As an introduction to this paper on violence it seemed appropriate to make some comments on the crisis of authority which exists today and which cannot easily be brushed aside whit the statement that it has always existed. In the evolution of mankind where civilisations have climbed to their apogee and declined into decadence, rising generations have not left unchallenged the authority of the ancestors. Great nations, among them, The United States of America, won their freedom by questioning established authority. American colonists were not adventurers seeking power; among them were to be found great intellectuel, revolutionary minted political and social reformers. The reasons which justify the questioning of authority, even by the use of violence are nobly stated in the second paragraph of the Declaration. The text of this Declaration, now a classic, bears repetition; it still possesses meanings and implications which in the tense prevailing situation, in the United States and in the world at large, invite men to think deeply.

The perception of and the policies against organized crime have drastically changed since the mid-1980s in Europe and the rest of the world. Whereas organized crime was long considered a problem that affected only a few countries, in the past three decades there has been a growing concern Worldwide about this form of crime, which has fed and justified policy reform.

Given this huge and sudden shift, the article considers the extent to which organized crime can be best defined in terms of one of the three following definitions : (1) a new label attached to pre-existing illegal activities and actors that have remained substantially unchanged; (2) a new phenomenon : that is, the growing use of the expression ‘organized crime’ effectively points to the rise of fundamentally new actors or new ways of conducting illegal activities; (3) an expedient to promote and legitimize encompassing policy and institutional reforms and enhance international police and judicial cooperation.

After reviewing organized crime manifestations and policies in Europe and elsewhere, the article concludes that there is evidence to support all three definitions; however, there is no doubt that the first and third ones (organized crime as a new label and policy expedient, respectively) fit more closely than the second one (organized crime as a new phenomenon).

After analysing the different discourses existing in criminology, the author discusses the relationships between criminology and penal policy, and between crime, politics, and economics. Arguing for having ideas better than knowing truths, and for transgressing the limits and borders of criminology, he looks at the hope of peoples who rather got a new economic order with its institutionalized indifference towards moral issues than a new moral and political order.

This work presents validation of the Jesness Inventory, particularly its revised version, to the Brazilian reality. It was developed by Carl Jesness, based on his clinical experience and research programs for juvenile offenders, to assess juvenile offenders, particularly to understand the functioning of their personality, offering clues to customize psychosocial intervention, and verification of results from this, in terms of changes in adolescents’ beliefs/values and attitudes. Regarding the psychometric properties, the revised version showed an adequate internal consistency and temporal stability. For the evidence of validity, the results of the concurrent criterion and simultaneous validity were in agreement with those found in other studies, emphasizing the specific capacities of this instrument to distinguish adolescent offenders from non-offenders and properly classify them, denoting its quality in helping the diagnostic process. Research to verify predictive and construct validity is being carried out.

Historically, women in Pakistan’s northwestern territories bordering Afghanistan have played a critical role in providing money and men to jihadist organizations such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” (ISIS). Lack of education, too little exposure and a male-dominated conservative milieu constitute some of the ingredients of support for these outfits. This was true for over three decades and the phenomenon remained restricted to the rural, backward northwestern regions. But since the early 1990s, outfits such as the Al-Hudda Foundation – an exclusively women-focused organization – began serving as the initial hooks for middle- and upper-class women whom the Foundation targets. It brainwashes women into using hijab, and also into believing that they need to forge an alliance against the West and work for an Islamic, Sharia-based state. This advocacy turns many affluent women into religious radicals who can potentially work as the first line of recruits for extremist outfits like Daesh/IS. However small their numbers, these women represent a big threat to the global liberal values of society.

A change is more often than not faced with resistance from thinking minds before it is welcomed. This paper emphasizes the urgent need to scrutinize the proposed changes to the age-old Indian Penal Code to be brought about by the enactment of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS). It critically evaluates every such new change to resolve all doubts and apprehensions, in delving particularly into the inspection of the BNS, in a theoretical study comparing with the Indian Penal Code. The paper discusses the “legislative intent and colonial continuities”, “anti-democratic tendencies” and “general critiques” addressing the debates over “patriarchal biases, problems laden within a false promise to marriage in the BNS, linguistic imperialist connotations, and the ambiguities over punishments”. This paper aims to evaluate the premise for an overhaul of the existing penal code and to identify and correspond substantial changes suggested in the new act in light of a promised wave of decolonization.

Forensic science is undergoing an unprecedented period of reform. Wrongful convictions and errors of impunity have been attributed largely to forensic evidence, and concerns over the scientific foundations of many forensic disciplines have been raised in key official reports. In these turbulent times, it becomes particularly interesting to understand how forensic evidence is understood by the general public. Is it idealized? Are its inherent limitations recognized? The present study seeks to contribute to this growing body of work by addressing two main questions: (1) How does the general public perceive forensic science?; (2) How correct are individuals in their evaluations of specific types of forensic evidence? A survey of the Israeli public reveals considerable trust in the ability of forensics to reliably identify the perpetrator of a crime, although less trust is expressed when questions lead respondents to consider specific stages in the forensic process. Furthermore, respondents were often incorrect in their evaluations of the reliability of specific types of forensic evidence. The implications of these findings for police legitimacy, the practice of the criminal justice system, and the future study of attitudes toward forensic evidence, are discussed.