Tag Archive: criminal record

Rethinking violent crime

November 9, 2020 | , , , , , , , ,

Post #154 950 words; 4 minutes to read Many discussions of crime treat so-called ‘violent crimes’ as a special subset that deserves a different, and harsher, response. But there are compelling reasons to be dubious about this distinction.  Many of...

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Harms of remand – evidence from Denmark

October 21, 2020

Post #153 650 words; 3 minutes to read The majority (about 60%) of people held in provincial jails in Canada have not been found guilty of anything and this pattern has been getting worse in recent years. They are being...

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Convict criminology

August 24, 2020

Post #148 720 words; 3 minutes to read In most social policy systems, having experience in the system is held to be an advantage for those who study it.  In some fields, such as medicine, virtually all those who teach...

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Inequality and racism as central themes

July 6, 2020

450 words; 2 minutes to read Issues of inequality and racism are at the very forefront of the news in Canada.  The criminal justice system is often cited as a place where these problems are notable. These issues have been...

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How science calls into question sentencing practices

May 10, 2020

830 words; 4 minutes to read Our criminal justice system goes back well before the advent of the social sciences and the development of reliable knowledge about human behaviour.  But because it is so firmly based on precedents and past...

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Is everyone a criminal? Looks like it…

April 4, 2020

900 words; 4 minutes to read Most of us think about ‘criminals’ as being a small subset of the Canadian population – people who are dangerous and need to be punished, locked up or kept away from the rest of...

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Predicting recidivism is hard to do

March 30, 2020

680 words; 3 minutes to read Part of the response of the criminal justice system to COVID 19 has been to release people from prison since jails and prisons are hotbeds for disease given crowded conditions.  Some provincial governments in...

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Expunging criminal records

February 26, 2020

600 words; 3 minutes to read Last year Senator Kim Pate introduced a bill that would provide automatic expungement of criminal records in Canada.  Under this bill, criminal records would automatically be sealed after a certain amount of time had...

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More posts worth a second look

February 7, 2020 |

580 words; 3 minutes to read Many previous posts on this blog continue to be highly relevant.  The problems they addressed remain as prevalent as ever.  These posts show how many of the issues in our system are well known...

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