned into homo sacers in a singular gesture of the sovereign, my analysis directs attention to the myriad ways states of exception can be created. The experiences of trans women in urban Turkey demonstrate that exceptional legal regimes can be generated by suspending – or by simply not enforcing – the law, as well as, conversely, by establishing an overwhelming presence of the law in daily life. Rather than opposing legality to sovereignty, I argue closer attention needs to be paid to the interfaces of law with negative forms of power and to increasingly sophisticated ways of articulating biopolitical concerns to legal practices revolving around sovereignty.
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