Criminology
****Know
4 reasons rules are broken****
- rules are in a
hierarchy; some rules are more important than others that apply to more
than one situation; there are more than one set rules that apply to more
than one situation, so by abiding by one you are essentially breaking the
other one (snitching vs. cheating)
- obeying the rules
simply doesn’t pay off (the restaurant that held more than 15 patrons
because the bathroom was too small)
- rules may be broken
because people do not simply agree with them
- sometimes we break
the rules because we do not know what they are (being a kid and learning
rules as we grow up) (ignorance/mistaken)
- we may break the
rules because we know that they will not be enforced/selectively enforced
(smuggling goods across the border)
Lecture
1
-the symptoms of sociopathology…look them
up---we can find them in the book
-what is the criminal court test for mental
illness…find it and apply how it applies to the court case in the book
-MLA referencing allowed
Lecture
2: “Do unto others as they would do unto you, but do it to them before they do
it to you”
-Jo Mattheson: “Tree-killer”; absolutely
rich, had amazing life and property; Vancouver; wanted clearer view of English
Bay so she destroyed the trees that obstructed her view of the bay; fined to
the maximum, and publicly recognized as an outcast forever more.
-the public is very important to the
justice system, it is “our” law
-Elizabeth; under grad student at western
from Hamilton (on the mountain); something darted in front of her and she hit
he breaks, the guy behind her didn’t stop in time and rear ended her. She
complained of neck injuries and etc. said she won’t be able to work for rest of
summer; insurance company investigated the issue and found that she was not
always wearing the neck brace to help her feel better
-Debbie is form
What
is a crime?
-at law a crime is an intentional act that
violates the prescriptions or proscriptions (what you are told you can and
cannot do) of the criminal law for which there is no legal excuse and where the
state has the power to make and enforce such laws.
-“no crime without law”, you can not commit
a crime if there is no law speaking to a certain thing
-a man in
-In Manitoba there was a woman who was
addicted to “sniffing” (junkie); she got pregnant and social services found out
she was pregnant and demanded to have the child taken at birth so was placed
under observation and treatment to avoid damaging the fetus; the case was
thrown because it is restricting the freedoms of the woman; the unborn fetus
has no rights because it is not a person by law therefore in restricting the
mother, you are only removing and restricting her rights instead of giving life
rights to the fetus
-the law surrounding weapons can be merely
expanded but the law for fetal rights, is an unhealed scab, to fight laws and
make laws surrounding the fetus would be to repick that scab and leave a whole
in the law where extreme argumentation and debate will be taking place
surrounding everything fetus related including abortion.
-
-mens rea means the thing of the
mind (intention); essential element of what constitutes a crime; the law
functions with the concept of the “reasonable person”
-dominic mataan* hot day in montreal; he is
dropping his 23 month old daughter at the daycare; went to work, and then went
to his car at they end of the day and found that he left his daughter in the
car for the day; she died; he was charged with manslaughter
-motive is important in a case, evidence,
and witnesses are also important to a case because a crown attorney’s duty is
to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. But evidence
will usually come full circle around to prove intent
-no intention without capacity; 3 ways
to determine capacity (intent to commit a crime) (1.) acting under duress,
example: fit of rage; (2.) fact of age, up until 1984, Canada set the law of
age at 7 was changed to 12 but this was because when it was at 7 created chaos
and child abuse. Based on science and precedents (domestic and international)
12 was the legal age of criminal intention. The law is ever changing
surrounding the age of criminal intent/ age of accountability; (3.) fact of
mental health/well being/insanity, is a question of understanding how to
instruct council (fit to stand trial) and answer to their crimes. The whole
issue of mental capacity is one that arises in high profile cases, the cases
can be extreme in nature and not so extreme. Canadian distinction in law from
American relating to capacity, rests with the defence. The defence needs to
prove that the defendant is insane vs. in
-MacNaghten rule- the test used to
determine whether or not a person is criminally responsible because of the
state of their mind. A rule set down in
-the macnaghten rule means you are not
legally responsible if do not understand what it is you’re doing or the result
your actions
-other countries adopted this rule, some
abandoned it while
-if unfit to stand trial, you are sent to
an institution where you are observed for an undetermined amount of time vs.
going to trial and getting a sentence put on you
-Youth Criminal Justice Act provides
intensive therapy that may not actually be needed
-actus rea (action)
Lecture
3: Crime Severity Index
Who
is counting what?
-month a year in TO where incident rates
are at a spike because of the CNE in August (mostly perverts rubbing up against
women)
-crime rates are able to be calculated
-victims of crime vs. number of criminal
events that occur
-only count the most severe crime in an incident
-murder stats are the only real accurate
stats we have because it is such a high priority vs. small petty crimes that
fly under the radar
-their funding makes a difference in how
much police can look into different crimes
-crime net, the police can only focus their
resources in so many differences plus some areas are required to
-the process of gathering stats is like a
funnel; at the top, you have all of the crimes that slip through the cracks (legal acts that never become crimes);
things reported but not enough credibility to pursue an investigation; events
that could be a crime but don’t have enough evidence to be one; convicted
crimes where the charges are laid
-just because something is against the law
doesn’t mean it is a crime, there must be an investigation to make it a crime
Who
is counting?
-police compile information about criminal
events (only what they know)
-now they have a standardized guideline for
how they compile the stats
-police are fudging stats because they are
afraid to show how bad their area is; aggressive police on crime could be the
reason the rates are so high because they are doing their job; high rates can
mean proactive police actions vs. low rates but lazy cops
-police use crime stats to get more help or
better equipment
Who
is counting who?
-2 years ago
-gender based analysis: women are usually
involved in crime that is less, and in more white collar crime
-insurance companies use police stats
-a lot of the time we find out about crimes
from people who have committed them
-vicitmization surveys are not reliable
because people are sometimes reporting on a crime that happened to you outside
of the time period in question (telescopic theory)
-police stats are only a fraction of what
is going on
-people neglect to report more embarrassing
crimes
video: tow worlds colliding
www.nfb.ca
--> find it there
Lecture
4
-ed bulber, answered a call from TO’s
“loyal international collectibles”; bought a precious gem for 1400 dollars,
told not to open the box or it would devalue the stone; the stones were
actually not worth that much but he was told they were
-scams; we put most of our law resources
into the street crime, or violent crimes; we usually forget about white collar
crimes and tend not to pay as much attention to them even though white collar
crimes are marking up millions of dollars more than street crime
-garth dripinski; charged for “cooking the
books” marking up their profit so that they would get more investors; took
place in the U.S. and Canada; took ten years to finish the case; he was
sentenced to 8 years; Canadian case
-earl jones; financial advisor in
-bernay madoff; stole 50 billion dollars;
got sentenced to 150 years in prison; American case; PEOPLE KNOW this case over
the other two because it is American and because of the amount of money taken
-1 million is a mandatory sentence in
-so much of the white collar crimes is
invisible to the public; victims don’t always know they are victims; these
kinds of crimes are based on trust, they cannot be committed unless you are in
a power of trust and you break it
-extradition laws make it difficult to try
criminals; hard to follow the money because of the “world class banking system”
in
-white collar criminals are not seen as
criminals to us and themselves
-no public outcry about these kinds of
crimes
-the lawyer in a “regular” crime the lawyer
is the mouthpiece/spokesperson for the criminal vs. in white collar crimes the
lawyer is more so advisors than mouthpiece
-price-fixing: the companies decided to
make the price fixed for a mark up on profit (similar to monopolizing);
everyone pays an extra dollar on a product and doesn’t carer but in reality the
act of marking it up is criminal because they are ripping people off millions
of dollars over millions of people
-“Mahoney” Philip semore hoffman; movie
work looking into
-these white collar crimes are considered
“occupational crimes”; when someone is in a position of trust and abusing that
trust when having power over someone’s assets
-there are white collar crimes that are
considered “organizational crimes”; people underneath the creator of the scam
and are not doing the scam as much for themselves as they are for the
organization itself; a crime that has been perpetrated in the interest of the
organization
-the wesray mines; accepted loans and
grants from the gov’t; the mine activity was based in TO but taking place in
Nova Scotia; corners were cut in procedures which resulted in the death of 26
miners; evidence of corners being cut was recovered; inquiry was set up by NS
gov’t and the executives of the mines were charged in 1997; but in 1998 the
charges were dropped because the cases were not going to be successful; this
had a huge negative impact on the community
-a new law in
-the gender dimension: women are not
involved in white collar crimes the way men are; referred to as “pink collar
crimes”; secretarial or advising positioned women who are committing similar
crimes as “white collar crimes”
-the competition act is the legislation in
place to regulate business transactions; designed to prevent unfair competition
within the market place; to prevent fraudulent activities; there are no
punishments attached to it; created in consultation with the people are
regulating; business interest plays a big role in the revising of the act; the
rules are based on compliance, therefore we take a compliance approach to the
breaking of these rules
-this section of crime is too dry to create
huge awareness in the public; not like sex and drugs
Film
Clip-Wesley Weber, counterfeiter
-wesley weber was a counterfeiter; was
moving lots of money; ran his enterprise like a real business; computer based
crimes, counterfeiting everything from insurance slips to one hundred dollar
bill; only served five years
-because he didn’t look like a criminal he
was not deemed a criminal by everyday passerbys
-counterfeiting gets bigger every year
Film
clip-the interventionists
-a psychiatric nurse and police officer
ride along together and answer emotionally disturbed 911 calls
-try to keep people in the community in the
hospital, but if they don’t need it, get them the car they need
-began when a homeless schizophrenic man
was shot to death by police responding to a 911 call
Lecture
5
-woman severely injured by stray bullet of
the hells angels during a murder attempt; 2million dollar compensation offered
to victim
-clifford olsen, killed 11 known kids in BC
-clifford olsen sparked a movement in
“paying for information, focus on the victims (not just the victims of the
crime directly, but the secondary victims as well); victim impact statements
-victim impact statements
-victims make the trial outcome
unpredictable
-victim service varies depending in the
area, which means our law system lacks standardization (some things available
to some people where other things are not);
people with resources tend to use the
resources for victims more than those without; elderly do not normally
use victims services; males do not normally us victim services
-victims can be at parole hearings; victims
are notified about and when the accused is released
-restitution programs; used to bring victim
and accused together; used in minor matters, in hope that through a mediator
they will compromise and find a sentence that is reasonable, just and satisfying
to the victim and accused
Lecture
6
-Tony dorthy, Irishman, beat his friend up
because he was allergic to potato chips (make him react violently); sentenced
to home arrest and supervision of parents
- biological factors
-delporte 1650, thought there was
connections between the physical external features and internal personality
features; so he believed you could tell is someone was a thief by their
physical features; came to this conclusion from doing autopsies on criminals;
-ceasare lombroso; founder of the study of
modern criminology; 1835-1909; Italian military physician; started a series of
studies that would discovered delinquent pattern and behaviour; believed that
people could be criminals based on their physical features; theory of
atavism(someone born out of their time period, so a primitive man born in a
modern world); also takes into account social environment influence on people
-people who are made biologically different
are social garbage
-hewton; a grad from Harvard; did a study
on biological differences between criminals and regular men; gov’t influence,
he recommended that criminals all be sterilized to prevent procreation and then
once sentence is done, to have them exiled to reservations
-nature vs. nurture factors into criminal
behaviour; hormonal factors affect criminal behaviour (higher testosterone;
PMS)
-biological factors on crime, can overwhelm
the social; things we have no power over (biologically) determine what kind of
people we are
-biological factors are the determination to
whether or not the crime took place
Lecture
7
video:
the glimmer of hope
-guy Sullivan, raped and murdered a girl
(Carin Struefert)
-guy Sullivan 24, small priors, guilty
-jim swanson 24, loner, weapon fanatic,
guilty
-victim, offender mediation; they can meet
and its good to show offenders what they did and it allowed closure for victims
-biological explanations for criminal
behaviour doesn’t take into account for the socio-economic level explanations
for criminal behaviour
-ecological explanations
-socio economic status and area of living
does affect criminal behaviour
-social organization is a concept of rules;
social order
-rules are broken because
àrules exist in a hierarchy (some are
more important than other rules), abiding by one rules may sometimes means
breaking another
àrules are competing; social
expectations vs. abiding by the rules; snitching is bad but good
àbreak the rules because we known
they won’t be enforced
àrules are not knowing; we don’t know
what the rules are
àrules are broken because they are
selectively enforced
àrules are broken because people
don’t fundamentally agree with the rules
-social disorganization theory came up from
the larger theory explaining social deviance
àW.I. Thomas (sociologist), and
Zaniecki (polish staustician); letters that hit thomas from an apartment
window; a cultural gap for immigrants who moved to urban ghetto from rural
village; clerk and customer is a secondary relationship; when you have an
environment with so man secondary relationships, there is less social control
because you don’t care how people see you
àWilliam f. Augburn; culture changes
at different passes so that our material culture changes more rapidly than our
non-material culture; example of this is using social networking to issue death
threats to people
-ecological determination of criminal
behaviour
àa shift in business cores to slums
because of the lack of employment
àpeople who have lost more, are more
prone to criminal activity because they need top refill that gap created by
their loss
Video:
Easing Empringham
-the Malvern crew
-malvern is a solid middle class; 11
percent Malvern poverty rate vs.
-press, cops and politicians are what is
giving Malvern a bad name
-it is known as a terrible area
Lecture
8
-general strain theory (anomie)
Lecture
9
-guest speaker
-UNMIS 2010: officers going overseas for
training other officers
-a lot of intense training, psychological
and physical
-culture shock
-“cartoon” is a police state
-a lot of politics
-
Lecture
10
Exam
-december 4th between
-man who studies murder, glimmer of hope,
two worlds colliding, cheating death, and through a blue lens (films for exam)
-short questions; specific answers, 7 of 10
questions; 3 questions are material based on class, 2 are questions from
textbook; 2 questions are from book and class; 1 questions is based on film and
class material; 1 questions is based on a film an material covered in book; 1
question is based on material covered, in class, in film and in book
-know all the textbook material; know
chapters 1-4, 7, 8
-know chapter 6, does eating a lot of sugar
cause violent crimes “tiwnkie defence”, potato chip case (Irish guy); numerous
studies show that nutrients make a big difference in student’s work and the
failure in school will inevitably lead to a life of crime; the twinkie defence
is appropriate if there is evidence to show that this was a problem in the
individual
-the film, glimmer of hope where it was showing
the victim impact encounters; how did the parents and man react; restoring of
justice seeks understanding by both the victims and criminal; talk about the
mother, the father and the daughter’s reaction to the meetings between them and
the criminals
-the willingness and ability to commit
crimes depends on learned behaviour; the learned behaviour is learned through
interaction with others
-you learn not only how to commit the crime
but you learn why to do it
-the laws broken and followed are always
changing based on our peers; think of the panopticon, self-policing if they are
just doing something everyone else is doing than why would they worry about
being watched by the rest of society, they know so many other people are doing
it
-video:
the man who studies murder
-elliot laten; studies murders in various
cultures; finds that murder can be shown to be a cultural phenomenon
-the relationship between what we think we
know about murder and the attitudes towards self-defence that are embedded in
people’s mind
-social order is upheld through superficial
consequence, gossip or ridicule
-
-video:
jihadi undercover guy
-theory of differential associationalism
-how criminal activity is not biologically
determined
-guy goes undercover into a terrorist group
and infiltrates for information and tries to stop damage
-video talks about how terrorists are fighting
for their moral belief and basically breaks down with the idea of how
individuals connect with others and it is form those others that they learn
values, beliefs, and attitudes toward either law abiding behaviour or criminal
behaviour
Criminal Law
Text Ch.1: Criminology-the “criminality of
behaviour” not the “behaviour of criminals”
- What people know about crime and criminal justice generally
comes from media coverage
- Criminal acts can be the work of strangers who prey on people
they have never met, or how they can involve friends and family members in
intimate violence
- The public fear of crime is an important barometer of social
health and how people feel about their communities
- People do not rely on experience when assessing the likelihood
of being a victim of crime, but rather draw from such sources as the media
- Third hand knowledge of crime has long term effects, creating
fear of crime, a negative view of the police and the courts, and an
attitude favouring harsher punishments for offenders
- Fear of crime makes the public want to invest more money in the
resources to reduce crime versus reducing the factors of crime such as
poverty
- Criminology is the study of crime patterns and trends and the
development of valid and reliable information regarding the causes of
crime; the scientific approach to the study of criminal behaviour
- Criminologists use scientific methods to study the nature,
extent, cause, and control of criminal behaviour
- Criminologists explain the etiology (origin), extent, and
nature of crime in society, whereas criminal justice scholars describe and
analyze the work of the police, courts, and correctional facilities, and
how to better design effective methods of crime control
- Deviance is more widely defined as behaviour that departs from
social norms and is not always subject to formal sanction
- Two issues that involve deviance are of particular interest to
criminologists 1. how do deviant behaviours become crimes? 2. when should
acts be considered crimes be legalized? The first issue involves the
historical development of law; criminologists the process by which crimes
are created from deviance
- Criminologists consider whether outlawed behaviours have
evolved into social norms and, if so, whether those behaviours should
either be legalized or have their penalties reduced (decriminalization)
- The shifting definition of deviant behaviour is closely
associated with our concepts of crime
- Positivism developed and was inspired by new discoveries in
biology, chemistry and astronomy
- Auguste Comte applied scientific methods to the study of
society; societies pass through stages that can be grouped on the basis of
how people understand the world; people in primitive societies consider
inanimate objects as having life; later social stages, people embrace a
rational scientific view of the world
- Positivism has tow main elements 1. the belief that human
behaviour is a function of external forces that are beyond individual
control (an individual’s brain structure and his or her biological make up
or mental ability 2. its use of of the scientific method to solve problems
- J.K. Lavater studied the facial features of criminals to
determine whether the shape of ears, noses, and eyes and the distance between them were
associated with antisocial nehaviour
- Franz joseph gall and johann kaspar spurzheim studied the shape
of the skull and bumps on the head to determine whether these physical
attributes were related to criminal behaviour; external cranial
characteristics dictate which areas of the brain control physical activity
- Ceasare Lombroso studied cadavers of executed criminals and
found they were physically different from people of conventional values
and behaviours
- First lombroso believed that offenders are born criminals who
engage in repeated assault- or theft- related activities because they have
inherited criminal traits that impel them into a life of crime; this
eventually led to criminal anthropology
- Second Lombroso said that criminals suffer from atavistic
anomaliesàphysical
traits that make them seem of a much more primitive time; they are
criminals who are characterized by their enormous jaws, strong canine
teeth, carnivorous and savage looking
- For lombroso the indirect heredity of criminogenic traits is
the primary cause of crime which is when an individual came from a family
where sicknesses are frequent
- Lombroso believes the second primary cause for crime is direct
heredity of these traits in a person, this is when they are related to a
family of criminals
- L.A.J. Quetelet began
what was known as the cartographic school of criminology; one of
the first sociologists to use objective mathematical techniques to
investigate the influence of social factors, such as season, climate, sex,
and age on the propensity to commit crime
- Social forces were significantly correlated with crime rates
- Emile Durkheim’s vision of social positivism, crime is normal
because it has existed in every age, in both poverty and prosperity. Crime
is an integral part of all societies because it is virtually impossible to
imagine a society in which criminal behaviour is totally absent; crime is
linked to the human differences within society and as long as people see
things differently crime is inevitable; crime is a symbolic reminder of
moral boundaries
- To Durkheim crime implies that a way is open for social change
and that the social structure is not rigid or inflexible; if crime did not
exist, it would mean that everyone would behave the same way and would
agree totally on what is right and wrong
- A rising crime rate can signal the need for social change and
promote a variety of programs designed to relieve the human suffering that
may have caused crime in the first place
- Durkheim described the consequences of the shift from small
rural society which he called mechanical, to the more modern organic
society characterized by a large urban population, division of labour, and
personal isolation
- From the shift between rural to urban came anomie which helps
describe the chaos and disarray accompanying the loss of traditional
values in modern society
- Chicago school pioneered
research on the social ecology of the city and inspired a generation of
scholars to conclude that social forces operating in urban areas create
criminal interactions, thereby making some neighbourhoods almost antural
areas for crime; poverty was such a high level that social institutions
such as the family and school break down; this break down resulted in
social disorganization which reduces the ability of social institutions to
control behaviour and the outcome is a high crime rate
- children who are lower
socioeconomic status are of greater risk for criminal behaviour and are
often more exposed to pro-crime forces; one theory is that people learn
criminal activity from experienced law violators and it continues if parents
do not stop it
- criminology believes that crime is biological and mental traits
interacting with the environment; sociologists see crime has a caused by
primarily social and political conflict
- the poor are forced to commit crimes to cope with living in an
unbalanced society; the rich and powerful are able to make the poor’s
crimes seen as what is crime
- the law must be flexible in responding to new versions of
traditional acts
- crimes and punishments should reflect the values, beliefs, and
opinions of society
- consensus is used to described how laws are made because it
implies general agreement exists among a majority of people on what
behaviours should be outlawed by the criminal law and viewed as crimes
- interactionist view is 1. people act according to their own
interpretations of reality, according to the meaning things have for them
2. they learn the meaning of a thing from the way others react to it,
either positively or negatively 3. they revaluate and interpret their own
behaviour according to the meaning and symbols they have learned from
others
- criminals are individuals whom society chooses to label as
outcasts or deviants because they have violated social rules
- crimes are outlawed behaviours because society defines them
that way and not because they are inherently evil
- crimes are rules imposed by the conservative majority on the
non-conforming members of societyàthis resulted in the labelling theory
Text Ch.3: Facts and Figures (or how wrong
we can be)
Balancing the Scales of Justice
The social reality of crime
Text Ch.2: Giving voice to the victims of
crime
- the common law is meant to apply to people without regard to
their social status
- common law is judge made law, case law derived from previously
decided cases
- for someone to be found guilty of killing another person, they
must first be proven to have planned the crime and secondly intentionally
killed the person
- the common law code is ever changing
- three important classifications of law are 1. crimes and torts
2. indictable and summary offences 3. mala in se and mala prohibitum
- law can be divided into categories: criminal and civil law
- civil laws concern property law and contract law a.k.a. tort
law
- tort law is when a civilian is at a loss of some sort and
demands compensation
- difference between civil and criminal law is that the criminal
law is used to protect the people under it and prevent further happenings;
civil law is merely used to act a source of compensation for private
matters of civilians
- civil and criminal also differ because in criminal court a
reasonable doubt can get the person proven as not guilty versus, in civil
law, there is a lower standard of proof
- indictable and summary offences differ in the sense that one is
more severe than the other; indictable offences also have no limitation
period on prosecution
- mala in se and mala prohibitum differ because mala in se are
crimes that affect the behaviour towards others, removing their rights
(rape, assault, etc.) versus Mala Prohibitum which is the breaking of
social norms, and behaviours that conflict with the functioning of society
- functions of criminal law are 1. providing social control 2.
discouraging revenge 3. expressing public opinion and morality 4.
deterring criminal behaviour and 5. maintaining the social order
- Social Control can be done in many ways; unwritten rules of
conduct, customs, and conventions are referred to as folkways; universally
followed behaviour called norms and morals or more
- Mens Rea is the key element to a guilty crime; intent can be
the knowledge of the crime occurring by the criminal
- Criminal defences include ignorance or mistake, mental
disorder, intoxication, duress, entrapment, self-defence, and necessity
- Ignorance or mistake can be an excuse if it negates the element
of a crime
- Intoxication cannot be used
if the person was intentionally drunk; if a person was mistakenly drunk
they can be let off of being charged of the full crime or if they are
intoxicated due to duress
- Duress is the “do or die” situation, think of the movie “30
minutes or less”; when someone is coerced into committing a crime
- Necessity is applied as a defence when there are situations in
which a person must break the law to avoid a greater evil caused by
natural physical forces; a lesser
than two evils crime
- Self-defence involves a claim that the defendant’s actions were
a justified response to the provocative behaviour of the victim to protect
the defendant’s person or property
- Entrapment allows the defendant to argue that law enforcement
officers encouraged the commission of a crime which would have not been
committed if the law enforcement was not present or so coercing
- Mental disorders is defined as disease of the mind
- Fitness to stand trial: one must be able to understand the
proceedings against them and to instruct a lawyer
- The M’Naghten Rule is to maintain that an individual has a
mental disorder if he or she is unable to tell the difference between
right and wrong; the rule is widely used to for legal mental disorders
Text Ch.3:
Text Ch.4: Justice or compromise
Criminal Aetiology
Text Ch.5: Choice Theory: Because they want
to
Text Ch.6: trait Thoery: It`s in their
blood
Text Ch.7: Social Structure Theories
- Strain Theorists believe that crime is caused by lower class
frustration and unrest
- Anomie Therapy
- General Strain Theory: Developed by Robert Agnew; focuses on the
individual (micro-level) effects of strain; Agnew says individuals who
feel stress and strain are more likely to commit crime because it blocks
opportunity for advancement or creates new identities and begins to make
legitimate goals impossible; densely populated areas make it impossible
for privacy so people may feel it necessary to act tough in order to save
face which can lead to committing crimes; some communities create
subcultures who blame others for their misfortunes therefore saying it was
the fault of others; Residents in deprived areas are less likely and able
to find non criminal coping for their personal problems; residents in
disorganized areas are less able to get the social support from others needed
to rise out of criminal life; presence of criminal groups will influence
one to join or commit criminal acts as well; deprived areas have weakened
agencies of formal and informal social control
- Basically Robert Agnew says the sources of strain will lead to
negative states which will lead to antisocial behaviour
- Strains are: strain caused by failure to achieve positively
valued goals (never being able to become rich and famous); strain caused
by disjunction of expectations and achievements (everyone is doing better
then the individual so they think they will never accomplish it); strain
as the removal of positively valued stimuli from the individual (nothing
to loss mind frame); strain as the presentation of negative stimuli
(presence of child abuse, crime victimization, physical punishment, etc.)
- The strains as described by Agnew may be independent strains
but may sometimes overlap one another having a strong negative impact on
an individual’s life
- The negative emotions that lead to anti-social behaviour are:
anger, frustration, disappointment, depression and fear
- Robert Agnew’s theory says that the strains such as 1.failure
to achieve goals 2.disjunction of achievements and expectations 3. removal
of positive stimuli 4.presentation of negative stimuliàwill lead to negative emotions such as anger, frustration,
disappointment, depression and fear-àwhich ultimately will result in drug abuse, delinquency,
violence and dropping out
- GST says, strain has a variety of sources and causes crime in
the absence of coping mechanisms
Text Ch.8: Social Process Theories
Text Ch.9: Social Conflict Theory
Penology (the treatment of the criminal
in Canadian Society)
The Devil`s Cinema: Decision makers- the
police (lectures)
Text Ch.10: violent crime (reading)
Decision Makers- The courts (lectures)
Text Ch.11: Property Crimes (reading)
Detention- lectures and reading
Text Ch.12: Crimes of Power
In the community
-Probation and
Parole (lectures)
-Text
Ch.13: Public Order crimes
-Text
Ch.14: Crimes in the 21st Century
The System in Perspective
Continuity and change (lectures)
Key
terms
Chapter
1
Criminal
justice system: the various sequential stages
of criminal justice through which the offender passes: police, courts, and
corrections
Intimate
violence: crime that occurs in a context of
familiarity, such as wife abuse, or child abuse
Criminology:
the scientific study of the nature, extent,
control and cause of criminal behaviour
Criminologist:
One who studies crime and its consequence
Deviant
Behaviour: Behaviour that departs from social
norms but isn’t always a crime
Decriminalization:
Reducing the penalty fro a criminal act but not
actually making it legal
Utilitarianism:
a view that punishment should be balanced and
fair because criminal behaviour must be seen as purposeful and reasonable
Classical
criminology: the theoretical perspective
suggesting that people have free will to choose criminal or conventional
behaviours; that people choose to commit crime for greed or personal need; and
crime can be controlled only by the fear
of criminal sanctions
Positivism:
the branch of social science that uses the
scientific method of the natural sciences and suggests that human behaviour is
a product of social, biological, psychological, or economic forces
Criminal
anthropology: early efforts to discover a
biological basis of crime through measurement of physical and mental processes;
associated with ceasare lombroso and the biological positivists
Atavistic
anomalies (or traits): according to lombroso,
the physical characteristics of born criminals that indicate they are
throwbacks to animals or primitive people
Anomie:
A condition produced by normlesssness. Because
of rapidly shifting moral values, the individual has few guides to what is
socially acceptable. According to Merton, anomie is a condition that occurs
when personal goals cannot be achieved by available means
Bourgeoisie:
in Marxist theory, the owners of the means of
production; the capitalist ruling class
Proletariat:
in Marxist theory, the working class, who
provide the labour, while the bourgeoisie controls the means of production
Criminological
White
Collar Crime: illegal acts that capitalize on a
person’s status in the marketplace, such as embezzlement, market manipulation,
restraint of trade and false advertising
Moral
Entrepreneurs: Internet groups or powerful
individuals who attempt to control social life and the legal order in an effort
to promote their own personal set of moral values
Cross-sectional
research: surveys that use data from all age,
race, gender, and income segments of the population
Longitudinal
research: Research that tracks the development
of a group of subjects over time
Cohort:
a sample of subjects whose behaviour is
followed over a period
Chapter
2 key terms
Code
of hammurabi: the first written criminal code,
developed in babylonia about 2000 BCE
Lex
talionis: punishment based on physical relation
(eye for an eye)
Mosaic
code: by tradition, the covenant between God
and the tribes of
Wergild:
under medieval law, the money paid by the
offender to compensate the victim and the state for the criminal offence
Oath-helpers:
During the Middle Ages, groups of 12 to 25
people who would support the accused innocence
Stare
decisis: the principle that the courts are
bound to follow the law established in previously decided cases (precedent)
unless the law was overruled by a higher power
Common
law: early English law that was developed by
judges and incorporated Anglo-Saxon tribal custom, feudal rules and practices,
and the everyday rules of behaviour of local villages. Common law became the
standardized law of the land in
Inchoate
crimes: incomplete or contemplated crimes such
as solicitation or criminal attempts
Tort
law: the law of personal wrongs and damage,
such as negligence, libel, and slander
Indictable
offence: a serious offence, such as murder,
which carries a serious penalty
Summary
offence: a minor offence whose penalty is a
maximum six months in jail, or a fine
Mala
in Se: crimes that are rooted in the core
values inherent in our culture
Mala
Prohibitum: crimes defined by current public
opinion and social values, subject to change
Folkways:
customs with no moral values attached, such as
not interrupting people who are speaking
Mores:
customs or conventions essential to a
community, which often form the basis of criminal law
Vagrancy:
a summary offence crime, meant to prohibit
homelessness, begging and loitering
General
deterrence: measures, such as long prison
sentences for violent crimes, aimed at convincing the potential law violator
that the pains associated with crime outweigh its benefits
Specific
deterrence: a punishment severe enough to
convince convicted offenders never to repeat their crimes, which is based on
the principle that an individual can be dissuaded from committing a crime if
the cost outweighs the benefit
Actus
Mens
rea: the intent to commit the criminal act,
needed for most offences except strict liability
Intent:
carrying out an act intentionally, knowingly,
willingly
Transferred
intent: an illegal yet unintended act results
from the intent to commit a crime
Constructive
intent: the finding of criminal liability for
an unintentional act that is the result of negligence or recklessness
Strict
liability crimes: illegal acts with no need for
intent, mens rea; they are usually acts that endanger the public welfare, such
as illegal dumping of toxic wastes
Mental
disorder: a disease of the mind includes an
abnormal condition that impairs functioning, excluding seld0induced states
caused by alcohol and transitory states such as hysteria
M’naghten
rule: the test done to see if an individual can
understand what they did was right or wrong; the person needs to be aable to
take criminal responsibility for their criminal actions
Duress:
one of the grounds that excuse an accused from
responsibility from an act, if it can be shown that the accused was forced or
compelled by someone else to commit a criminal act
Entrapment:
a criminal defence maintaining that the police
initiated the criminal action
Disclosure:
a principle established in 1991, which ruled
that the prosecution must give all the evidence gathered by the police to the
defendant in order to make a complete defence to the charges
Assisted
suicide: the practice of seeking help in
committing suicide; not legal in
Stalking:
the criminal offence of following or harassing
a victim even though no actual assault or battery has occured
Cyber
stalking: the use of the internet, email, ,or
other electronic communication devices to stalk another person
Sex
offender registration: requirement that released offenders register
with the police informed of their whereabouts, including any change of address
Community
notification: legislation that requires
convicted sex offenders to register with local police when they move into an
area or neighbourhood
Lecture
1 semester 2
the correctional system!
federal (2years +)
inmates may require and benefit from
certain programs
but not helpful in institutions with a
"revolving door" therefore they generally tend to be in longer term
institutions such as federal penetentiaries
why the correctional system is under
scrutiny
Canadian government in the process of
radically changingn the way in which the sentences under the criminal code are
exacted
under a whole state of legislative changes
gov't "GET TOUGH ON CRIME" legislature
--> more reliance of incarceration as a
sentence, and in longer periods with fewer benefits and protections while in
incarceration
87% are filled with at least two people
--> overcrowding
$millions of dollars (6?) expanding 30
institutions across the country--> built more cells but no more treatment
programs or facilities
total of 2700 new cells
more people, more cells
1 slight problem
the funding was for bricks and mortar, not
for more staff or more programs
what is happening now is, currently
corrections
less being spent on more.. Crazy?
goal:
deterrence
rehabilitation
segregation, keep them away from
society
justice
PUNISHMENT
how to achieve rehabilitation in a system
that is essentially punitive in nature?
ultimately different objectives with one
system trying to achieve them all
the decisions gov't makes around management
of the system
new decision makes no sense in terms of the
objectives
no sense to cut a major amount of money out
of they system while adding prisoners
what good does rehab do to crowd the pop.
will it help? no,
just becomes one more part of the punish,
punish, punish system
how is this meeting our objectives?
does it achieve one objcetive more than
another or pick one main one?
do we recognize that the prisoner of today
is your neighbour of tomorrow and therefore rehab is in best interest
penal system biproduct of politics
shaped by politics decisions
i.e. 1976
shift in percent of pop who would be
institutionalized till old
20% of inmate pop of
seniors have needs, get sick, higher health
needs and demands on health care systems
basically a political system that shifted
the balance of inmate pop.
gov't did away with a program that they had
in place which was a tattooing program
inmates, and others like to have tattoos
having access to safe tattooing like peolpe
on the outside would have was not available
but they created a program so that inmates
could get safe tattoos so all health precautions were taken
health and safety issue
costing 2 million dollars
cut it probably because the word leaked...
members of the public found out that they were paying for tattoos
clifford olsen (guy in BC who got paid by
RCMP to lead them to his victims (substantial amount of money for his family's
benefit) 1981)
Olsen now old man
in 2011 he turned 65(senior)
->access to old age pension
news papers found out he was about to get
his old age pension
child murderer
public outrage
prime minister upset
today, inmates don't get old age pensions
even if they are technically eligable
pure direct instance of political
intervention that came about from a specific instance
system created by, shaped by influenced by
ispecific intentinos
inflenced also by court decisions
inmates have access to legal system
can make cases around their interests
interesting one
historically, inmates were not allowed to
vote, were citizens but could not vote because they didnt have access to info
that would keep them informed and we want informed voters
inmates won, now are allowed to vote in
federal institutions
fundamental civil rights
people dont always necessarily agree with
the existance of those civil rights
costs to you
it costs, every year to keep one person in
jail
$312 per day for each inmate
$113880/year
institution = jobs!
80% of money spent is being spent on staff/
human resources
a bit discouraging: all of the money spent
on penal system, less than 2% spent on programs oriented for rehabilitation
the media very much influences what the
public percieves to be the case
pressures on political side
becomes our concern when there are system
failures
to understand how the system functions he
would argue you have to think of it as a total institutiuon
a total ins. is a pop (inmate pop) exists
but exists under specific conditions
to understand those conditions think about
today, your day today
been pretty exciting?
shared day with many different
audiences
made lots of decisions
lived your day in multiple different
environments
that is what is so different from the total
institution: designed to manage the lives in substancial # of people in an
efficient manner as possible
not just about managing, also about keeping
control
if group not carefully watched, break out
resistance, riot etc.
structured in such a way to manage people
through their day in a controlled way
=these guys wake up with lots of others,
they have a shower (together), breakfast (together) workstations (together)
their environment they do everything
together
pop which has been incarcerated for some
reason or another
environment created in institutuion have
certain characteristics (gothman) impact inmates from the moment they enter the
institution
process where individual is stripped of
their individuality upon entry into the system
bye bye identity
gotham : "the process of
mortification"
individual lost
process of inspection : intrusive in nature
i.e. body cavity searches as required by
institution
talks about this as a process where people
are litterally stripped (strip searches and public showering) no more street
clothes, replaces with an institutional jumpsuit
all about esentially squaring the inmate
away, letting them know that they are losing the ability to conrol what is
happening to them, their personal space, and privacy
at least temporarily loosing the clothes
they would use to portray their sense of self
sometimes they regain the right to wear
identifying program later in the instutution
mortification not jsut in terms of physical
exposure
all of this is happening infront of audiences
you cannot control
we can choose our audiences, they cannot
not just physical exposure that is
symbollically significant
it is the mental exposure that the
institution imposes on the individual as well
participation in group theraputic
activities
but they have a chioce
they get to choose whether they join the
group or not
but not really because if you don't go a
long you dont get a long
if you don't participate in the expected
activities you are dead in the water, just going to be there doing time
if there is any hope of getting out early
or being eligable for parole you will need to participate to prove the parole
board that you were willing ot change and advance in order to get out
inmates arguabley are effectively forced to
participate
can translate though into forced exposure
maybe you have violenceissues that have
manifested themselves into physical spousal abuse, must change behaviour but
then the issue and want and owning up has to take place
what does that mean for the individual?
must fundamentally admit
and expose yourself emotionally
so what?
because we all do it, it is a comfortable
area for us to look at and examine our feelings
but for many people (esp. males who have
come from backgrounds where toughness does not allow for emotional expression)
very difficult
being forced to participate in that kind of
vulnerable place becomes
mortifying as in gothmans mortification
layers of punishment being attached to the
treatment that we arent necessarily recognizing
there should be another way
rules:
institutions are rule bound
inmates days are carefully regulated
frequent points at which they will be
monitored in very immidiate ways
i.e. "the count" a way for the
institution to ensure that noone has escaped or is failing to do what they are
supposed to be doing when they are supposed to do it
either regulated times or when the admin.
decides that this count will be done is something tha's all about pvbiously
controlling and monitoring the situation and conveying to the inmate pop how
things stand and where they are
3 groups of people locked inside
1. inmates
2.custodial/guards/correctional officers
3.administration
relationship between the three.. complex
relationships that involve a considerable amount of positive interaction that
essentially is geared towards accomodation on both sides
no number of custodial officers or guards
could ever control an institution
they can only do so with the cooperation of
the inmate pop.
the inmates let them because it is in
everyones best interest
making the time served as barable as
possible
yet another day of a life in prison
enforcing every rule = disaster
inmates will become uncooperative and there
are way more of them
life side out : movie
cut off from family visits + supports due
to distance
rules play out in events of women whos
experiences being documented
Lecture
2
-Police are living hard lives and working
hard jobs, they are told to make hasty decisions and put up with the same
situations over and over again. They fail to see the uniqueness of a person’s
situation, they merely categorize it as a certain type of situation
-police in
-categorizing a situation makes it easier
for a police officer to handle situations of certain types, almost like
precedents (applying a general set of rules to a unique situation)
-the uniqueness of a situation would apply
more to court settings? police would be basically making the nature of their
job, that of a judge instead of a law enforcer?
-individuals that get the most help are the
individuals that are most disadvantaged; police will provide advice to
individuals who are not functioning well versus the individual that is “better
off”
-police work has factors that impact on a
person’s character; possibility of danger (cautiousness), expectations (the
expectation that police officers will demonstrate and show their authority),
-police act as mediators and take control
of the situations, their role is a kind of imposing themselves
-investigating police are similar to
reporters
-common conflict of what an officer feels
they need to do to ensure public safety vs. the rights of citizens to enjoy the
freedoms they are entitled to
-two factors that determine working
personalities of police officers: the officer’s sense of need to keep social
order; the police officer’s ability to uphold the due process
-police enforce social order but don’t
worry as much about due process (they see themselves as crime-fighters)
-the idealist police officers
-the optimist police officers try to focus
more on due process and fighting crime is necessary but they are really keen on
providing service and find reward in helping
-the realist police officers focus on social
order, they are cynical, alienated from a lot of other people in the community
and possibly police dept.
-PC Banks; realist personality of a cop;
more concern about herself rather than about her job
-the “blue line” or “blue machine”; members
of the police force protect their own; they will look the other way when
necessary
-solidarity is seen as playing out in
police officer’s lives
-people are socially uneasy around police
officers
-people think police officers are
constantly judging, even off duty
-older police officers believe in the
police solidarity whereas younger cops want to still socialize in more public
circles
Video:
First nation blue
-white people as police for native citizens
-created a lot of racism
-today the police in native communities are
native police
-native police is under authority of OPP
and the band council
-original police officers imprisoned
natives onto native reserves and took many children that ended up getting
placed into residential schools
-many years went by that made native people
dependent on the police officers
Lecture
3
-the police force has a lack of minority
officers (black, Asian, middle eastern, etc.)
-the people applying for the position need
to have the same level of competence as the other applicants
-process of recruitment needs to be the
same for everyone
-the chance of becoming a police officer
there is a 50 percent chance that you will get to go to the police academy
-they try to weed people out at every
different checkpoint throughout the recruitment process
-FIRST begins with basic requirements;
Canadian, upstanding citizen, law abiding, graduated from high school, physical
activity
-next is the formal application and
interview stage, and this goes through your social history, financial
background
-next is the search for candidates who are
a potential problem for the police force which get weeded out through
background checks
-polygraph test
-police training in
-the focus of police training is primarily
on skills, and knowing the essential laws that will be enforced
-police do a lot of frontline social work
and providing services to those who need it; they need people who can provide a
knowledge base that is broad but yet able to offer to help counsel those who
need it
-usually people applying for police already
have post secondary; and that reflects on the individual; they try to pick up
on people who are trained in skills that will meet the social requirements of a
police officer’s job (counselling, guidance, etc.)
-diversity training is supposed to help
police cope with difficult situations that may arise and not act out wrongly
video:
“stranger on stranger”
-police need to be nicer
-fundamentals of policing has not changed
much during the 60’s and 90’s but it is in a different package
-policing in a community should reflect the
community to which is being policed, it should not be a generic standard
because
-strength in numbers
-police need the community to work with
them so there needs to be a balance between the people and people, a mutual understanding
-stranger on stranger interaction is a
formula for failure
-need people to come to the police
departments rather than use phones and talk to the “faceless”
-preventing crime is harder than acting on
it
-trying to figure out how to make it “so we
never have to come back here again”
Lecture
4
-Judges can choose to give any of the
following:
àprobation is when a person needs to
report to a officer or is under officer supervision
àsuspended sentence is when a
sentence is not given on the condition that the individual will adhere to
conditions stating that must do or not do certain things
àfines
àcommunity service orders
-ray was at a dance bar and got confronted
by a man who was nto happy with him, this led to a scuffle and ray hurt the
man’s physical well being; this meant ray went to court and was found guilty;
pre sentence report was issued because it will give information about the
defendant before the court date and it is almost like a background of the
defendant as well as a quick summary of the defendant’s actions chosen at the
time of the crime; ray is a classic delinquent, angry drinker, oppositional to
demands
-Joe drank, working harder than usually lately;
chose to drink and drive which was inexcusable; killed two boys
-judges are old lawyers appointed to be
judges
-too few women appointed to be a judge in
courts
-liberal gov’t was bringing in more women
appointments (federally)
-conservative gov’t was bringing in more
men…white men (federally)
-halls of power
-judges have power and appointment is very
shady
-remorse is an important factor in
sentencing
-defending yourself in court is not a good
idea because there is a inevitable bias
-the criminal code of
-very few high penalties in
-more mandatory sentences; this takes away
from the judges’ ability to choose the sentences and forces their hand; very
controversial and takes their power
-gov’t spends a lot of money in corrections
-objectives in sentencing:
à deterrence; use the criminals as
examples; can be general deterrence (makes the an example out of the criminal
for the public) or specific deterrence (it just makes the defendant see what
they did was wrong)
àsentence should serve an educative
purpose
àincapacitation; essentially they
just want to remove this person from society without killing them
àretribution; which means the person
is being punished for the crimes they are committing in society
àrehabilitation; the criminal is sent
to a facility to be cured their issues
àrestitution; handing down sentences
which will in some way compensate the victims for the offence that they have
been victim of
Lecture
-the powers that decide on a trial’s
outcome are the powers of the trial
-morgan, abortionist who was charged twice
for performing abortions but was not found guilty
-juries and jury decision making is always
seen as “it depends who is on the jury”
-many legal opinion by lawyers on who they
would want to have on a jury
-there are certain professions or types of
people that a lawyer WOULD NOT want on their jury
-juries are usually small groups
-there are four characteristics that
influence how a jury will function
àcomposition of the jury
àthe structure of the jury
àthe nature of the group’s process
àthe task they are confronted with
-who you don’t want on your jury:
àclergymen; they may have a bias of
religious rules towards the actions of the defendant
àschool teachers; opinionated and
used to announcing that opinion
àwives of lawyers
àpeople with strong biases
àpeople with Scandinavian ancestry;
relates to stereotypes of dramatic people; ethnic groups deemed to be less
emotional
-potential jury members (anybody who is
over 18) àjury member pickingàtrail’s jury
-jury member can be anyone who is an adult
-lack of aboriginal on jury duty; 44 people
out of 1000 people were potential jurors who were aboriginal
-a person should have the right to have
people of their heritage on the jury for their trial
-in Ontario you can be a juror for 10 days
without being paid; you can refuse jury duty; you have to sit on a jury for
more than 50 days in order to be paid 100$ a day
-scientific jury selection is when you are
allowed to ask questions to the jurors and having a psychologist study the
juror’s body language and their responses then report to the lawyer if they are
worth having on the jury; it is not mandatory and is allowed
-jury is 12 people
-conrad black; Canadian; tried and
convicted in Chicago on charges related to the sale of newspapers to which his
conglomerate owned; it was alleged that laws were broken; enormous amounts of
money at stake as well as reputations; so the judge allowed certain questions
to be asked to the jury; this was because some Americans are anti-american
-
-the jury process should be tainted with
secrecy
-in
-trials by jury are open court cases
-an emotional disconnect is created
sometimes because of the secrecy; a complete ban, so a juror could not even
talk to those in positions of trust (clergy, psychiatrist, etc.)
-jillian guess, was a juror on a murder
case in Vancouver; the case was involving allegations against a young man in a
gang related murder; young and attractive women how was very well educated; the
first time he walked in the room she set eyes on him and decided that he looked
good, didn’t look like a murderer and fell in love with him; was trying not to
act on instincts; she eventually meeting him and having an eventual sexual love
affair; she was not convinced he was guilty; he was acquitted because of it;
charges were then laid against her for obstructing the trial; but then there
was no way to talk about what was happening in the jury room; the jurors she
served with testified that she argued for the acquittal so hard and
passionately that eventually she got it
Lecture
-the juries deliberation process is
essentially small group
-four elements that impact on the decision
of the group
àthe composition of the group(who)
àthe structure of the group (table,
democracy, authoritarian)
àthe nature of the group’s process
(majority vs. minority)
àthe task that the group may have to
deal with
-the rectangle table layout of a jury room
is not the most democratic layout, it is a layout that offers two opposing
powers or two controlling powers on the ends of the table
-people who speak out in a jury are the
individuals who have the power
-the jury deliberation process is complex;
it is essentially a process of information integration; each juror is sat
through a trial and shown/told the same facts; jurors are urged not to confer
with one another; jurors are being critical in their minds of information shown
to them by lawyers
-the floor person initiates the first vote
-if it becomes a deep split then it becomes
the majority speaking to the minorities about changing their mind; individuals
in the minority are going to talk a lot; the majority with speak less because
their points are more dominant among the mass
-it’s a polarizing process
-the jury is needed to arrive at a decision
and keep it to themselves without sharing what is said in the jury room with
anyone else
-jury process starts with potential juror
picking process (through a list of legal/eligible voters)
-these rules are only edited every four
years
video:
frontline; inside the jury room
-lee roy reid; a P.I. who bought a gun;
said he had a clean record until further investigation and needed to hand in
the gun, was arrested when handing in the gun; borderline intelligence;
firearms case
-he was a felon, he had a gun and he knew
he had a gun
-crack down on firearm regulation
-the jurors started out in the jury room as
democratic and were asked by one of them to go around the room and say how they
feel about the case
-you see one juror who feels his
disabilities made it hard for him versus one who can see only their task being
to choose based on the evidence
-they consider is the defendant a threat to
society
-we are shown a juror who is joining the
bandwagon
-where is justice and how would it be
served in terms of the case and the defendant
Lecture
March 04
-danny spilchuck; killed by cyanide; inmate
killed him with it;
-inmates do not have access to maintaining
emotional relationships that they could on the outside; they don’t have access
to goods and services that you do on the outside; you do not have the same
safety and security that u have on the outside
-gang members are able to access the goods
they want in prison; they resume the status on the inside that they had on the
inside
-women inmates are less committed to an
“inmate code of conduct”
-the outset of institutionalization places
an inmate in the varying degree of incarceration that the inmate may need to be
put in
-cascading is in the beginning of
incarceration to determine whether or not the inmate is good at the level of
incarceration that they are at currently or do they need to move them higher;
cascading is used to help gage the diminishing risk that these inmates will be
as they come closer to their release date
-maximum security is to keep them with no
chance to escape because they will hurt someone and will try to escape
-minimum security is where a guy may try to
escape but probably wouldn’t hurt the people in the surrounding community, but
still may
-very minimal security is that even if they
had the opportunity, the inmate would not try to escape
-the inmates working; this made the inmates
moving about
-problems inmates face before that carry
into institution: 40% inmates are illiterate; sporadic employment; low
education; few marketable skills; mental disorders that can’t be accommodated
in the institution; family problems, etc.
-programs that are used to teach inmates to
think rationally, and cognitive skill training
-university available to inmates
-(corcan notion) inmate work force; call
centers (they are paid for it, but also pay for food and shelter); the problem
with this is that they are supposed to be taught work skills or marketable
skills that they can use on the outside as released inmates but call center
work is not valued
-Ashley smith, died at the grandvalley
institution (
-guards are not taught and trained properly
to assess and work with inmates who have a mental disorder thusly leading to
misconduct charges
video:
woman incarcerated at 15
-native woman, diane charron
-in prison since 15 (1981)
-women freaked out while drugged up and
stabbed a man 27 times, remorseful but truly disturbed
-got moved to penitentiary in
-suffered from loneliness and depression
-mental disorders in the penitentiary do
not adhere to the help they need, they just watch them and is a constant hell
for them because they just get moved around from hospital to prison and back
but then get segregated
-prison can cause inmates to act on mental
disorders
-truly institutionalized
-she is constantly being put through cycles
until they can find a healthy balance, she is a “delicate” inmate
Lecture
March 11
Guest speaker
-lawyer
-how to formulate defences reading evidence
àmental state; non insane automatism
àtime of death vs. decay of body
àeyewitnesses vs. hersay evidence
àself defence vs. second degree
murder; u can only incapacitate or use necessary force to stop your pursuer
Exam
review
Videos
high risk offender
life inside out (the
10-7 for life (police officer in
to a different beat (comparing situation to
native police movie
Lecture
March 18th
-1 out of 46 Canadians are doing time,
whether it be prison or community service
-programs for individuals who can help
rehabilitate criminal offenders and integrate them into society
-to help the individuals find better ways
to spend their time rather than just get into mischief or the inability to
properly reflect while sitting in prison
-restitution (paying back the victim);
paying your debt to society
-electronic monitoring; home arrest
-probation a time period to show that one
can move into society while following rules
-parole is apart of a person’s sentence; parole
officer will keep an eye as well as whatever other things are implicated to
watch the individual; must serve “x” number of time till they can get out
-parole boards are not always qualified to
actually be the judges of one’s individuals but normally they are on a parole
board because of their political involvement; the individuals are appointed
(which can be retired police officer and retired correctional facility police
officers); the appointment is controversial because it brings to question where
one’s loyalties lay; the board works on two facts, the interest of the offender
and the interest by community; different things that revolve around the
offender which has to do with their release are things about their time in
prison, are they remorseful, their plans once they are out and what have they learned
-parole board is presented with enormous
amounts of information and are sometimes overwhelmed so to see variability is a
normal thing to see and precedents are hard to follow; essentially they are
trying to figure out future patterns of behaviour in the individual; the parole
officer is supposed to be the champion or guide while undergoing integration
back into society
Criminology
Winter Semester Week 7
|
the
correctional system!
federal (2years +)
inmates may require and benefit from
certain programs
but not helpful in institutions with a
"revolving door" therefore they generally tend to be in longer term
institutions such as federal penetentiaries
why the correctional system is under
scrutiny
Canadian government in the process of
radically changingn the way in which the sentences under the criminal code are
exacted
under a whole state of legislative changes
gov't "GET TOUGH ON CRIME" legislature
--> more reliance of incarceration as a
sentence, and in longer periods with fewer benefits and protections while in
incarceration
87% are filled with at least two people
--> overcrowding
$millions of dollars (6?) expanding 30
institutions across the country--> built more cells but no more treatment
programs or facilities
total of 2700 new cells
more people, more cells
1 slight problem
the funding was for bricks and mortar, not
for more staff or more programs
what is happening now is, currently
corrections
less being spent on more.. Crazy?
goal:
deterrence
rehabilitation
segregation, keep them away from
society
justice
PUNISHMENT
how to achieve rehabilitation in a system
that is essentially punitive in nature?
ultimately different objectives with one
system trying to achieve them all
the decisions gov't makes around management
of the system
new decision makes no sense in terms of the
objectives
no sense to cut a major amount of money out
of they system while adding prisoners
what good does rehab do to crowd the pop.
will it help? no,
just becomes one more part of the punish,
punish, punish system
how is this meeting our objectives?
does it achieve one objcetive more than
another or pick one main one?
do we recognize that the prisoner of today
is your neighbour of tomorrow and therefore rehab is in best interest
penal system biproduct of politics
shaped by politics decisions
i.e. 1976
shift in percent of pop who would be
institutionalized till old
20% of inmate pop of
seniors have needs, get sick, higher health
needs and demands on health care systems
basically a political system that shifted
the balance of inmate pop.
gov't did away with a program that they had
in place which was a tattooing program
inmates, and others like to have tattoos
having access to safe tattooing like peolpe
on the outside would have was not available
but they created a program so that inmates
could get safe tattoos so all health precautions were taken
health and safety issue
costing 2 million dollars
cut it probably because the word leaked...
members of the public found out that they were paying for tattoos
clifford olsen (guy in BC who got paid by
RCMP to lead them to his victims (substantial amount of money for his family's
benefit) 1981)
Olsen now old man
in 2011 he turned 65(senior)
->access to old age pension
news papers found out he was about to get
his old age pension
child murderer
public outrage
prime minister upset
today, inmates don't get old age pensions
even if they are technically eligable
pure direct instance of political
intervention that came about from a specific instance
system created by, shaped by influenced by
ispecific intentinos
inflenced also by court decisions
inmates have access to legal system
can make cases around their interests
interesting one
historically, inmates were not allowed to
vote, were citizens but could not vote because they didnt have access to info
that would keep them informed and we want informed voters
inmates won, now are allowed to vote in
federal institutions
fundamental civil rights
people dont always necessarily agree with
the existance of those civil rights
costs to you
it costs, every year to keep one person in
jail
$312 per day for each inmate
$113880/year
institution = jobs!
80% of money spent is being spent on staff/
human resources
a bit discouraging: all of the money spent
on penal system, less than 2% spent on programs oriented for rehabilitation
the media very much influences what the
public percieves to be the case
pressures on political side
becomes our concern when there are system
failures
to understand how the system functions he
would argue you have to think of it as a total institutiuon
a total ins. is a pop (inmate pop) exists
but exists under specific conditions
to understand those conditions think about
today, your day today
been pretty exciting?
shared day with many different
audiences
made lots of decisions
lived your day in multiple different
environments
that is what is so different from the total
institution: designed to manage the lives in substancial # of people in an
efficient manner as possible
not just about managing, also about keeping
control
if group not carefully watched, break out
resistance, riot etc.
structured in such a way to manage people
through their day in a controlled way
=these guys wake up with lots of others,
they have a shower (together), breakfast (together) workstations (together)
their environment they do everything
together
pop which has been incarcerated for some
reason or another
environment created in institutuion have
certain characteristics (gothman) impact inmates from the moment they enter the
institution
process where individual is stripped of
their individuality upon entry into the system
bye bye identity
gotham : "the process of
mortification"
individual lost
process of inspection : intrusive in nature
i.e. body cavity searches as required by
institution
talks about this as a process where people
are litterally stripped (strip searches and public showering) no more street
clothes, replaces with an institutional jumpsuit
all about esentially squaring the inmate
away, letting them know that they are losing the ability to conrol what is
happening to them, their personal space, and privacy
at least temporarily loosing the clothes
they would use to portray their sense of self
sometimes they regain the right to wear
identifying program later in the instutution
mortification not jsut in terms of physical
exposure
all of this is happening infront of
audiences you cannot control
we can choose our audiences, they cannot
not just physical exposure that is
symbollically significant
it is the mental exposure that the
institution imposes on the individual as well
participation in group theraputic
activities
but they have a chioce
they get to choose whether they join the
group or not
but not really because if you don't go a
long you dont get a long
if you don't participate in the expected
activities you are dead in the water, just going to be there doing time
if there is any hope of getting out early
or being eligable for parole you will need to participate to prove the parole
board that you were willing ot change and advance in order to get out
inmates arguabley are effectively forced to
participate
can translate though into forced exposure
maybe you have violenceissues that have
manifested themselves into physical spousal abuse, must change behaviour but
then the issue and want and owning up has to take place
what does that mean for the individual?
must fundamentally admit
and expose yourself emotionally
so what?
because we all do it, it is a comfortable
area for us to look at and examine our feelings
but for many people (esp. males who have
come from backgrounds where toughness does not allow for emotional expression)
very difficult
being forced to participate in that kind of
vulnerable place becomes
mortifying as in gothmans mortification
layers of punishment being attached to the
treatment that we arent necessarily recognizing
there should be another way
rules:
institutions are rule bound
inmates days are carefully regulated
frequent points at which they will be
monitored in very immidiate ways
i.e. "the count" a way for the
institution to ensure that noone has escaped or is failing to do what they are
supposed to be doing when they are supposed to do it
either regulated times or when the admin.
decides that this count will be done is something tha's all about pvbiously
controlling and monitoring the situation and conveying to the inmate pop how
things stand and where they are
3 groups of people locked inside
1. inmates
2.custodial/guards/correctional officers
3.administration
relationship between the three.. complex
relationships that involve a considerable amount of positive interaction that
essentially is geared towards accomodation on both sides
no number of custodial officers or guards
could ever control an institution
they can only do so with the cooperation of
the inmate pop.
the inmates let them because it is in
everyones best interest
making the time served as barable as
possible
yet another day of a life in prison
enforcing every rule = disaster
inmates will become uncooperative and there
are way more of them
life side out : movie
cut off from family visits + supports due
to distance
rules play out in events of women whos
experiences being documented
Exam
Review
Textbook
Chapter
10: violent cimes
-things that play into a person’s ability
to be violent are personal traits
(if a person is deranged), ineffective
families (abusive families/brutalization process), cultural values (ganging), regional
values (supposed live to a certain code), substance abuse, and firearm
availability
-instrumental
crimes: illegal actions taken to obtain desired goods and services through
theft and other crime such as the stealing of narcotics
-crime-related
violence: violence usually between strangers which is committed during the
course of another crime
-expressive
violence: violence that is designed not for profit but to vent anger or
frustration; also called conflict
related violence
-Sexual Assault includes rape which is sexual
action taken against her will
-types of rapists anger rapists (expression of pent up anger or rage), power rape (attacker does not want to
harm victim, just sexually possess her), sadistic
rape (ritualistic, personal, down to be cruel and for the pleasure of the
attacker)
-types of rape date rape, marital rape (men raping husbands as spousal abuse)
-date
rape: a form of sexual assault that occurs between acquaintances; of all
sexual assaults, it has the lowest level of reporting
-marital
exemption: practice of some jurisdictions where the husband cannot be
charged with rape against his wife
-causes for rape: evolutionary/biological factors (male sexual drive is built to
maximize procreation, male socialization
(a sadistic understanding of what boys are taught), psychological views (mental disorders), social learning (learned behaviour), sexual motivation (for sexual gratification)
-gendered
violence: the concept that some forms of violence tend to be committed
against women, by men, such as sexual assault, stalking, domestic violence
-Murder is broken into first degree murder,
second degree murder, and manslaughter
-first
degree murder involves premeditation
-second
degree murder needs to have an actor but no premediatation
-manslaughter
is negligent actions that led to death or actions
that were to harm in the heat of the moment
-types of murders are thrill killings, gang
killings, and cult killings
-gang
killing: murders committed by gangs who make violence part of their group
activity
-thrill
killing: impulsive violent murders motivated by the
killer’s decision to kill a stranger as an act of daring or recklessness
-Cult
killing: murders committed by members of religious
cults who are ordered to kill as part of the cult’s rituals
-mass
murderer: one who kills a large number of people in a single incident
-types of serial murderers visionary killers (commit murders in
response to a vision or voice in their head), mission-orientated killers (murder to rid the world of the said
undesirable), hedonistic killers (thrill
seekers, excitement from the murder)
-child
abuse: any physical, emotional or sexual trauma to a child; includes child
neglect
-sexual
abuse: a form of violence, usually by family
member, can be between virtually any member and at any age (sexually)
-Robbery:
a crime of violence involving the use of force to obtain money or goods
Chapter
11: property crimes
-economic
crimes: acts in violation of the criminal law that are designed to bring
financial gain to the offender, as opposed to violent crimes, which are often
conflict related
-fence:
buyer or seller of stolen merchandise
-street
crimes: illegal acts designed to prey on the public through theft, damage,
violence and usually crime related
-professional
crimes: those offenders who make a significant portion of their income from
crime
-occasional
crime: an offender who, unlike the professional criminal, does not derive a
significant income from crime but commits a crime when the opportunity presents
itself; more likely to drift in and out of crime
-situational
inducement: the opportunity to commit crimes, such as occasional property
crime; usually short-run influences that increase a person’s risk-taking
-professional criminals include pickpocket,
sneak thief from stores, banks, etc., shoplifter, jewel thief, confidence game
artist, thief in rackets, forger, extortionist
-larceny:
usually known as theft, the taking of property unlawfully, which is one of
the oldest common law crimes
-consecutive
possession: in the crime of larceny, the temporary physical custody of
property that is given up willingly by the owner, who retains legal ownership
-booster:
professional shoplifter
-snitches:
amateur pilferers who think of themselves as respectable people
-carjacking:
the stealing of a vehicle by forcing driver out of the car
-false
pretences: illegally obtaining money, goods, or merchandise from another by
fraud or misrepresentation
-fraud:
taking the possessions of another through deception or cheating, such as
selling a person a desk that is represented as an antique but is known to be a
copy
-confidence
games: a form of fraud, in which the victim, or
mark, is persuaded to entrust the criminal, who poses as a trustworthy person
-identity
theft: the fraudulent acquisition of another person’s private and personal
information, often or the purpose of financial gain
-phishing:
creating false emails, or fake websites which look legitimate, but are
designed to gain illegal access to a victim’s personal information
-systematic
forgers: fraud artists who make a substantial living by passing bad cheques
-embezzlement:
a type of larceny that involves taking the possessions of another that have
been placed in possession for safe-keeping
-break
and enter: unlawful entry into a house to commit theft
-arson:
the intentional burning of something due to psychological or criminal
reasons
Chapter
12: White Collar Crime
-enterprise
crimes: illegal acts of opportunity that involve breaking regulatory rules
but not personal victimization for the purpose of financial gain
-white
collar crime: illegal acts that capitalize on a person’s status in the
marketplace, including embezzlement, fraud, marker manipulation, restraint of
trade, and false advertising
-green
criminology: the study of crimes against the environment, usually for
profit
-cyber
crime: illegal acts
Chapter
13
Notes
Videos:
First
Nation’s Blue
-white people as police for native citizens
-created a lot of racism
-today the police in native communities are
native police
-native police is under authority of OPP
and the band council
-original police officers imprisoned
natives onto native reserves and took many children that ended up getting
placed into residential schools
-many years went by that made native people
dependent on the police officers
To
a different beat
-communal attitude of police officers, less
faceless figures and more familiar figures
-letting people recognize that the police
can be trusted and there for the people
10/7
for life:
-tough gig for police officers, they need
to get out because it is just too much for them to handle at times
-person struggling with leaving, being
pulled in by family tradition
-increasing intensity in crime which
affects personal well being, and personal life
life
inside out
-
-cut off from family visits + supports due
to distance
-rules play out in events of women whos
experiences being documented
-lack of programs that may be needed
-a lot of power trips with the authority
against the prisoners
high
risk offender
-several offenders are followed and watched
to see who would be the first to offend again
No comments:
Post a Comment