New Article: Wolfson, Animal Protection under Israeli Law

Wolfson, Yossi. “Animal Protection Under Israeli Law.” In Animal Law and Welfare. International Perspectives (ed. Deborah Cao and Steven White; Cham: Springer, 2016): 157-79.

 

 

URL: dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26818-7_8

 

Abstract

Israeli law, in some aspects, is rather progressive as to the protection of non-human animals. While “animal abuse” is interpreted as causing animals “unnecessary suffering”, the content given to this phrase defeats some characteristics attributed by Gary Francione to “legal welfarism”. In some instances the interests of nonhuman animals override substantive human interests, anchored in institutionalized forms of exploitation. An example is the ban on force-feeding of geese and ducks. Animal protection organizations were granted a broad mandate by the Israeli legislature and courts to represent the interests of animals in civil, administrative and criminal procedures. This solves the problem of standing which undermines animal protection in other jurisdictions. While Israeli law protects the interests of animals for the sake of the animals and gives them some weight, social power relations are still based on the cruel exploitation of nonhumans by humans. This chapter describes the principles of animal protection in Israeli law, discusses aspects that may inspire animal protection in other countries, and goes into some detail regarding the specific provisions of Israeli laws that are difficult to access without the knowledge of Hebrew.

 

 

New Book: Jonathan-Zamir et al, Policing in Israel

Jonathan-Zamir, Tal, David Weisburd, and Badi Hasisi, eds. Policing in Israel: Studying Crime Control, Community, and Counterterrorism. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016.

 

 

Policing in Israel presents important advances in Israeli police science during the past decade. It demonstrates how empirical research in countries outside the traditional research domains of the United States, Europe, and Australia can provide comparative legitimacy to key concepts and findings in policing. It also addresses innovative questions in the study of police, showing that there is much to learn about the police enterprise by looking to Israel.

The studies included in this book contribute to the policing literature in three significant ways. They replicate findings from English-speaking countries on key issues such as hot-spots policing, thereby supporting the validity of the findings and enabling a wider scope of generalization. Also, they utilize unique Israeli conditions to address questions that are difficult to test in other countries, such as in counterterrorism. Finally, they ask innovative questions in the study of policing that are yet to be addressed elsewhere.

Aside from providing better knowledge about policing in Israel, the broader advances in police science that the book illustrates play an important role. It contributes to major areas of contemporary interest in policing literature, including crime control, police–community relationships, and policing terrorism. Policing in Israel gives you not only a broad picture of Israeli policing and police research in the past decade, but also carries critical implications for policing scholars and practitioners around the world.
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Table of Contents

 
Policing in Israel: Studying Crime Control, Community, and Counterterrorism: Editors’ Introduction
Tal Jonathan-Zamir, David Weisburd, and Badi Hasisi

CRIME CONTROL

Law of Concentrations of Crime at Place: Case of Tel Aviv-Jaffa
David Weisburd and Shai Amram

Vehicle Impoundment Regulations as a Means of Reducing Traffic Violations and Road Accidents in Israel
Tova Rosenbloom and Ehud Eldror

Lean Management for Traffic Police Enforcement Planning
Nicole Adler, Jonathan Kornbluth, Mali Sher, and Shalom Hakkert

Organizational Structure, Police Activity, and Crime
Itai Ater, Yehonatan Givati, and Oren Rigbi

THE POLICE AND THE COMMUNITY

Police, Politics, and Culture in a Deeply Divided Society
Badi Hasisi

Crime Victims and Attitudes toward Police: Israeli Case
Gali Aviv

Procedural Justice, Minorities, and Religiosity
Roni Factor, Juan Castilo, and Arye Rattner

Police Understanding of Foundations of Their Legitimacy in the Eyes of the Public: Case of Commanding Officers in Israel National Police
Tal Jonathan-Zamir and Amikam Harpaz

POLICING TERRORISM

Terrorist Threats and Police Performance: A Study of Israeli Communities
David Weisburd, Badi Hasisi, Tal Jonathan-Zamir, and Gali Aviv

Police Legitimacy under the Spotlight: Media Coverage of Police Performance in the Face of High Terrorism Threat
Revital Sela-Shayovitz

Policing Terrorism and Police–Community Relations: Views of Arab Minority in Israel
Badi Hasisi and David Weisburd

How Has Israel National Police Perceived Its Role in Counterterrorism and Potential Outcomes? A Qualitative Analysis of Annual Police Reports
Tal Jonathan-Zamir and Gali Aviv

Lessons from Empirical Research on Policing in Israel: Policing Terrorism and Police–Community Relationships
Simon Perry and Tal Jonathan-Zamir

 

 

 

New Article: Peled-Laskov & Shoham, A Three-Dimensional Perspective on Wrongful Convictions in Israel

Peled-Laskov, Ronit, and Efrat Shoham. “A Three-Dimensional Perspective on Wrongful Convictions in Israel: Organizational-Forensic, Psychosocial and Practical.” International Journal of Criminology and Sociology 4 (2015): 154-65.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2015.04.16

 

Abstract
It is difficult to find an injustice committed against the citizen by the state that is greater than the conviction of an innocent person. At this stage, it may be tentatively stated that the phenomenon is not insignificant. This theoretical article describes the various aspects of the criminal justice system associated with the undesirable outcome of wrongful convictions. The paper reviews a series of organizational and forensic aspects that could bring about a bias in investigation of the legal truth. Furthermore, a number of psychosocial aspects relating to wrongful convictions, followed by practical aspects are described and discussed. It appears that on the practical level the phenomenon cries out for changes in the law enforcement system (e.g. implementation of the US Innocence Project or the biometric databank) and the need for empirical investigation. It appears that there is still a long way to go before a full understanding can be obtained of wrongful convictions and their prevention. One way or another, the authors are of the opinion that greater academic and public importance should be assigned to the question of wrongful convictions and perhaps turn the issue of truth and falsehood in criminal law into a theoretical and research field in its own right.

 

 

New Article: Boas et al, The Impact of the Israeli Transplantation Law on the Profile of Kidney Donors

Boas, H., E. Mor, R. Michowitz, B. Rozen-Zvi, and R. Rahamimov. “The Impact of the Israeli Transplantation Law on the Socio-Demographic Profile of Living Kidney Donors.” American Journal of Transplantation 15.4 (2015): 1076-80.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajt.13090

 

Abstract

The Israeli transplantation law of 2008 stipulated that organ trading is a criminal offense, and banned the reimbursement of such transplants by insurance companies, thus decreasing dramatically transplant tourism from Israel. We evaluated the law’s impact on the number and the socio-demographic features of 575 consecutive living donors, transplanted in the largest Israeli transplantation center, spanning 5 years prior to 5 years after the law’s implementation. Living kidney donations increased from 3.5 ± 1.5 donations per month in the pre-law period to 6.1 ± 2.4 per month post-law (p < 0.001). This was mainly due to a rise in intra-familial donations from 2.1 ± 1.1 per month to 4.6 ± 2.1 per month (p < 0.001). In unrelated donors we found a significant change in their socio-demographic characteristics: mean age increased from 35.4 ± 7.4 to 39.9 ± 10.2 (p = 0.001), an increase in the proportion of donors with college level or higher education (31.0% to 63.1%; p < 0.001) and donors with white collar occupations (33.3% to 48.3%, p = 0.023). In conclusion, the Israeli legislation that prohibited transplant tourism and organ trading in accordance with Istanbul Declaration, was associated with an increase in local transplantation activity, mainly from related living kidney donors, and a change in the profile of unrelated donors into an older, higher educated, white collar population.