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We test the proposition that criminal sentiments, which we define as a negative and potent view of a juvenile delinquent (JD), moderate the effect of a delinquency adjudication on self-sentiments. We expect criminal sentiments to reduce self-evaluation and increase self-potency among juvenile delinquents but have no effect on self-sentiments among non-delinquents. We also examine the construct validity of our measure of criminal sentiments by assessing its relationship to beliefs that most people devalue, discriminate against, and fear JDs.

We test these hypotheses with self-administered survey data from two samples of college students and one sample of youths in an aftercare program for delinquent youths. We use endogenous treatment-regression models to identify and reduce the effects of endogeneity between delinquency status and self-sentiments.

Our construct validity assessment shows, as expected, that criminal sentiments are positively related to beliefs that most people devalue, discriminate against, and fear JDs. Our focal analyses support our self-evaluation predictions but not our self-potency predictions.

Our findings suggest that the negative effect of a delinquency label on JDs’ self-esteem depends on the youths’ view of the delinquency label.

This study is the first to test a modified labeling theory proposition on juvenile delinquents.

There are a significant number of life-sentenced prisoners in Scotland who are over tariff (i.e. past their punishment part expiry date) and who appear to have difficulty in making the transition towards community reintegration. The factors involved in their repeated returns to closed conditions are not adequately understood. The purpose of this paper is to explore this issue using a qualitative approach in order to understand the experience of life-sentenced prisoners in this position, and the psychological barriers that compromise their progression to less secure conditions and the community.

In-depth interviews were conducted with eight life-sentenced prisoners who met the criteria for the research. All were significantly over tariff and all had multiple failed attempts at progression to less secure conditions. Interviews were recorded and transcripts were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis.

The analysis produced three identifiable supraordinate themes, each with subordinate themes. The supraordinate themes included: shaming self-identify, perception of the community as daunting, and disempowerment. The ability to generalise the findings outwith the participants of this study are acknowledged.

This has provided further understanding as to the complexity of the issue, and the ways in which it manifests into behaviour. Initial (albeit tentative) recommendations for intervention and service provision can therefore be identified.

The results are discussed against the implications for service provision in Scottish prisons, and identify the areas for further research that will help to inform the forensic practices in this context.

This paper aims to provide a critical review of the psychopathy literature, with a particular focus on recent research examining the relationship between psychopathy and various forms of criminal behaviour.

The authors provide an overview of the studies conducted to date. To identify relevant published studies for this review, literature searches were completed using Web of Science, Scopus, PsychINFO, and PubMed.

Substantial empirical research exists to suggest that psychopathy is a robust predictor of criminal behaviour and recidivism. Furthermore, considerable support for the assertion that the violence perpetrated by psychopathic offenders is more instrumental than the violence committed by other offenders was found. In addition, some research suggests that the greater use of instrumental violence among psychopathic offenders may be due to the interpersonal/affective traits of psychopathy, and not the impulsive/antisocial traits.

The current paper is the first to provide an in‐depth review of the literature examining the association between psychopathy and criminal offending with a particular focus on violent and homicidal behaviour.

Financial criminals commit crimes with such disconcerting ease that economic and social stability is threatened. Armed with intangible knowledge and backed by legal, financial and accounting expertise, criminals use their intellectual weapons to carry out their activities with impunity by operating in extra-territorial spaces such as tax havens. The purpose of this paper is based on interviews with key figures in the French judiciary and also French tax officials.

A survey in the form of semi-directive interviews was conducted from March to July 2012 with auditors, judicial magistrates and a representative of a large trade union of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry. Questioning this panel of persons from different but associated horizons enabled the collection of practical, technical and professional information on how they perceive acts of financial crime in the practice of their mission.

It was possible to observe that financial crime is motive-driven and develops in specific spaces and contexts, aided by informational weapons.

By promoting both financial optimisation and tax minimisation, non-cooperative territories provide the perfect breeding ground for innovative minds to distort social norms which uphold equal tax treatment and a common effort. Financial information is the recurring theme throughout, allowing ever more cunning offenders to distort the value of words and the meaning of economic results.

The ease with which financial crimes are committed remains striking. Understanding the reasons why financial criminals appear to enjoy relative impunity requires questioning the magistrates and actors involved in the combat against financial crime. The interviews conducted with these key players show that financial crime develops and flourishes on the basis of a threefold specificity: a specific motive linked to absolute enrichment without economic foundation, diffuse and imprecise spaces where economic crimes proliferate with total impunity and an intangible weapon in the form of financial information.

The private appropriation of financial information leads to the misappropriation of public goods and its capture by private operators, thereby depriving the community of a source of knowledge and expertise.

This paper is based on interviews with key figures in the French judiciary and also French tax officials. A survey in the form of semi-directive interviews was conducted from March to July 2012 with auditors, judicial magistrates and a representative of a large trade union of the French Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry.

Each decade, the global financial services industry spanning Western and Eastern economies, appears to enter another period of transformation, not only in terms of new financial products, but also mechanisms and methods of transaction. The technological issue that is currently sapping the energy of ministers throughout the developed and developing world, as well as computer experts, is the millennium bug syndrome. It is encouraging that policy makers and electronic experts are uniting in their efforts to avert an ‘electronic winter of discontent’ in the year 2000. The expediency of the spread of financial services throughout the global electronic arena, facilitated by the removal of real and visual borders, is set to reduce the current technological problems to miniscule proportions. Yet at present the response to the technological issue of even greater importance, Cybercrime, has resulted in discord, disagreement and apathy.

Organised crime in the USA is a central threat to economic growth and social stability. In this respect the USA is no different from other free‐market economies. Meanwhile, sophisticated narcotics trafficking cartels bring violence to streets and sickness to youths. These problems are very real and difficult to solve. But Americans are also showered with factual and fictitious stories of hardened criminals ‘getting off’ easily because a judge was ‘soft’ or the law had a technical loophole that did not pertain to the case's merits. This atmosphere kindles public fear of organised crime and fuels criticism of the justice system to an unwarranted degree. In reacting to this fear, the US Congress has increasingly pushed the US Constitution to its limits to thwart mechanisms that purportedly allow these organisations to function. Unfortunately, such legislation is often ill‐conceived, the product of reflexive reactions that can promote injustices when the resulting laws are applied to situations never envisioned by their drafters. The broadly written and improperly exercised Money Laundering Control Act 1986 (MLCA) is one such statute.

Individuals with fewer resources often receive more punitive treatment in the justice system than those who are more privileged. This situation is frequently justified with reference to societal preferences. To test the accuracy of this justification, the purpose of this study is to report on the extent to which the different treatments of tax evaders and welfare fraudsters in the Australian and New Zealand justice systems reflect the views of these societies.

Attitudes are captured in a survey with 3,000 respondents in Australia and New Zealand.

When asked directly, the majority of respondents (58 per cent) perceive no difference in people committing welfare fraud or tax evasion. However, responses to presented scenarios on tax evasion and welfare fraud show different tolerances for each crime. When provided with scenarios including crimes and criminals, results show that survey respondents see tax evasion as a less serious crime. However, when asked about their own propensity to commit the same offence, respondents indicate that they are more likely to engage in welfare fraud than tax evasion. The authors also report on factors that have an impact on individual’s attitudes towards tax evasion and welfare fraud.

The survey results do not clearly show more punitive attitudes towards tax evasion or welfare fraud. Thus, the authors do not find support for the suggestion that the harsher treatment of welfare fraud can be justified with reference to society’s views.

The study reports on original survey research.