Presumed guilty
Post #230 1100 words; 5 minutes to read Summary: Despite the official presumption of innocence when arrested, in reality accused persons are generally treated as if they were guilty. This post is reprinted with permission from the online publication Law360...
Read MoreDo Victim Impact Statements contribute to justice?
Post #212 950 words; 4 minutes to read. Audio summary by volunteer Gilliam Sherman. Summary: Work by US scholar Susan Bandes raises important issues about the place of victim impact statements in criminal justice. Victim impact statements (VIS) have become...
Read MoreMisleading media, political grandstanding and the facts
Post # 202 950 words; 4 minutes to read Audio summary by volunteer Riley Mintz In this post we reprint in its entirety a release issued by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association in September. The release, now signed on the...
Read MoreCrime continues to decline in Canada
Post #190 950 words; 4 minutes to read One of the main regular sources of data on criminal justice in Canada is the annual ‘Police Reported Crime’ report. The most recent report was released in the summer of 2021, and...
Read MoreHuman trafficking laws – Not what they seem – part 2
Post #183 1040 words; about 5 minutes to read This brief audio summary done by our volunteer Averi Brailey. A post last summer looked at the work of Dr. Katrin Roots on human trafficking in Canada. The earlier post looked at...
Read More‘A brutal murder’ – Why adjectives matter in describing crime
Post #162 750 words; about 3 minutes to read If you watch, listen to or read media coverage of crime, try paying attention to the use of adjectives. You will find that they are common in crime reporting, but not...
Read MorePresumption of innocence is often a myth
830 words; 4 minutes to read We are told, and believe, that the presumption of innocence is a core concept in Canadian law. Nobody is or should be presumed guilty until they plead guilty or are convicted in a court...
Read MoreMichael Bryant, CCLA and criminal justice
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is a champion for civil rights in all areas of Canadian life. Criminal justice is one of its focus areas. The organization has been very active in mounting court challenges around some of the...
Read MoreWhy we like punishment
675 words; 3 minutes One of the great myths about the criminal justice system is that one of its major purposes is rehabilitation, helping people who did something wrong improve themselves so they will no longer commit crimes. But when...
Read MoreHow media coverage can distort ideas about crime
750 words; 4 minutes to read This post is drawn from a single graphic produced by the wonderful web site Our World in Data. That site provides brilliant analyses of large amounts of data, often over long periods of time,...
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