Policing and Courts in Canada

Organization of Policing in Canada

• Policing in Canada operates at four levels: Federal, Provincial, Municipal, and Indigenous.
• Federal policing is the responsibility of the RCMP, enforcing federal laws across provinces and offering support on provincial/municipal levels.
• Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador have provincial policing; elsewhere, the RCMP contracts with provincial governments.
• Municipal policing can be independent or contract with the RCMP or another municipal service for law enforcement.
• Indigenous policing, guided by the First Nations Policing Policy (FNPP), allows Indigenous communities to tailor law enforcement.

Courts and Corrections Interconnection

• Police serve as the initial point of contact within the justice domain.
• Courts decide on charges, sentencing, and options for diversion.
• Corrections agencies administer sentences and offer options for programs that lead towards rehabilitation.

Canadian Court System Structure

• Courts in Canada function on a hierarchical basis
• Provincial and Territorial Courts are also known as Lower Courts, handle the majority of any criminal cases, encompassing young offenders, traffic matters, and minor claims.
• Superior Courts are known as Higher-Level Courts. These hear major cases and serve as appeal courts.
• Courts of Appeal are also known as Appellate Courts, hear reviews of Superior Court decisions.
• Federal Courts, known as Special Jurisdiction Courts handling cases related to areas such as income tax payments, immigration, and any other cases managed and/or governed at the federal level.
• The Supreme Court of Canada, also known as the Final Court of Appeal, it represents the position of utmost authority when it comes to resolving legal and constitutional disputes.

Specialty (Problem-Solving) Courts

• Drug Treatment Courts (DTCs) also known as Addiction Courts, enable people struggling with drug dependencies to get supervised care, rather than serving time in a correctional facility.
• Intimate Partner Violence Courts, also known as Domestic Violence Courts, have support for cases of intimate partner violence.
• Mental Health Courts also known as Therapeutic Courts, allow alternative options other than incarceration for people coping with mental health concerns, placing them in care as a path forward.
• Youth Courts also known as Juvenile Justice Courts, are subject to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).

Corrections System in Canada

• The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) oversees Federal Corrections for sentences of two years or more.
• Provincial/Territorial Corrections handle shorter sentences, pre-trial detention, and temporary holds and are also referred to as Detention Centres.
• Healing Lodges are also known as Indigenous Correctional Facilities which integrate traditional Indigenous practices.
• Classifications, also known as Inmate Classifications, establish security requirements within facilities from minimum to maximum.
• Parental Inmate Program, also known as Mother-Child Program, allows eligible incarcerated mothers to live with their young children.

Statistics on Women in the Justice System

• Women are a minority by proportion in criminal cases.
• Women represent only 7.45% of federal inmates.
• At the provincial/territorial levels, they make up 15% of inmates.
• Only 25% of police reported crimes have been accused by women.
• Recividism is less prevalent in women compared to men who are more likely to be repeat offenders.
• Women's interactions and involvement in crime are often compounded by marginalization, trauma, economic hardships, and other social and economic drivers.

Definition of "Criminalized"

• Criminalized, also referred to as "justice-involved", refers to persons who have faced legal consequences for their conduct. It avoids the negative association of the term "offenders."

Crime Classifications

• Assault, homicide and sexual violence are Crimes Against the Person and are also known as Violent Offences.
• Financial Offences are also known as Crimes Against Property, including theft, theft, fraud and break-and-enter.
• Failure to appear and breaching probation are Administration of Justice Offences and are also known as Court-Related Offences.

Common Offenses by Women in Canada

• Fraud (28.1%), also known as Financial Deception, and theft (27.3%), also known as Property Crimes, are the most frequent offences committed by women.
• Administrative offences (20.5%), also referred to as Procedural Crimes, are disproportionately seen in women.
• A total of 18% of drug related charges are laid against women, who are also known as Narcotics Offences
• Crimes committed by women are often triggered by economic need.

Key Terms and Definitions

• Justice-Impacted, also known as Criminalized, is often used to refer to individuals who have been legally sanctioned regarding their behaviour.
• Reoffending, also known as recidivism, is the act of one who reoffends again after conviction and sentencing.
• Rationalizations employed to describe criminal behaviour also fall under Neutralizations, also known as Justifications for Crime.
• The Intersectionality, also known as Intersecting Oppressions examines gender, race, and class impacts when it comes to criminalization.
• The economic vulnerability that can increase the possibility of criminalization is described as Feminization of Poverty, also known as Gendered Economic Disadvantage.
• Structural Barriers to Justice are also known as Systemic Inequality and encompass discrimination and poverty that can affect accessibility to legal assistance.
• How women face legal oversight are influenced by heightened levels of scrutiny which falls under State Control & Surveillance also known as Legal Oversight
• Access to Legal Representation is also known as Legal Aid Challenges is one in which affects case outcomes due to limited resources available for legal defence.
• Gendered Differences in Crime also known as Sex-Based Crime Patterns, show that women are least likely to commit violent crimes and are more charged regarding property or administrative offences.

Theories and Criminality

• A theory explains behaviour using scientific methods, consisting of interconnected statements explaining relationships between factors.
• Criminologists can interpret by using theories but must also test data to remove subjectivity and come to insights and solutions
• Theories which are not empirically tested remain an opinion, not a valid explanation.
• Practical theories help create crime prevention strategies and crime control
• Causes for criminal behaviour is examined by several theories but include biological, economic, psychological and even sociological causes.
• Victims can be better understood by examining the structural factors that can lead one to victimization.
• The blocked opportunities that can lead to crimes of vulnerability fall into Strain theories.
• Gender roles and power dynamics increase susceptibility to victimization and is highlighted in feminist theories.

Early Criminology Theories

• Criminals are born, and not made, according to Positivist Criminology (Lombroso & Ferrero, 1898).
• Those with criminal behaviours were "atavistic” or evolutionary throwbacks and explained with Darwinian concepts of evolution.
• Biological determinism can suggest that predicting physical traits (skull, size, facial, etc) will predict criminal behaviour
• Women commit crimes were "doubly exceptional" under Positivist Criminology as they had corruption with moral and biological implications .
• People pressure individuals involved in social structures to commit crimes under the Merton Strain Theory (1938)
• People experience struggles to achieve the success which can lead to strain, for example legitimate sources of wealth.
• Gender and racial factors that are neglected in previous explanations are factored in to other theories.
• Additional sources of strain are identified in the General Strain Theory (Agnew, 2001) under Merton. They include loss of positive stimuli, presentation of negative stimuli as well as blocked opportunities.

Gender and Racial factors of Crime

• Although race and gender are included under Merton's theory, they are not fully outlined in his findings.
• Laws are deceptively followed by women due to the fact that female crime is underreported according to Masked Criminality Theory (Pollak, 1950),
• Factors that biologically drive women, such as pregnancy, menstruation, and menopause, account for female crime
• Women receive more lenient sentences due to chivalry in the justice system
• Empirical support is lacking and reinforces gender stereotypes and is therefore disputed.
• As women gained social and economic independence, there was an increase in crime rates based on liberation theory (Adler & Simons, 1975)
• White collar crimes are linked to increased labour force participation
• Equality in crime rates does not account for criminal inequalities and is therefore disputed.

Contemporary Theories in Criminology

• Parental control and family can influence delinquency, according to the Power-Control Theory (Hagan, 1989).
• Girls have lower delinquency in patriarchal families as opposed to boys who are more controlled.
• Race, class, and economic status are excluded and face criticism.
• Power imbalance and Gender roles can influence victimization and crimes, studied in Feminist Criminology (Daly & Chesney-Lind, 1988)
• Overrepresentation as victims and underrepresentation as offenders can result from oppression of women, which leads to arguments stemming from Criminology theories
• Sexual, racial, and class components are highlighted to showcase intersectionality.
• How power structures and masculinity have affected criminal behaviour is highlighted in the Structured Action Theory (Messerschmidt, 2014).
• Criminality in males is a strategy to assert masculinity where traditional means are not accessible. To focus on criminology without recognizing female crime is criticized.
• Legal systems have inherent racism that contributes to overrepresentation for people of colour, demonstrated in the Critical Race Theory (Crenshaw, 1989)

Limitations of Criminology

• Crime stems from individual history, systemic structures, and is impacted by culture, race, and gender, thus human behaviour is far too complex for just one theory.
• Aspects of crime is not the focus for different theories. They encompass economic, social, and biological factors.

Feminist Perspectives on Crime

• Feminist Criminology questions male-centered theories and calls attention to gendered inequalities in crime and the justice system.
• Equal rights are advocated by Liberal Feminism. By comparison dominance and female victimization are a centrepoint for both radical victimization and criminality.

Factors Shaping Female Criminality

• A variety of social, structural, or individual components such as abuse, systemic discrimination, childhood trauma, lack of opportunities, and or poverty tend to shape the position in which females are put in situations that lead towards criminality, where victimization or criminalization is often attributed to emotional, sexual or physical exploitation.

Factors that Influence Female Criminality

• Reports that people were abused or neglected have been referred to as ACE's or Adverse Childhoods, and significantly cause criminal behaviour in those involved in them.
• Crime, theft, and fraud become a means for people facing economical hardship to ensure survival, further pushing women towards crime.
• Some of those in prison tend to have greater rates of mental illness than a normal individual's statistics.
• Trauma is often coped with using substance use disorders.
• People of colour and those of Indigenous status may be disproportionately represented due to discrimination.

Recidivism Factors in Women

• Overall women tend to have lower scores of recidivism when matched against men. Usually if a woman has reoffended it is a non-violent or administrative case relating to a breach in parole. Studies done in 2019 showed women had a 23% lower average than the entire prison population. The opposite would be said for Indigenous and racialized people because numbers show their recidivism scores are far above non-Indigenous people due to systemic inequalities.

Female Victimization Causes

• Women and gender-based violence rates can occur within situations associated to sexual assault, domestic disputes, or even intimate partner homicide.
• Groups with LGBTQ status, of Indigenous status, or even of worker status seem to face higher disparities along with systemic discrimination.
• Experiencing or witnessing such forms of trauma tend to translate to adult and or real life.
• Economic status may lead a person to exposure with forms of exploitation.

Key Definitions for Criminality

• Broad terms of crime that cause oppression is Victimization
• A precise deliberate group exposure related to an individual's status is Being Targeted.

Factors Affecting Victimization & Criminality

• The deep connection with both outcomes involves childhood abuse when a criminal act is engaged because of means for survival. Higher risks also mean poverty increases the risks. Mental disorders like PTSD also affect the lives of women who are often exposed to greater sentencing.

The impact of mental health in women under justice

• 75% of women in federal custody have a reported instance of substance disorders, or 50% that have reoccurring personality disorders making it problematic when there are challenges in place or even where prisons are not made for situations where there are difficulties.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Criminogenic & Dynamic can increase risks by using different employment options or past instances. Discrimination can also further influence this. Victimization includes those of oppression. Toxic Normality also encourages the same.