Criminal Justice: Crime, Victims, and Rights

Week 1

• CSI Effect: Exaggerated portrayal of criminal justice and forensic science by popular culture. Most people's knowledge stems from this.
• Crime Rate: Overall number of reported crimes as a percentage of population in a region.
• Dark Figure of Crime: Unreported crimes that don't show up in official statistics.
• Attrition: Filtering process that diminishes the number of criminal cases as they move through the justice system (Crime Funnel).
• Victim Impact Statement (1988): Written statement detailing physical, emotional, social, psychological, and financial impacts of a crime.
• Primary Victims: Those directly injured or affected by an event.
• Secondary Victims: Those who didn't directly experience harm, but witnessed the event or deal with its aftermath (family, friends, witnesses).
• Canadian Bill of Rights (Four Rights): Information, protection, participation, and restitution.
• Five Models of Criminal Justice: Crime control (focused on punishment); Welfare (focuses on offender's needs, rehabilitation); Justice (fair and equal punishment); Community Change (addresses root causes of crime); Restorative (healing relationships, repairing harm)

Week 2

• Police Officer Homicides: Police officers have a high risk of workplace homicides (second highest).
• Nova Scotia Mass Shooting: A major issue, involving a man disguised as an RCMP officer, killing and injuring many people in a 13-hour shooting spree. Gabriel Wortman, the shooter, was 51 years old.
• First Organized Police Force: Developed by Sir Robert Peel.
• Tiers of Policing: Municipal (most officers), Provincial, Federal.

Week 3

• Provincial Police Jurisdiction: Only Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland have dedicated provincial police forces.
• First Nation Policing Policy: Allows First Nation communities to have their own police forces, with self-administered agreements and community-based policing structures.
• Transit Police: Police officers working for transit systems. Their responsibilities involve enforcement of the Canada Transportation Act.
• SARA Model: Developed by Eck and Spelman in 1987 for problem-oriented policing (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment).
• Policing Standards: Include requirements like high school diploma, clean criminal record, physical/mental fitness, Canadian citizenship, and good character references.

Week 4

• Digitalism: Politically motivated practices outside of the state, designed to punish or hold others accountable. Three major risks exist: danger, evidence not held up in court, impeding law officers.
• Red Flag Laws: Laws allowing people to petition courts for temporary removal of firearms from individuals who pose a threat.
• Assault Weapons Ban: Difficult to enforce and likely won't significantly reduce violence.
• Warrantless Arrests: Police have authority to make warrantless arrests based on reasonable suspicion/grounds.
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 8): Protects right to privacy in one's home and prohibits unreasonable searches.
• Charter of Rights and Freedoms (Section 9): Prohibits arbitrary detention and imprisonment by the state.

Week 5

• Custodial Interview: Formal questioning of a suspect after arrest.
• Non-Custodial Interview: An interview where the person is not under arrest, and free to leave at will.
• Exigent Circumstances: Specific situations where police enter a dwelling without a warrant due to imminent threat of harm to others or loss of evidence (like a homicide).
• Mr. Big Technique: A method of law enforcement where suspects are encouraged to fully cooperate when dealing for criminal activity they have committed.
• Electronic Surveillance: Monitoring communications, which requires a warrant under the Canadian legal system.
• Plain View Doctrine: Allows seizure of evidence visible in plain sight.
• Code of Hammurabi: Early, famous criminal code seen as an initial framework of written law (although not based on Canada's legal system).
• Trial by Water: A method of determining guilt or innocence by putting a person in water; not used in any modern legal system.
• R. v. Accused: Abbreviation used in judicial cases, in which R represents the "Crown" or the government (like Canada's queen) in legal proceedings.

Further Weeks (implied from the format)

• Crime Prevention Categories: These are further outlined in an implied category for additional weeks, including social development, situational prevention, environmental design, community crime prevention, and proactive crime responses.
• Regulatory Offences: Crimes not regulated by federal government
• Wilful Blindness: A form of intent for those who ignore certain risks that are present in the commission of crime.
• Aid/Abetting/Counseling: Ways to assist in a crime or direct another in the commission of a crime, and the different levels of criminal responsibility for those involved.
• Accessory After the Fact: Someone who helps in hiding or assisting a criminal after the incident, potentially resulting in legal consequences.
• Conspiracy: An agreement among two or more people to commit a crime. This section addresses criminal conspiracy based on the provided content, with the degree of intent required for conspiracy law.

Explore key concepts in criminal justice, including the CSI effect, crime rates, the dark figure of crime, and attrition. Learn about victim impact statements and the rights afforded to victims in the Canadian Bill of Rights. Understand primary and secondary victims.