Editorial
Editorial
Dear readers, this is the fourth and last 2011 issue of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security, and the second one in English. Supplementing six articles, a book review and a workshop report, you shall find Article, Subject, and Author Index 2011 of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security. Let us draw your attention to them by briefly reviewing the contents.
The introductory contribution of Matthew Hall deals with the issue of environmental victims, one of the fundamental challenges of the 21st century victimology. People's distress stemming from the neglected environmental impact of the economic activities of those who aim at maximizing their profits at the expense of the environment is pushed to the forefront among social threats and thereto related quality of life. We strongly support the author's inquiry into the role criminologists and, above all, victimologists are to assume in the future, as our understanding of the consequences of various kinds of environmental degradation slowly develops. The answer is to be sought in stronger engagement of important stakeholders, notably the above mentioned, as well as of the academic sphere and organisations financing research.
Environmental degradation can adversely affect cultural heritage, including works of art and artefacts. Nevertheless, even more burning than their condition are the growing crime rates associated with them, which is why Bojan Dobovšek and Boštjan Slak highlight the importance of sharing information and experience, on the one hand, and of cooperation between academics and practitioners in investigating and combating hereto related crimes too often unrecognised not only by the general public but also by the experts, on the other. Elsewhere, in an entirely different field, a comparable level of ignorance has been detected by Igor Bernik and Blaž Markelj analyzing the use of mobile equipment allowing for information system remote access. They unveil a considerable degree of disregard of information security threats seriously jeopardizing IT systems in organisations, as a great majority of institutions and private users mainly focus on the performance of and the access to their systems while forgetting altogether about their information security aspects.
The second part of this issue features the contributions presenting some researches related to three specific types of institutions: prisons, psychiatric facilities, and police. Marina Minster presents a comparative analysis of regulatory control of legal status of women sentenced to time in prison in Russia and the U.S. She points out some particular aspects of the implementation of the rights of these women, thus providing some grounds for drafting the recommendations for further elaboration of the legislature on the execution of prison sentences. Further, Tinkara Pavšič Mrevlje and Peter Umek measure how safe and secure psychiatric hospital staff feel. In particular, they studied safety feelings of those
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staff members who, at some point in their career, have been victimized by their patients' violent behaviour. Our psychologists find that only a small number of medical professionals in Slovenian psychiatric institutions perceive their work as dangerous but do, however, state that they need to be better trained in handling violent patients. The findings apply to medical personnel and guards involved in occasional violent situations. The last article is authored by Branko Lobnikar, Špela Vesel and Emanuel Banutai analyzing some psychodynamic processes in police officers taking part in peacekeeping missions, their partners and offspring. The results show that the great majority of police officers and their partners assess that their participation in a peacekeeping mission favourably affected emotional bonds between family members, mutual trust, and partner relationships. Nevertheless, the respondents report child problems and occasional episodes of depression.
The last section of this issue presents a book review of Mangaia Natarajana's International Crime and Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2011), written by Gorazd Meško; a GERN Workshop Report Green Criminology and Protection of the Environment by Katja Eman; and the above mentioned Article, subject and author index 2011 of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security by Jerneja Šifrer and Nataša Knap, this issue's technical editors.
And last but not least, the editors would like to thank you for reading the Journal of Criminal Justice and Security in 2011 and wish you all the best and success in 2012. Further readings are available on the new homepage of the journal, accessible at http://www.fvv.uni-mb.si/rV/.
Bojan Dobovšek, PhD & Andrej Sotlar, PhD
Editors
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