vol. 53 núm. 1 (2011): enero - junio

This research of exploratory nature, with its non-experimental and transversal or trans-sectional design was aimed at determining if the forensic and psychological assessment instruments known as HCR-20 (Historical Clinical Risk) and SVR-20 (Sexual Violence Risk) are discriminative at the time of evaluating a group of recidivist rapists and another group of individuals charged with minor crimes. Indicators were present for both HCR-20 and SVR-20 in he two groups. Significant indicators were found in the groups' scores for the SVR-20, but not for the HCR-20. Finally, new risk factors that may be included in forensic instruments were observed.

Money or asset laundering is one of the most representative practices of the Colombian underground economy since it is the convergence point of proceeds from unlawful activities. In order to understand how it works and how ill-gotten money is inserted in formal economy, an approximation was made by analyzing criminal-derived proceeds confiscated by the authorities for the purpose of determining their impact on the behavior of the GDP in the Colombian departments, the country's political-administrative divisions. In this respect it was found that those departments located in bordering zones are more aff ected due to the opportunities they off er as an easy way to leave the country or move to other cities where more dynamic economies are enjoyed.

This article displays in a simple manner the base ideas for crime prevention through promotion and development of human rights from individual guarantees. The trend of human rights in the criminological environment is mostly police- based and of a penitentiary nature. However, an important bond has been ignored: the link referring to the public policy dealing with social prevention of crime. Thus, some aspects such as how the State criminalizes its citizens and lead them astray, and how should it provide the necessary elements required for each person to achieve an individual development with social consequences. If this individual development is frustrated, individuals begin to stray from the society's objectives and face the old dilemma: we all are supposed to have human rights, but not all of us do actually enjoy them.

In Colombia, holdups have been the second more frequent method used in motor vehicle thefts, particularly in major cities in the country. In Bogota, stick-ups generally aimed at stealing private cars, apart from taxis, have shown a reduction down to a stable middle range since 2006. This article is firstly intended to discuss and verify hold-up correlations with persistence factors identified by means of a bibliographical review and open interviews made to judicial police and insurance officers. Factors analyzed include: the relative price of used cars with respect to new vehicles; the absolute price of new cars; the new car share in sales, or relative sales; insurance companies' salvages; car averages, and fake robberies presented as hold-ups. Most relevant in statistical terms are relative sales and salvages. Relative sales reflect clients' favoritism for new cars, and robbers' preference for more commercial vehicles. The later are a good supply factor at the spare-part market used as a cover by stolen-parts merchandisers. An unexpected direct and significant relationship was found with robberies and, particularly, with holdups, and the recidivism and continuity of robbers in their modus operandi. Hence the suggestions exposed at the end with respect to incorporating the persistence factors in police-intervention strategy.

Results are shown of an exploratory study carried out in 2008 about the perception of insecurity among the residents of Mexico City and the metropolitan zone; the use of color as a technique leading to relate insecurity to the urban space was chosen in order to show that fears do not orbit around the vicinities of daily experiences but, on the contrary, they are nurtured by social imaginaries and urban myths. These lines are intended to explore the perception of insecurity from other latitudes, straying away from traditional victimization studies that, although they have served to study criminality in Mexico, are still very few.

This article opens a space for reflection on the youngest sector of the population, as referring to changes resulting from the technological advances of the growing information society. Both advantages and dangers of this technology are being widely recognized. In terms of risks and due to its fast multiplication fostered by the wide scope of the networks and actors' anonymity, its use may constitute disturbing cyber criminality acts where they victimize the most vulnerable preys. Therefore, an approach is made to concepts referring to access and use of the new technologies as a human and peoples' right to development, and examines issues such as the cyberspace seen as a damaging environment where individual and collective guarantees can be violated, as well as the new criminal methods intended to hurt the most vulnerable victims. Individual responsibilities in an adult world in the spheres of primary socialization must be accompanied by actions of the States off ering the likelihood of a safe use of these technologies based on the creation of both preventive policies and protective legal actions.

This document contains a statistical description of crimes registered in Colombia in 2010, together with a spatial analysis of crime pursuant to the titles of the Colombian Criminal Code, and delves into the most representative examples according to the rate of occurrence. In each title, both crimes and Police units with a greater number of reports at the national level are selected. The second part relates to a comparative description of crimes showing a social impact during years 2009 and 2010. The main variables in each type are analyzed. The article concludes with the presentation of the spatial analysis of crimes with a major impact in the country.

The Lombrosian criminological paradigm is still supporting today's mostly prize winning North American and European criminological investigations used to control and prevent the commission of punishable behaviors. Nevertheless, history has proved that this type of appreciations is far from bringing a solution to the criminality issue and, on the contrary, they open the door to intolerance, segregation and arbitrariness. Within this framework, it is worth pointing out that in this article a reflection developed on Lombroso's expositions is aimed at off ering the readers some elements for them to identify, characterize and adopt a stand with regard to the criminality phenomenon, based on their comprehension of criminal anthropology.

This document offers the statistical description of the National Police operational achievements in 2010, as adjusted to both government and institutional strategies aimed at an effective deployment of preventive, dissuasive, and control actions. Likewise, it contains the most relevant aspects of the main operational strategy of the National Police, known as the "Plan Nacional de Vigilancia por Cuadrantes" (literally: National Plan of Surveillance by Quadrants), and the scopes of the formal social control carried out by Police forces on criminals and delinquency; moreover, it includes a review of the theoretical and empirical postulates of both social control and the criminals' characteristics, as well as impunity and the tools designed to fight crime.