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Introduction to Criminology (CRM1300)
University of Ottawa
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Lecture 1
Race and crime
Objectives
social representation of race and crime A. “Racialization of Crime” and the B. “Criminalization of Race”
dilemmas of definition and management
explains the race-crime link
A. Differential offending
vs
B. racial discrimination
Myths : social representation of race and crime
- “Race” as a social and political construction
race in the context to relationship to offending, is race connected with criminal behaviour and sentencing and bail. race is treated like a risk factor to being criminal. other risks include age, drug and alcohol and criminal past. recognition the limitation within criminal literature. how particularly in the late 1800 and early 1900, rave was views only in biological terms. indicators of race were skin colour, eye shape, hair texture and so on. these characteristics were associated with criminal behaviour, authentic ability and much ore. scientific crime : race as just a biological thing limitation ; human genome project. (making all the genes that make the genome.) genetic variation between individual of two different racial groups is about .01% evidence that race is really not biological meaningful in fact genetic variations are much greater within racial groups that in between. establishing hierarchies of different races each racial group would be evaluated by their relative whiteness how relative whiteness was viewed, many nationalities considered white now were not considered white in the 1800. Race- power of an illusion episode 3 ; the house w live in
- “Traditional” Versus “Symbolic” and “systemic” Racism
drawing a distinction between two or more types of race traditional racisms: the expression of openly racist and discriminatory attitudes. the belief that certain racial groups are inferior or discrimination is not only justified but should be legal. associated with the idea of intent. you need to intentionally believe that groups are inferior and intentional comment and speak out on opinions. people in contemporary context don’t tend to express these types of racist and discriminatory views. however this does not mean that we are not racist and racist is n longer present. racisms now is more low-key and more difficult to name and identify. this subtle for takes two forms symbolic racsim: refers to ways in which race is expressed through language and discourse and discussion everyday in media or political or everyday conversation. negative representations of social groups that are expressed through coated language and symbols. these representations on their surface are not racist are informed by popular understanding of race and reproduce race based accounts of common social problems. systemic racism : involves social and particular institutional practices which reflect are rooted in raced based differences. systemic refers to patters and practices in society and its institutions with may not be intended to be discriminatory can have
the effects of permitting racism and discrimination. sometimes referred to institutional racism. like symbolic racism systemic racism is often invisible and difficult to name. because of this systemic racism is often deniable. present in variety of institution, criminal justice system, immigration, banking systems. the res line method : makes home ownership in the US and make purchasing a home easier. introducing low cut under written loans. low interest rates and less down money. the federal housing adopted a system of maps that rated neighbourhoods based on their risk factors. this system had nothing today with race but the places were coded red were disproportionately African American residing neighbourhoods and the white neighbourhoods was touted in white. red coated areas made it hard to clear a loan and purchase a home.
- “Racianilation of crime” and the “ criminalization of race”
reflect symbolic racism vs criminalization of race reflects systemic racism racialization of crime consist of the how crime is constructed and defined in explicitly racial terms crime has come to be very associated with race, when crime is discussed the way crime is talked about is very closely tied to race. whites tends to be over represented as victims and blacks are portrayed as the bad guy. these are not based on racism producers are not sent out o make a racism movie. Reality
Absence of Canadian on race and crime ● validity and inter presentation or race based crime statistics. ● problematic policy implication
available data confined to prison populations ● over representation of indigenous groups in both federal and provincial prison systems ● over- representation of Blacks-Particularly in Ontario
According to U. data, African-Americans are ver represented in both arrest statistics and prison population Explaining the race-crime link 1: disproportionate offending
Historical legacies of colonialism and slavery
Tuesday, January 17, 2023
lecture 2
Race and crime
● crack cocain : fears around the preserved around that drugs. efforts to introduce more penalties around the use of this drug. ● criminalization of race: is an example of symbolic racism. racilaization of crime contributes to crimination of race ● criminalization of crime :the perception that certain racial groups are somehow pre disposed towards crime. viewed as crime prone and are treated accordingly contributes to fear anxiety that are towards people of those groups. categorical suspicion. ● racial profiling is an example. ● Case of treyvon. 17 year old African American man going to see his father and fathers gf. during this time a volunteer of the society seen him and came to the conclusion that there was something suspicious about him. called the local police. approached treyvon. where he ended up killing him with gun.
Reality Dilemmas of definition and measurement
- absence of Canadian statistics on race and crime. the Canadian centre for justice statistics UCR does not contain. statistics on race, the reason for this policy is validity of race and statistics
individuals found guilty were less likely to receive a prison sentence, white people were sentenced to be sentenced more leniently and drug offenses really show the influence if race 55% of black and 36% of white people Explaining the race and crime link 2 racial discrimination 3. Invisibility and deniability of systemic racism : its hard to provide evidence that race has a thing to do with the law they are able to simply deny the fact that it has anything to do with the issue. Even when there is video evidence exists are able to be reviewed but there is a still a very special ability of officers and attorneys to deny that race had anything to do with it.
3 strategies
Challenging the analysis that was done, they are able to challenge the analysis done and provide mere information proving that the defendant is not guilty of any type of racial discrimination.
discrediting the researching and people who came forward to report and testify and trying to provoke identification to the police.
framing of racial profiling in isolating incidents.
representing members of racial groups as the “other” suggesting that these individuals are somehow deserving of suspicion
Case studies : from Rodney king to Rayshard Brooks
Tuesday, January 24, 2023
lecture 3
Explaining the race-crime links 2
1. Difficulties in defining and quantifying racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.
- Evidence: a. Personal Accounts and Anecdotes b. Case Studies ● Police Violence ● Wrongful Conviction Cases c. Commissions and Inquiries ● Ontario Commission on Systemic Racism (1995) ● Ontario Human Rights Commission – Racial Profiling Inquiry (2003) ● Ontario Human Rights Commission – Inquiry into Racial Profiling and Racial Discrimination of Black Persons by the TPS (2017) d. Researching Police and the Courts
- Invisibility and deniability of “systemic racism.”
example : case of Rodney king (last lecture ) (short documentary )
3 Strategies used in the trial
decentralization of the insistences : through analyzing the video the strategy was to direct the video frame by frame decomposing it to a series of still shot and imposing the interpretation of the police offers involved in those moment. the perception was Rodney king was on the rise and about to get up for the gun of the officers and he did that in each video.
dehumanization of the defender: losing at the fact that he was bigger guy and buffed out, descriptions of him as letting out a bear like growl and as aoudad animal. comparing Rodney king to an animal and paying up the potential threat this dangerous animal pose to the officers.
presumption by the officer that he was on PCP. concerns were blown out of proportion.
Indetification with police officers: police work being dangerous and brutal, kind of claim that can resonate with all white jury present during the trial.
case of brooks :
sleeping in the car, the police were called a civil conversation was held before brooks took the taser from the police, fired it and tried to ran off.
- Case Studies: From Rodney King to Rayshard Brooks
Lesson learned
- Confronting the Politics of Race and Crime
it is important to conflict the politics of race and crime, based on the discussion we see different ways politics are related to race and crime, 1. understanding of race is a social political construction vs biological 2. role of politics in race based statistics and in Canadian context we have been avoiding race based statistics. 3. how politics inform the interpretation of race crime link in term sof whether that relation is understood and discrimination,
- Invisibility and Deniability of “Symbolic” and “Systemic” Racism
how systemic racism plays out irl.
- The Problem of Policy
difficulty around what to do about these kinds of problems particularly with respect. to racial recrimination, initiatives undertaken to address this problem, it is difficult to deny that systemic racism exists. the issue is that there responses can be more symbolic than real. in terms of the policies of what they should look like.
Morality and crime
Objectives
- Exploring “Crime on the Margins”
- Examining the Links between Morality and Crime
- Criminalizing Drug Use: Objective Harm versus Social Construction
“Crimes on the margins”
- Focus on the boundaries or margins between crime and deviance.
- Examination of two related processes: a. Amplification of Deviance
is a process through which deviant accept of a behaviour or activity are exaggerated with the result of that activity is redefined as a crime
b. Normalization of Deviance
the reverse, process through which deviance aspect of behaviour or activity are minimized or downplayed where the activity or behaviour is not defined as a crime.
- “Objectivist” versus “Constructionist” approaches to social problems.
view of drugs being addictive, effects of drug use on health brain damage, death from overdose and brain injury from friends and family
b. Societal Harms c. treatment costs, social impact of welfare and housing helps.
- Objective measures of harm fail to differentiate between legal and illegal drugs. a. Prevalence of recreational drug use and limits to physical addiction.
most drugs are less harmful than commonly imagines and much more limited but their addictive properties. such as coke and cocain. there is such thing as controlled use. pattern ins recreational use without addiction, there are limits to how physically addictive drugs are. properties of drugs such as cocain are psychological addictive, it does not cause physical addiction. heroin is a a drug that causes physical addiction and they get very sick without the use of the certain drug.
b. Far more harm linked to legal drugs - alcohol and tobacco. 2. Ambiguity of the boundary between legal and illegal forms of drug use.
Constructionists
- Historical Novelty of Criminalization as a Response to Drug Use
Thomas Edison and freud did coke. late 1800-early1900 opium and cocain were widely consumed by white middle class population, an industry that merged producing mixers n shii. coke cola had drugs in it, MRS soothing serum active ingredient, Opium.
- Claims-Makers a. Moral Entrepreneurs
claims about things with the effect of the drugs on the body but more on the effects of the morality in the society. argument on moral grounds. Emily Murphy was a judge f women’s court in Edmonton, became aware of drug problem when she was seeing sex workers and their clients being charged with the possession of opium, she became to the understanding that drug use and opium use were a problem and she wrote a very well known book, the black candle written 1922. her concerns about opium is the connection between opium and sex work, opium as the route to sexual slavery.
b. Media
fundamental role not only spreading claim but also producing them
c. Politicians
use drugs as very affective political state distractions to take attention away from other issues.
d. Physicians and the Medical Establishment
not because they were concerned about the actual harms but harms of competition of other medical drug industries
- Characteristics of Users and Contexts of Use
context of opium, opium was primarily chinese population in western Canada and us. in the case of cocain, it was mostly black population, weed, the user group were Mexicans in the south of US. not only linked to claim but to users.
- Social, Economic, and Political Anxieties
whether claim made about drugs rot, depends on the conditions social politics; and economic context. all about the kinds of conditions that existed during these key historical conditions usually economic downturn, competition forjobs during which many Chinese labourers had half of the normal pay.
- Case Study: Marijuana (hooked, the legal drugs and how they became that way). propaganda in the US to stop kids from using drugs
propaganda in use to stop kids from using drugs
200 million ppl incarcerated for using drugs in USA
New Orleans saw that marijuna was linked to crime and cause rape murder and mayham so they banned it
southwest was banned for economics because during depression they didn’t need low wage workers and wanted them to leave. Death penalties for getting caught
some dude wanted states to decide the laws instead of federal government and people want Mexicans to stop smoking but it didn’t really work because no funding or people
you need stamps tax to get marijuna
goal was to make marijuna sound so bad no one tries it
black boy killed his mother when high but later find out it was because he had a problem w health skriscofenika?
to get stamp you need to have weed on you but that was illegal and people went to jail foe 4 years
*Main claims makers were politicians in the south and west, harry anslinger the head of narcotics from weed not being a big deal to being very deadly
*willian raodolf 1st seized on the issue of marjuina with exaggerated terms
- in exam write about media claim maker and who is is and what he did
- Processes of deviance amplification associated with drugs and prostitution reflect social, political, and economic interests and anxieties rather than objective harms. ● “The only consistent difference between licit and illicit drugs has been one of legal/moral definition. Historically, this has hinged on the extent to which a given drug or its users are perceived as a threat by those with the power to so define” (Reinarman, 1979: 249).
- Questions of morality = matters of politics.
- Definitions of criminal behaviour are key stakes in social and political struggles.
Tuesday, February 7, 2023
lecture 5
political and criminal justice policy “ the war on drugs”
1960, nixon war on drugs contemporary context of the war on drugs third war.
- Ronald Regan, Neo-Conservatism, and the Contemporary “War on Drugs”
you can use the same approach to understand the criminalization of drugs, clams maker, context of use and abusers.
the war and drugs was incredibly expensive and losing at the federal budget in the us went from 1 billion in 1982 to more than 19 billion by 1992. massive increase in expending on war pn drugs the budget quadrupled. there are currently 40 different federal agencies in US which are involved in drug enforcement
b. Explosion of the Prison Population
if you look at rates on incarsation and the total size of prison population during this period of times in the 1980, a massive increase in both federal and state prison population. between 1980-2013 there was a 790% increase in the federal prison population. the bulk of this increase was due to minor drug offences. increasing sentences were also introduced, between 1984-2011 average drug sentences increased form 39 months to 74 months.
c. Systemic Discrimination and the War on Racialized Groups
the war on drugs and all its associated strategies has disproportionately impacted racialized groups in the us specifically the black community. during this period of time the deployment of very aggressive in police squads and increase in policing and strange expansion of interaction between police and citizens. in order for a police to be able to stop and question a person there has to be a probably cause and it created opportunities for false accusations just to be able to question someone. moving to rate son arrest we see very clear evidence systemic equalities in the drug lies while young African Americans male cover 12% of American population they are 60% of prisons commitments and 40% of arrests. about 72 % of people using drugs are white15% are black and 11 % are latinos. between 986 and 1991 there was 828% increase in state incarceration of African American women for drug charges.
d. Police Deviance and Corruption
planting drugs on suspects to secure a conviction, the criminal justice system would take the benefit from this. for the interest of the organization people would be bribed to testify and lying under oath. these misconducts were increased during this period. this time there was a lot of corruption, deviance of the officers not for the interests of the justice system but the interest of the police officers themselves. police corruption became more of a problem of this type of aggressive policing activities were connected to the war pn drugs. major american cities had suffered corruption scandals. not simple the US but number of forces in canada and toronto in particular.
e. Creation of Drug Dependent Economies
issue sent terms of sentencing longer sentences and disparity in-between different type of crimes
the dependance on the drug trade took 2 different forms, the direct dependance, direct proceeds from drug trades like Columbia, those drugs would represent cash crops making lots of money for the local and the economy. there is also indirect dependence as drugs provided substitute for making cheaper consumer goods, from cigarettes to technology. the way these proceeds were. the amount of moneys these agencies possessed and how much they spent and the money they hired all helped the economy. some areas in the western US were primary prison contractors leading massive funds into the economy. another way economy was helped was crimes and criminal institutions for example money laundering which was fundamental challenge using casino, real estates. the investment of proceeds of drug economy into the stock market. money laundered and drug dealers were investing their money into financial markets.
illegal and legal economies are interconnected and cannot exist without each other. the types f benefits the drugs provide
- Continued Investment?
where do we stand in this enforcement based kind of strategy, the answer is yes we do continue to rely on this to respond to the drug problem. there are some indicators that are changing fro the 1980 style of approach.
the greater awareness of how this whole stategy has disproportionately impacted discriminated groups
the financial crises of 2007-2008. the costs associated with he cots of war on drugs.
the opioid crisis, the shifting image of drug addicts , the growing recognition of drug users being white and middle class. shift of drugs becoming a public health issue. we have started to move away from war and drugs probation.
- Public health approach designed to reduce the harms associated with drug use and, more specifically, the harms associated with the criminalization of drug use.
Harm reduction as a strategy is a public health strategy to know individuals really use drugs and we should decrease the harms of related to drug use. harm reduction strategy limit the harms associated with criminalization of drug use and how it contributes to the spread of disease. like sharing needles n shii. another key harm is the harm of overdose directly linked to the criminalization of drug use. drugs made through enlisted markets.
- Harm reduction strategies: a. Needle Exchange
programs provide clean needle sin trade of dirty ones.
b. Safe Injection Sites
one of the first safe injection sites in Vancouver where individuals can go and get injected by the public health nurses.
c. Methadone Maintenance
synthetic opioid longer lasting that heroin and longer effects and doesn’t need to be consumed a lot, one dose given each day and help to manage side effects and the withdrawal effects of heroin and stabilize effects and enter treatment.
d. Safe Supply Programs
programs made for providing clean opioids to heroin users as a way to ensure the drugs contain what the users believe they contain.
- The Opioid Crisis (2016 – Present) a. Shifts in international drug markets (synthetic drugs).
in particular the shift from poppies asa natural product which is the base for heroin, shifts away from this natural product to opioid being made i labs and are synthetic.
benefits of this they can make much easier, no need for farm or sun they can produce their product in labs with much less risk and much more profit. they can be trafficked in much less quantity and much harder to detect.
b. Growing toxicity of the drug supply.
fontanel specifically, present of fontanel in the Canadian supply.
c. Adulteration (e. benzodiazepine).
also used to stretch out the supply of fentanyl, it is cheap and easily accruable. another drug also used is caffein. by mixing in these types of drugs they make overdose much easier to happen and harder to treat. there has been an effort to push further in drug strategies.
skills module 3-4 for the research paper, a literature review and critical engagement with the sources
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Lecture 7
sociological theories
social bond theory continued
policy implications
● foster the development of social bonds through positive forms of socialization, absence of bonds is a trigger to criminal behaviour ● point of intervention ● family (trying to discipline parents, and their parenting ways. parental counselling programs. example of this is the parent development institute privets a series of counselling services with young children, parent counselling, parent child interaction and relationship building, behaviour management and a variety of parenting programs ) the other side of the spectrum is discipline parental responsibility act a legislative solution, speculates anyone who owns leases or rents property can go to court and sue the parents for damaging a property for up to 25000$. parents are eligible unless they can prove their excursive supervision or tried to prevent the damage from happening.
parental report cards; whether the parents responds to phone calls and reposes to the teacher, whether the child has school supplied, if the child is completing homework and bringing shit to school, if the child has proper medical care and whether the kids are getting enough sleep. disciplining parents, effective parenting. law could get involved.
● School, structures setting that helps the students manage their behaviour and develop school readiness skills, enhance self esteem. efforts to improve how well students are to fit into the school. including after school program, clubs and recreational programs. the idea of kids staying busy and making bonds so they don’t have the time or the will to engage in criminal activity ● Peer Groups mentoring programs, big brothers big sister program. sects beyond limits. the goal is to provide a positive role model to establish a bond between a young child and role model.
Criticism and limitations
● failure to account for the motivation to deviate, theorists aren’t concerned with where the motivation comes from and assume as a starting point all individuals have the motivation to engage in criminal behaviour. understanding motive is still important and is not necessarily true that everyone has the motivation for criminal behaviour ● assumption that individuals involved in crime lack social bonds, what this overlooks is the instant of which bonds and attachments may facilitate criminal behaviour by attachment is part of the problem. a disorder that was identified, peer attachment disorder and involved a relationship between a peer group which is dysfunctional. better illustration when thinking about crimes like domestic violence, bullying, sexual assault, where these individuals are fully bonded to the society, they don’t necessarily lack bonds to the society in fact its the existence of the bond that is the problem, its the connection t beliefs and ideas that promote domestic violence and sexual assaults. ● neglect of structural variables and their impact ons social bonds, this theory doesn’t take into consideration the pressure that is on parents daily, the social economic situation where parents find themselves, issues with affordable housing, the job market both unemployment is the problem and inconsistent employment, employment that requires multiple part time jobs. things that take away time that you could be at some disciplining your child because you would have to work.
what factors influence and impact parenting
it is important to recognize that modern parents are operating in a social order that is many ways hostile to family cohesion and viability and of effective parenting it is one conductive to stressful relationships and inadvertent child neglect.
Differentia Association (Edwin Sutherland 1939) 9 propositions
underlying principle
● crime is a behaviour that is learned through interactions with significant others , the idea individuals are exposed but the virtue of their social status and background, social location and solicit economic status can run criminal behaviour ● what differentiates criminals from non criminal is differential exposure to deviant groups and opportunities for social learning, if the individual associates with conventional peer gourds or deviant peer groups, the element of differential association. newspaper and media doesn’t make a huge significant difference on a young mind ● individual's must learn both the techniques necessary for committing crime and the justifications which support this activity. the knowledge you need to have for every type of criminal activity is different, these techniques are learned and at the same time knowledge is not the only accept you need justifications, they don’t any me enough or the idea of a crime that is very popular, everyone does it. ● differential association vary in terms of frequency(how often are you interacting with criminal deviant peer group the more the stronger the influence), duration( length of the exposure to the deviant peer groups), priority(greater influence of contacts and relationships earlier in life, those kinds of individuals will have a much stronger impact on us than people we just met) and intensity (status of the source of the peer group, groups that will be influential will have a high status, parents, relatives and close friends. ) ● applicability to a range of crime types
where as many theories of crime focus on conventional types of crimes, crimes of physical crimes, property crimes. this theory can also be used to understand white collar crime. this theory focuses on learning it not from where it came from. people whoa re exposed to such learning are more willing to commit crimes.
Policy implications
● prevent or reduce exposure to deviant peer groups, the way to reduce involvement of crime is to limit exposure to these kinds of groups. give the young people the tools to resist these peer groups. using positive role models. mentoring programs is the main idea. personal and social skills training and after school programs are designed to limit exposure to deviant peer groups. ● challenge justification fro criminal behaviour, resistance skills training .encourage to say no to drugs, to resist the deviant peer groups and what is considered to be cool.
criticism anf limitation
inability to explain crimes committed by those who are isolated from peer groups, this theory is all about connection to deviant peer groups.
failure to explain differential responses to peer groups. people who are exposed to these kinda of influxes will not go to involve int here kinds of crimes. some may some won’t. he doesn’t think about how other factors play a role.
Labelling theory (Edwin Lemert, 1951)
underlying principles
● our identities and concepts of self are formed through interactions with significant others. these interactions are critical the formation of criminal identities , we need to learnt he role of our interactions with others around us, he makes the point that our behaviour is formed by our interactions from others. ur identities
Crim notes
Course: Introduction to Criminology (CRM1300)
University: University of Ottawa
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