MIDTERM 1 (chp 1,3,4,5) Flashcards

Question

What do conflict theorists believe?

Answer 1

Law reflects power relationships in society, as those with power use the law to help maintain their position.

Answer 2

- Yes. -> is about intention

Answer 3

- no → the sexual act is not a crime - the activities around the sexual act are criminalized (solicitation) and living off the avails of a prostitute (if you live off a prostitute's income)

Answer 4

Monetary losses are higher from white-collar crime.

Answer 5

- Jewellery, electronics, wallets

Answer 6

the media (TV and internet)

Answer 7

Comes from latin term crimen meaning accusation. - Legal definition: is what the law proclaims it to be and a crime is an act punishable by law. -> any act that contradicts the criminal code.

Answer 8

No! act DOES NOT make a person guilty, unless his/her mind is also guilty. - 2 parts: -> Actus Reus -> Mens rea - Prosecution must prove: accused behaviour cause the avent (AR) -> simultaneously accompanied by certain state of mind (MR).

Answer 9

Accused behaviour caused event. The act itself (sb must do sth that transgresses the criminal code)

Answer 10

A certain state of mind. - you also have to have the mental ability to know what you did was wrong - not talking about negligence - It is your responsibility to know what the laws are - Eg. lady who didn’t think she needed a license bc she was travelling → you should know that you do (know the laws of the country you go to) - the intention, the mental aspect of it → you have to have understood the consequences of your actions.

Answer 11

Those with mental disabilities. - there are certain groups in our society who are not able to form the mens rea - Eg. children under the age of 12 → by law children under the age of 12 are considered unable to form intent for crime → bc they are not able to process/understand the consequences of their actions - People with certain mental illnesses

Answer 12

Yes! Intention -> "guilty mind" -> the intent is there, and you have the mental capacity to understand what you were doing (you knew buying coke was wrong and you were trying to do that)

Answer 13

- Coined in 1885 by Italian Law professor Raffaele Garofalo (Criminologia) - Is now a discipline in its own right -- interdisciplinary study of crime - In Canada -> Denis Szabo -1960 first criminologist in Canada at the Universite de Montreal -> Centres for Criminology late 1970s -> First textbook -- early 1990s Rick Linden and Vince Sacco

Answer 14

- Universite de Montreal, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Simon Fraser University. -> Centres for Criminological Research throughout the country. - Purpose: -> teach and train next generation of criminal justice staff -> work on particular problems as set by Solicitor General and Dept. of Justice -> Engage in scientific research

Answer 15

Any research involving human subjects requires ethical clearance.

Answer 16

- Robbery. -> in general, we are more likely to be victimized by sb we know

Answer 17

- Yes, you stole. And you knew what you did was wrong. - The act is a crime, its only an offence when you get accused.

Answer 18

marginalized groups

Answer 19

- Frank Potts (1980s) , when making a case for centres of criminology in Canada (Simon Fraser, Centre for Criminology, Montreal), Stated: - To study criminology is to study one of mankind’s oldest and most stubborn problems...

Answer 20

military tribunal opened criminal proceedings against 23 leading German physicians for atrocities committed against humans in concentration camps during WWII. - Nuremburg Code was established in 1948, stating that "The (a) voluntary (b) consent of the human subject is absolutely essential," making it clear that subjects should give consent and that the benefits of research must outweigh the risks. - Basis of university ethics

Answer 21

1. Volunteers freely consent to participate 2. Researchers fully inform volunteers concerning the study 3. Risks associated with the study are reduced where possible 4. Researchers are responsible for protecting participants against remote harms 5. Participants can withdraw from the study at any time 6. Qualified researchers conduct the study 7. Cessation of the study if adverse effects emerge 8. Society should benefit from study findings 9. Research on humans, should be based on previous animal or other previous work 10. A research study should never begin if there is a reason to believe that death or injury may result

Answer 22

In 1964, the World Medical Association established recommendations guiding research involving human subjects. Issues addressed: - Research protocols should be reviewed by an independent committee prior to initiation - Informed consent from research participants is necessary - Research should be conducted by medically/scientifically qualified individuals - Risks should not exceed benefits.

Answer 23

- Why was it problematic? - no voluntary informed consent collected - they hid the true nature of their research - no ability to withdraw - the risks greatly outweighed the benefits - couldn’t protect the participants from harm - studied syphilis and those who didn’t have it in Black men (most marginalized ppl in society → took advantage of them (most marginalized0 in the name of science → racist overtones) - gave them incentives: free meals, free medical exams, free burial - at end of study, only 74 of the 600 men were still alive and many of their wives had been infected/their families had health

Answer 24

- studied syphilis and those who didn’t have it in Black men (most marginalized ppl in society → took advantage of them (most marginalized in the name of science → racist overtones) - gave them incentives: free meals, free medical exams, free burial - at end of study, only 74 of the 600 men were still alive and many of their wives had been infected/their families had health

Answer 25

- no getting voluntary informed consent - no ability to withdraw - was given incentives - did not protect participants - took advantage of participants - the risks greatly outweighed the benefits

Answer 26

Children with intellectual disabilities were intentionally given hepatitis in an attempt to track the development of the disease and develop a vaccine.

Answer 27

- In the first part, he befriended men by acting as a “lookout”. Since the public washroom was in a park the researcher was able to take down some of the men’s liscense plate numbers. He then obtained identifying information on these men by tracing their car liscense plates via the police. - A year later, in the second part of the study, the researcher utilized the identifying information he obtained to contact and subsequently, interview the men in their homes. To avoid being recognized, he altered his appearance and claimed he was conducting a study on health issues. - The concerns with this study were the use of deception upon deception and the lack of opportunity for participants to provide informed consent.

Answer 28

- Researchers must (usually) ensure: - Anonymity? - If you tell something about sth you did to a kid in the past, prof will tell the authorities -> eg crimes against children -> if you did anything else in the past, he will hold it in strict confidence → to keep credibility - Confidentiality research causes no undue harm to participants - informed consent of participants - have not disguised the true nature/purpose of the research (manipulation)

Answer 29

The crime funnel affects police-recorded crime rate. - Police cannot record unreported crime or crime of which they are unaware. - The further into the CJS you go, the more obvious it becomes that you are collecting statistics on how the CJS operates (that is, that you are counting official decisions) -> For example, data on the prison population provide valid indicators of one way that a society responds to crime, but are not a valid measure of the scope and nature of crime. - statistics that we count very well: incarcerated people → how many people are already in an institution at all times

Answer 30

- There is 441,000 break and enters -> (speculation) Only 31% of 441,000 reported to the police - Only 2% of that 1/3 were convicted and only 1% of those 2% spent any time in jail.

Answer 31

because much of it is committed in secret or goes unreported. - The major problem of crime statistics is the DARK FIGURE OF CRIME: -> crime that remains unreported, unrecorded, largely unknown

Answer 32

Crime that remains unreported, unrecorded, and largely unknown -> causes problem with crime statistics

Answer 33

The goal of Uniform Crime Reports is to provide uniform and comparable national statistics. - Benefits because it is based on rates (based on a numerical denominator → rate per hundred thousand → then can compare places and jurisdictions to one another), not raw or total numbers. - Anything that is reported to police gets added to the Uniform Crime Report - Is all the crime in a given year that gets reported and comes to the attention of the police (statistical accounting) - Allows, for comparisons between jurisdictions or over time, and - Shows us different trends as well - It is not influenced by differences in population size between jurisdictions, or changes in population size in one jurisdiction.

Answer 34

Staying about the same. - Total Crime Rate went down in 2020 - But are staying relatively the same - More domestic crimes being reported to police in 2020

Answer 35

About 10%.

Answer 36

About 20%.

Answer 37

- 53,688 youth accused of a Criminal Code offence (excluding traffic). - Which represents a 3% drop and has been on a long downward trend, declining for over two decades after peaking in 1991. - The rate of youth accused of violent crime increased 6%. - However, the violent youth crime rate increased, the Violent CSI (which measures both the volume and severity of crime involving youth accused (charged and not charged) decreased 4%, meaning that the relative severity of violent crime decreased, despite the volume of violent crime going up. In the Last Decade - Between 2011 and 2021, the rate of youth accused of crime fell - Crime rates for youth has fallen considerably since 1960s - Crime rate for youth is lowest its ever been now - result of widespread decreases in the rates of nearly all reported property and some violent violations

Answer 38

- What might explain reduction fo youth crime in 2002? → when the Youth Criminal Justice Act came into effect → implemented in 2003 → new mentality of governance toward youth crime → YCJA separated out the violent offender and the first time non-violent offender - Treated violent crimes much differently than first-time non-violent behaviour - When person is not charged, they don’t appear in the Criminal Justice System - So administration changes - Economic Fluctuations (eg. recession) - Economic downturn = more crime and criminality - Economic booms = less crime being reported (does not directly translate into a real drop in crime) - Demography changes - Young ppl between 18-24 are the most likely to be convicted of crimes - If there was a reduction in individuals who were at that age → correlates to a decrease in crime and criminality - Less people in the group, less crime and criminality

Answer 39

Between 2011 and 2021, the rate of youth accused of crime fell - Crime rates for youth has fallen considerably since 1960s - Crime rate for youth is lowest its ever been now - result of widespread decreases in the rates of nearly all reported property and some violent violations

Answer 40

- too minor - police won’t do anything - inconvenient - reported to another official - personal matter - protecting offender - revenge - not sure if the behaviour is actually criminal

Answer 41

- Anything that deals with loss of property or money (financial loss) - bc of insurance purposes → in order to get money through insurance, you have to report it and have a police report number in order to have it go through insurance - Homicide

Answer 42

- Allows ppl to be anonymous - Victimization studies cannot capture the entire "dark figure" of crime by the UCR, but victimization data show that many more Canadians are victimized than is revealed by official statistics. - Some categories of offenders are less likely to be reported (eg. family members) - Victimization surveys go beyond merely counting crime. -> - They provide data on costs of victimization, financial losses, physical injuries, and fear - Data allows us to explore various dimensions of seriousness - Give us a sense of what ages of ppl are more likely to be victimized)

Answer 43

- Elders most fear violent crime. - 15 to 29 are most at risk for violent crime

Answer 44

1. theft under $5000 2. drug offences 3. administration of justice issues (Eg. go into Build-a-Bear and doesn’t have a wallet → tucks the bear under his jacket and walks out → caught by security and is reported → sentence to criminal service → refuses to do it ) 4. Common assault - level 1 (does not involve the use of weapon or cause bodily harm)

Answer 45

- Victimization surveys - Done every 5 years - Key findings - Fraud is increasing at a really high level - 2.5 million reported being the victim of fraud, 7% of Canadian population 15+. - Highest in Alberta

Answer 46

- New technology - Widespread use of the internet - have changed the way we interact, consume and work. - Shopping online - Increase in online banking - Our presence on the internet - Changes have disrupted the way crime manifests itself with technologies providing criminals with new opportunities. - Fastest growing crime in Canada

Answer 47

- Dark figure - What type of crime(s) do police tend to focus on? - Crime is a social construct. - As a social construct, the labelling of an act as crime is sensitive to variation in: - Reporting - Policing - Definitions - Administration - Media Attention

Answer 48

- do ppl always tell the truth? - do ppl always remember if it happened that year? or a previous year? - cannot measure some crimes (homicide) - very costly - Have to pay them for their data - Have to pay sb to go through the data → whereas if you’re using secondary data like the UCR, then its easy bc the data has already been collected and sorted for you - sampling problem - who is actually going to talk about this → do they always tell the truth - typically conducted over the phone → have to call ppl - there are populations that don’t have phones → marginalized → how do we contact them? → changes are that population is going to be missed.

Answer 49

Those who use official statistics for the purpose of research don’t require ethical clearance bc it is seen as secondary data → not interacting with data

Answer 50

- Rather than relying on police data, why not just ask criminals what they do and how often they do it? - The people who know the most about crime are those who break the law. - The most common self-report studies are administered among a specific population (for example, secondary school students) -> Students are asked questions about whether they have committed a crime, the nature of the crime, and when.

Answer 51

Those who are typically law abiding are more likely to report their occasional infractions compared to more serious and chronic offenders. - Respondents tend to report minor infractions and downplay more serious infractions. - Some demographic groups are more apt to underreport criminal behaviour - It is often difficult to survey serious, chronic offenders. - Eg. you want to study auto theft and go to individual schools to survery about it → go to different public schools across the city → your data won’t be reliable bc it doesn’t take into account youth who are involved with said criminality → what is the likelihood they’ll be in school. -> Validity (does it actually measure what we’re trying to measure) and reliability (can you repeat this study and get the same results?) challenges

Answer 52

Variables that are connected with crime - A correlate is “a phenomenon that accompanies another phenomenon and is related in some way to it.”

Answer 53

A correlate is “a phenomenon that accompanies another phenomenon and is related in some way to it.”

Answer 54

Why does the crime rate go up if there are more churches in an area? - Concentration of ppl - Seasonal? - The area → highest concentration of churches in Edmonton in downtown → 118 Boyle street → also highest population of homeless and poorest area in the city - The more ice cream that is consumed, the more crime there is. Thus, eating ice cream leads to crime. → is this true? - The more ppl are out and about (in summer) the more potential for crime. - Heat of summer makes ppl irritable - After 9 months of winter ppl go out → more likely to be out and about, more people interacting in public spaces

Answer 55

We measure crime that is committed by strangers much better than crime committed in homes

Answer 56

There is a third variable that intervenes which helps explain that occurrence (ice cream eating and increased crime) - A third variable conditions the deviant outcome - People erroneously believe that there is a **causal relationship** between the two primary variables rather than they recognize that a **third variable** can cause both. → correlation does NOT equal causation - Eg. more ppl eat ice cream when its hot and so more ppl go out when its hot - those who lack schooling and more likely to commit crimes → does that mean lack of education causes crime → no - We can never draw a direct line between sex (female or male) and criminality

Answer 57

- An association - A relationship between two (or more) variables - Positive - Negative - One THING is related to another THING

Answer 58

Correct answer: E. NONE OF THE ABOVE - Bc there is no such thing as a causal relation when it comes to criminal behaviour (causal: when X happens, Y always happens) - X (poverty) does not lead to Y outcome (crime)

Answer 59

- Age and sex (female and male) - Crime is a **“young man’s game”** - UNIVERSALLY, **YOUNG MALES** COMMIT MORE CRIME THAN OLDER PEOPLE. → strongest correlation is sex (being a man) → positive association between being male and crime and criminality

Answer 60

- Celebrate? Tolerate? Condemn? - Focus on youth as offenders - Victims of Y.C. are more likely to be peers, not adults - youth = 10% of Canadian population, but 20% - Emphasizing youth **offending** → 1. distorts thinking about relationship between youth and crime; 2. Social policies directed more toward punitive measures than remedial ones - We see youth as “troubling” → that they are causing crime → we only focus on the outcome of these behaviours (the end result: drug abuse, stealing, vandalism) → leads to more punitive types of intervention/punishment - Ppl get most of their info about crime and criminality from traditional media and social media - When you get info about youth crime from this way, they don’t talk about who the young person is → they just talk about their behaviour -> Create social policies directly toward punishing - BUT we need to account for the fact that youth are troubled → youth is fraut with difficulties, pitfalls and challenges, mental health issues. → young ppl experiencing the world change in very acute ways. - We often see them as being troubling instead of troubled

Answer 61

- CR data revel peak is what age? - 17-19 years - The highest rate of crime is for… - 18-24 make up 12% of population and account for **31%** of criminal court cases - 25-34 make up 17% of population and account for **28%** of criminal court cases - Is association stronger for property or violent crimes?

Answer 62

18-24, make up 12% of population and account for **31%** of criminal court cases.

Answer 63

- People will act the part and forgo individual identity crises - What is more important: the environment or a persons personality/identity? - Would the person’s personality be more important than the situation? → NO.

Answer 64

- Ability to withdraw at any time - That it does more good than harm - Not/reducing harm to the prisoners - As research study should never begin if there is a reason to be believe that death or injury may result. - Cessation of the study if adverse effects emerge. - Weren’t fully informed about the extent of the experiment - The people who were the prisoners did not consent to be picked up by the police at their homes → and has an impact on how they see themselves. - Any time a participant shows and emotional reaction, researchers have to respond and react/find support for that individual. - Zimbardo did kind of do this → gave them a hot meal but also urged them to continue on so not really good - Said the guy who went into a rage was “playing crazy”

Answer 65

a body of jurisprudence that includes the definitions of the various crimes and the specification of the respective penalties but also. a set of general principles concerning criminal responsibility and a series of defences to a criminal charge.

Answer 66

(1) legislation (2) judicial decisions that either interpret such legislation or state the “common law”

Answer 67

(1) a prohibition against certain conduct (2) a penalty for violating that prohibition. → However, when the courts are required to decide whether Parliament has enacted legislation that legitimately falls within the scope of its criminal law power, a third element must be added to the definition of crime: the prohibition and penalty must be directed against a “public evil” or some form of behaviour that is having an injurious effect on the Canadian public.

Answer 68

legislation that defines various criminal offences (such as murder, manslaughter, and theft) and that specifies the various legal elements that must be present before a conviction can be entered against an accused person. → also refers to the legislation that define the nature and scope of such defense as provocation, duress, and self-defence.

Answer 69

A body of legislation that specifies the procedure to be followed in the prosecution of a criminal case and that defines the nature and scope of the powers of criminal justice officials. - Eg. the provisions of the Criminal Code classify offences into 3 categories: 1. Indictable offences 2. offences punishable on *summary conviction* 3. *“mixed” or “hybrid” offences*, which may be tried either as indictable or as a summary conviction offences. -> Indictable offences carry the most serious penalties upon conviction of the accused.

Answer 70

when an individual engages in conduct that is not only prohibited, but also constitutes a serious breach of community values; as such, it is perceived by Canadians as inherently wrong and deserving of punishment. Only the parliament of Canada. using its Criminal Law power under the Constitution Act 1867, may enact a “true crime”.

Answer 71

arise under legislation (either federal, provincial, or territorial) that regulates inherently legitimate activities connected with trade, commerce and industry, or with everyday living (driving, fishing). These offences are not considered to be serious and usually carry only a relatively minor penalty upon conviction. Many regulatory offences are sanctioned by means of a ticketing system, and the fines may often be paid online. → classified as quasi-criminal law.

Answer 72

that body of judge-made law that evolved in areas not covered by legislation.

Answer 73

As an entrenched bill of rights, the Charter empowers judges to declare any piece of legislation to be invalid—and of no force or effect—if the latter infringes on an individual’s Charter rights. - charter -> part of the Canadian constitution. Sets out those rights and freedoms that Canadians believe are necessary in a free and democratic society.

Answer 74

actus reus and mens rea. → means that an accused person may not be convicted of a criminal offence unless the prosecution can prove the following beyond reasonable doubt: - 1. that a particular event or state of affairs was “caused” by the accused person’s conduct (actus reus) → includes and element of voluntariness 2. that this conduct was simultaneously accompanied by a certain state of mind (mens rea)

Answer 75

- conduct (a voluntary act or omission constituting the central feature of the crime); - the surrounding or “material” circumstances; and - the consequences of the voluntary conduct -> For example, in order to prove that an accused person is guilty of the offence of assault causing bodily harm (section 267 of the Criminal Code), the Crown must establish that the accused applied force to the body of the victim (conduct); that the force was applied without the consent of the victim (circumstances); and that the application of force caused bodily harm (consequences). -> voluntary part: If a driver is repeatedly stung by a swarm of bees and crashes his or her vehicle, the accident will be considered the consequence of a series of reflex actions that were beyond the driver’s control; clearly, they did not flow from the free exercise of his or her will.

Answer 76

perjury →does not require proof of any consequences. → provided the accused person knowingly makes a false statement with intent to mislead the court, they will be guilty of perjury even though not a single person actually believed the false statement. - Occasionally, the actus reus of an offence does not contain the requirement that the accused enaged in conduct of any kind; instead, the Crown must prove that the accused was found in a particular “state” or “condition”. → eg being drunk or impaired and getting in a vehicle to drive but you don’t actually drive it (vehicle may be stationary) - The answer is that a failure to act can constitute a crime only if the accused was under a pre-existing legal duty to act. - A good illustration is the duty owed by a parent to a small child to provide the latter with the “necessaries of life”—for example, by feeding the child and providing him or her with necessary medical care (section 215 of the Criminal Code).

Answer 77

- ll mental elements (other than voluntariness) that the Crown must prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) in order to obtain a conviction for a criminal offence. - Ensures that only those defendants who are morally blameworthy are convicted of “true crimes” under the Criminal Code.

Answer 78

(1) subjective (2) objective

Answer 79

- based on the notion that accused person may not be convicted of a criminal offence unless (a) they *deliberately intended* to bring about the consequences prohibited by the law, (b) *subjectively realized* that their conduct might bring about such prohibited consequences but recklessly continued with that conduct in spite of their knowledge of the risks involved, or (c) were *willfully blind* in that they deliberately closed their minds to the obvious criminality of their actions. - constitutes a requirement that the accused *deliberately chose to do sth wrong.*

Answer 80

predicated on the principle that accused persons should be convicted of certain offences, not because they intended to bring about the prohibited consequences or acted recklessly, but rather bc reasonable people, in the same situation, would have appreciated that their conduct created a risk causing harm and would have taken action to avoid doing so. - the culpability lies in the fact that *the accused person had the capacity to live up to the standard of care expected of a reasonable person and failed to do so.* - premise: a reasonable person in the accused’s position would have been aware of the risks arising from the conduct.

Answer 81

1. Intention and knowledge 2. recklessness - the accused knows that their conduct could cause certain prohibited consequences but deliberately proceeds with that conduct bc they do not care one way or another. 3. wilful blindness - where accused persons have every reason to make some kind of inquiry as to whether there are circumstances that would render their conduct criminally but deliberately choose to shut their eyes to the obvious bc they wish to avoid being convicted of an offence.

Answer 82

Crown only has to prove the actus reus elements of the offence; the onus is then on the accused to prove, on the balance of possibilities, that he or she was not negligent (or that he or she “acted with due diligence).

Answer 83

one is party to— and liable to conviction—of a criminal offence if one actually commits it, aids and/or abets it, becomes a party to it by virtue of having formed a common intention with others to commit a crime, or counsels the commission of an offence that is actually committed by another person. → even if the offence was committed in a way different from that which was counselled. - Each of these individuals is considered a party to any offence committed by the other person(s) who entered the original agreement provided that (1) this other offence was committed in order to carry out the “common purpose” and (2) these individuals either knew or ought to have known that the commission of this other offence “would be a probable consequence of carrying out the common purpose.”

Answer 84

a criminal offence that is committed when the accused person seeks to bring about the commission of a particular crime but is not successful in doing so (or never brought to fruitition). The 3 inchoate offences in the criminal code are attempt, conspiracy, and counselling. - accused persons must take some form of action that manifests their intention to commit a crime; in counselling, the accused must encourage another person to commit a crime; in attempt, the accused must take a substantial step towards completion of a crime; and, in conspiracy, the accused must enter into an agreement to commit a crime. - section 22 of the criminal code: it is a crime to counsel (procuring, soliciting, or inciting another person to commit a crime) another person to commit an offence that is not ultimately brought to fruition.

Answer 85

a criminal attempt occurs when an individual does—or omits to do—anything for the purpose of carrying out a previously formed intention to commit a crime. The conduct in question must constitute a substantial step towards the completion of the crime that is intended. → is an offence - what is important is that the accused person seriously intended to commit the crime and that there is a real likelihood that, having failed on this particular occasion, the accused will try again and, perhaps, be more successful on that subsequent occasion.

Answer 86

an agreement by 2 or more persons to commit a criminal offence. -- the *actus reus* of conspiracy is the agreement to engage in criminal conduct - *mens rea* component consists of the intent not only to enter into this agreement but also to implement it. - Crown must prove that there are at least two persons who seriously intended to implement the plan

Answer 87

Special verdict of “not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder.” In order to be found NCRMD it must be proved on the balance of probabilities that, because of mental disorder, the accused lacked the capacity to appreciate the nature and quality of the act or omission in question or to know it would be considered morally wrong by the average Canadian. - in practice, only those accused persons who, at the time of the alleged offence, were experiencing the symptoms associated with a severe mental disorder are likely to be found NCRMD (for example, the hallucinations and or delusions that may be caused by schizophrenia or bipolar affective disorder)

Answer 88

may be a defence where the accused person acts under the influence of an honest mistake in relation to any of the actus reus of the offence charged. - For example, if a woman participates in a marriage ceremony with a man, erroneously believing that her first husband is dead, she is not guilty of the crime of bigamy. - - If the accused honestly believes that she is a widow, then—in the circumstances as she perceives them to be—she is not committing a prohibited act because she is no longer married to her first spouse. - When the accused operates under a mistake of fact, he or she is really stating that the Crown has failed to prove the necessary mens rea of the offence. -> section 273.2(b) of the Criminal Code (enacted in 1992) states that mistaken belief in consent will not be a valid defence to a charge of sexual assault unless the accused took “reasonable steps, in the circumstances known to the accused at the time, to ascertain that the complainant was consenting.”

Answer 89

may be a defence to a criminal charge when the accused person commits the lesser evil of a crime in order to avoid the occurrence of a greater evil. - arises when an accused person can avoid some disaster of calamity only by breaking the law → eg. the lost Aplinist, who on the point of freezing to death, breaks open an isolated mountain cabin.

Answer 90

may be a defence to a criminal charge when the accused was forced to commit a crime as a consequence of threats of death or serious bodily harm made by another person.

Answer 91

may be a partial defence to a charge of murder (if successful it reduces the charge from murder to manslaughter). Required elements are (1) that the accused responded to the commission of a serious crime by the victim against the accused in circumstances that were of such a nature that an ordinary person would have been likely to lose the power of self-control, and (2) that the accused acted “on the sudden and before their was time for their passion to cool.”

Answer 92

a person may use a reasonable amount of force in self-defence if he or she reasonably believes that they or another individual are the target of actual force or a threat of force that is being made against them.

Answer 93

- Heimer and De Coster (1999): the gender gap in violent crime is the result of structural positions and cultural processes: -> violent delinquency is a function of social learning of violent definitions by males and females. -> where do boys learn these roles? -> parents, peers... - - ependant on how those boys grow up → its okay to be risky, physical - opportunity and opportunity structures → feminity constructed around different expectations - female double punishment → offending the law and offending expectations around being a good girl. - Gender differences: boys learn more violent definitions and have more experience with physical violence.

Answer 94

- Historically, the working and immigrant classes have been seen as responsible for crime. -> - small towns → you couldn’t get away with crime bc your family will probably know before you get home - cities make it harder to know what happened like we do in small towns → don’t even know our neighbours → chances of resolving things aren’t as great - when we formed cities → had a working class/working poor → saw them as a threat → needed a way to police them so we made the police - They have been referred to as the “dangerous class” “criminal class” or “underclass.” - -**There are explicit socio-economic correlations**: - People at the margins of society - the unemployed - people in poverty, with little education, dependency, etc

Answer 95

- The relationship between SES and crime is complex. - Police typically concentrated in those areas which are impoverished → focus our police resources in inner-city → vast majority of our police are concentrated on street crime and criminality. → so the poor are most likely to be targeted. - People with low SES are overrepresented in police-reported statistics. - This is in part because the crimes of the “middle and upper crime class systematically escaped official notice” (Gaylord & Galliher, 1988, 68). (Types of Crimes) - “Relationship between class and crime is class and crime specific” (Hagan, 1992, 9). - Different classes are involved in different crimes because they have different opportunities to commit crimes.

Answer 96

- Some minority groups are overrepresented (disproportionate relative to their portion of the population) in police-reported crime statistics in Canada. For example: - Eg. if they made up 10% of the population but make up 30% of the crime stats, they are overrepresented (more than they are in the population) - eg. In Canada, Indigenous ppl eg. Black Canadians are: more likely to be stopped and searched (racially-profiled) by police -> more likely to recieve tougher sentence from courts compared to white people -> disproportionately represented in correctional institutions

Answer 97

Problems facing indigenous people in the Canadian CJS: - - More likely to be denied bail - More time is spent in pretrial detention - More likely to be charged with multiple offences - More likely not to have representation at court proceedings - More than twice as likely to be incarcerated than non-Indigenous offenders

Answer 98

- Indigenous youth are overrepresented in custody and the numbers are increasing - made up 43% of admissions to correctional services in the nine reporting jurisdictions, while representing about 8% of the Canadian youth population

Answer 99

- - Structural Racism - The CJS reflects dominant group’s norms and values and favours that group. - Racism in the CJS is not an aberration; it is “normal.” - Intersectionality (intersecting forms of oppression) - Can’t point to just one factor → most important factor is structural racism which is built in. - Long history of colonialism

Answer 100

D. ALL OF THE ABOVE

Answer 101

- Focus on youth as offenders - Victims of Y.C. are more likely to be peers, not adults - youth = 10% of Canadian population, but 20% - Emphasizing youth **offending** → 1. distorts thinking about relationship between youth and crime; 1. Social policies directed more toward punitive measures than remedial ones - We see youth as “troubling” → that they are causing crime → we only focus on the outcome of these behaviours (the end result: drug abuse, stealing, vandalism) → leads to more punitive types of intervention/punishment - Ppl get most of their info about crime and criminality from traditional media and social media - When you get info about youth crime from this way, they don’t talk about who the young person is → they just talk about their behaviour - Create social policies directly toward punishing - Are all youth like this? - BUT we need to account for the fact that youth are troubled → youth is fraut with difficulties, pitfalls and challenges, mental health issues. → young ppl experiencing the world change in very acute ways. - We often see them as being troubling instead of troubled

Answer 102

- CR data revel peak is what age? - 17-19 years - The highest rate of crime is for… - 18-24 make up 12% of population and account for **31%** of criminal court cases - 25-34 make up 17% of population and account for **28%** of criminal court cases

Answer 103

consistency of results over time

Answer 104

- the extent to which the tool (questionnaire, experiment) actually measures the concept the researcher claims to be interested in and not something else. - are the methods and techniques involved in gathering statistics strong enough that anyone following the procedures would produce the same counts (reliability)? And do the statistics collected count what they purport to count (validity)?

Answer 105

calculated by dividing the amount of crime by the population size and multiplying by 100,000. → produces the standard rate per 100,000.

Answer 106

The criminal justice system operates as a funnel: only some fraction of incidents result in a police record of a criminal incident, only a portion of recorded incidents result in suspects identified, only a portion of suspects are arrested or charged, only a portion of charges result in conviction, and only a portion of convictions result in incarceration.

Answer 107

- Units of account -> Consensus about what it is that we are counting - Levels of aggregation -> Consensus about how to combine data - Do we want to combine police records for a city? Do we want to combine stats for an entire province? - Definitions -> - Consensus about how to define what is being counted - eg. what constitutes an “inmate”: should one count those who are temporarily absent, or those on remand, or those in community correctional facilities, or those who have committed criminal acts and have been assigned to mental institutions? - Data elements -> - Consensus about what specific information should be collected - police will need certain kinds of info to help them in their investigative activities. - Counting Procedures -> - Consensus on how to count units and elements - Eg. if an offender goes on a break-and-enter spree and hits six houses in an evening, how many offences should be counted—six (one offence per house) or one (on a singular spree)? And if, during a break and enter, an offender is confronted by the homeowner and assaults him or her, is this one or two offences.

Answer 108

No, they tell us more about the criminal justice system.

Answer 109

- dark figure of crime -> crime that remains unreported, unrecorded, and largely unknown.

Answer 110

- is not always entirely clear what we want to count. - count of crimes includes violations of the Criminal Code, violations of other federal and provincial statutes, and violations of some municipal bylaws. - treats property and personal crime differently → several property crimes, even if they have different victims, may be recorded as a single offence if they are considered part of the same incident. - may tell us more about police activities than about crime - official statistics seriously underreport the actual numbers of crimes.

Answer 111

- a count of the total amount of crime in a given community. - eg. if you include traffic convictions between 1901 and 1965 (when people started driving cars), the gross counts of crime may be up an alarmingly high percentage.

Answer 112

a survey of a random sample of the population in which people are asked to recall and describe their own experience of being a victim of crime. - acts that the Criminal Code defines as criminal - asked to describe the nature and consequences of their victimization experiences; to describe the criminal justice response; to indicate whether victims or others brought the incidents to official attention, and if not, why not; and to indicate their perceptions of and attitudes toward crime and criminal justice. - conducted about every 5 years. - not for all crimes like murder, or consensual crimes where there are no direct victims—eg. drug use, gambling, etc. - The categories included were sexual assault, robbery, assault, break and enter, motor vehicle theft, theft of household property, theft of personal property, and vandalism. - these surveys do reveal that many more Canadians are victimized than is revealed by official statistics. - useful in identifying those categories of people most at risk of criminal victimization. - risk of victimization is lowest for older Canadians, especially those 65 years of age or older. - the typical victim of crime is young, single, male, not employed fill-time, and living an active social life. → number of evenings spent outside the home is one of the best indicators of whether a person has been victimized.

Answer 113

Sexual assault

Answer 114

- Crime was minor and not worth taking the time to report - Police wouldn’t have considered incident important enough - Lack of evidence - Police wouldn’t have found property/offender

Answer 115

- those who are typically law-abiding are more likely to report completely their occasional infractions than are the committed delinquents to report their more serious and frequent infractions. - differences between official statistics of delinquent behaviour and self-report data may reflect not simply biases in official data, but biases in the self-report method as well.

Answer 116

Corrections data are the most reliable and valid because the task of counting prisoners can be done accurately. By contrast, crimes known to the police, the most commonly used statistics, will always be biased by inconsistencies in reporting and recording, although the CCJS is very stringent about verifying data.

Answer 117

Yes. Administrative records can be the basis of statistics if clear procedures are developed about units of count, levels of data aggregation, definitions, data elements, and counting procedures.

Answer 118

The Canadian Uniform Crime Report (UCR) system is designed to provide uniform and compatible national statistics. There is much debate about just what is counted. Some hold that the UCR provides a reasonable estimate of crime rates. Others hold that what is being measured is criminal justice processing.

Answer 119

The crime rates provided by the UCR, based on crimes reported to the police, have declined since the peak year of 1991. Both violent and property crimes have declined. The police-reported crime rate in 2013 was the lowest recorded since 1969, 33 percent below the police-reported crime rate in 2003. In 2016, the national CSI increased 1 percent from 70.1 in 2015 to 71.0, but remained 29 percent lower than a decade earlier in 2006.

Answer 120

- a phenomenon that accompanies another phenomenon and is related to it in some way. - Correlates of crime are variables that are connected with crime. - Correlates of crime include socio-demographic variables: age, gender, ethno-racial background, and socioeconomic status, as well as the spatial location of offences. - Correlation is not the same as causation. - do not CAUSE crime

Answer 121

- Young people are disproportionately represented in crime generally and in violent crime in particular. - Criminal activity intensifies in adolescence and young adulthood and declines thereafter. - with the exceptions being political crimes, corruption, and other white-collar crimes; all of these require structural opportunities and employment opportunities that are not yet available to young ppl. - In 2014/15 persons aged 18 to 34 were involved in 58% of all the cases (criminal court) - Most crimes committed by Canadian youth are nonviolent. - Theft under $5000 is the most common offence committed by youth.

Answer 122

- Maturational reform - the fact that people are less likely to commit crime as they grow older. - Basic explanation: adolescence is a period of transition marked by ambiguity. Young ppl are neither children nor adults. - The confusion, marginality, and “in-between-ness” of adolescents’ social position may be conducive to criminal behaviour, for these provide little incentive for noncriminal lifestyles; adults, by contrast, enjoy greater incentives to conform, such as jobs and marriage.

Answer 123

1. aging brings physiological limitations 2. the formation of various types of social bonds, such as work, marriage, and children, means that individuals have other people who depend on them to make the “right” choices. 3. maturational reform involves a more socially responsible trajectory of human agency → eg. beyond a certain age, “getting wasted” on weekends may no longer sound as attractive a course of action as it is for younger ppl - Maturational reform intertwined with life course theory. - Life course theory is concerned with the “role of age-graded transitions and social controls” - How social bonds such as attachment to a spouse, pursuit of education, and the onset of major life events or turning points such as having children or stable employment help reduce the likelihood of involvement in crime.

Answer 124

- Females are less likely to be charged with criminal offences - But the last 3 decades have seen an increase in the number of females charged with criminal involvement. - Males are still greatly overrepresented in crime. - in 2014-2015 males made up 80% of all accused persons in adult criminal courts. - Males were generally more likely than females to be involved in violent and serious offences. - Males made up 98% of the accused in sexual assault cases, 89% of robbery cases, 86% of homicide cases, and 77% of major assault cases. - Females were most commonly accused of theft (35%) and fraud (33%). - Adult female sentences were generally shorter than those given to male counterparts. - Why do women receive more lenient treatment in the courts? → main reason is that males commit more serious crimes, especially more violent offences. → also female offenders’ responsibility for young children is another factor that influences court decisions.

Answer 125

- 86% of persons accused of homicide in 2016 were male. - Most homicide victims are male (75%) - Both males and females are more likely to killed by males. - Boys have higher rates of violent delinquency partly because they tend to learn more violent definitions and gender definitions and have greater experience with violent crimes than girls. - The most violent males are those who are the most disadvantaged.

Answer 126

the hypothesis that as the work roles of women become similar to those of men, so will their involvement in crime. - as women leave the domestic sphere for the world of wage labour, there should be an increase in female crime.

Answer 127

- Race is not as strongly related to crime as age and sex. - The evidence the does exist suggests that some minority groups are overrepresented in police-reported crime statistics. - In Canada, indigenous people are overrepresented. - Evidence from US: lacks are arrested for drug offences at 2 to 11 times higher rates than whites, and black offenders receive sentences that are 10 to 20 percent longer than those given to white offenders for the same crimes

Answer 128

There are actual differences between racial groups in terms of the incidence, level of seriousness, and persistence of offending patterns.

Answer 129

structural inequality in the administration of justice (from police patrols to courtrooms to correctional services) is responsible for the overrepresentation of minority groups in the criminal justice process.

Answer 130

- Indigenous people are overrepresented in the criminal justice process. - In 2015–16, 31 percent of the male youth population in custody and community services were Indigenous males; Indigenous females represented 44 percent of female youth admitted to custody and community services. - . Indigenous adults are also greatly overrepresented in the prison population. Although Indigenous adults made up 3 percent of the Canadian adult population, they comprised 26 percent of those admitted to provincial and territorial services and 28 percent in federal custody in 2015–16

Answer 131

- close to cultural conflict theory → Indigenous cultures are viewed as different from the dominant Euro-Canadian culture in content and/or manner of expression. - not a really good explanation bc it assumes that Indigenous culture hasn’t chnaged over time and is the same for all Indigenous groups - Structural theories: - Colonial model - historic transmission model - critical race theory

Answer 132

focuses on the intersection of “structural oppression, alienation and three adaptive forms of behaviour—assimilation, crime or deviance, and protest” - 4 stages of colonialism: 1. the territory of one racial group is invaded by another. 2. A colonial society is formed where cultural imposition (Indigenous populations are forced to adopt the values and ways of life of the colonial power), cultural disintegration, and cultural re-creation occur. 3. Native ppl find themselves governed by representative of the colonizer’s power, such as the police or military. 4. The colonial society develops a caste system based on race. → access to socially valuable resources such as land, jobs, and education is shaped by racial considerations.

Answer 133

emphasizes the social and psychological consequences of colonialism. - The focus is on how historic trauma manifests itself socially and psychologically. In particular, this model demonstrates how “acculturation (and a loss of the social self) is often associated with alcoholism, drug addiction, family disintegration and suicide” - This model argues that when a group of people experience physical extermination, cultural genocide, and colonial subjugation, members of the group develop “learned helplessness” -> First, through biological channels, which include inherited predispositions to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). These conditions have been linked to some Indigenous youths’ inability to articulate thoughts, and also to their confusion with adjudication processes (Greenberg, Grekul, and Nelson 2012). Second, traumatic memories are passed on through storytelling and other culturally sanctioned behaviours. Third, historic trauma is passed on as a direct result of violence, deficient parenting, the acting out of abuse, and other social ills. Fourth, there are psychological avenues involving memory and individual recollections of pain, suffering, and debilitating social conditions (66).

Answer 134

It challenges the policies and dynamics and taken-for-granted assumptions of institutional power. - It adopts a social constructionist approach to race, the law, and justice. A social constructionist approach questions the idea that there is a social reality that is observable or measurable, positing instead that multiple realities pervade the social world. In other words, crime is what a society defines it to be and is not an objective fact. - The notion of “legal indeterminacy” is central to critical race theory. This concept means that “not every legal case has one correct outcome” - Critical race theory focuses on racial subordination, racism, and discrimination. It also examines the intersection of race, gender, and class in the criminal justice process.

Answer 135

- the idea that the law reflects the dominant group’s norms and values and favours that group. - presupposes that the enforcement and interpretation of the law is subjective. That is, the law is not colour-blind. - holds that racism in the justice process is not an aberration; rather, it is “normal.” - the law is in fact not an objective entity. Its enactment, enforcement, and interpretation are subjective processes; as a result, groups that are not well situated to make, enforce, and interpret laws often bear the brunt of the criminal justice system - So from this perspective, Indigenous people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system because of their systematic exclusion from the conventional opportunity structures of society and because of overpolicing and harsh sentences.

Answer 136

- People with low SES are overrepresented in police-reported statistic partly bc the criminal behaviour of the “middle and upper crime class systematically escaped official notice.” - various classes are involved in different kinds of criminal behaviour because they have differential access to opportunity structures for committing crime. - Male children of employer-class parents were found to be more likely to commit copyright violations (Hagan and Kay 1990), while theft was common among young people from poorer families

Answer 137

1. the link between SES and crime is an indirect one that operates through mediating variables, which include people’s attitudes, behaviours, neighbourhood, peer networks, family conditions, cultures, economic opportunities, and so on 2. low SES promotes delinquency—that is, it serves as a catalyst for delinquency because it causes alienation, financial strain, and aggression even while reducing individuals’ educational and occupational aspirations. 3. high SES promotes delinquency by reducing adherence to conventional values while increasing social power and risk-taking behaviours.

Answer 138

1. Indictable offences 2. offences punishable on *summary conviction* 3. *“mixed” or “hybrid” offences*, which may be tried either as indictable or as a summary conviction offences.

Answer 139

Since Canada is a federal state, legislation may be enacted both by the Parliament of Canada and by the legislatures of the various provinces and territories. (FEDERAL LEGISLATION) - regulatory offences are dealt with by municipal and provincial gov'ts but this does not make it a SOURCE of criminal law (this is "quasi" criminal law)

MIDTERM 1 (chp 1,3,4,5) Flashcards

(166 cards)