Twitter
FacebookCriminology / Law
Sort by: Title (A–Z) (Z–A) | Publication Date (Newest) (Oldest)
Aboriginal Fishing Rights
Laws, Courts, Politics
Parnesh Sharma
This book examines the nature of aboriginal fishing rights before and after the Sparrow decision from a perspective of whether disadvantaged groups are able to use the law to advance their causes of social progress and equality. It includes interviews with the key players in the fishing industry: the Musqueam Indian Band, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the commercial industry. It concludes that aboriginal fishing rights remain subject to arbitrary control and examines why and how… (more information)
About Canada: Animal Rights
John Sorenson
Adopting Mahatma Gandhi’s idea that “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated,” this book considers the status of animals in Canada. Casting a critical gaze over how dominant ideologies, such as capitalism and patriarchy, have negatively impacted our relationships with the natural world, Sorenson examines the institutional exploitation of animals in agriculture, fashion and entertainment. Addressing the fur trade, seal hunt… (more information)
Abusing Power
The Canadian Experience
Edited by Susan C. Boyd, Dorothy E. Chunn, Robert Menzies
Abusing Power: The Canadian Experience is a book about crime, law, power and social (in)justice. The contributors include academics, legal practitioners, journalists and social activists who have been studying and struggling for years against the abuse of power in myriad realms of Canadian life. This book represents the first systematic effort in this country to integrate a variety of topics related to power abuse into a single collection. Each essay has been chosen on the strength of its capacity… (more information)
An Ideal Prison?
Critical Essays on Women’s Imprisonment in Canada
Edited by Kelly Hannah-Moffat, Margaret Shaw
Ten years after the publication of Creating Choices, a remarkable report on women’s imprisonment in Canada, this book sets out to reflect on attempts to reform prison. In a series of critical essays, the contributors stimulate reflection and discussion. They explore the effects of punishment and penality on women’s lives, the impact of feminist reforms on the lives of women in prison and the systemic barriers which limit change in the context of both provincial and federal prisons. Each… (more information)
Anti-Terrorism
Security and Insecurity after 9/11
Edited by Sandra Rollings-Magnusson
This edited collection critically analyzes the concept of “terrorism,” the Canadian and American government responses to terrorist activity since the events of 9/11 and the problem of government policies infringing on basic human rights and freedoms. The authors direct their attention to various topics including the relationship between the capitalist economic system and the war on terror, the legality and efficacy of of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the USA PATRIOT Act, and the insecurities… (more information)
Being Heard
The Experiences of Young Women in Prostitution
Edited by Kelly Gorkoff, Jane Runner
Being Heard examines, from their own perspectives and experiences, the lives of young women sexually exploited through prostitution. Putting their voices in the centre of its analysis, the book tries to help us more fully understand the experiences of girls exploited through prostitution, the complex issues of sex trade work and the ways to best respond to the issues. Beginning with a discussion of what little we know about youth prostitution, subsequent chapters address young women’s experiences… (more information)
Beyond Criminology
Taking Harm Seriously
Edited by Dave Gordon, Paddy Hillyard, Christina Pantazis, Steve Tombs
Beyond Criminology is an innovative, groundbreaking critique of conventional criminological approaches to social issues. The contributors make a broad analysis of social harm by examining the theoretical issues and then looking at harmful organizations, policies and experiences. Using this approach, the contributors show how social harm relates to social and economic inequalities that are the heart of the liberal state. Only once we have identified the causes of social harm, they argue, can we begin… (more information)
Beyond the Limits of the Law
Corporate Crime and Law and Order
John McMullan
McMullan attributes corporate crime to a process whereby the accumulation of capital takes precedence over human safety. He concludes that “the scope and seriousness of corporate crime is enormous, far exceeding that of conventional crime.” (more information)
Blaming Children
Youth Crime, Moral Panics and the Politics of Hate
Bernard Schissel
This book argues that we are on the verge of an acute “moral panic” in this country that, if allowed to continue, willresult in the indictment of all adolescents, but especially those that are disadvantaged. Schissel explains the role of the media in this panic–its affiliation with information/political systems, with its readers/viewers, and with corporate Canada. The reality of youth crime is presented in stark contrast to the collective perception that youth crime is expanding… (more information)
Canadian Critical Race Theory
Racism and the Law
Carol A. Aylward
The growth of the Critical Race Theory genre began in Canada when scholars of colour in Canada began to articulate a dissatisfaction with the existing Canadian legal discourse which failed to include an analysis of the role that “race” and racism has played in the political and legal structures of Canadian society. This book is about the role that race and racism play in the theory and practice of law. It shows how Canadian Black lawyers and others are beginning to seriously consider… (more information)
Constructing Danger
The Mis/Representation of Crime in the News
Christopher McCormick
This book examines different criminal topics through looking at actual news articles and analyzing how subtle distortions creep into crime coverage. The underlying perspective is that the news not only reports crime but socially constructs it, reproducing crime myths in the process. This book is sure to change the way you think about crime in the news. (more information)
Constructing Danger
Emotions and Mis/Representation of Crime in the News (Second Edition)
Christopher McCormick
Crime reporting is often thought to be simply an objective and factual description of an event. In Constructing Danger Chris McCormick argues that crime is more than simply reported: it is constructed. And sometimes it is distorted, exaggerated and manipulated in order to create certain impressions of and opinions about the world. Examining issues such as how misrepresentations of AIDS perpetuates harmful stereotypes, the underrepresentation of women in the news, the trivialization of sexual… (more information)
Cops, Crime and Capitalism
The Law and Order Agenda in Canada
Todd Gordon
Framed within a Marxist class analysis that highlights the way in which state power and capitalist social relations are racialized and gendered, Gordon’s study locates law and order policing as a central moment of capitalist state power. He argues that, as with policing historically, crime-fighting is not the principal aim of contemporary law and order policing—rather the aim is the production of a new social order based on the severely diminished expectations of working people. Crime… (more information)
Creating Criminals
Prisons and People in a Market Society
Vivien Stern
Everywhere, the market society is producing more crime. More acts are being defined as crimes. More people are classified as criminals and more are being locked up in prison. With globalization, the crime and punishment problem is no longer insulated from pressures beyond national borders. The rich may retreat behind their expensive security into gated communities, but the poor are more and more at the mercy of criminals and corrupt policing. Vivien Stern argues that the trends towards more criminalization… (more information)
Crimes, Laws and Communities
John McMullan, David C. Perrier, Stephen Smith, Peter D. Swan
In this book, McMullan and his colleagues have provided much needed information and analysis on “unconventional” crimes by researching fire for profit, illegal fishing and business crime in Atlantic Canada. The three essays fill an information gap left by scant media reports, conflicting government statistics and, in the case of crimes of capital, wilfully concealed information. (more information)
Criminalizing Women
Gender and (In)justice in Neoliberal Times
Edited by Gillian Balfour, Elizabeth Comack
This book introduces readers to the key issues addressed by feminists in their engagement with criminology over the past four decades. It explores the narratives of women’s lives as “errant females,” sex trade workers, “gang” members and drug traffickers to map out the connections between the choices women make and the conditions of their lives. It shows how criminalized women and girls have been disciplined, managed, corrected and punished as prisoners, patients, mothers… (more information)
Disorderly People
Law and the Politics of Exclusion in Ontario
Joe Hermer, Janet Mosher
The Ontario Safe Streets Act is the first modern provincial law to prohibit a wide range of begging and squeegee work in public space. This Act is representative of a much wider set of reforms that the Ontario government has carried out in the administration of criminal justice and social welfare. Central to the neo-conservative character of these reforms has been the construction of “disorderly people,” of those portrayed as “welfare cheats,” “squeegee kids,” &… (more information)
Elusive Justice
Beyond the Marshall Inquiry
Edited by Joy Mannette
“The Marshall Commission Report does not deserve accolades. While it acknowledges errors, negligence and mismanagement, it did not make the connections necessary to begin the process of developing a dialogue about a justice system that Aboriginal people can respect, or which respects Aboriginal people.” - M.E. Turpel, Dalhousie Law School (more information)
Giving Youth a Voice
Christie Barron
This book challenges traditional theories and methods associated with the study of youth violence. It offers a fresh perspective by incorporating into the discourse the voices of youths speaking about their own experience of the justice system. The book underscores the ineffectual nature of current corrections programs which are prescribed to deal with youth violence. (more information)
Guantănamo North
Terrorism and the Administration of Justice in Canada
Robert Diab
Long List selection for the 2009 George Ryga Award After September 11th, the Canadian government made significant amendments to the law, arguing that terrorism made extraordinary measures necessary. In a nation with a high regard for human rights and civil liberties, non-citizens with suspected links to terrorism are being held indefinitely without charge on secret evidence. The scope of state secrecy now extends to almost anything relating to national security. The courts have found these and… (more information)
Human Rights
Social Justice in the Age of the Market
Koen de Feyter
Rampant market economics has led to violations of human rights. Koen de Feyter questions how far the international human rights system provides effective protection against the adverse effects of globalization. His innovative suggestions for improving the human rights system include rethinking the states’ obligations, creating human rights responsibilities for big companies and international financial institutions and developing human rights obligations for states beyond their own national… (more information)
Immigration and the Legalization of Racism
Lisa Jakubowski
”The chameleon-like nature of the law–the duplicitous ways in which the law is written, the equivocal way in which it is stated and, therefore, talked about, the hiding of the truth about the resources which are expended in its implementation, the misleading way in which it casts the discretions it purports to take away and to give–its ideological functioning and its capacity to legitimate the illegitimate, all are put under the microscope in this study. It is a timely piece of… (more information)
Locating Law (Second Edition)
Race / Class / Gender / Sexuality Connections (2nd Edition)
Edited by Elizabeth Comack
One primary concern within the study of law has been to understand the law/society relation. Underlying this concern is the belief that law has a distinctly social basis; it both shapes and is shaped by the society in which it operates. This book explores the law/society relation by locating law within the nexus of race/class/gender/sexuality relations in society. Recognizing that inequalities along these lines exist in society raises important questions: What role has law historically played in… (more information)
Manufacturing Guilt (2nd edition)
Wrongful Convictions in Canada
Barrie Anderson, Dawn Anderson
Manufacturing Guilt, 2nd edition, updates the cases presented in the first edition and includes two new chapters: one concerning the case of James Driskell and another regarding Dr. Charles Smith, whose role in forensic pathology evidence led to several wrongful convictions. In this new edition, the authors demonstrate that the same factors at play in the criminalization of the powerless and marginalized are found in cases of wrongful conviction. Contrary to popular belief, wrongful convictions… (more information)
Marginality and Condemnation (Second Edition
An Introduction to Criminology, 2nd Edition
Edited by Carolyn Brooks, Bernard Schissel
This second edition of Marginality and Condemnation continues the approach of the first edition: it sees crime as a socio-political process. What is defined as criminal, how we respond to “crime” and why individuals behave in anti-social ways are the consequences of and reproduce social inequalities. While this book argues that the marginalized in society are most likely to feel the full force of criminal (in)justice, it does address the full range of criminological analysis. Marginality… (more information)
Missing Women, Missing News
Covering Crisis in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
David Hugill
Missing Women, Missing News examines newspaper coverage of the arrest and trial of Robert Pickton, the man charged with murdering 26 street-level sex workers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. It demonstrates how news narratives obscured the complex matrix of social and political conditions that made it possible for so many women to simply ‘disappear’ from a densely populated urban neighborhood without provoking an aggressive response by the state. Grounded in a theory of ideology… (more information)
Mr. Big
Exposing Undercover Investigations in Canada
Joan Brockman, Kouri T. Keenan
”Mr. Big” is a sting operation designed to obtain a confession and other evidence from a suspect targeted by undercover police officers posing as members of the criminal underworld. In a typical scenario, undercover operatives convince the suspects that they are big-time criminals, offer them various amounts of money and other incentives to help make their legal problems go away. In order to evaluate the legitimacy of this police practice, Keenan and Brockman survey over 80 cases of… (more information)
News, Truth and Crime
The Westray Disaster and Its Aftermath
John McMullan
The “truth” behind the Westray mine disaster remains a highly contested matter. This book is a study of how the media represented the events surrounding Westray. The absence of investigative reporting in favour of sensational stories about accidents and the pain and suffering of the bereaved obscures the truth. More importantly it presents a false truth so the question, “What happened at Westray?” remains largely unanswered. The answer to the question, “Who is responsible… (more information)
Out There/In Here
Masculinity, Violence and Prisoning
Elizabeth Comack
Elizabeth Comack explores the complicated connections between masculinity and violence in the lives of men incarcerated at a provincial prison. Moving between the spaces of ‘out there’ and ‘in here,’ the discussion traces the men’s lives in terms of their efforts to ‘do’ masculinity and the place of violence in that undertaking. In drawing out these connections, similarities with the lives of other men become apparent. In the process, we also learn that… (more information)
Perils and Possibilities
Social Activism and the Law
Byron Sheldrick
This book argues that law is a political resource that carries with it both opportunities and dangers for social activists. As such, activist groups must carefully navigate the contradictions within law to evaluate the strategic and tactical issues raised by law and legal institutions. Perils and Possibilities provides a guide to these issues and explores the types of questions activist groups need to ask themselves before embarking on a campaign of legal mobilization. In addition to a brief exploration… (more information)
Prison Voices
Edited by Richard Jaccoma, Lee Weinstein
Prison Voices is an inmate-written book, made to encourage reading and writing in prisons. Within these pages twelve convict-authors reveal the dramatic details of their lives and their struggles. Some of the pieces are uplifting and hopeful; others breathtaking, steeped in remorse. At times the words we read are most shocking in the precision of the author’s self-reflection; at other times exasperating in what they reveal of the author’s self-destructiveness. Fill free to see a review… (more information)
Punched Drunk
Alcohol, Surveillance and the LCBO 1927–1975
Gary Genosko, Scott Thompson
In this critical study of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, Scott Thompson and Gary Genosko expose the stakes and consequences of the enormous bureaucracy behind the administrative surveillance of alcohol consumption in Ontario. Since its inception in 1927, the LCBO subjected alcohol consumption to its disciplinary gaze and generated knowledge about the drinking population. This book details how the LCBO tracked all alcohol consumption and capitalized on technological advances in order to generate… (more information)
Raise Shit!
Social Action Saving Lives
Susan C. Boyd, Donald MacPherson, Bud Osborn
This book tells a story about community activism in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES) that culmi-nated in a social justice movement to open the first official safe injection site. This story is unique: it is told from the point of view of drug users — those most affected by drug policy, political decisions and policing. It provides a montage of poetry, photos, early Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) meetings, journal entries from the Back Alley, the “unofficial&rdquo… (more information)
Rethinking the Administration of Justice
Edited by Dawn Currie, Brian MacLean
This book analyzes different aspects of the administration of justice from the perspective of three emerging critical traditions of inquiry: Marxist political economy, feminist inquiry and discourse analysis. (more information)
Risk and Trust
Including or Excluding Citizens?
Edited by Law Commission of Canada
In recent years politicians, academics and social commentators have discussed and debated aspects of the “risk society.” For some, embracing a risk frame fulfils a socially productive role in that it helps identify and manage a range of harms and fears. However, as this multidisciplinary collection illustrates, peeling back the veneer of this often highly technocratic discourse reveals a series of moral judgments about the constitution of risk and its role in organizingcontemporary society… (more information)
Sex Traffic
Prostitution, Crime and Exploitation
Paola Monzini
The trafficking of women and girls for prostitution is big business. This book focuses on the experiences of migrant women and girls who have very little choice or control over their lives. In the context of neo-liberal globalization, they are the new ‘slaves’ of the contemporary era. The annual worth of this global industry is now estimated to be approximately $7 billion, making it particularly attractive to organized crime networks. Women are forced to compete for work in conditions… (more information)
STILL Blaming Children
Youth Conduct and the Politics of Child Hating (2nd Edition)
Bernard Schissel
The media-enhanced moral panic surrounding youth has continued unabated over the past two decades. Its form and substance varies, but the politics of blaming and exploiting children underlies it all. Despite the reality that rates for most youth crime have gone down, the public condemnation of youth, especially through the news media, continue unabated, and the position of children and youth in our societies is still as precarious as ever. Put bluntly, the lives of too many children and youth are… (more information)
The Mi’kmaw Concordat
James (Sekej) Youngblood Henderson
This important work, written primarily as a Native Studies text, fills a large gap in the history of Native peoples in the Americas. It is a fascinating multidisciplinary journey covering intellectual history, law, political science, religious studies, and Mi’kmaw legends, oral history and perceptions from the arrival in America by Columbus and other Europeans in the fifteenth century to the Mi’kmaw Concordat in the early seventeenth century. There is virtually nothing else in print… (more information)
The Place of Justice
Edited by Law Commission of Canada
Justice and its “place” within society are highly contested, both in terms of how they are conceptualized and how they are applied. As citizens, we frequently discuss and debate what it means to live in a just society. We lobby for law reform to seek more or better justice. We participate in protests to raise awareness of social justice. Yet, what is the actual “place” of justice in contemporary society? Drawing from several disciplines—including law, criminology, women… (more information)
The Political Economy of Narcotics
Production, Consumption and Global Markets
Julia Buxton
For nearly a century, regimes around the world have upheld a prohibitionist stance toward narcotics. The US has led this global consensus, enforcing recognition of international narcotics conventions and laws. Vast resources are pumped into the “war on drugs.” But in practice, prohibition has been an abject failure. Narcotics use continues to rise, while technology and globalization have made a whole new range of drugs available to a vast consumer market. Where wealth and demand exist… (more information)
The Politics of Restorative Justice
A Critical Introduction
Andrew Woolford
This book invites the reader to reconsider restorative justice and its politics. Through an examination of restorative themes, theories and practices, three distinct ways in which politics affect restorative justice are explored. First, restorative justice is situated in a context in which political actors, as well as structural forces, either enable or obstruct its practice. Second, restorative justice is understood as a contributor to political power in that its practice helps govern individual… (more information)
The Power to Criminalize
Violence, Inequality and Law
Gillian Balfour, Elizabeth Comack
Law’s power to criminalize—to turn a person into a criminal—is formidable. Traditional legal doctrine argues that law dispenses justice in an impartial and unbiased fashion. Critical legal theorists claim that law reproduces gender, race and class inequalities. The Power to Criminalize offers an analysis that acknowledges the tensions between these two views of law. Drawing from crown attorneys’ files on violent crime cases and interviews with defence lawyers, the authors… (more information)
The Socialist Register 2009
Violence Today Actually Existing Barbarism
Edited by Colin Leys, Leo Panitch
Violence in every possible form dominates current headlines and people’s fears. Understanding it has never been more urgently needed. This volume offers an insight into contemporary violence that the mainstream media — and even mainstream cinema — shrinks from providing on state violence, on violence in inner cities and prisons, and on the violence committed almost everywhere by men against women. In this book, consideration is given to the sources of imperialism and globalized… (more information)
The Westray Chronicles
A Case Study in Corporate Crime
Edited by Christopher McCormick
In this book authors from backgrounds as diverse as engineering to public relations are brought together to create a holistic picture of what happened at Westray. From an analysis of the geology of the underlying coal seam to an assessment of the difficulties of pinning legal responsibility on the company, the government or any of the managers, this book constitutes one of the few case studies of corporate crime in Canada. The contributors offer the reader challenging new ways to think about workplace… (more information)
Toxic Criminology
Environment, Law and the State in Canada
Edited by Susan C. Boyd, Dorothy E. Chunn, Robert Menzies
Critical research, writing and advocacy by legal academics and practitioners, NGOs, indigenous peoples and ecofeminists has existed on a global scale since the 1960s, but not until the 1990s did criminologists begin to examine environmental crime in a more concerted way. This late entrance by criminologist has much to do with who is involved in environmental crime—namely upper strata, mostly “white” men who run corporations and state agancies and the preception of environmental… (more information)
Undressing the Canadian State
The Politics of Pornography from Hicklin to Butler
Kirsten K. Johnson
Through a detailed historical analysis of Canada’s obscenity legislation, Johnson argues that the state implicitly supports the ideology of pornography. (more information)
Victim No More
Women’s Resistance to Law, Culture and Power
Edited by Ellen Faulkner, Gayle MacDonald
This book challenges the idea that women are simply victims. It celebrates women’s resistance. It explores the moments beyond victimization. It argues that women do not stay crushed and broken, but move on, build and grow. The contributors to this edited edition celebrate the various forms of resistance: political resistance at both the collective and individual levels, legal resistance and resistance to cultural forms and labels. The editors argue that “Women-as-victim is not an emancipatory… (more information)
When Justice Is a Game
Unravelling Wrongful Convictions in Canada
MaDonna Maidment
All too often the police do not get the right person. Wrongful convictions are framed as mistakes or failures of the justice system. However, many of the wrongfully convicted are from among the poor and visible minority groups. The law then becomes an ideological mask relieving us of the responsibility of engaging with the real issues that underscore wrongful convictions. MaDonna Maidment illustrates how the desire to get a conviction and paint the police and the courts in a positive light often… (more information)
With Child
Substance Use During Pregnancy, A Woman-Centred Approach
Edited by Susan C. Boyd, Lenora Marcellus
Drug use is among the behaviours that are associated with or a consequence of poverty. The contributors to this volume propose that those who provide services for pregnant drugusing women must recognize that care of women with social problems that affect pregnancy outcome should be approached in the same way as care for women with medical problems that have obstetric consequences. This book provides practitioners and researchers with valuable information about maternal drug use, best practices and… (more information)
Women in Trouble
Connecting Women’s Law Violation to their Histories of Abuse
Elizabeth Comack
This book addresses one of the more alarming findings to emerge about women in prison: the fact that 80 percent report histories of physical and sexual abuse. “Elizabeth allows the women in this book to speak their own truth. It’s a graphic, shocking, depressing and absolutely necessary account of the connections between histories of abuse and trouble with the law.” - Karen Toole-Mitchell, Winnipeg Free Press (more information)