Social and Organized Crime Prevention
Social Prevention of Violence in Couples
The future is very promising with regard to violence against women. It is necessary for the administration of justice to have a more effective response to complaints and to have greater healthcare resources to meet the victims who need shelter and financial support after separation. Justice is slow and cumbersome to provide relief, and many of these actions are taken long after the abuse has been installed in the relationship.
There are two effective ways of combating violence in couples:
- To teach girls, since adolescence, not to tolerate attitudes and actions that strongly correlate to abuse in relationships.
- Seek to develop in young men less violent attitudes towards women.
In any country, reducing the number of violent youth lowers the crime rate, since most violent behavior is interrelated to masculine aggression. Due to the connection between violence against women and violence and failure in society, any action involving the fight against crime and violence, in general, is an aid to prevent more people from becoming angry and prone to violence as a way to control women.
We must educate young people about the phenomenon of partner violence. Studies of emotional and physical abuse of women reveal that many girls and women with normal and sound upbringings enter into a process of personal and social degradation that is attached to a man who, without knowing how, has succeeded in imposing his will and turning their lives into a nightmare.
Women have to know which wrong attitudes they hold that lead them to deny the evidence of a dangerous relationship, as well as indicators in the behavior of their partners that warn of this danger. Nor should we despise the treatment of female offenders, since there are programs that improve recidivism rates compared with untreated groups of offenders. Scott and Wolfe identified, through interviews with nine reformed offenders, the following:
- Taking more responsibility for past abusive behavior
- Increasing empathy for the pain caused to their partner
- Reduction in dependence on their partner
- Improved communication skills
Summary:
- The home is one of the most violent places in our society.
- The battered woman remains in an abusive situation for a long time due to a series of psychological and social circumstances that make her feel trapped.
- Intergenerational violence theory shows that to prevent spousal abuse, we cannot forget that many abusers and victims were battered as children and learned these types of relationships.
- Crime in the community and at home are related: a violent neighborhood often has more violent homes than one with a lower crime rate. When people with a violent lifestyle are grouped more in a given area, violence will increase both inside and outside the home.
Organized Crime
We can define organized crime as a specific form of crime, characterized by elaborate organization with a hierarchical structure, which has strong economic and financial resources and is addressed as a complex business organization.
A more precise definition of a structured group would be three or more persons associated for a stable, prolonged, or indefinite period, acting in concert to commit one or more serious crimes for financial or material gain, for which they have a distribution of functions, establishing a hierarchical structure among its members.
In Spain, a criminal enterprise association is a form of conspiracy punishable as set out in Art. 515 of the Criminal Code, establishing its characterization through doctrine and jurisprudence, based on three criteria:
- It requires that we face a number of persons. Under the doctrine, three people, and according to the case, only two.
- There must be interaction between them, through an organizational structure and a distribution of functions.
- We need some continuity, making the agreement durable and not merely occasional.
Features:
Expertise in the techniques of committing the offense and work allocation.
They may be violent or use cunning wit.
Bureaucratization in the criminal structure through the establishment of hierarchies, status, and specific roles.
- Upper Level: Composed of top leaders who direct and coordinate activities, using coercion and discipline.
- Intermediate Level: Task forces with leadership in carrying out the particular offense.
- Lower Level: Performers, accomplices, and external collaborators.
Staggering progressive organizational levels.
Acquisition of status within the group, through the criminal career and hard work of trust.
Existence of a criminal code, with a set of norms and values that mark the group’s behavior guidelines.
Loyalty to the group, the waterfront, eliminating traitors, slang, and idioms.
Transnationality of its scope.
Perpetration simultaneously or in succession on the territories of several states.
Linkage with economic crime.
Multiplication of abuse through the use of new technologies: Internet, electronic banking.
Diversity or heterogeneity of criminological manifestations.
Use of all types of violence and intimidation: kickbacks and bribes, mafia activities, terrorist activities and illegal drug trafficking, weapons, vehicles, people.
According to the Council of Europe, an organized group must have several characteristics, some optional and some mandatory.
The Compulsory:
- Collaboration of three or more people
- For a prolonged or indefinite period
- Suspected or convicted of the commission of serious crimes
- Objective of pursuing profit and/or power
The Optional:
- Assigning each participant a specific role
- Using some form of discipline or internal control
- Use of violence or other means of intimidation
- Exercise of influence in politics, law enforcement, administration of justice, or the economy through corruption or any other means
- Using structures similar to trade or business
- Money laundering
- Transnational action