(CRM1b) Canadian Contributions to Criminology II

Criminology is a multi-faceted field that uses 'crime' as its subject matter but has no single methodological commitment or paradigmatic theoretical framework. Many areas and conversations in criminology, however, are often dominated by work from the US, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries that differ from the Canadian context in significant socio-political respects. The main objective of this session is to connect researchers and discuss work that advances our understanding of crime and criminal behaviour in Canada as well as criminological knowledge more broadly. Tags: Criminologie, Droit, Société Canadienne

Organizers: Timothy Kang, University of Saskatchewan, Daniel Kudla, Memorial University; Chair: Daniel Kudla, Memorial University

Presentations

Quan Nguyen, University of Calgary

The Relationship Between Experiences of Victimization and Law Enforcement Confidence: Insights from a Canadian Young Adult Cohort

This study examines the connection between victimization experiences and confidence in law enforcement among a demographically diverse group of Canadian young adults aged 15-34. It underscores the crucial role of public confidence within the justice system and considers the impact of personal encounters with crime on trust in policing authorities. Drawing on data from the General Social Survey (GSS) Cycle 34: Victimization, the study encompasses 3,396 individuals, analyzing their reported confidence in law enforcement and personal victimization experiences. Employing binary logistic regression, the study investigates critical covariates, including perceived discrimination, sense of community belonging, and general health status, along with a comprehensive array of sociodemographic factors such as gender, minority status, place of birth, religion, disability, education level, official language proficiency, and household income. The analysis reveals a significant negative association between experiences of victimization and confidence in law enforcement. Factors such as perceived discrimination and suboptimal general health status notably exacerbate this relationship. In contrast, a strong sense of belonging within ones community positively correlates with confidence in the police. Educational attainment, gender, bilingual abilities, religious affiliation, and household income are also associated with confidence levels in law enforcement entities. The findings suggest that while victimization experiences generally undermine trust in law enforcement among Canadian youth, this trend can be mitigated through measures that foster community cohesion and individual health and well-being. The study calls attention to the importance of adopting community-based and health-focused policing strategies, mainly aimed at supporting young adults who have endured victimization.

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Non-presenting authors: Hieu Ngo, University of Calgary; Yeonjung Lee, University of Calgary

Allie Wall, Western University

Youth Exposure to Violence & Involvement in the Criminal Justice System: A Developmental Analysis of Youth Police Involvement & the Victim-Incarceration Overlap

In Canada, young people between the ages of 12-24 years are over-represented in police interaction incidents, as both a victim and an accused of a crime (Allen and Superle, 2016; Allen and MacCarthy, 2018). When controlling for population size it’s been shown that later adolescent youth (15-17 years) and younger adults (18-24 years) have the highest rates of police interactions, with incidence rates peaking at age 17 (Allen et al., 2016, 2018). In the Canadian youth justice system, victimized and accused youth are most often treated as two distinct populations, those who perpetrate crime, and those who are victimized by crime. However, for many youths who are involved in the justice system, experiences of victimization, delinquency, and incarceration are often connected, in that victimization may be a contributing factor to subsequent delinquency/incarceration and vice versa (Berg and Mulford, 2017). Within the criminological literature, the terminology ‘victim-offender overlap’ has been primarily used to describe the overlapping relationship that can exist between experiences of victimization and offending (Berg et al., 2017; Jennings et al., 2012). Working from an anti-colonial social work approach, this research adopts the language of ‘victim-incarceration overlap’, to highlight the connections that may exist between youth victimization and later criminalization and/or incarceration. Applying anti-colonial theory within criminal justice research provides opportunities for researchers to better understand the macro-societal conditions that promote the development of violence, and the barriers that negatively impact violence prevention efforts. Part of this work incudes reframing the theoretical discussion on youth violence and youth incarceration to shift blame away from individuals, families, and communities, and onto the policies, systems, and socio-structural conditions that promote the risk of violence, especially among marginalized communities. To support this theoretical reframing, this dissertation uses ‘police interactions’ as a primary unit of analyses. By shifting the unit of analysis away from ‘individual victimization/offending’ to ‘system interactions’, we can better understand the role of the criminal justice system and its effectiveness in promoting healthy transformative change within the lives of children and youth. Using a prospective longitudinal design and ten years of secondary police records data (2010-2020), this research attempts to critically evaluate the use of policing within the lives of youth, while also investigating the developmental nature of the victim-incarceration overlap. The longitudinal patterns of youth-police interactions for a sample of 5,609 Ontario youth are analyzed starting from early adolescence (12-14 years), and continuing into later adolescence (15-17 years), and early adulthood (18-20 years). Results from two studies will be presented. Study one provides a descriptive analysis of youth-police interactions and the victim-incarceration overlap across adolescence and early adulthood (from ages 12 to 20 years). Study two uses a series of multivariate logistic regression analyses to investigate which types of youth-police interactions predict the victim-incarceration overlap for the subset of youth who continue to be involved with the police during early adulthood (n = 2,679). It has been hypothesized that childhood and youth exposure to police-reported violence will be predictive of the victim-incarceration overlap during early adulthood. Findings are discussed in relation to both policy and practice surrounding violence prevention and treatment services.

Mitra Mokhtari, University of Toronto

"We need to understand that we are dealing with humans": Experiential Learning, Constructions of Otherness, and Criminology's Complicity

Carceral logics have long been implicated for their role in (re)productions of otherness, that in settler colonial contexts such as Canada are often embedded within logics of colonialism, anti-black racism, and white supremacy. These logics are intimately imbricated within the disciplines of criminology and sociology. As such, the historical conditions in which fields such as sociology and criminology developed, must, as Lawrence (1982) argued be seen “within the context of slavery, colonialism, indenture, racism, and black peoples’ resistance to and struggles against those forms of domination” (130). Their intellectual genealogy “is part of that intellectual justification for state-enabled violence and racialized social control in the western hemisphere generally” (Leon and Cervantes 2022: 16). The logics and discourses produced by these fields have both constructed and legitimized pathologization, criminalization, and violences (Cunneen, Rowe, Tauri, 2017; Cunneen and Tauri 2019; Walcott 2020). For instance, Chartrand (2017) argues that “carceral logics produce forms of otherness that emerged from modernity with the same logic as colonialism” (678). Given the persistence of these logics and the violences they perpetuate, what might it mean to confront these constructions in an undergraduate criminology classroom. Based on interviews with 43 staff and faculty (n=43) of criminology departments across Canada, I consider how pedagogical tools of experiential learning, in particular the field placement, is characterized and understood by those delivering the opportunities. Experiential learning opportunities have been a mainstay in many social science classrooms for decades. Given the increasingly neoliberal shape of the university where departments must demonstrate their relevance in a manner that is often tied to metrics of success that emphasize a focus on employability skills, these forms of learning have been increasingly popular. For students in criminology (or sociology) these opportunities often involve interactions and experiences with the criminal justice system in its most expansive form. Many programs offer opportunities such as field placements/internships, guest speakers, field trips, research projects and service-learning. Participants often draw on three narratives to explain the importance of experiential learning: 1) as transformative; 2) as an obligation; and 3) its practicality. I situate these framings within a historical and contemporary examination of the field of criminology, that underscores the discipline’s (ongoing) role in the productions of othering discourses. Moreover, given the pervasiveness of how experiential learning in criminology is often tied to career pathways for criminal justice practitioners, I problematize the student-centred discourses that often leave ongoing carceral violence uncontested. Lastly, I explore these contexts within the current neoliberal university expanding understandings of how the neoliberal carceral university operates within the nexus of state apparatuses that exert control, violence, and surveillance. I orient this research toward an examination of those employed within the university in an effort to account for an integral yet understudied aspect of penal systems. As Van Cleve (2023) argues “it is not sufficient to simply gaze down at those affected by abuse and marginalization; rather, it is imperative that we look up at the power structure to study “those who create the conditions of marginality” (2 emphasis in original). In this sense, it remains essential and urgent to look up – or across – at those who comprise the fields of social science within the university. 

Meaghan Boily, University of Saskatchewan

From Ideal to Reality: The (Mis)Interpretation of the Crime Severity Index

In 2009, Statistics Canada introduced the Crime Severity Index (CSI), claiming that it would, “for the first time, enable Canadians to track changes in the severity of police-reported crime from year to year” (Wallace et al, 2009). The CSI was based on the idea that more serious crimes would have a greater impact on the index in comparison to less serious but higher volume crimes. This is accomplished by assigning a weight to criminal offences that reflects its gravity, derived from the incarceration rate and mean length of the prison sentence for each type of offence. Although the stated aim of the CSI was to track changes in the severity of crime in a single jurisdiction over time, the CSI is often used to make comparisons from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, as made infamous by, for instance, the Macleans list of Canada’s Most Dangerous Places (Smith, 2019). Yet, questions remains regarding the validity of using the CSI in this way, and whether the CSI is an appropriate basis upon which to make such comprehensive and bold conclusions. Thus, this research will 1) critically engage with the merits and limitations of the CSI in order to determine methodologically sound interpretations of the CSI. Then, we will 2) compare this with the current usage of the CSI in the media to determine the extent that the CSI is being (mis)interpreted or (mis)used in popular and public discourse. Specifically, this research will begin with a comprehensive review of the extant knowledge of the sound usage of crime statistics and critically engage with the construction of police-reported crime statistics and the methodology behind the CSI. Then, the ways that Statistics Canada and the media present the CSI to the public will be evaluated to understand how this information is disseminated and how discourse around crime is constructed. In shedding light on the use of CSI statistics, this study aims to contribute to an informed discourse surrounding crime assessment methodologies and the responsible dissemination of statistical information within the public sphere. Ultimately, the research seeks to encourage a more thoughtful and conscientious approach to the interpretation and application of crime statistics in the context of between-city comparisons in Canada. This study is informed by the potential consequences of the inappropriate use of statistics in general, and the CSI in particular. If the CSI is misinterpreted, it can result in the long-term disadvantage of certain communities, resulting in a systemic form of marginalization. Continued misuse of the CSI may contribute to the systemic amplification of these disadvantages over time, which may exacerbate existing inequalities within Canadian communities through sustained challenges in attracting investments, encouraging migration, and supporting growth. To the extent that statistics like the CSI are consequential in the long-term shaping of communities at the micro- and macro-levels, it is imperative that these measures be used and disseminated accurately and judiciously. The Crime Severity Index, whether intentional or not, currently serves as an oft-cited instrument in gauging crime in Canada. However, its application in comparing cities requires careful consideration and scrutiny. This research endeavors to provide insights into the efficacy and validity of employing the CSI for comparing crime across Canadian cities and highlights the importance of responsible and accurate statistical interpretation and dissemination. By engaging with the methodology and challenging the current usage of the CSI, this study aims to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of crime severity as well as promote fair and equitable practices in the use of statistical data within Canadian society.

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Non-presenting author: Timothy Kang, University of Saskatchewan