SOC 1500 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Strange Culture, Lawbreakers, Noxious Stimulus
1 Jun 2018
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SOC 1500
CHAPTER 1
• Criminal code of Canada
o A federal statute that lists the criminal offences and punishments defined by parliament, as well
as justice system procedures
• Changes in one part of the justice system (courts) can influence practise in other components (police and
corrections)
• Public law
o Individual and society
o If someone breaks a criminal law, it is seen as wrong against society
o Includes
▪ Criminal law (crime and their punishments)
▪ Constitutional law (relationship between branches of government)
▪ Administrative law (actions and operations of government)
• Private law
o Aka civil law
o Relationships between individuals that involve contracts
o Courts can become involved
• Laws are rules that forbid behaviours and are enforced y the courts
o Reduce fear, chaos, and disorder
o Provide a way to solve conflicts
• Informal social control
o Atios of oe’s paets, pees, eighous disappoal ifluees ehaiou
o Broke down in larger communities
• Methods of preventing and responding to crime depended on history, religion, culture, political structures
• Origins of criminal law can be tracked back thousands of years
• Every society has developed its own methods to ensure people conform to an accepted way of doing
things
o Norms
• Canadian law is dynamic
o Evolves with changes in society, legal decisions, technology, and notions for best ways to respond
to crime
• Criminal code
o Federal statute
o Enacted in 1892
• Laws have been rewritten to account for internet
o Cyberbullying
▪ Criminal harassment, uttering threats, intimidation
• Idea of justice can change over time
o Result in amendments to the criminal code
• Jurisdiction
o Rage of a goeet’s o out’s authoit
o Provincial
▪ Health care, education, transportation
o Province and territory
▪ Property rights
• Regulation of things that can be owned
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o Vehicles, real estate, liquor, animals
o Municipalities
▪ Enact bylaws
• Requiring homeowner to clear snow from sidewalks
• Malum in se
o Offence that is universally thought of as evil or wrong
▪ Kidnapping, homicide
• Malum prohibitum
o Act that is deemed to be wrong because the government has defined it as unlawful
▪ Speeding along the highway
• Summary offence
o Less serious and carry a lesser penalty
o Max sentence – 6 months
o Max fine – $2000
• Indictable offences
o Serious offences (homicide)
• Police, courts, corrections
o All interrelated and independent of each other
• Police
o Most visible component
o 5 core roles for police agencies
▪ Crime prevention
▪ Law enforcement
▪ Assistance to victims of crime
▪ Public order maintenance
▪ Emergency response
• Courts
o Adversarial
▪ Two parties who have opposing positions and their cases are heard before an impartial
judge
o Criminal matters
▪ Persons accused of crimes are represented by lawyers
• Defense counsel
▪ State is represented by lawyers
• Crown attorneys, counsel, prosecutors
o 4 levels of courts
▪ Provincial/territorial
• Handel majority of cases
• Aka inferior courts
o Hear matters relating to youthful offenders
▪ Superior court
• More serious crimes
▪ Court of appeal
▪ Supreme court of Canada
• Highest level
• Parties who do not agree with the decisions of the appellate courts
• Final court of appeal
• Corrections
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o 2 adult correctional systems in Canada
▪ Adults who are arrested, awaiting a court date, sentences to under 2 years o
incarceration, or awaiting a transfer to federal corrections
o Different names in different provinces
▪ 9 jails in Ontario
• Small, hold local residents awaiting court dates
▪ Detention centres
• Larger facilities
• Serve several counties
• Hold offenders sentenced short term
▪ Correctional centres
• Hold offenders sentences to terms 2 years or less
o Security ranges from minimum to maximum
o Some have special handling units that hold most difficult-to-manage or dangerous prisoners
o Probation orders will have the following conditions
▪ Keep the peace and be of good behaviour
▪ Appear in court when ordered by the court
▪ Advise the court or probation officer about any change of name, address, or
employment
o Probation officers
▪ Provincial employees
▪ Monitor progress of these individuals
• Require low-risk probationers to report monthly
• High risk might be required to report more frequently
o Individuals released from federal penitentiary prior to end of their sentence are on parole
▪ Monitored by parole officers
o Secure custody facilities
▪ Aka closed custody facilities
▪ Esue outh do’t escape
o Open custody facilities
▪ Community based operations
▪ Small, fewer than 20 residents
• Discretion
o Enables workers in the criminal justice system to operate in a more effective and efficient
manner
• Filtering
o At every point in the justice system, individuals are filtered out
o Sequencing
▪ Handling of a persons wrongdoing is based on principle that an accused person is
innocent until proven guilty
▪ Justice system does not punish individuals before they are convicted
o Alternative measures programs
▪ Extrajudicial sanctions for youth
▪ Required to make restitution for their offences
o Most individuals plead guilty to sentences that have been arranged
▪ Plea agreements
o Most criminal matters end in a community sentence
• Goals of the criminal justice system
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Criminal code of canada: a federal statute that lists the criminal offences and punishments defined by parliament, as well as justice system procedures. Changes in one part of the justice system (courts) can influence practise in other components (police and corrections) If someone breaks a criminal law, it is seen as wrong against society. Constitutional law (relationship between branches of government: administrative law (actions and operations of government) Private law: aka civil law, relationships between individuals that involve contracts, courts can become involved. Laws are rules that forbid behaviours and are enforced y the courts: reduce fear, chaos, and disorder, provide a way to solve conflicts. Every society has developed its own methods to ensure people conform to an accepted way of doing things: norms. Canadian law is dynamic: evolves with changes in society, legal decisions, technology, and notions for best ways to respond to crime. Laws have been rewritten to account for internet: cyberbullying.
