POLS 3300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Murder, Legal Advice, Criminology

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 3300
• Professor: Charmain Derferd

Document Summary

Define the criminal justice system and list the key actors/agencies that make up the system. 1955 criminal code revised (royal commission); common law offenses are repealed. 1968-1969 decriminalized homosexual acts, abortion and contraception, gun control. Chief, (cid:373)a(cid:455)or (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t (cid:271)e (cid:271)la(cid:373)ed or re(cid:449)arded (cid:449)ith (cid:272)ri(cid:373)e rates. Perception can be based on immediate reaction to high-profile event. Media does(cid:374)"t (cid:272)o(cid:448)er (cid:373)edia all the sa(cid:373)e (cid:449)a(cid:455) Media coverage violent crimes than property crimes. Helps answer questions such as: is the crime coming to the attention of police more or less serious than before; and, is police-reported crime in a given city more or less serious than in canada overall. Includes all criminal code and federal statute offences. Challenges of using sentencing data as a measure of offence seriousness: time served in remand, repeat offenders, conditional sentences, life sentences. Video: guelphs crime rate jumped 9% dropping us from 2 to 4th in canada. Crime rate falls to lowest level since 1973.