Criminology Test 2

What are harm reduction services and what (do some people think) they do to drug users?

Harm reduction services are things like safe injection sites, providing sterile equipment, distributing naloxone (reverses overdoses)

• reduction campaigns encourage drug users not to feel shame

• encourage them to take control of their health by using drugs with others and emply safer modes of injection

What is the medias reaction to harm reduction services?

• fuels public alarm

• flooding with images of people openly smoking fentanyl

• homeless camps

• coverage cultivates fear and heightens the desire to “get tough” on people who use drugs

What is the debate over stigma and drugs?

• stigma experienced by PWUD is deep and pervasive

• stigma is a barrier to seeking treatment

• stigma breeds isolation

What is the anti-smoking movement and what did it do?

• cut the prevalence of tobacco use by roughly half

• informed people of the real risks without overt judgement or threat of arrest

• anti-smoking policies restricted sales, eliminated mass advertising, shrunk spaces where smoking is permitted

What social issues can contribute to the deeper causes of the drug crisis:

• poverty

• homelessness

• limited access to mental health support

• lack of government assistance

What are some helpful strategies to the deeper causes of the drug crisis?

• diversion and deflection initiatives

• medical-assisted treatment

• long-term emotional and social support for people with behavioural health challenges

• provide low-barrier housing

What is the difference between adult/youth correctional facilities and secure/open custody facilities?

Youth correctional facilities are referred to as custody facilities rather than jails or prisons

Adult facilities are usually more restrictive (secure)

Secure custody facilities: physical restrictive barriers, limited access to community

Open custody facilities: small residential facilities, access to community schools, recreation in community, local employment, and treatment

Describe the experiences of youth in custody:

• peer-on-peer victimization

  • intimidation, extortion, stealing, destruction of personal possessions, verbal abuse

• staff violence

• overuse of segregation and solitary confinement

What is solitary confinement?

• when people are held in total or near-total isolation

• no meaningful contact or mental stimulation for more than 24hrs

Who are the youth most commonly in solitary confinement?

• Indigenous and radicalized youth

• girls

• youth with mental health issues

Impact of custody on young offenders:

• exposes young offenders to harmful experiences (violence, trauma)

• those with a higher number of previous vulenrabilities are more likely to experience difficulties with adjustment and psychological well-being

Long-term consequences of youth custody:

• has negative effects on job stability at ages 25-32

• cuts off opportunities for employment later in life which increases the likelihood of youth returning to crime

Girls in custody:

• girls have higher rates of mental health issues than boys

• more childhood instability and familial dysfunction

• nearly twice the girls had been physcially or sexually abused

• detention or custody can sometimes provide a sense of community for female young offenders for the first time

Overrepresentation of Indigenous youth:

• individual and environmental risk factors such as: poverty, family conflict, lower education levels, substance use problems, psychological and emotional problems

• Indigenous youth are 3x more likely to experience violent victimization and incidents of physical and sexual abuse

• colonization and residental schools is an ongoing impact and directly connected to the overrepresentation in the justice system

Young adults:

• ages 18-24 are a distinct subgroup of adult corrections populations

• adult facilities focus on security and order

• youth facilities focus more on rehabilitation (a kinder tone)

The social construction of youth:

• modern concept of youth represents a new protected life stage before adulthood

• emerging into adulthood (legally an adult and fully an adult)

• when is someone mature enough to be an adult and be accountable for decisions?

Crime ages:

• under 12: no criminal responsibility

• 13-17: criminal responsibility under the Youth Criminal Justice Act

• 18+: criminally responsible

What is the age crime curve?

• high rate of youth crime around age 17-18

When and where does most youth crime happen?

• less on weekdays, more on weekends

• later in the day

• most crimes committed in private residences

• lots of youth traffic violations (9-12pm)

• less in the winter months but evenly spread across spring, summer, fall

What is the Youth Crime Severity Index?

• tracks the volume and severity of youth crime

• more serious offences receive greater weight

• CSI uses incident accounts, YCSI includes accounts of youth accused

What are the 2 Social Learning Theories?

Differential Association Theory (Sutherland, 1947):

• delinquency as a result of more association with delinquent peers than law-abiding peers

• ex. your friend sees shoplifting as a good thing so you start seeing it as a good thing

Techniques of Neutralization (Skyes & Matza, 1957):

• offenders learn from others how to neutralize their adherence to conventional norms

• denial of responsibility = act is not my fault or is beyond my control

• denial of injury = act does not cause harm or is not that serious

• denial of the victim = victim deserved it

• condemn the condemners = act is a product of a corrupt world

What are Social Control Theories and name the 1:

• they argue that criminal tendencies are natural and will be acted upon if they are not directly controlled

Social Bond Theory (Hirschi, 1969):

• conformity is explained by strong bonds to conventional society

• strong social bonds lower the likelihood of engaging in crime b/c individuals are worried about harming their prosocial relationships

• 4 aspects of bonds that must be cultivated through interactions w/ “conventional others”:

  • attachment (to parents, friends, school, church, etc.)

  • commitment (education, job, social status, etc.)

  • involvement (in extracurriculars, part-time jobs, etc.)

  • belief (in morality, fairness, the law, etc.)

What are Subcultural theories and name the 1:

• argue that groups challenge the status quo by adopting oppositional cultural values, norms, and beliefs

Status Frustration (Cohen, 1955):

• lower-class boys are at a status disadvantage in middle-class schools and experience “status frustration” when they fail to live up to the “measuring rod”

• they reject middle-class norms/values and replace them with oppositional norms/values

• delinquency is an oppositional means of achieving status

What are Labelling Theories and name the 1:

• argue that negative from reactions the CJS can prompt a long-term deviant career

Dramatization of Evil (Tannenbaum, 1938):

• contact w/ the CJS can make a big deal out of common acts of delinquency and tags youths as trouble-makers

• internalizing a criminal identity can exacerbate criminal decision-making in the future

• need to avoid dramatizing the evil and jumpstarting a criminal career

What are the 4 Justice Models and briefly describe each:

1. Social Change: youth behaviour determined by life conditions

2. Welfare: adolescents can be shown how to change their lives

3. Justice: balance b/w rights of society and rights of individual

4. Crime Control: removes criminal from the streets

Reformatory vs. Industrial schools:

Reformatory: focus on rehabilitation through physical labour

Industrial: focus on self-control, work training

What did the precursor period focus on and what act was established during this time?

• focused on upholding morality of young people

• Act for Establishing Prisons for Young Offenders:

  • youth were separated from adults

  • wanted to reverse effects of poor home environments

What is the JDA? (status offences)

Juvenile Delinquents Act (1908): formed distinction between young offenders and adult offenders

“Status offences”: acts that are only illegal b/c of the age of the individual

What are the critiques of the Juvenile Delinquents Act?

1. reliance on interdeterminate sentences

2. inclusion of status offences

3. skepticism about the efficacy of reforming delinquent juveniles

What is the YOA?

Young Offenders Act (1984): focused on responsibility, accountability, and balancing legal rights against protection of society

• young people aren’t just misguided victims but held responsible for their actions

• more access to legal rights

• proposed responses other than formal court processing (diversion)

What is diversion and what does it do?

Diversion: redirecting offenders to non-correctional interventions

• aims to avoid heavy-handed negative reactions from the criminal justice system

What is the YCJA?

Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002):

• prompted by the criticism of the YOA

• removed status offences

• YCJA has reduced reliance on courts and custody for responding to young offenders

What is restorative justice?

bringing together the offender and victim in mediation programs that allow mutual decisions on compensation for the harm

• encourages mututal healing

• emphasis on responsibility and accountability

• has not been widely adopted

Definition of criminalization and explain it:

defining an activity as a criminal offence and making it subject to police enforcement and criminal penalties

• drug laws target particular activities: poddrddion, production, trafficking rather than the substance itself

• shapes social labels: PWUD viewed as “criminals” rather than patients/customers

• consequences extend beyond punishment

  • stigma, unequal harms, imapcts families

Definition of drugs and explain it:

a loosely defined term that covers a range of substances (aspirin, alcohol, cocaine, cough syrup)

• a drug is socially defined and labeled by society

• deviant vs. non-deviant drug use

• social attitudes about drugs changes over time

Canada drug prohibition - Opium Act:

1908,1911

• a way to control, punish, and ultimately expel Chinese folks

• expanded police powers (of search and seizure)

• prohibited sale and manufacturing of opium, anything other than medicinal use

What are some of the racial political standpoints about drugs?

• drugs were framed as needed to be controlled in order to “protect white women”

• Vancouver represented Chinese people as “dangerous suppliers” and white women and children as victims

Canada drug prohibition - Cannabis:

1923

• race

• medical exemptions

• legal progression

• view on cannabis has changed over time

USA - Harrison Act:

1914

• prohibited the selling/using of opioids, cocaine, and marijuana without a doctor’s prescription

USA - Marijuana Tax Act:

1937

• designed to stamp out use of a substance by subjecting smokers to criminal law pursuitings

Marijuana in the US:

• seen as national problem at tghis time

• public perceived the drug as a threat to personal health and morality and to society’s well-being

• symbolized divide between youthful protest and mature conservatism, b/w status quo and change

• lots to do with race (Spanish, Mexican, and Chinese folks)

War on Drugs:

• associated with Richard Nixon (1971)

• overrepresentation of minorities

• sentencing laws and mandatory minimums

• larger personal and social impact

• citizenship rights and racism

How has Canada’s position shifted on trafficking?

• focused used to be on structural factors (poverty) now to emotional and psychological factors (pre-existing vulnerabilities)

• definition moved from transnational, organized offence to domestic luring and grooming of young women and girls

What are the 3 key domestic trafficking images and what are they?

1. Girl next door - seen as innocent and in need of saving

2. Marginalized victim - target because of pre-existing vulnerabilities

3. Indigenous women

How is trafficking generally defined in Canada and what does it focus on?

Exploitation —> more specifically, the intent to exploit that makes a reasonable person fear for their physical, psychological, or emotional safety, or safety of their loved ones

• focuses on sex trade indrusty, less labour industry cases

• sex trade is seen as inherently exploitative and criminalized, so its easy to justify surveillance of it

Why is “modern day slavery” not a good comparison to trafficking?

because it undermines the history of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

• the TAST was premised on legal ownership of people so trafficking is not the same in that sense

What is trafficking protocol? (who made it, when, what did it do)

• made by United Nations in 2000

• Shifted focus from human rights framework to criminalization framework

What is SWAN Vancouver?

SWAN: supporting women’s alternatives network

• hybrid between social service agency and a community advocacy group

Where else is exploitation happening?

• agricultural, restaurant industry

• frequently conducted raids on farms, greenhouses

• migrant workers under impression they’re working legally in Canada

  • could be provided with false information and false paperwork

Who were the 2 guest speakers about Human Trafficking?

Sargeant James Graham and Raquel Hall

What is human trafficking?

recruitment, transportation, harbouring, or exercising control direction or influence over the movements of a person in order to exploit that person, typically through exploitation

• sexual exploitation, sex work, forced labour, servitude

List some places where sexual exploitation can happen?

• adult entertainment establishments

• stripping

• internet/phone based exploitation

• pornography

• erotic/nude massage

What percentage of police-reported trafficking cases in Canada happen in Ontario?

62%

What percentage of people who are trafficked in Ontario actually come from Ontario?

66%

Why is there so much trafficking in Ontario?

due to the 401 being the “biggest human trafficking corridor” in Canada

What are some systemic risk factors of trafficking?

• poverty

• racism

• colonization

• patriarchy

• oppression

• gender identity discrimination

What are some individual risk factors of trafficking?

• unmet basic needs

• mental health/substance use

• body image issues, low self-esteem, insecurity

• historical trauma, past sexual violence

• lack of understanding of healthy relationships

• social or geographic isolation

• abuse, lack of support in family, insecure attachments

• biolence in the home or community/bullying

• language barriers, newcomes, immigration status

What is the Boyfriending recruitment method?

• predominant intimate partner violence

• posing as someone who is loving and caring

• intimate partner relationship becomes violent or exploitative, but the victim thinks of the offender as a partner instead of exploiter

• ex. posting intimate photos on OF

What is the Befriending recruitment method?

• colleague, coworker, classmate showing off - “i want to be your friend” then facilitates exploitation

What is the CEO recruitment method?

• business relationship

• “i own a modelling company, talent company, etc”

• strip clubs, offering money

• starting utilizing force and coercion

What is the “path” of how trafficking happens?

luring → grooming → coercion, manipulation, control → exploitation → recruitment

• timeline depends on victims susceptibility/vulnerability to coercion/control

What is Luring:

• gathering information

  • what does the person need: material, praise, belonging, promise of a life together

• feels like attention, not luring

What is Grooming:

• finds what the person is missing

  • showering of love (lovebombing), praise, attention

• gift giving

• gathering information and posing as a partner

• introduce idea of sexual relationship/substance use/engaging in sex work or porn

What is Coercion, Manipulation & Control:

• love, bond, intimacy is withheld

• sending mixed messages/testing bond to see how far the person is willing to go to regain tha tlove

• testing power dynamic

• threatening behaviours/blackmail

• destroying relationships with other supports

What is Exploitation:

• trafficker/intimate partner takens them to different places

• post them as offering sexual services and arragning dates without consent or knowledge (seeing 10-15 customers/day)

• element of violence (physical, sexual, threats, use of weapons)

• fear

What is Recruitment:

• befriending, boyfriending, CEO

• have been trafficked for a period of time

• having the survivor recruit others

What are some red flags of trafficking?

• innapropriate clothing for age/weather

• someone not being allowed to speak freely

• no control of money/cell phone

• no identity documents in possession

• not familiar with where they are

• branding (tattoos)