Conflict theory: the view that the fundamental causes of crime are the social and economic forces operating within society, the criminal justice system and criminal law are thought to be operating on behalf of rich and powerful social elites, with resulting policies aimed at controlling the people who are poor. The criminal justice establishment aims at imposing standards of morality and good behaviour created by the owning class on the whole of society. Focus is on separating the powerful from the 'have nots' who would may 'steal' from others. In the process, the legal rights of people who are poor are often ignored. The middle class, not a social class but rather a socio-economic status, are also co-opted; they side with the elites rather the poor, thinking they might themselves rise to the top by supporting the status quo. 

Critical criminology: a marxist approach to deviancy and crime

Beliefs: a set of ideas in which one believes, focus on the individual and his beliefs of how the world/society works, including values

Values: what we consider right and wrong, norms: standards of accepted behaviour

Conformity: to follow the norms and deviancy: to deviate from the norms

Ideology: a belief system and a belief system is a set of shared ideas about the meaning of life

Ideological hegemony: control over the production of values and norms and cultural symbols by those in power

Social control, sanctions (both positive - benefits and negative - punishment forms) formal (codified rules, regulations) and informal (norms,

Social economic status groups: upper class, upper middle class, lower middle class, working class, lower class

Social class groups:  owning class (bourgeoisie, capitalist class), (ruling class), working class (proletariat, labour), petite bourgeoisie, lumpenproletariat

Class awareness: recognizing differences in income, occupational prestige, and lifestyle and accurately locating oneself with social classes

Class consciousness: when class awareness becomes a central organizing point of self-definition and political action

3 types of power: 1) legislative power; 2) executive power; 3) judicial power

3 limits of state power: federal and provincial divisions, state and individual/community divisions, status of Aboriginal Canadians

Constitutional documents:

	Constitution Act 1867 formerly known as the British North America Act (BNA Act) creating the new dominion of Canada
	Constitution Act 1982 part of the Canada Act 1982
	Part 1 of Constitution Act is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part II deal with Aboriginal rights
	24 other documents

Role of Solicitor general – minister responsible for RCMP, senior law officer of the crown, serve the law, protect police from improper political pressures, attorney general – minister responsible for Ministry of Justice, senior law officer of the crown, commissioner of RCMP

Written and unwritten constitution, latter based on tradition of Westminster parliamentary system, constitutional conventions or principles, e.g. rule of law and democracy

Informal and formal public accountability: free press, courts, public inquiry process, parliament and political control 

Responsible government in theory is when parliament acts on behalf of citizens of nation not as servants of executive branch, in practice now modern executive gov’t where prime minister is in control.

Civil law and common law: Common law is a body of rulings made by judges on the basis of community customs and previous court decisions. It forms an essential part of the legal system of many English-speaking countries, including the United States and Canada. Early in England's history, judges decided cases according to the way they interpreted the beliefs and unwritten laws of the community. If another judge had ruled in an earlier, similar case, that judge's decision was often used as a precedent (guide). After many judges decided the same question in a similar way, the ruling became law. Common law is often contrasted with civil law, a body of rules passed by a legislature. Under civil law, a judge decides a case by following written rules, rather than previous court decisions

Rule of law (unwritten constitutional principle):  individuals be protected from arbitrary power & all persons are equally subject to the law - one law for all

Canadian secret service 1864 whose ideology was nativist, anti-semitic and anti-communist

Dominion Police worked with British secret service

Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP) merged with Dominion Police to create RCMP in 1919/20, mandate was to domestic intelligence and security work until creation of CSIS Canadian Security and Intelligence Service in 1984

RCMP obsessed with communism: concerned more about threat to capitalism then to threat to liberal democracy

Types of documentation: personal history files, subject files, publications files, RCMP personnel files, RCMP security bulletins

Spymasters were anglo-Canadian, Central Canadian born, military elite, Loyalist ancestry, middle class stock, Royal military college graduates, military experience; some British immigrants with public school backgrounds, imported militarism and associated masculinity, paramilitary structure

Rank and file and spies were of foreign background with foreign language skills, changed names, red coats were crème de la crème of secret agents, target was immigrant workers

Police state: when the police take over the government and when the government takes over the police

Nature of police: conservative, patriarchical, militaristic, common law roots: maintain order, prevent crime and detect and apprehend criminals

Focus of Police: the marginalized

Accountability of police: courts, internal disciplinary proceedings, citizen complaint procedures, RCMP Public Complaints Commission (PCC) created in 1986 weakened legislation due to police lobbying (Qs re: legal counsel of commission, funding for legal counsel for both sides, who appoints panel

Normal repression: activity that is carried out under existing laws and prevailing procedures

Abnormal repression: a sharp escalation from the previously established normal repression characterized by new laws, new procedures, innovations in the application of existing laws, new level of repression is deliberate and institutionalized where in normal repression occasional excesses are not, normally introduced as an emergency response to a particular crisis of the state

State: e.g. RCMP, CSIS: legally and legitimately sanctioned use of violence, secure social control through the threat and deployment of coercive force, administrations often participates in moral reform efforts by providing the legal framework for voluntary action and supporting private campaigns through funding and information

Private security/corporate police: attempt to prevent crime through the knowledge that one is being monitored, e.g. video cameras in malls

Philanthropic institutions (non-state organizations, voluntary organizations, non-profit sector, private charity sector): control is more concerned with minimizing social risk by regulating and reforming behaviour, moral police/regulation, much less confined by legal boundaries and limits of privacy, preserves public order and national security, reform beliefs

Result is mixed social economy: how public sector is linked to private forms of social reform and control, and how private policing and surveillance participate in securing social/public order

Human and social rights:  freedom of speech, assembly, freedom from arbitrary arrest, etc…

Political rights: vote, run for office, contact elected representatives, etc...

Economic rights: right to employment, freedom from want

UN conventions

Canadian’s complacency, apathy with regard to these rights

principle is taken from the United Nations Convention granting diplomatic immunity to politicians attending UN conferences

expands defns of internationally protected persons and international organizations,

grants enhanced powers to RCMP for security of international conferences

Expands the UN definition to include foreign state representatives attending meetings of any kind

Everyone will be presumed innocent until proven guilty according to law.

Any person arrested or detained on a criminal charge will have the right to be brought promptly before the judge or other officer authorized by law to decide the lawfulness of the arrest or detention.

Everyone will be entitled to a fair and public trial.

All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.

The government and the public authorities have a duty to comply with the constitution and to act in a manner consistent with law.

Human rights and fundamental freedoms will be guaranteed by law.

Everyone will have an effective means of redress against administrative decisions.

Judges will be independent, and the public judiciary will operate impartially.

The independence of the legal profession will be protected.

Everyone will have the right to defend himself or herself in court in person or through prompt legal assistance, which will be given free if the person does not have sufficient means to pay for it.

Domestic legislation will comply with international laws relating to human rights, including guarantees for the freedom of information and communication, travel, thought, conscience and religion, right of peaceful assembly, and demonstrations, associations, private property, etc

provides RCMP with powers to make investigatory and preventive detentions, e.g. 72 hour detention – detention without charge: can be arrested without cause or need for a probable cause

investigative hearings: nothing to protect from self-incrimination

secret trials before the trial court;

section 27 defn of what is "a prejudicial act to the safety of interest of the state": various economic crimes could relate back to defn of terrorism, e.g. boycotts for environmental or ethical reasons, legal strike against financial markets, work stoppages – in essence socio-economic and political offences;

makes it easier for agencies to use electronic surveillance

creates new offences targeting unlawful disclosure of certain information of national interest

amends the Evidence Act to guard certain information from disclosure in courts

reasonable grounds to suspect rather than reasonable grounds to believe

Summarized police allegations replace evidence/proof

Concept of evidence/proof removed

Accusation equals guilt

More time – less now compared to a few decades ago?

Flexible schedules

Access to resources: information in libraries, computers/internet, professors

Access to on campus events, usually free

Availability of organizing, many student clubs to join

Universities are public spaces

Less responsibilities

Less or no dependents

Large numbers, majority at schools

Practically/logistically easier to dialogue with others, to organize, to interact with different people, e.g. "radicals"

Ideologically/politically often middle class thus more "liberal" (small "l" liberal)

Developing cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills

Learning new knowledge and information, learning the ways of the world

Formulating opinions, not yet set in ways/beliefs

Idealistic, not jaded by failure, still able/willing to take more risks, often think can still change the world

Independent

Maleable minds

Authority figures have less impact, e.g. family

Live away from influences of home

Experimental stage of life

With knowledge and critical thought you question all that is around you

Cold war culture family was an ideologically contested site, cold war discourse reframed women’s call for peace, justice and equality for working people as a threat to the patriotic normative culture of the masculine elite

Ideas was of the patriotic virtues of a stable family life, full-time motherhood and homemaking were foundation of a healthy society, the normative model, powerful cultural symbol of stability, security and democracy, stay at home mother was best protection against juvenile delinquency, homosexuality and divorce – everyone playing out their prescribed gender, sexuality and social functions (FUNCTIONALISM), embrace domesticity in service of the nation – cult of domesticity

Women’s position in the home is central to the political stability of capitalism

After WWII women were forced to return to the home and become housewives, jobs were for veterans

Sexism assumptions: women and children were gullible and susceptible to communist influence and thus family was site for battle against communism, women were stooges for communist movement

Loyalty to family and to unions: contradiction and competition between mores of cold war values

Ladies auxiliaries were subversively inclined, they represented working families

Gay was seen as a threat, a security risk since went against traditional roles of men and women, gender practices were central to construction of Canadian nat’l security state, masculinity in women and femininity in men were threats to gender and national social order