Reading guides

 

 

 

 

Ø                  Course outline and FAQ

 

1.     What does class participation consist of?

2.     Why do you need to discuss class activities and class discussions in the tests, essays, and final evaluation?

3.     What is the class methodology? How will classes be conducted?

4.     What is the policy about written assignments?

5.     What is the attendance policy for the course?

6.     What is the policy about privileges?

 

Ø     Criminology views

1.     What are the main criminology views mentioned in the article Crimes in Space?

2.     What are the major tenets of each view?

3.     Give some examples of each view.

4.     Which criminology view do you think best explains why people commit crimes?

 

Ø     Introduction to Criminology

 

1.     What is Criminology?

2.     What do criminologists do?

 

Ø     Criminal Law 

 

1.     What are the functions of Criminal Law?

2.     What is the legal definition of a crime in common law?

3.     What is actus reus? Give some examples not mentioned in the article.

4.     What is mens rea? Give some examples not mentioned in the article.

 

Ø     Sexual assault

 

1.     What lessons can you learn from the history of rape?

2.     What was the legal notion of rape in Canada before the Law Reform of the 1980’s?

3.     What is sexual assault? What is consent? How is it defined?

4.     What is the success and what is the failure of Canadian legal reform?

5.     What is the main thesis of Sarah Deer’s article?

6.     What is the relationship between the seizure of indigenous lands and the rape of native women?

 

Ø     Methods of data collection

 

1.     What are the main methods of data collection? Briefly explain each method.

2.     What are the main problems with the Uniform Crime Report? What has the government done to correct some of these problems?

3.     In your opinion, are criminal statistics reliable?

 

Ø     Property Crimes

 

1.     What are the main property crimes?

2.     Why are there so many crimes protecting property?

3.     What is the historical evolution of property crimes?

 

Ø     The Chicago School, Strain theory, Social learning theory, Labeling theory

 

1.     Write a paragraph about the major tenets of each sociological school of crime.

2.     Which school do you think best explains the causes of criminality? Why?

3.     What are the weakest aspects of each school?

 

Ø     Feminist criminology

 

1.     What are the main feminist criminology schools?

2.     What are their main differences?

3.     What do they have in common?

4.     Which school do you think best explains the causes of criminality? Why?

 

Ø     Critical Criminology and Peacemaking Criminology

 

1.     What are the main conflict/critical schools of Criminology?

2.     What was Karl Marx view on crime?

3.     Briefly explain Peacemaking Criminology.

4.     Can you think of a song that represents the main principles of Peacemaking Criminology.

 

Ø     Kidnapping and Sex offenders’ registration

 

1.     What is the difference between kidnapping and abduction?

2.     What is the sociological classification of kidnappings? Does it work? Can you think of a better typology?

3.     How does the sex offender registration work in Canada? What are the major differences with the US?

4.     Do you think that we should change the Canadian sex offender registration?

 

Ø     Feminist Criminology and Pornography

1.     What is influence of Feminism in R. v. Butler?

2.     What did the Supreme Court decide?

3.     What is Hutchinson's main thesis?