Editorial

By Thomas Gilly

In this issue of our Review we have collected four papers.

Two of the four papers we have collected are demonstrate a substantial concern about police ethics.

In this regard the three papers may be viewed against the background of the series of articles we have started with the papers by William Bloss, by Jean-Claude Salomon and by Andris Kairiss.

The two other papers – however relevant to ethics, do not focus on police ethics. Rather their major aim is to improve the theoretical and pragmatic debate about the relationship between terrorism and organized crime.

“Improvement of System of Money Laundering Counteraction in Russia” by Vasily Davydov develops the principal core-proposals and ideas that have been already highlighted by the author in previous issues of this journal.

The paper’s major aim is to explore and evaluate international key organization’s anti money laundering activities upon the development of those counter-acting strategies that are always existing in Russia or are to be created. Law making, law enforcement and the institutional settings are among the issues that constitute the exploration’s focal center. The activities of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) organization and their relevance for Russia come rapidly to the fore of the debate.

Actually Russia may be considered as a full member of the international community of countries that have provided appropriate legal bases and institutional settings to ML counteraction. And yet, the Russian system, despite its adaptation and compliance to the international norms and cooperation settings, demonstrates deficiencies and is far from functioning in a perfect way.

The paper’s scientific interest and its relevance to comparative anti-ML strategies’ research consists of the in-depth study of the inherently Russian theory-practice discrepancy.

At first glance “Anti- Semitism, Terrorism and Organized Crime” may be viewed against a theoretical background rather than of as practically relevant. The circumstance that the first part of my essay that is published in this issue engages in a debate about the relevance of the ethics of “Esther” for terrorism may come as a support. After all, one may argue, debates that are aimed at the exploration of he Bible’s actuality and relevance for major problems of our times are of little practical interest.

Such an opinion – however prominent it may be, in fact, is rooted in a culture of laity and secularization that is likely to consider the books of the Bible as irrational and scientifically irrelevant myths or tales.

Contrary to this erroneous opinion, I try to demonstrate that the ethics of “Esther” is an highly relevant issue both with regards to the scientific study of terrorism, anti-Semitism and organized crime and with regards Esther’s ethics practical relevance.

By providing for a uniquely, original insight into the process that replaces the quality of the victim with that of the criminal .and by criticizing the process’ ethical roots and background, Esther demonstrates its relevance to both victimology’s core-issues and problems and terrorism’s and anti-Semitism’s ideology and nature.

What has Esther to do with terrorism, and what with anti- Semitic crime? What has the scheme that replaces the quality of the victim by that of the criminal to do with ethics’ contingency? And why is the book of Esther to be considered as the biblical anticipation of Zionism? What has history’s revenge against myths’ inherently a-historical nature to do with the book of Esther and what Hegel with the ethics of Esther?

“The Ethics of Esther and the Victim-Offender Scheme”, by Thomas Albert Gilly aims to answer these questions

“Achieving Ethical Policing-A Perspective from the UK“ by Denise Martin is the first of the two papers that demonstrate a major concern about police and policing ethics. The article examines the increasing importance of ethical policing, focusing primarily on the UK perspective.

The exploration of the conflicts that exist in implementing ethical policing practice requires an in depth study of the professionalisation of policing and the performance culture that continues to pervade UK police services

Even if the paper’s focus is the UK, the study must be viewed against the background of the code of ethics that has been published in 2001 by the European Council and the European Convention of Human Rights that applies to public agencies.,
 
 

“U.S. Police/African American Community Relations and Racial Profiling: An Anthropological Study.",by Bakhitah Abdul-Ra’uf shows that and to which degree the police sub-culture tends to ostracize and exclude those who do not share its values and norms.

 
The paper examines the US police sub- culture and explores its impact upon as well as the police’s socially defined role towards African American communities.
 
The paper’s major interest for police research consists of the circumstance that the author provides for an insider viewpoint regarding the police’s socially defined role toward minority: 
Through lack of effectiveness of officers assigned to minority communities, the police’s attitude towards many African American communities is far to be perfect.
The paper’s criticism reaches its peak with the manifest impact of such a sub-culture upon racial profiling.