CHAPTER 1 Flashcards
Describe what happened with the Dziekanski case
Describe it out loud
Describe what happened with the Saskatchewan man and 2 daughters
Describe it out loud
What happened with Ashley Smith
Describe it out loud
Describe the Criminal Code of Canada
A federal statute that lists the criminal offences and punishments defined by parliament, as well as justice system procedures.
What are the 3 major agencies in the CJS?
The police, the courts, and the correctional system
What are the three types of definitions of crime?
Legal definitions, social definitions, constructionist definitions
Describe the legal definition.
- A crime is said to occur when a law is broken
- A crime only takes place when a person is deemed guilty of a crime and punished accordingly.
What is the problem with the legal definition?
- It is a black and white view of crime and a limited definition.
- Not every individual who violates the law is caught and punished.
- Many criminal acts are not prosecuted even when they are identified by an authority.
- There is no analysis about why some acts are dealt with formally and others informally.
Describe the social definition of crime.
- This definition includes the assumption that crime is a violation of social norms.
- It is said to cause social injury and harm.
- Robbery is a violent crime as the perpetrator is prepared to use a weapon and the victim is prepared to see a weapon.
Define the constructionist definition
- Some sociologists question the utility of approaches that neglect the reality that norms vary across time and place.
- Constructionist maintain that crime is the result of social interaction; a negotiated process among the police and crown prosecutors.
- This is more of a tidy definition.
What are the three main objectives of the CJS?
- To control crime
- To prevent crime
- To maintain justice
What is Criminal Justice?
Guilt, innocence, and the sentence should be administered fairly with evidence.
What is the negotiated process?
- Reiman and Leighton note that many Americans admitted to engaging in crime, but racial and class bias exists in the administration of crime. Only some people are arrested and prosecuted.
- They found that 91% of committing a crime if was reported to police work would result in prison time.
What are the two types of law?
Public Law ( Criminal Law and Private Law ( civil law).
Define Private Law
It refers to relationships between individual actors (i.e. contracts. The courts become involved when disputes over the arrangements occur.
Define the Public law
It sets the rules for individuals in society. Crime that is seen wrong against society.
Describe the OJ Simpson murder case and how it relates to private and public law
Say it out loud
What year were prostitution laws struck down?
2013
Explain the law behind prostitution
- Selling sex is not illegal, but new legislation allows the police to investigate services, trafficking etc.
- Everything about prostitution is criminalized even though the act itself is not illegal.
How many times a year is there an update on the criminal code?
Twice a year.
How many pages is the Criminal code of Canada?
Over 1000 pages.
What is antisocial behaviour?
This is conduct that can be disruptive and reduce our quality of life, but might not be considered a criminal act.
Define Laws
Laws are rules that forbid some behaviors and are enforced by the courts in order to reduce fear, chaos, and disorder, and provides a way to resolve conflicts.
Describe Informal social control
- The actions and opinions of one’s parents, peers, neighbors, and community members.
- This can be their disapproval - that influence our behavior
Define Norms
Standards of acceptable behavior that are based on tradition, customs, and values.
What are the two categories used to differentiate the seriousness of crime?
Mala prohibita and Mala in se
Define Mala prohibita
Mala Prohibita refers to behavior that is prohibited by law - Jaywalking, driving under the influence.
Define Mala in se
This refers to behavior that is immoral or evil - Murder
What are Summary offences?
These are crimes that carry a jail sentence of up to 6 months and a $2000 fine ($ 5000 max with exceptions of sexual offences).
What are Indictable offences?
These are offences that can result in life imprisonment.
What are Hybrid Offences?
Hybrid offences are also know as dual offences.
These refer to cases decides whether the case should be treated as a summary offence or or an indictable offence ( some sexual offences, break and entering)
What are the 3 levels of police agencies in Canada?
Municipal, provincial, and federal.
Describe the Courts
The Courts are based on English common-law.
The courts include two parties working in an adversarial system heard before an impartial judge.
Each may be represented by their own lawyer.
There are 4 level of courts in Canada, list them.
- The Supreme Court of Canada ( final say)
- The Court of Appeal( appeals from Superior and Provincial courts).
- Superior Court ( dealing with serious crimes.
- Provincial Court ( busiest court dealing with less serious offences).
- They are characterized as dispensing “assembly-line justice”
What do Inferior courts do?
They hear matters relating to youth age 12-17 years old.
Describe the Adversarial system
This is when the parties in dispute develop their own theory of the cases and collect evidence to support their claims.
Define Jail
- These are older facilities that were originally built and run by city governments but are now operated by the province.
- They tend to be small, and hold local residents awaiting a court date.
Define Detention centres
- These centers hold people who are arrested and awaiting court dates.
- It can hold inmates sentenced to short terms ( under 60 days)of incarceration.
Define Correctional centers
These facilities hold people sentences to terms of incarceration of two years or less
Special holding units
These are high security units within a maximum-security are where movement of prisoners are very controlled.
Day Parole
This is when federal prisoners who live in a community-based facility, they work, attend school, or receive treatment during the day.
Probation Officers
They prepare reports for the courts about sentencing options for convicted individuals. They monitor their activities if serving community.
Define Parole
A form conditional release from a federal correctional facility to the community, where the ex-prisoner is supervised by a parole officer.
Stautory release
A form of supervised release that is automatically granted after the federal prisoners with determinate sentences of 3 years or longer have served two-thirds of their sentences.
This does not apply to dangerous offenders or life servers indeterminate sentences.
Secure custody facilities
High-security youth custody facilities that are usually large and often look similar to adult correctional centers ( closed custody facilities)
Open custody facilities
Low-security youth custody facilities that are generally small and are sometimes in residential neighborhoods.
Incarceration
Offenders may be incarcerated in provincial or federal institutions.
Most offenders in Canada do not serve out their full sentences, rather they frequently receive parole or statutory release
Which courts are characterized by “ assembly-line justice”
Provincial courts
What is the number of actual crimes considered?
A dark figure. The precise number of crimes that take place in Canada is unknown.
It appears as though Canada is soft on crime.
Criminal Justice Funnel
It is used to describe the movement of people through the criminal justice system.
What is the percent of crime that is discovered by police
No more than 10%
Describe the Criminal Justice Funnel
- It illustrates that fewer and fewer cases reach the next screening point (6% form the beginning to the end).
- Filtering takes place at each stage
- There is discretion at each stage of the process.
- Most individuals that are incarcerated serve their sentences in provincial correctional facilities.
Discretion - Victims
The victims may not report crimes as they think it is too personal, not important enough, or dealt with the situation another way.
Discretion- Police
The police may choose not lay charges even when they believed the crime had been perpetrated. They may find the crime too minor.
Discretion - Bail Hearings
Evidence shows that those denied bail are much less likely to be acquitted and more likely to be found guilty.
Those denied bail are also more likely to incur longer prison sentences
Discretion-Prosecution
The time between the laying of arrest and when the prosecution decides to proceed generates the greatest amount of contition
Charges are often stayed because:
- The quality of evidence generated by the police.
- The victim may not wish to testify.
- The police sometimes strike deals with the accused.
Discretion-Sentencing
Extra-legal factors such as characteristics of the accused sometimes affect sentencing decisions.
First Nations people are more likely to be sent to prison compared to White people.
Who developed two models of the criminal Justice
Hebert Parker
What are the models of CJS?
Crime control model and due process model
What are the 5 main goals of criminal justice system
- Preventing crime
- Protecting the public
- Supporting victims of crime, their families, and witnesses.
- Holding people responsible for their crimes they have committed.
- Helping offenders return to society and become law-abiding citizens members of society
Crime control model
This is more focused on efficiency, speed, and incarceration for those found guilty.
It is a get touch on crime approach that presumes guilt.
Assembly-line justice
This is an approach where there is priority on quickly processing minor matters in criminal courts withe the assumption that most defendants are guilty.
Due Process Model
This prioritizes the right of the suspect at every stage of the process.
