Introduction

Question 1

What are the 3 agencies of the criminal justice system?

Answer 1

Police, courts, and correctional system

Question 2

What are the 2 legal definitions of crime?

Answer 2

A crime is said to occur when a law is broken, and a crime only takes place when a person has been deemed guilty of a crime and punished accordingly.

Question 3

What are some of the problems associated with the legal definition of crime?

Answer 3

Not every individual who violates the law is caught and punished, many criminal acts are not prosecuted, and there is no analysis as to why some acts are dealt with formally and others informally.

Question 4

What is the social definition of crime?

Answer 4

Crime is a violation of social norms and causes social injury or harm

Question 5

What is the constructionist definition of crime?

Answer 5

Crime is the result of a social interaction; a negotiated process among police and crown prosecutors (is there enough evidence in a case to achieve conviction?) Crime is socially constructed.

Question 6

What does it mean that crime is a negotiated process?

Answer 6

Only some people are arrested and prosecuted, on a case by case basis (can be racial and class bias in this as well).

Question 7

What are the 3 main objectives of the Canadian criminal justice system?

Answer 7

To control crime, to prevent crime, and to maintain justice. It is assumed that effective controls over crime results in the prevention of it.

Question 8

What is the justice model of criminal justice?

Answer 8

1) Guilt, innocence, and the sentence should be administered fairly with the available evidence 2) Punishment should fit the crime 3) Like cases should be treated alike, and different cases treated differently.

Question 9

Why is the debate in how to define crime so significant?

Answer 9

Affects how we count crime, engage in crime, and how we design effective justice policies.

Question 10

What is public vs private law?

Answer 10

Public- (state), sets rules for individuals in society, includes criminal law
Private- (civil), between people, refers to relationships between individual actors. (ex: legal contracts, suing for damages)

Question 11

What are some of the issues with the criminal code in Canada?

Answer 11

It’s not static, and is constantly changing (ex: prostitution laws, in 2013 technically not illegal but new legislation allows police to investiagate more thoroughly into advertising of sexual services, trafficking, and the purchasing of sexual services). It also doesn’t get updated often enough.

Question 12

What are the 2 ways we classify crime?

Answer 12

Mala Prohibita- Refers to behaviour that is prohibited by law
Mala in se- refers to behaviour that is immoral or evil

Question 13

What is the difference between summary offences, indictable offences, and hybrid offences?

Answer 13

Summary- Misdemeanours-can carry a jail sentence up to 6 months and 2000$ fine
Indictable- Felony, can result in life imprisonment
Hybrid- Dual offences-refers to cases where crown prosecutors decide whether a case should be treated as a summary offence or an indictable offence.

Question 14

What are the 3 levels of policing in Canada?

Answer 14

Municipal (vast majority), provincial, and federal. In 2015, there were 68 777 sworn police officers in Canada.

Question 15

How do Canadian courts function?

Answer 15

Based on English common-law. Includes 2 parties working in an adversarial system before an impartial judge. Each may be represented by their own lawyer.

Question 16

What does adversarial mean in court context?

Answer 16

Both parties want to win in any given court case. Prosecutor is initially concerned that justice be done, trial is heard by an impartial judge

Question 17

What are the statistics for correctional institutions in Canada?

Answer 17

There are around 37 000 adults and over 1000 youths incarcerated in correctional facilities at any given day in Canada. 110 000 people are serving alternative sentences.

Question 18

What are the 4 levels of court in Canada?

Answer 18

Supreme Court (final say), Court of Appeal (appeals from superior and provincial courts), Superior Court (deals with serious crimes), and Provincial Court (busiest court dealing with less serious offences).

Question 19

What does the criminal justice funnel illustrate?

Answer 19

Fewer and fewer cases reach the next screening point (screening points: charges, cases, guilt, provincial custody, federal imprisonment). 100% of cases go through funnel so only 6% are actually caught and punished.

Question 20

What are some of the most pervasive violent crimes in Canada?

Answer 20

1) Assault Level 1 (2017- over 160 000 cases). 2) Uttering Threats (2017- 62 000 cases). 3) Assault level 2 (2017- 51 000 cases)

Question 21

Is crime increasing or decreasing? Why would you see a dramatic increase in crime?

Answer 21

Decreasing. When you see a dramatic increase, have to look at if a new law was recently implemented.

Question 22

What are some of the most pervasive property crimes in Canada?

Answer 22

1) Theft of 5000$ or under (500 000 in 2017). 2) Mischief (262 000 in 2017). 3) Breaking and Entering (159 000 in 2017, but a decrease in 40% over last 10 years).

Question 23

Discretion-Victims 1

Answer 23

Victims may not report crimes, though assumption is it’s their responsibility to report them.

Question 24

Why don’t victims report crimes?

Answer 24

Belief that the crime is not important enough, there’s nothing the police could do, the situation was dealt with another way, too personal.

Question 25

Discretion-Police

Answer 25

The police may choose not to lay charges against suspects-find cases to be unfounded, too minor. Almost half of all criminal suspects were not processed to the next stage even when police believed crime had been perpetrated.

Question 26

Discretion-Bail Hearings

Answer 26

Evidence shows that those denied bai are much less likely to be acquitted and more likely to be found guilty. Also more likely to incur longer sentences.

Question 27

Why was bail implemented and was it successful?

Answer 27

It was implemented to insure a person actually shows up to court, but it was shown that bail actually makes no difference, and people show up to court if they are told to.

Question 28

Discretion-Prosecution

Answer 28

Time between layering of arrest and when prosecution decides to proceed generates the greatest amount of contrition-greatest drop in number of accused. Half of cases are lost before they even reach the court.

Question 29

Why are charges stayed?

Answer 29

Quality of evidence generated by police, victim not wishing to testify, police striking deals with the accused.

Question 30

Discretion-Sentencing

Answer 30

Extra legal factors such as the characteristics of the accused sometimes affect sentencing decisions.

Question 31

What are Herbert Packer’s 2 models of our criminal justice system?

Answer 31

Crime control model- Higher rates of arrest, charging, conviction. Speed, efficiency, and incarceration for those found guilty is most important. Everyone who comes before the court is guilty. Assumed that police only target the guilty.
Due Process Model- Don’t care about guilt or innocence, care about the system being as close to perfect as possible with everyone’s rights upheld. Essential that innocent people are not convicted.

Question 32

What are the 5 sources of discretion?

Answer 32

Victims (main), police, bail hearings, prosecution, sentencing.