Week 6: Considerations in the Study of Criminal Justice Flashcards
What are some lenses used to explore the empirical variance in how groups experience the CJS?
Conflict, Marxist, Feminist, Colonial view, Racial lens
Each theory addresses in part, the larger question of what kind of state is the Canadian state, and how does this affect CJS
What is an example of consensus theory in Canadian law?
What is the conflict puzzle of the 19th century?
Charter, universal health care
How is social order possible in an increasingly complex and changing society, and in light of increasing competition and conflict associated with the transition to industrialization and capitalism
How does Karl Marx explain the emergence of conflict society and the importance of law in the application of conflict theory?
Stresses the role of criminal law in smoothing the transition to capitalism by “re-educating” the people
- private property and the elimination of collective rights and protections
- legal shift to a system that supports the accumulation of capital
- criminal law: (content and enforcement) served to protect and legitimize the interests of the more politically and economically powerful groups in society
What is the dialectical approach?
Fancy way of saying that law is both and outcome of specific history/social relations and can shape those same conditions (product and producer) ]
What are the key premises of critical approaches?
What are the two main questions posed by critical approaches to law? what important shortcoming of the critical approach is addressed here?
Key premise
- Dominant groups will seek to protect and reproduce their privileges - when others seek to change things, the state is the site where they pursue this
Effort to go beyond conflict theory
- How do social structures contextualize, shape or limit social relations and shape political outcomes
- What can be done to challenge the existing situation
Acknowledge that social power can be wielded by members of the underclass and that we do see important changes and improvements sometimes
What, according to critical approach, are the two functions of the state?
- Accumulate capital
2. Foster and maintain social cohesion
What is the feminists’ approach to law? name a few issues that are dealt with in a feminist view
Liberal, radical, Marxist
Early engagement: participation in politics (persons case), now: decriminalization of sex work, gender inequality in the wage gap, importance of access to childcare
What is Canada’s (specifically TO’s) history with racial profiling?
Racial profiling recognized as common practice (conceded by Crown in R. v. Brown 2003) based on social science evidence in Canada and other countries
- TO: black people are 2-3 times more likely to be stopped by police and asked for ID (carded)
- 2015 Yasir Naqvi - Ontario minister of community safety announced new regulatory
What are the aims of the new restrictions surrounding police carding?
- expressly prohibit the random and arbitrary collection of identifying info by police
- Establish clear new rules for voluntary police-public interactions where identifying info is collected
What happened at the G20 summit?
Peaceful protest became extremely violent after a few people decided to start breaking things
The rally was overpoliced and after initially not responding they came down extremely hard on allot of innocent protestors using extreme force
In 2017 Ontario released three year strategic plan to fight racial bias, what did this program include?
Legislation, targeted public education and awareness, and anti-black racism strategy and indigenous focused anti-racism strategy
What did the 2017 motion 103 call on fed gov to do?
Condemn islamophobia and “all forms of systemic racism and religious discriminations”
According to Abolish the Police by Emily Riddle what is the first nation case for abolition?
Police will not help address the crisis of murdered/missing indigenous women (they contribute to violent)
Police invade sovereign territories to allow intrusive and destructive behavior (pipelines)
Police are a tool to maintain white supremacy and occupation of indigenous territories - this is largely funded via property tax collected from stolen land
