Introduction Flashcards
What are the 3 agencies of the criminal justice system?
Police, courts, and correctional system
What are the 2 legal definitions of crime?
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.
What are some of the problems associated with the legal definition of crime?
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.
What is the social definition of crime?
Crime is a violation of social norms and causes social injury or harm
What is the constructionist definition of crime?
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.
What does it mean that crime is a negotiated process?
Only some people are arrested and prosecuted, on a case by case basis (can be racial and class bias in this as well).
What are the 3 main objectives of the Canadian criminal justice system?
To control crime, to prevent crime, and to maintain justice. It is assumed that effective controls over crime results in the prevention of it.
What is the justice model of criminal justice?
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.
Why is the debate in how to define crime so significant?
Affects how we count crime, engage in crime, and how we design effective justice policies.
What is public vs private law?
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)
What are some of the issues with the criminal code in Canada?
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.
What are the 2 ways we classify crime?
Mala Prohibita- Refers to behaviour that is prohibited by law
Mala in se- refers to behaviour that is immoral or evil
What is the difference between summary offences, indictable offences, and hybrid offences?
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.
What are the 3 levels of policing in Canada?
Municipal (vast majority), provincial, and federal. In 2015, there were 68 777 sworn police officers in Canada.
How do Canadian courts function?
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.
What does adversarial mean in court context?
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
What are the statistics for correctional institutions in Canada?
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.
What are the 4 levels of court in Canada?
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).
What does the criminal justice funnel illustrate?
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.
What are some of the most pervasive violent crimes in Canada?
1) Assault Level 1 (2017- over 160 000 cases). 2) Uttering Threats (2017- 62 000 cases). 3) Assault level 2 (2017- 51 000 cases)
Is crime increasing or decreasing? Why would you see a dramatic increase in crime?
Decreasing. When you see a dramatic increase, have to look at if a new law was recently implemented.
What are some of the most pervasive property crimes in Canada?
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).
Discretion-Victims 1
Victims may not report crimes, though assumption is it’s their responsibility to report them.
Why don’t victims report crimes?
Belief that the crime is not important enough, there’s nothing the police could do, the situation was dealt with another way, too personal.
