Chapter 9: Crime and Criminal Justice Flashcards
General Crime Trends
Highlights from Juristat, Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2016. Catalogue no. 85-002-X
2014represented the11th consecutive decline in the Canadian crime rate. This was the lowest rate recorded since1969.
In 2015,the crime rate increased for the first time since 2003.
In 2016, the overall volume and severity of non-violent crime increased by 2% increase from the previous year.
The increase was largely driven by increases in police-reported incidents of fraud.
Despite this small upward trend, police-reported crime was still 29% lower than a decade earlier in 2006.
The Crime Funnel
Actual Crime Crime detected by police Crime Reported Crime Recorded Arrests Trials Convictions Dispositions
Categories of Crime
Violent crime Hate crime Property crime Organized crime Youth crime Occupational (white-collar) crime Corporate crime
Hate Crime
crimes motivated by the offender’s hatred of certain characteristics of the victim, eg. national or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, mental or physical disability.
rate = 3.3hate crimes per100,000population = a17% drop from2012
mainly due to a30% decrease in non-violent hate crime incidents, primarily mischief
60% of hate crime involved non-violent offences, esp mischief; 40% of hate crimes were violent, esp. common assault or uttering threats
For race/ethnicity, Black populations are the most frequently targeted (22% of all hate crimes)
The hate crime rate targeting Jews is 54.9 per 100,000 Jewish individuals.
The hate crime rate targeting Muslims is 6.2 per 100,000 Muslim individuals.
But since 88% of the Muslim population are also members of visible minority groups, they may also be targeted by hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity.
Hate crimes targeting Muslim populations are more likely to be violent offences. For race/ethnicity, Black populations are the most frequently targeted (22% of all hate crimes)
The hate crime rate targeting Jews is 54.9 per 100,000 Jewish individuals.
The hate crime rate targeting Muslims is 6.2 per 100,000 Muslim individuals.
But since 88% of the Muslim population are also members of visible minority groups, they may also be targeted by hate crimes motivated by race or ethnicity.
Hate crimes targeting Muslim populations are more likely to be violent offences.
White Collar Crime
crime committed by people in the course of their employment or business activity, eg, cartels, price fixing, deceptive marketing, fraud, insider trading, kickbacks
eg. Conrad Black, former business magnate in Canada; convicted in 2007 of diverting money from Hollinger International when he was CEO; sentenced to 6 ½ years in prison
eg. Bernie Madoff, former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier; founder of the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC
Arrested 11 Dec 2008; pleaded guilty to 11 federal felonies including the largest financial fraud in US history
The amount missing from client accounts was almost $65 billion; actual losses to investors = $18 billion
Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum allowed.
Canada’s Competition Bureau cases:
December 2016, Volkswagen and Audi in Canada had to pay a $15-million penalty for false or misleading marketing claims about the environmental performance of their vehicles. This penalty was on top of a $2.1-billion settlement that the automakers had offered motorists in response to a class action lawsuit. Since 2013, the Japanese Yazaki Corporation was fined $30 million, Mitsubishi Electric $13.4 million, and Showa Corporation $13 million for bid-rigging in the internal sale of car parts. Accounting firm Ernst and Young estimates the costs of white collar crime in Canada at $20 billion (Gomme 2007 cited in Samuelson 2012) “Typically, governments give white-collar crime a lower priority than conventional crime, despite evidence that white-collar crime does economic, physical, and psychological harm to a much larger number of people than does street crime.” (Dutcher 2005; Friedrichs 2009 cited in Tepperman & Curtis 2015)
Corporate Crime
illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support
eg. violation of environment laws, safety regulations; expropriation of land; deceptive advertising; selling defective products
eg. Dalkin Shield intrauterine device killed 17 women, injured 200,000, 1974
eg. Bre-X Minerals Ltd: company geologist added gold to survey samples destroyed investments, pension funds
Train Explosion in Lac–Mégantic, QU
July 6, 2013 train explosion: 74-car freight train operated by Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway (MMA) carrying 7.7 million litres of petroleum crude oil, rolled down a 1.2% grade about 7 km after the engineer failed to apply sufficient brakes.
killed 47 people; destroyed more than 30 buildings in the town’s centre
Class action lawsuit alleged “the transport of highly explosive shale liquids to a carrier with one of the poorest safety records in the industry which was operating on poorly maintained track that did not permit the transport of flammable or dangerous goods” with “non-reinforced older model tankers that were wholly unsuitable for the transport of these highly explosive shale liquids.”
October 2017 trial for three MMA employees charged with criminal negligence leading to these deaths
The Rana Plaza Incident in Bangladesh
24 April 2013, 8-storey Rana Plaza collapsed killing 1,129 people, mostly female garment workers
The building violated codes, with the four upper floors having been constructed illegally without permits; structural faults were found and the building’s foundation was substandard.
Bangladesh has the lowest labour costs in the world, with the minimum wage for garment workers set at roughly $37 a month
This attracts every major global clothing company, eg. Sears, Gap, Tommy Hilfiger.
Deadliest industrial disasters (source: BBC)
Courrieres, France (1906): Dust explosion at Courrieres mine in Pas-de-Calais department kills almost 1,100 people
Halifax, Canada (1917): Explosion on board French munitions vessel Mont-Blanc in Halifax harbour, and resulting tsunami, kill 1,950 people
Oppau, Germany (1921): Explosion at Badische Anilin chemical works, producing nitrates, destroys plant as well as nearby village, killing 1,500 people
Benxihu, China (1942): Explosion destroys Benxihu (Honkeiko) colliery in Liaoning, China, during Japanese occupation, killing 1,549 labourers
Bhopal, India (1984): Toxic gas escapes from Union Carbide plant. Official initial death toll put at 3,800; deaths to date thought to be 15,000
Organized Crime
business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit
eg. high-tech crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, gambling, loan sharking, money laundering, controlling building contracts, large-scale theft
In 2013, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) estimated that there were 672 organized crime groups in Canada.
(Statistics Canada, The Daily, Jan 18, 2017, http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/20170
Indigenous People in the Criminal Justice System
Indigenous adults comprise just under 4% of Cdn adult population, but 28% of admissions to custody in 2011-2012 (Statistics Canada 2015. Admissions to adult correctional services in Canada, 2011/2012)
= 43% of female admissions to provincial/territorial sentenced custody vs 27% and 23% for male admissions
There are regional differences.
Indigenous people over-represented in every level of the justice system: incarceration, but also charge rates, longer sentences, harsher sentences, less chance for parole.
Restorative Justice
Instead of working against the offender (eg. discipline, removal from society), restorative justice repairs the harm caused by crime by holding moderated meetings of victims, offenders, and others affected by crimes.
The offender is confronted with the consequences of his/her actions and must accept responsibility for the crime.
Functionalism
Strain Theory: criminals turn to illegitimate means to achieve goals
Control Theory: criminals have no inner or outer “containment” to counteract push and pull factors in crime
Social Bond Theory: criminals have weak or broken ties to people, authority, convention, values
Subculture of Violence: crime is part of normative expectations
Lifestyle-routine activity approach: crime is facilitated by suitable targets, lack of supervision
Conflict Theory
crime is an effect of inequalities marginalizes youth, the poor, racialized groups, unemployed, the mentally ill
police respond to the consequences of their marginalization
radical critical-conflict approach: crimes are based on social class
people with low-incomes take things by force or stealth = crimes of poverty
people with high-incomes embezzle or commit fraud = greater cost to society
Interactionism
Differential association theory: individuals commit crime because they interact with criminals
Labeling theory: criminals come to accept their identity after successful labeling by others
Medicalization of crime: crime is attributed to a condition or disease, eg. alcoholism
Feminism
Liberal feminism: “The criminality of women may also be understood as symptomatic of a sense of futility with a desperate life situation, such as poverty, homelessness or abuse…(the majority are) non-violent offenders who commit petty crimes for economic gain…Many women are at the same time victims.” (Johnson & Rodgers, cited in Synnott, 1996: 133)
Radical feminism: patriarchy contributes to crimes like prostitution that penalizes buying sex, but not its sale
Socialist feminism, esp. intersectionality: crime caused by patriarchy and capitalism but in different ways for racialized women and poor women
Criminal Intent
Expressed in the concept of men’s era, meaning guilty mind
Criminal Justice System in divided into two catagories
Summary and indictable
Summary convictions
Are relatively in or crimes that are punishable by a fine or less than a year in jail - theft under $5000, traffic violations
Indictable Offences
Are more serious crimes, such as murder or aggravated assault
Types of Crime
Violent Crime (homicide, sexual assault, gang violence) Hate Crime, Property Crime Occupational (White Collar Crime) Corporate Crime Organized Crime, Youth Crime
Violent Crime
Consists of actions involving force against others and includes homicide, attempted homicide the three levels of assault and sexual assault, robbery, and other violent offences like criminal negligence causing death.
Homicide
The unlawful, intentional killing of one person by another
Requires attention
Manslaughter
Is the unlawful unintentional killing of another person
