Alec Karakatsanis tells the real story on crime
Post #208 800 words; 4 minutes to read. Summary: US commentator Alec Karakatsanis debunks much media and political propaganda about crime. Audio summary by volunteer Hannah Lee. The last few weeks have seen an onslaught of media stories and political...
Read MoreCould expungement of criminal records hurt more people than it helps?
Post # 150 About 100 words; 5 minutes to read. This post is adapted with permission from a longer article by the same authors posted by The Niskanen Centre, a US policy organization. This is an issue in which the...
Read MoreConvict criminology
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...
Read MoreSome crimes matter more than others. White collar crime part 1
750 words; about 3 minutes to read Previous posts on this blog have discussed the issue of what counts as a crime. Prof. Melissa Hamilton wrote about how some criminal laws are about whether an action harms another person, but...
Read MoreExpunging criminal records
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...
Read MorePosts worth a second look
600 words; 3 minutes to read. The introductory post for this blog was in early September of 2017, just over two years ago. Since then we have posted well over 100 items on various aspects of criminal justice. Many...
Read MoreMedia portrayals of crime create problems
This post is 900 words and can be read in about 4 minutes Emotional public reactions to crime have always played an important role in shaping criminal justice. This post draws from ten recent studies (listed and linked at the...
Read MorePositive developments in the US prison system
This post is about 600 words and can be read in 3 minutes. Prisons provide another example of a field in which Canadians can point to our neighbours to the south and feel superior, even when in reality we may...
Read MorePrisontalk.com: A great information source on all things having to do with imprisonment
Reliable information on Canadian prisons and jails is hard to come by. You would think that an institution that deals with many thousands of people each year plus their families and friends, almost always involving a high degree of anxiety,...
Read MoreBryan Stevenson: A Leading Civil Rights Voice
Reflecting on Bryan Stevenson: How a Criminal Lawyer Became the Leading Civil Rights Voice of Our Time by Lisa Kerr The field of criminal justice is often in need of moral leadership. While Bryan Stevenson is focused on the U.S....
Read More