International Edition Volume 4 (2014)


Austria as a Target of East German Espionage

Technology theft in Austria – a phenomenon of the Cold War or more topical than ever?

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Walter Blasi

Spying out business secrets and committing technology theft certainly do not qualify as trivial offenses. Such activities have done enormous damage to Austrian companies, not to speak of other ramifications that manifested themselves over many years, such as dramatic revenue losses or, in extreme cases, even complete economic ruin, including massive employee layoffs (oftentimes in economically weak regions). During the Cold War and the division of the world into two power blocs, the parties were well aware of the opposing side’s attempts to gather military, economic, and technical intelligence and therefore took appropriate countermeasures. Based on abundant sources, the present article addresses the case of technology-related intelligence activities carried out by agents of the East German Ministry for State Security on Austrian soil. As the Eastern bloc collapsed economically, many people assumed that the world would now be a peaceful, or at least more peaceful, place, with political scientist Francis Fukuyama announcing the "end of history" altogether. However, the underemployed intelligence services in both East and West would soon re-immerse themselves in one of their traditional areas of operation, namely economic and industrial espionage, on an unexpected scale.

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Juvenile Shoplifting Delinquency

Findings from an Austrian study

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Helmut Hirtenlehner, Heinz Leitgoeb, Alois Birklbauer

Shoplifting is defined as "the theft of goods by customers from retail premises during opening hours" (Wittenberg 2009, 110) and, as such, should be clearly differentiated from theft committed by staff members, fraud committed by suppliers, and burglary occurring outside of opening hours. Despite the high frequency of shoplifting, currently available research on the topic is of relatively modest proportions (Bamfield 2012), with a limited number of targeted scientific studies. However, these studies have unequivocally demonstrated that shoplifting is a typical example of juvenile delinquency. The onset, peak, and decline of shoplifting occur at a younger age than with other offenses (Klemke 1992; Wittenberg 2009). Several research projects have indicated that the age group of 14 to 16 years is characterized by the highest prevalence (Farrington 1999; Klemke 1992; Tarling 1993; Wittenberg 2009). The high prevalence levels at a very young age suggest that criminological research on shoplifting should primarily focus on children and adolescents. The above-mentioned research deficit is especially evident in Austria, where no data are available on the frequency of self-reported shoplifting beyond the present contribution to the Second International Self-Report Delinquency Study (Stummvoll et al. 2010) and a self-report study carried out using a student sample in Upper Austria (Hirtenlehner 2011). Based on a representative study of 7th and 8th grade students from Upper Austria and Lower Austria, the present paper addresses the prevalence and background of shoplifting among adolescents. The discussion of our empirical results is preceded by a brief review of existing criminological research on shoplifting in general. We conclude with some considerations on the prevention of shoplifting. With reference to the work of Ostendorf (Ostendorf 1995), we propose a restitution model involving mandatory dismissal of criminal proceedings provided that juvenile offenders agree to participate in a diversion program and to make good the damage caused by providing compensation equivalent to twice the value of the goods stolen.

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Reform of the UN Targeted Sanctions Regime – Mission Accomplished?

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Antonio-Maria Martino

During the Cold War the United Nations applied only in very few cases economic and other sanctions against specific countries. From the early 1990s, after the end of the stalemate in the Security Council, the UN resorted more frequently to comprehensive economic sanctions such as trade embargoes against whole countries. However, the comprehensive sanctions applied by the UN have proven to be rather poorly effective and often had serious and adverse impacts on the most vulnerable groups in the targeted country. Hence, the Security Council started to rely on "targeted" (also called "smart") sanctions directed against individuals or entities. Targeted sanctions include financial and travel restrictions but also restrictions on arms and commodities. They aim to change the behavior of the targeted individuals or entities or to prevent actions contrary to international peace and security. In particular in connection with the global war against terror the United Nations adopted targeted sanctions against hundreds of individuals and entities. Growing criticism with regard to the effectiveness of UN targeted sanctions and their compliance with due process rights and human rights, coupled with several cases challenging the implementation of the sanctions regime (in particular with regard to the sanctions directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda) have done much to weaken the credibility of such "smart" sanctions. Therefore, the United Nations have undertaken several measures to enhance the transparency and accountability of the various targeted sanctions regimes.

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Humanist Leadership in Hierarchical Systems

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Joerg Spenger

This article addresses the most important psychological and educational aspects of humanist leadership, with particular emphasis on the public service sector, and discusses fundamental approaches to and principles of successful leadership from the perspectives of humanistic psychology and modern interaction analysis. The article mainly focuses on the question of how to implement a humanist view of people in daily leadership activities, rather than on leadership skills or strategies in general. I devote particular attention to the humanistic treatment of individuals in hierarchical situations, defining leadership as a bidirectional process that, while acknowledging the existence of different levels within hierarchical organizations, is committed to the idea of basic equality which attaches particular importance to the attributes of respect, empathy and authenticity. Finally, the article also offers a critical examination of the most commonly used leadership training and selection methods.

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On the Criminal Prosecution of "Honor Killings" in Austria

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Christoph Zehetgruber

This paper investigates the phenomenon of "honor killings" and other, similar, cases of homicide committed for reasons of honor. A special subcategory of homicide in terms of underlying motivation, honor killings have recently attracted increasing public attention due to some highprofile cases and their portrayal in the media (especially in Germany). Such honor killings have their origins in a particular view of gender roles and the particular way of life that characterizes some small communities, which are shaped by traditionalist and patriarchal values. The paper clarifies the ambiguous concept of honor killing and discusses how it differs from other types of homicide rooted in a similar tradition (such as blood feud). These clarifications are followed by an introduction to the fundamental aspects of the phenomenon, and a discussion of the prevalence of honor killings (which, due to migration flows, has reached global dimensions). Subsequently, I challenge the untenable claim that honor killings are religiously motivated. The second part of the paper focuses on the assessment of such cases of homicide in Austrian criminal law, with special regard to the question of whether honor killings and similar acts should always be subject to Section 75 of the Austrian Criminal Code (murder) or, alternatively, whether Section 76 of the Criminal Code (manslaughter) might be applicable to homicides committed with the aim of restoring individual or family honor. In this context, I rely on rulings issued by the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice to illustrate the handling of homicides committed for reasons of honor in Austrian case law.

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Forensic Linguistics – Challenges and Opportunities

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Eilika Fobbe

Blackmail letters, threatening letters, defamatory letters, ransom notes, accusatory letters and claims of responsibility constitute criminal offenses and/or are drafted in the context of criminal offenses. The question of authorship is therefore often of crucial importance, since appropriate answers allow for inferences regarding the identity of the offender. Analyzing such texts is the task of forensic linguistics or, to be more precise, authorship attribution or author identification. Authorship identification is based upon the recognition that the authors of incriminating texts usually think about what they want to communicate to the victim (or the recipient) but barely about how they communicate. In other words, authors tend to be unaware of the fact that the language that they use is, in and of itself, a clue worth investigating. Forensic text analysis involves both the analysis of single incriminating texts and comparative analyses. This article addresses possible areas of application of this relatively recent ancillary discipline of criminology, and presents a number of specific examples in order to illustrate the potential contributions of linguistics to criminal investigations, elucidating both the methods and procedures used and the insights that they might yield.

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Municipal Police in Austria: History, Status Quo, and Future

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Gregor Wenda

Aside from the nationwide corps of the Federal Police, municipal police services (Gemeindesicherheitswachen) constitute a relevant pillar of law enforcement in Austria. Even though the number of forces has shrunk over the past decades, there are still 37 agencies in six out of nine provinces. Most of Austria’s major cities, including the Capital of Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg or Innsbruck, are secured by the Federal Police. According to the Federal Constitution, municipal police departments must not be established in a city with a Federal Police authority. Municipal police agencies are mostly found in medium sized cities or smaller towns and villages. Each municipal police service has between one and 45 employees and varies in terms of organization, equipment, competencies, and availability.

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Hunt for Red October

The new face of cyber espionage

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Maschenka Braganca

Operation Red October – the newly discovered cyber espionage campaign that has targeted a range of diplomatic facilities, defense companies, and energy firms, especially in Eastern Europe but also around the globe – may mark an evolution of the cyber black market. In October of the past year computer security researchers discovered a type of malware that appears to have been part of a widespread cyber espionage campaign that outplays major operations such as the notorious Flame Virus that was used in a very targeted manner to spy on Middle Eastern countries. The intrusions in the Red October Campaign remained unnoticed for more than five years and might still be looming in the dark at some organizations. The discovery was made public only in October 2012 after the month-long work of a Russian security company that found the malware used to infiltrate computer systems in the recent campaign. They also managed to take out large parts of the malware infrastructure, and subsequently did in-depth analysis in order to work against the perpetrators and draw some conclusions about motivation and origins. This article looks at the details of Operation Red October, analyzes its nature, impact and ways, in which the trade form of espionage is changing with the evolution of a new threat environment.

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