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The exceptional use of criminal law to achieve migration policy objectives has been a reality in Spain since the first Aliens Law was passed in 1985. Since then, academia has warned about the discriminatory and exclusionary effects of this confluence. This paper critically analyses a series of exceptional Spanish criminal and migration policy measures aimed at criminalising certain population movements. The aim is to show the mechanisms used by criminal justice in Spain to manage human mobility from the perspective of border criminology. Among other things, I will analyse (1) 'hot returns' and (2) racial profiling in police stops, both as police reactions. I will also study (3) the expulsion of convicted foreigners and (4) criminal records as a migration control strategy and, finally, the deprivation of liberty for migration control purposes, such as (5) detention centres for migrants and (6) prison release strategies. The aim is to show that Spanish penal policy, taken in a broad sense as all eminently criminal measures and those where criminal law and immigration law converge, has as its main objective to socially render harmless (innocuousation) foreign suspects, convicts and ex-convicts in Spain with different and exceptional measures that push them to the margins of society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The construction of large renewable energy projects is characterized by the great uncertainties associated with their administrative complexity and their constructive characteristics. For proper management, it is necessary to undertake a thorough project risk assessment prior to construction. The work presented in this paper is based on a hierarchical risk structure identified by a group of experts, from which a Probabilistic Fuzzy Sets with Analysis Hierarchy Process (PFSAHP) was applied. This probabilistic analysis approach used expert opinion based on the Monte Carlo Method that allows for extracting more information from the original data. In addition, the coherence of the experts’ opinions is assessed using a novel parameter known as Confidence Level, which allows for adjusting the opinions of experts and weighting their judgments regarding impact and probability according to their coherence. This model has the advantage of offering a risk analysis in the early stages of the management of renewable energy projects in which there is no detailed information. This model is also more accurate than the classic fuzzy methodology when working with complete distribution functions, whilst it avoids the loss of information that results from the traditional mathematical operations with Fuzzy numbers. To test the model, it was applied to a 250 MW photovoltaic solar plant construction project located in southeast of Spain (Region of Murcia). As a result of the application of the proposed method, risk rankings are obtained with respect to the cost, the time, the scope and from a general point of view of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper focuses on the issue of intimate partner violence and, specifically, on the distribution of femicides over time and the existence of copycat effects. This is the subject of an ongoing debate often triggered by the social alarm following multiple intimate partner homicides (IPHs) occurring in a short span of time. The aim of this research is to study the evolution of IPHs and provide a far-reaching answer by rigorously analyzing and searching for patterns in data on femicides. Methods: The study analyzes an official dataset, provided by the system VioGén of the Secretaría de Estado de Seguridad (Spanish State Secretariat for Security), including all the femicides occurred in Spain in 2007-2017. A statistical methodology to identify temporal interdependencies in count time series is proposed and applied to the dataset. The same methodology can be applied to other contexts. Results: There has been a decreasing trend in the number of femicides per year. No interdependencies among the temporal distribution of femicides are observed. Therefore, according to data, the existence of copycat effect in femicides cannot be claimed. Conclusions: Around 2011 there was a clear change in the average number of femicides which has not picked up. Results allow for an informed answer to the debate on copycat effect in Spanish femicides. The planning of femicides prevention activities should not be a reaction to a perceived increase in their occurrence. As a copycat effect is not detected in the studied time period, there is no evidence supporting the need to censor media reports on femicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies that have analyzed fear of victimization using samples composed of men and women have most frequently controlled for the effect of gender. This study not only controls for the effect of gender, but also examines how the predictors of fear of victimization may vary across gender. To do so, separate regression models for men and women were estimated and the corresponding z tests were calculated for the purpose of analyzing whether the differences between genders were significant. The results showed that women scored higher on the general fear of crime victimization scale, as well as for fear of becoming victims of each of the specific crimes under study. Religiosity had an equally significant effect on men and women's fear of victimization. Also, younger participants were more likely to fear being victims in the cases of both men and women, although this effect was even more pronounced among women. In addition, respondents' fear of victimization differed across gender based on sexual orientation. Finally, the results showed a few variables (political orientation and sexual victimization) that were only significant in the case of women, but not of men. The findings of this study confirm that fear of victimization and its predictors vary between women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a new section of Psicothema dedicated to the evidence-based approach to crime prevention. Along with an original sexual-offender-treatment programme implemented in Spain, this section presents four systematic reviews of important subjects in the criminological arena, such as sexual offender treatment, the well-known «Reasoning and Rehabilitation» programme, the effectiveness of custodial versus non-custodial sanctions in reoffending and the fight against terrorism. We also highlight some of the focal points that scientists, practitioners and governments should take into account in order to support this evidence-based viewpoint of crime prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most robust findings in criminology is the fall in crime rates throughout the Western world. However, there is still much to be learnt about this and its causes. This case study analyses the Spanish juvenile crime trends and tests the explanatory capacity of the sociodemographic hypotheses. We use aggregate data provided by the police and self-report data. Our analysis could be of interest in a worldwide debate on the crime drop. Demographic changes and the economic situation have little relevance in explaining the changes. However, public policies seem to have had a greater impact on crime trends. Furthermore, gender equality can be considered a possible explanatory factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high prevalence of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) in countries with high levels of gender equality has been defined as the “Nordic paradox”. In this study we compared physical and sexual IPVAW prevalence data in two countries exemplifying the Nordic paradox: Sweden (N = 1483) and Spain (N = 1447). Data was drawn from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Survey on violence against women. To ascertain whether differences between these two countries reflect true differences in IPVAW prevalence, and to rule out the possibility of measurement bias, we conducted a set of analyses to ensure measurement equivalence, a precondition for appropriate and valid cross-cultural comparisons. Results showed that in both countries items were measuring two separate constructs, physical and sexual IPVAW, and that these factors had high internal consistency and adequate validity. Measurement equivalence analyses (i.e., differential item functioning, and multigroup confirmatory factor analysis) supported the comparability of data across countries. Latent means comparisons between the Spanish and the Swedish samples showed that scores on both the physical and sexual IPVAW factors were significantly higher in Sweden than in Spain. The effect sizes of these differences were large: 89.1% of the Swedish sample had higher values in the physical IPVAW factor than the Spanish average, and this percentage was 99.4% for the sexual IPVAW factor as compared to the Spanish average. In terms of probability of superiority, there was an 80.7% and 96.1% probability that a Swedish woman would score higher than a Spanish woman in the physical and the sexual IPVAW factors, respectively. Our results showed that the higher prevalence of physical and sexual IPVAW in Sweden than in Spain reflects actual differences and are not the result of measurement bias, supporting the idea of the Nordic paradox. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article describes organised criminality in Spain from a criminal law and criminological perspective. Special emphasis is placed on the problem of organised Russian criminality and its increasing media impact is highlighted. A description of Russian organised crime is provided, which considers some of the organisational characteristics and the criminal activity conducted. In addition, analysis of police data evaluates its impact on the overall context of organised crime groups which operate in this country. It is emphasized that despite the notorious presence of Russian criminal organisations, these do not constitute the main actors in the criminal landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western societies are worried by juvenile group violence, and are interested in deeper knowledge of the phenomenon to be able to prevent it. Often either the analysis of these groups has a cultural perspective or the focus is on learning about the differences among groups. Either way, we claim that analysing similarities among violent groups can be a good way to understand the phenomenon. The aim of this article is to describe violent youth groups in Spain, based on a review of the literature and empirical data, and then to explain violent behaviour from the perspective of the similarities between the groups. In this way, we reflect on the aspects of the violent youth groups that have not been sufficiently studied, relying on an evolutionary and integrating approach based on contemporary criminology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]