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
Mass Murder
Is the killing of four or more people at one time in one place by the same person
1992- killing of four professors at Concordia University
Serial Murder
Is the killing of three or more people over more than a moth by the same person.
Characteristics of Serial Killers
Visionaries kill because they hear voices
Missionaries take it upon themselves to rid the world of what they believe is an undesirable type of person
Hedonists - who obtain personal or sexual gratification from violence
4) power/control seekers - who achieve gratification from the complete possession of the victim
Characteristics of Victims and Accused
Homicide follows certain patterns in terms of gender, age, radicalization, and region of the country as analyses from earlier years show
2011 - just less than three quarters were male and 90% of the accused were male
Homicide is much more likely to take place in the western and eastern provinces
Characteristics of Victims of homicide
80% knew their killer
2011 - 89%. Intimate partner homicides
2011 - a knife or another cutting instrument was the most likely weapon used
27 firearms
Sexual Assault
Level 1 - touching
Level 2 - assault with a weapon
Level 3 - aggravated assault
The term “rape” is no longer used in canada as a sexual motivated crime, but it is actually an act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon against the powerless
Date Rape
Sexual activity that meets the legal definition of sexual assault and involves people who first meet in a social setting
It encompasses dates and casual aquanances but excludes spouses
The phrase was coined to distinguish between forced , non conscentual sex between people who know one another
Gang Violence
Includes homicide, robbery, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault
Defined as two or more person engaged in anti social behaviour who form an allegiance for a common criminal purpose and who individually or collectively
6 Types of Gangs (Robert Gordon)
youth movements - skin heals and punks who perpetuate hate crimes
Youth groups - hang out together
Criminal groups - small groups that band together for financial gains
Street Gags - young adults who plan criminal behaviour
Criminal organizations - older, well established
Hate Crime
Crimes that are motivated by the offenders hatred of certain characteristics of the victim (nationality)
2010 - there were 1401 crimes classified as hate crimes, down from 1482 in 2009, but up from 892 in 2006
Half were motivated by race and ethnicity
30% motivated by religion
15% motivated by sexual orientation
Property Crime
Is the taking of money or property from another without force, the threat of force or the destruction of property
According to victimization survey’s the most frequent is break and enter
Youth have the highest risk of being subject to property crime
Theft under $5000 - this includes purse snatching
Auto Theft
Joyriding - the vehicle is stolen for the fun of riding in it
Transportation
Crime
Profit
Largest portion of property crime
Identity theft and identity fraud
The RCMP reports that the internet facilitates identity theft and in 2009, the Canadian anti fraud centre received identity fraud reports from 11, 095 Canadians - totally a loss of $10 million.
Crimes commissioned between Canada and the US
US has a much higher violent crime rate, however Canada has a much higher property crime rate
Occupational Crime
Refers to illegal activities committed by people int he course of their employment or normal business activity
Sutherland - referring to people who work in service industries as opposed to the blue collar workers who work in factories he was referring to such acts that employee theft, fraud
Most white collar crime comes unreported
COrporate Crime
Illegal acts committed by corporate employees on behalf of the corporation and with its support.
Corporate crime has a huge direct and indirect injurious as well as economic effects
Organized Crim
Business operation that supplies goods and services for profit
These illegal enterprises include drug trafficking, Prositution, gambling, loan sparking
Margaret Beare (1996) groups very according to their dependence on crime - some use them to carry out activities (cartels) others use them to support their activities (terrorism)
Youth Crime
Involves a violation of law or the commission of a status offence by a young person 12-17 years of age
The Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2003 recognizes that effective responses to youth Crime may be outside the courts.
Rates tend to be higher among youth - peaks among those 18
Has decreases since the 1990s
Functionalist Perspective
Believe that the macro level structure of society produces anomie
Strain theory - states that people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they cannot reach because they do not have access to a culturally approved means of achieving those goals
40 year study on crime suggests that economic factors play a role in crime eg 1970s inflation went up property crime
5 ways I which people respond to cultural goals:
Conformity - accept the culturally approved goals
Innovation - people accept the society goals but use illegitimate means to acheive them, Ritualism - give up societal goals, but still adhere to the socially approved means of achieving them, Retreatism - abandon both, Rebellion - advocate alternatives
Functionalist perspective: Control Theroy
Why do people not engage in deviant behaviour? People are constantly pushed or pulled towards deviant behaviour
Environmental factors such as adverse living conditions, poverty, and lack of education draw people toward deviance
Pushes - internal - feelings of hostility make people not want to act according to dominant values
Social Bond theory functionalist
Deviance is likely to occur when ties to society are broken
Subculture of Violence Hypthesis
Deviance is part of the normative expectations governing everyday behaviour among young males in the lower classes
Lifestyle routine activity approach
Holds that the patterns and timing of peoples daily movements and activities as they go about obtaining necessities of life - food, shelter, companionship- are keys to understanding violent and property crime in society
Functionalist explainations deny biology
Emphasizing that individuals are not biologically impaired or psychologically impaired but responding to social and economic conditions in society
Strain theory - ctiriqued for only focusing on lower class crime
Social Bond - inability to explain more serious crime
Conflict Perspective
Examines deviance in terms of power differentials
How authority and power differentials contribute to some people becoming criminals
Crime is not a behaviour but a status that is acquired when people with the authority to create and enforce legal rules apply those rules to others
Radical Critical Conflict Approach
That social institutions laws, politics, and education create a super culture that legitimizes the class structure and maintains capitalists superior position Crimes committed by low income people typically involve asking things by force or physically stealth while white collar crime usually involves non physical means such as paper transactions or computer fraud.
Interactionist Perspective: Differential Association Theory
That individuals have a greater tendency to deviate from societal norms when they frequently associate with people who tend toward deviance rather than conformity
Interactionist Perspective: Labelling Theory
Education, social class, family or lack there of are usually considered when determining how to deal with juvenile offenders.
Delinquents and criminals are people who have been successfully labelled as such by others Howard Becker (1963) moral entrepreneurs - people who use their own views of right and wrong to establish rules and label others deviant One study showed that youth delinquents from lower class families were more likely to go to prison than middle class kids who did the same
Interactionist - Edwin Lemberg expanded labelling. Thoery (1951)
To primary and secondary deviance
Primary deviance - initial act of rule breaking in which the deviant self concept has not been internalized
Secondary deviance - is labelled a Deliquent and then engages in it
Critiques - does not explain initial deviance
Interactionist Perspective: Medicalization of Crime
Converting of deviance to a medical condition or disease
Converting alcoholism to disease rather than deviance
Questions about personal responsibility vs medical condition arise
Influence of biological factors on serious violent crime
Feminist Perspectives
Focus on why women commit crimes or engage in Deliquent behaviour Elizabeth Comack (1999) - studies of women offending are often histories of sexual abuse Chesney-Lind (1988) - believe that patriarchy contributes to crimes of prostitution because of the sexual double standard (radical)
Socialist Feminism
Believes that women are exploited by capitalism and patriarchy - females have relatively low wages few economic resources, crimes such as prostitution become a way of earning a living.
Criminal Justice System
Is the network of organizations including the police, courts, criminal prosecutions and corrections involves in law enforcement and the administration of justice
1) the criminal justice system fails to rehabilitate
2) unequal justice occurs in relation to class, gender, age, sexual orientation
Police
Determine how to apply the law
Nature of the offence, quality of evidence, the age, radicalization, and gender, the level of defence shown to the police
Community policing
As a way of reducing crime - getting them out of patrol cars and interacting with the community, recognizing problems and working with neighbourhood people to find a solution
In Toronto is it difficult to show the overall crime rate has been influenced by community policing because the crime rate has been down
Punishment and Prosons serve four functions
Retribution
Social protection
Rehabilitation
Deterrence
Resortive Justice
Focuses on repairing the harm caused by the crime by holding moderated meeting of crime victims offenders and others affected by the crime which can be used at different sites in the justice system for example as diversion from court, a present ending option and after the release from prison
