Only abstracts of full articles are contained in these Web pages. Research notes and commentaries are usually not summarized into abstracts. Readers who need the complete texts should contact the CCJA and subscribe to the Journal. They can also purchase single copies of back issues that are still in stock.
THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AS A METHODOLOGICAL TOOL: SUING THE GOVERNMENT FOR DATA
Matthew G. Yeager
Carleton University
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 1966, and the corresponding Access to Information Act in Canada, circa 1983, were designed to make government more open and accountable to the general public. However, neither act has functioned that way, with most requests being made by lawyers, information professionals, corporations, and political parties.
Academic researchers, including criminal justice types, have used the act to access a variety of information from government files. For instance, Alan Block (1975; 1980) used old FBI files for his study of Jewish gangsters in New York City. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall (1990a; 1990b) used the act to illustrate government law breaking in the FBI COINTELPRO program, involving Native Americans, the Black Panthers, and other progressive groups. Only rarely, however, have academics elected to take the government to court and file for judicial review of the government’s disclosure decisions.
This article describes two lawsuits filed by the author, one under each act, and illustrates both the potential of those acts for obtaining data from the government and the pitfalls a potential plaintiff faces when prosecuting the state for a violation of the Freedom of Information Act. The two lawsuits in question are Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Administration (1982) and Yeager v. Canada (Correctional Service) [2003]. This methodological approach undoubtedly falls under more progressive theories of criminology, such as conflict, radical, or critical perspectives, since mainstream researchers rarely resort to this technique.
FROM COMMUNITY TO INTELLIGENCE: EXECUTIVE REALIGNMENT OF RCMP MISSION
John Edward Deukmedjian
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
University of Windsor
RCMP executive problematizations of community-policing misalignments during the 1990s created the conditions for adopting intelligence-led policing since late 2000. Executives identified three areas as acute problems: frontline acceptance, training, and mid-level management. These ‘sites’ of executive problematization are expected to re-emerge under intelligence-led policing. As such, this article proposes that new model adoptions and subsequent organizational restructuring initiatives form part of broader cyclical alignment. This paper also discusses the broader implications of this study in terms of possible relocations of expertise and knowledge production at the agency-network level.
VIOLENCE AND THREATS AGAINST LAWYERS PRACTISING IN VANCOUVER, CANADA
Karen N. Brown and David MacAlister
School of Criminology
Simon Fraser University
Society does not normally consider the practice of law a dangerous occupation, but a significant number of lawyers, particularly those practising in specialties such as criminal defence, government prosecutorial positions, and family/divorce law are encountering violence and threats. Although past research in the United States demonstrated that lawyers have been victimized by objectionable behaviour and threatening communications, there are no relevant Canadian studies on this topic. IN the present study, survey data from 1,152 lawyers in Vancouver and surrounding suburbs in British Columbia, Canada, were examined to determine if British Columbia lawyers are being threatened, and if so, what are the types, quantity, and locations of such threats and/or violence. Results of this current study indicate that 59.2 percent of respondents, or 683 lawyers, reported varying degrees and numbers of threats. This article will discuss those findings.
TRACKING HIGH-RISK, VIOLENT OFFENDERS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE NATIONAL FLAGGING SYSTEM
Annie K. Yessine and James Bonta
Corrections Research
Public Safety Canada
The present study investigated the effectiveness of the Canadian National Flagging System (NFS), a policy initiative intended to identify offenders who are judged to be suitable candidates for a Dangerous Offender (DO) or a Long-Term Offender (LTO) application. Analyses comparing the profiles of 256 flagged offenders and 97 known high-risk, violent offenders indicated that the flagged offenders generally showed less serious and persistent criminality characteristics than the known high-risk, violent offenders. However, scores on actuarial measures of risk demonstrated that both groups comprised especially high-risk offenders. Furthermore, the violent and/or sexual reconviction rates of the flagged offenders were significantly higher than those reported among the typical Canadian male federal offender population. Judged against our expectations, the base rate of DO/LTO designations among the violent/sexual recidivist flagged offenders was also much higher than the one estimated among the general high-risk, violent offender population in Canada. As a whole, findings suggested that the NFS was successful in appropriately identifying offenders who pose a risk to the community as well as in subsequently responding to this threat by facilitating the use of the DO/LTO provisions. Recommendations for the development of guidelines to assist criminal justice professionals in screening, monitoring and processing high-risk, persistent offenders are made.
Research Note
THE USE OF CUSTODY FOR FAILING TO COMPLY WITH A DISPOSITION CASES UNDER THE YOUNG OFFENDERS ACT
Jane B. Sprott
Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
University of Guelph
Throughout the 1990s there have been increases in bringing “failing to comply with a disposition” cases into youth court and sentencing them to custody. This study investigated how the nature of these cases affected their sentencing. All cases in Canada that were disposed of in 2002/2003 and had a conviction (or convictions) for “failing to comply with a disposition” (FTC) were identified and their previous convictions and sentences were gathered. Results revealed that if the previous conviction was an administration of justice offence, the current sentence was significantly harsher than if the previous conviction was for any other type of offence, even serious violence. Thus, it appears that judges see these sorts of cases – in which a youth has violated an order of the court – as particularly serious. The implications for the
Youth Criminal Justice Act, if these sentencing patterns persist, are discussed.
