The many harms of remand
This post is 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Jailing people after arrest – the process called remand – creates many harms. Previous posts have commented on this issue, but new research by Holly Pelvin details some...
Read MoreThe limits of forensic evidence
This post is about 770 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Many of the popular crime dramas on television give prominence to forensic evidence. Corpses are identified and murderers caught through analysis of hair, clothing fibres, fingerprints, bite...
Read MoreRethinking violent crime
This post is 900 words and can be read in 5 minutes. “We must punish violence. Or so it seems until we discover that we are not always sure what counts as violence, and the criminal law doesn’t always punish...
Read MoreThe best interests of the child: Criminal sentencing in Canada
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. “Children of incarcerated parents, including parents detained in relation to immigration, are a vulnerable population that experience complex long-term psychological, social and economic disadvantages.” So begins a...
Read MoreHelping to rehabilitate sex offenders is controversial – but can prevent more abuse
This post is 800 words and can be read in 3-4 minutes. This is an edited and modified version of a paper written by Prof. Belinda Winder and Prof. Nicholas Blagden which appeared in The Conversation. The original paper had...
Read MorePrison conditions should matter as much as length of sentence
This post is about 750 words and can be read in about 3 minutes. When Canadian courts sentence someone to prison, the main question is the length of the sentence. That focus only on time to be served does not...
Read MoreDo prosecutors have too much discretion?
This post is about 750 words and can be read in 3 minutes. More than 90% of criminal charges in Canada never go to trial. They are either dropped by the Crown or the accused pleads guilty to something. This...
Read MoreStormy ways or sunny weather? Prisoners’ views of Canadian prisons
This post is about 1000 words and can be read in about 5 minutes. One of the best ways of understanding the state of an institution is to listen to the people who inhabit it. We learn about the reality...
Read MoreNew book on Indigenous issues in the Canadian justice system
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Everyone involved in criminal justice is aware of the dramatic over-representation of Indigenous people in Canada’s criminal justice system and prisons. But despite all the attention,...
Read MoreFalling Crime Rates in Many Countries
This post is under 800 words and can be read in about 4 minutes. Although many Canadians don’t seem to believe this – perhaps because so much media coverage is about crime – crime rates in Canada have fallen dramatically...
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