Class activities

 January 5

 

Analyze the song Crime to Be Broke in America:

(i)              Is there a connection between poverty (being broke in [North] America) and crime?

(ii)           Is there a connection between racial minorities and crime (is it a crime to be a minority in North America)?

(iii)        Do we have a two-tiered justice system (whorehouse justice for the poor and the excluded)? Is our criminal justice system fair? Does it treat all individuals equally?

(iv)         Does music, e.g. rap and hip-hop, influence crimes? Are listeners influenced to do violence as a result of listening to music?

(v)            In your opinion, what are the most pressing crime problems in Canada?

(vi)         Do we rely too heavily on criminal law and the criminal justice system to deal with complex social issues?

 

 

Crime to Be Broke in America Lyrics

By Michael Franti and Spearhead

I take the needle off the record
and shove it in my arm
whenever I feel life is
comin' on too strong
they left me in a clinic fulla
cynical motha fuckin' bureaucrats
and other kinda ding bats

Livin on the tracks
the tracks in my arm said
it all depends which side the tracks your on.
tellin' me what to wear
tellin me cut my hair
and tryin to convince me that they
really really care
all about my health and about my wealth
but still they built the Stealth
'cause everybody's
just lookin out for they self

So then I ask 'em
can I have a clean needle
Hell no that's illegal!

(chorus)
'Cause it's a crime to be broke in America!
and it's a crime to smoke dank in America!
(repeat)

Yeah hit those drums now;
they lockin' brother's in the poorhouse
who can't afford Moorhouse
politicians nervous
it's the only free service they provide
you wanna go inside
there's a hot meal waitin' for ya
a deal we can score ya
on a bed for a night or two
or three or four months.

They say they lockin' us up in cells
to protect us from ourselves
it smells like they got anotha
plan in store house
or should I say warehouse
fulla niggas and other misfits
that couldn't turn tricks in the courthouse
it's a justice whorehouse

(chorus)
It's a crime to be broke in America!
and it's a crime to be Black in America!

But there's a mutiny on the bounty
in ever single county
we remember Attica
but don't forget to pat a few
other on the back as a matter of fact
sister Assatta Shakur and Geronimo Pratt
'cause Amnesty international
is fightin' for political
but if your analytical
you know it's much more critical than that
percentages black is really, really whack
can I kick a few facts yes?

Sx percent in college
from livin on the block
twenty five percent in prison
the school of hard knocks
fifty percent in poverty
is livin on the rocks
five hundred brothas on a death row box

The punishment is capital
for those who lack in capital
because a public defender
can't remember the last time
that a brother wasn't treated like an animal.

They say they blame it on a song
when someone kills a cop
what music did they listen to
when they bombed Iraq?
give me one example so I can take a sample
no need to play it backwards
if you wanna hear the devil
cause music's not the problem
it didn't cause the bombin'
but maybe they should listen
to the songs of people starving..

(chorus)
'Cause it's a Crime to be broke in America!
it's a crime to smoke dank in America!
it's a crime to be black in America!
it's a crime to be black in America!
it's a crime to be Puerto Rican
African
Native American
Asian Hatian
a Woman

 

 

January 12

 

Criminal Justice Models

1.    Dirty Harry

a.     Which Criminal Justice model predominates in the prosecutors (D.A.) and in the judge's arguments?

b.     Which Criminal Justice model predominates in the police officer's arguments and actions?

c.     What due process rights has the police officer violated?

d.     Do you agree with the use of the exclusion of evidence here?

2.    10 To Midnight

a.     Which Criminal Justice model predominates in the police officer's behavior?

b.     What is the police officer's attitude towards the legal system?

c.     Why did he plant evidence?

 

January 21

Victims

The Accused

1. What crime was committed? What happened?

2. What are the consequences of the crime for Sarah? What is Sarah's boyfriend's reaction?

3. Is the medical examination to collect evidence really necessary?

4. Is Sarah informed about the Criminal Justice stages? Does she have the opportunity to be part of the bail hearing? Should the Criminal Justice system provide Sarah with support?

5. Is the prosecutor sensitive to Sarah's feelings? Do you agree with the way she questioned Sarah? Is her prior record relevant? Should it be protected?

6. Why do the media and the prosecutor believe Sarah would not make a strong witness? Should this matter?

7. How does the Criminal Justice system treat Sarah? Do you think that the Criminal Justice system victimized Sarah again?

8. What is your opinion of the plea bargain? Was it fair? Should Sarah have been given the chance to have a say in the plea bargain? Did the prosecutor sell Sarah out?

9. Did Sarah have a chance to express her feelings within the formal criminal trial process? Is this relevant?

 

January 28

Sentencing

Scenario 1

 

Fred Cooper persuaded his 18 year old son, Simon, to rob a liquor store. Fred carried a gun. They stole $180 from the store and when they ran away, they were arrested. Fred has sexually and physically abused his son for over a decade. He also abused his wife, who had committed suicide a few weeks before this robbery.

Fred Cooper and his son were only convicted for the robbery. Fred Cooper was never prosecuted for sexual abuse or any other crime.

 

344. Every person who commits robbery is guilty of an indictable offence and liable (a) where a firearm is used in the commission of the offence, to imprisonment for life and to a minimum punishment of imprisonment for a term of four years; and (b) in any other case, to imprisonment for life.

 


Scenario 2

Prof. Julian Hermida, who everybody knows has had a huge crush on Brooke Shields for years, recently wrote a letter to her confessing his love. Last Tuesday Prof. Hermida travelled to Ottawa to give a presentation on Criminal Justice at Carleton University. While he was giving the talk, he thought he saw Brooke Shields in the audience. So, he stopped his talk immediately, walked up to her and kissed her passionately. The woman, who bears only a slight resemblance to Brooke Shields, pushed him off and called 911 from her cell phone. Prof. Julian Hermida was arrested. Despite the fact that he raised the insanity defence, which most of his students would consider appropriate given the fact that he is in fact quite insane, the court convicted him for sexual assault. His case was tried as an indictable offence.

 

271. (1) Every one who commits a sexual assault is guilty of (a) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding eighteen months.

Scenario 3

Robert Latimer killed his intellectually and physically disabled 120year old daughter, Tracy, by placing her in a pick up truck and asphyxiating her with exhaust fumes. He killed her so that she would not suffer any longer. He was convicted for second degree murder, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life imprisonment with eligibility of parole in ten years.

Scenario 4

Adrian Poffley, 26, from Kitchener, Ontario, was arrested and charged with making a death threat against Michael Jackson. He was accused of sending an email to the courthouse in Santa Maria, California, on Aug. 16, hours before Jackson was to appear there. The note touched off heightened security at the site. Authorities quickly traced the note back to Poffley.

Every one who commits the offence of uttering threats (a) is guilty of (a) an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or (b) an offence punishable on summary conviction and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding eighteen months.

 

 Please read the following article and answer the questions at the end of the article

 

February 2

Restorative Justice

Discussion Questions

 

February 4

Restorative Justice

Halloween scenario

As a criminology and criminal justice expert, you are hired to give opinion on what to do with this case.

Feb. 11

Parole

1.      What was the offender convicted for?

2.      What are the elements of this offense?

3.      Do you agree with the line of questions?

4.      Would you have asked different questions? What types of questions?

5.      Would you grant parole? Why? Why not?

6.      If you decided to grant parole, what conditions would you impose?

7.      If you decided to deny parole, what goals would you set for the offender to achieve for the new parole hearing?

8.      Do you believe that the parole process is arbitrary?

9.      Do you favour the appointment of non Criminal Justice professionals to grant or deny parole? Do you prefer Criminal Justice professionals?

10. Would you have laws or guidelines to regulate the parole hearings? If so, what kind of regulations?

11. Do you think that the government acting through the Criminal Justice system has the right to rehabilitate and change people?

February 23

Aboriginal people and the Criminal Justice system

 

1)   Why is there such an overrepresentation of aboriginal people in Canadian prisons?

2)   Do aboriginal people commit more crimes or does the Canadian Criminal Justice system persecute aboriginal people more than white mainstream Canadians?

3)   Do you think that there should be different composition, processes or venues for trials of Aboriginal people for indictable offences? What are the relevant principles and considerations?

4)        Why was Potlach forbidden? What is a solution proposed by one of the aboriginal leaders regarding the white man's laws and the Indian laws?

5)        Why was the Potlatch seen as a threat to European Canadians?

6)        What are the problems of the trial of Aboriginal people depicted in the documentary?

7)          What applications or submissions would you make as the defence counsel?

 

Feb. 25

Child Pornography

Group debate

 

1)   Which Criminal Justice model predominates in the Canadian child pornography regime?

2)   Do you think that child pornography should be a crime or not?

3)   Do you agree with the Canadian criminal justice treatment of child pornography?

4)   Why is there such a strong stigma associated with child pornography?

5)   What is your opinion on the artistic exception? Should it be narrowed? Expanded? Should it be abolished?

6)   What is your opinion on the legal age for participating in pornography?

7)   What do you think of the criminalization of simulated child pornography? Is it a thought crime? A victimless crime?

8)   What are the main public policy reasons for the criminalization of child pornography?

 March 2

 Scenarios

 1.     A Criminology professor at UBC shows some websites with children having sex with adults in order to teach her students what child pornography is and the theories dealing with the causes for the existence of child pornographers.

 

2.     A 16-year old girl takes a picture of herself while fully naked and emails it to her boyfriend.

 

3.     A 16-year old girl takes a picture of herself while fully naked and posts it publicly on a chatroom.

 

4.     A 17-year old couple taped themselves while having sex. The girl�s parents find the tape and watch it. Shocked, they got to the police with the tape and want to press charges against their daughter�s boyfriend.

 

5.     A 17-year old couple taped themselves while having sex. He shows it to their friends at their Cine Club, an extracurricular activity which takes place at their High School�s premises.

 

6.     While talking with his 16-year old girlfriend on the phone from his home, Kevin draws a picture of them having sex.

 

7.     John Robin Sharpe was arrested after police found that in his home boxes of material included photographs of naked boys who appeared to be as young as seven. Police also seized a collection of what they described as extremely violent short stories, allegedly written by Sharpe under the pen name Sam Paloc. The stories were entitled Kiddie Kink Classics.

 

8.     In his University email account, Paul received an email with a picture in an attachment entitled  'children having sex'. He forwarded it to his personal hotmail account but never opened it.

 

9.     Cynthia Stewart turned in bath-time pictures of her 8-year-old daughter to a Fuji film processing lab in Oberlin, Ohio. The lab contacted the local police, who found the pictures over the line and arrested the mother for, among other things, snapping in the same frame with her daughter a showerhead, which the prosecution planned to relate somehow to hints of masturbation.

 

10.  John was checking his emails at home. He tends to open every single email, even junk mail. He received a picture of a naked 17-year old girl, opened it, looked at it for a few seconds, and deleted it.

 

11.    American Pie

March 4

Police

Police

 

 

March 23

GANGS

1.    What is a gang?

2.    Are there street gangs in Sault Ste. Marie? Ontario?

3.    Who joins gangs? Why?

4.    What do young people look for in a gang?

5.    Why do gangs fight each other?

6.    Why do gang members commit so many crimes?

7.    What criminology theory can best explain gang crimes?

8.    Is the criminal justice system the best response to gang crimes committed by young people?