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Preventive detention provisions in the US and Canada assume we can identify, in advance, individuals at high risk for sexual recidivism. To test this assumption, 377 adult males with a history of sexual offending were followed for 20 years using Canadian national criminal history records and Internet searches. Using previously collected information, a high risk/high need (HRHN) subgroup was identified based on an unusually high levels of criminogenic needs (n = 190, average age of 38 years; 83% White, 13% Indigenous, 4% other). A well above average subgroup of 99 individuals was then identified based on high Static-99R (6+) and Static-2002R (7+) scores. In the HRHN group, 40% reoffended sexually. STATIC HRHN norms overestimated sexual recidivism at 5 years (Static-99R, E/O = 1.44; Static-2002R, E/O = 1.72) but were well calibrated for longer follow-up periods (20 years: Static-99R, E/0 = 1.00; Static-2002R, E/O = 1.16). The overall sexual recidivism rate for the well above average subgroup was 52.1% after 20 years, and 74.3% for any violent recidivism. The highest risk individuals (top 1%) had rates in the 60%–70% range. We conclude that some individuals present a high risk for sexual recidivism, and can be identified using currently available methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous individuals are vastly over-represented among people incarcerated in Canada. We collected extensive clinical information and outcome data from Review Board (RB) files and obtained lifetime criminal records for 1800 individuals found Not Criminally Responsible on Account of Mental Disorder (NCRMD) in BC (n = 222), ON (n = 484), and QC (n = 1094). Indigenous and non-Indigenous people were compared on (a) socio-demographic, clinical, and criminal histories; (b) index offenses; (c) processing by the RB; and (d) recidivism. Compared to published rates of the disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous people in prisons in Canada (30%), just 3.9% of people in custody with an NCRMD finding were identified as Indigenous. Compared to non-Indigenous people, Indigenous people had higher rates of substance use disorders, personality disorders, and lower rates of mood disorders at verdict and came from low population density neighborhoods but high population density homes. Indigenous individuals were detained in custody longer and remained under supervision longer than non-Indigenous individuals but recidivated at similar rates. Criminal histories, mental health characteristics, and index offenses of Indigenous people found NCRMD were similar to non-Indigenous people found NCRMD. Further research is required to determine if seriously mentally ill Indigenous people who come into contact with the justice system are considered for the NCRMD defense similarly to non-Indigenous people and to explore why Indigenous individuals receive more restrictive dispositions, yet time to reoffending is similar. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roughly, 13% of Canada's adult population has some kind of criminal record. Collateral consequences stemming from a criminal record are wide-ranging, from formal restrictions to more informal forms of exclusions. In this article, I argue that Canada exhibits a distinct and dual approach with regard to collateral consequences. A commitment to principles, such as human dignity, rehabilitation, proportionality and individualisation in sentencing, especially by the courts, has increasingly mitigated the impact of collateral consequences in many areas. Yet, these interventions to limit collateral consequences have been far more uncommon for immigration-related collateral consequences, where the impact of a criminal conviction has only expanded in the last decades. This suggests the centrality of the criminalisation of migration in Canada's bordering regime and its role in drawing boundaries between desirable and undesirable migrants. This dual nature of collateral consequences also sends a message about who is, and who is not, deserving of second chances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historically, overpolicing of some racialized and Indigenous groups in Canada has resulted in unequal application of drug laws contributing to disproportionate rates of charges and convictions in these populations. Criminal records severely and negatively impact an individual's life and can perpetuate cycles of poverty and socioeconomic disadvantage. On October 17, 2018, Canada legalized cannabis production, distribution, sale, and possession for non-medical purposes. Advocates of criminal justice reform have raised concerns that Indigenous and racialized people may not equitably benefit from legalization due to unequal police surveillance and drug enforcement. These groups are among priority populations for research on cannabis and mental health, but their views on cannabis regulation have been largely absent from research and policy-making. To address this gap, we asked self-identified members of these communities about their lived experiences and perspectives on cannabis legalization in Canada. Between September 2018 and July 2019, we conducted semistructured interviews and focus groups with 37 individuals in Québec, Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. During this phase of early cannabis legalization, participants responded to questions about anticipated public health risks and benefits of legalization, how their jurisdiction is responding to legalization, and what community resources would be needed to address legalization impacts. We conducted a thematic analysis and identified five major themes in the data related to race and early cannabis legalization: overpolicing of racialized communities, severity of penalties in new cannabis legislation, increased police powers, and underrepresentation of racialized groups in the legal cannabis market and in cannabis research. Participants discussed opportunities to support cannabis justice, including establishing priority licenses, issuing pardons or expunging criminal records, and reinvesting cannabis revenue into impacted communities. This work begins to address the paucity of Indigenous and racialized voices in cannabis research and identifies potential solutions to injustices of cannabis prohibition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cannabis (marijuana) has been legalized for recreational and/or medicinal use in many US states, despite remaining a Schedule-I drug at the federal level. As legalization regimes are established in multiple countries, public health professionals should leverage decades of knowledge from other policy areas (e.g., alcohol and tobacco regulation) to inform cannabis policy.Objectives: Identify policy lessons from other more established policy areas that can inform cannabis policy in the United States, Canada, and any other nations that legalize recreational cannabis.Methods: Narrative review of policy and public health literature.Results: We identified six key lessons to guide cannabis policy. To avoid the harms of "a medical system only in name," medical cannabis programs should either be regulated like medicine or combined with the recreational market. Capping potency of cannabis products can reduce the harms of the drug, including addiction. Pricing policies that promote public health may include minimum unit pricing or taxation by weight. Protecting science and public health from corporate interest can prevent the scenarios we have seen with soda and tobacco lobbies funding studies to report favorable results about their products. Legalizing states can go beyond reducing possession arrests (which can be accomplished without legalization) by expunging prior criminal records of cannabis-related convictions. Finally, facilitating rigorous research can differentiate truth from positive and negative hype about cannabis' effects.Conclusion: Scientists and policymakers can learn from the successes and failures of alcohol and tobacco policy to regulate cannabis products, thereby mitigating old harms of cannabis prohibition while reducing new harms from legalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the barriers faced by ex-prisoners as they attempt to reenter the labor market after federal imprisonment in Ontario, Canada. These barriers include the lack of employment experience and preparation, lack of finances, and the stigma of a criminal record. The study participants were parolees released in the city.

The article focuses on the permanent nature of a criminal record and the inadequate effects of a record suspension formerly known as a pardon and miscarriage of justice. It mentions concern for institutional bias and a lack of independence in the wrongful conviction in Canada and relationship between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Criminal Convictions Review Group (CCRG). It also mentions administrative law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In this study, we developed a structured risk checklist, the Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool (CPORT), to predict any sexual recidivism among adult male offenders with a conviction for child pornography offenses. We identified predictors of sexual recidivism using a 5-year fixed follow-up analysis from a police case file sample of 266 adult male child pornography offenders in the community after their index offense. In our 5-year follow-up, 29% committed a new offense, and 11% committed a new sexual offense, with 3% committing a new contact sexual offense against a child and 9% committing a new child pornography offense. The CPORT items comprised younger offender age, any prior criminal history, any contact sexual offending, any failure on conditional release, indication of sexual interest in child pornography material or prepubescent or pubescent children, more boy than girl content in child pornography, and more boy than girl content in other child depictions. The CPORT was significantly associated with any sexual recidivism, with moderate predictive accuracy, and thus has promise in the risk assessment of adult male child pornography offenders with further cross-validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on punitive criminal justice policies in relation to criminal laws in Canada. Topics discussed include social causes as the major reasons of crimes in Canada according to the official reports and public statements, imprisonment expected to control or reduce crime, and the number of Canadians having criminal records according to the Public Safety Canada reports.

This study investigates criminal nomadism—an individual's propensity to engage in continuous or intermittent interurban travel as a way to cope with the consequences of their criminal lifestyle and/or as a strategy to adapt to the reality of being a "career criminal." The criminal-career itinerary across Canada of 448 men convicted of sex offenses was reconstructed through individual interviews and analysis of detailed criminal records. Five distinct components of criminal nomadism (i.e., trips, nodes, paths, range, and mesolevel activity space), inspired by crime pattern theory, are suggested and analyzed. Results show that criminal nomadism is the reality of young and educated Whites who have a prolific criminal career interspersed with long incarceration sentences. Nomadic offenders did not wander freely and randomly, but rather seemed to be looking for opportunities and privacy. Sex-offending variables did not make a significant contribution to predictions, suggesting that criminal nomadism is more a general offending phenomenon than something specific to sex offending. This study provides supporting evidence that an extensive criminal career is generally associated with a geographically scattered and nomadic lifestyle. Implications for public policies and future studies are discussed. • This study explores criminal nomadism in a sample of 448 men convicted of sex crimes. • Criminal nomadism is defined as an offender's propensity to engage in interurban travel. • For each participant, the criminal-career itinerary across Canada was reconstructed. • Results suggest a link between an extensive criminal career and a nomadic lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the current research is to examine the applicability of the Youth Level of Service/Case Management Inventory (YLS/CMI) in a Japanese juvenile offender population. Three hundred eighty-nine youths who were released from the five Juvenile Classification Homes were followed for approximately one and half years. Results show that the YLS/CMI total score significantly predict recidivism. Survival time analysis demonstrates that the YLS/CMI total score also significantly predicted faster time to recidivism. The overall findings support adequate predictive validity of the YLS/CMI total score, but subscales lacked content representativeness and predictive validity in this sample. Canadian and Japanese cultural differences in criminal history and substance abuse are contributors to the lack of content representativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of 2,190 sex offenders seen between 1966 and 2009 was compared on lifetime sexual and all offending, using charges, convictions, court appearances, and self-report as criteria. Of these various criteria, between 47.4% and 81.1% reoffended. Canadian child abuse reporting laws, which came into effect in the 1980s, were associated with increased charges and convictions for offenders, who victimized children, and with a reduction in their longer term reoffense rates. Immigration and population mobility, use of aliases, study follow-up time, and self-reported undetected sex crimes influenced reoffense rates. Results indicate that sex offenders continued to have short prison sentences and/or spend little or no time incarcerated during the latter part of the 20th century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The reintegration of former prisoners is undoubtedly a complex issue. Not only the prisoners'attitudes and characteristics constitute difficulties, but also the process of stigmatizing such individuals makes their reintegration less obvious. The access to and use of criminal records only consolidates this process. Employers and other individuals find through these documents admittance to the past of former prisoners and use old and recent convictions against them. Are these criminal records legitimate? Should there be a abolishment of these documents? A comparison is made and solutions are sought in the concepts used in the Netherlands, Great Britain and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses data from Canadian victimization surveys between 1999 and 2004 to analyse the factors shaping two decisions of vital importance to the justice system – namely, the reporting of a crime to the police and the recording of a crime by the police. These analyses serve to show that the seriousness of the crime, and not the characteristics of the victim, is the main factor driving the decision to report a crime to the police. Likewise, the police officially record approximately 80% of the criminal events reported to them and are not influenced by the characteristics of the victim (e.g., age, gender, ethnic origin, schooling level, income, etc.). For this reason, they appear to take a protocol-based approach to their work. Finally, the analyses show that the reporting and recording rates for crimes against property were lower in 2004 than in 1999 – a fact that may partially account for the drop in Canada's official crime rate. However, the reporting and recording rate for violent crimes is up. Accordingly, violent crime has become a growing focus of concern among the general public and the police authorities alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Statistique Canada compile des données détaillées sur tous les homicides rapportés à la police à travers le pays. Dans cette étude, trois équipes d'analystes cherchent indépendamment à déceler une saisonnalité ou toute autre tendance temporelle dans le taux et la fréquence des homicides commis au Canada entre 1961 et 1980. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Young Offenders Act (YOA) has been a source of much public debate, much of which has focussed on sentencing patterns in youth courts. This article contributes to the current debate over dispositions under the YOA by examining how the youth justice system responds to repeat offenders. The data, supplied by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics from the Youth Court Survey, examine 47,088 youth court cases reaching disposition in the fiscal year 1995-96. Results indicate that, amidst all the controversy surrounding the leniency of YOA dispositions, judges do tend to give custody dispositions more often to repeat offenders. Severity of disposition is affected by the number of prior convictions, gender, and seriousness of offence, while repeat offender's age did not contribute substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article comments on the conclusions reached by Corrado and Markwart on their article about youth crime. Following are the conclusions made by Corrado and Markwart: the per capita rate of young persons charged with Criminal Code offences increased by a relatively modest 25% between 1996 to 1992; there has been a real and substantial increase in youth violence in Canada in recent years. These statements, which echo those made by other observers, have the potential for significant impact on public opinion an policy decisions. The first statement, all though literally true, is misleading, because it gives the impression that there has been 25% increase in youth crime; and the second statement is not warranted by the available evidence. The first conclusion rests on a comparison of the per capita rate of young person charged with Criminal Code offences in 1986 and 1992. It is true that, as Corrado and Markwart say, this was 25 percent higher in 1992 than on 1986. However, this should not be interpreted as an increase of 25% in youth crime for two reasons. First, the rate of young persons charged by the police is not a good indicator of the amount of actual youth crime, when one is doing comparisons over time. Second, 1986 and 1992 are not good years to select for comparison.

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The article reports that the Canadian medical schools and hospitals require criminal record checks on their students and employees upon entry to practice. According to doctor Ed Schollenberg, registrar at College of Physicians and Surgeons in New Brunswick, the mandatory criminal records checks aims to maintain the public confidence for physicians. Moreover, four provinces in the country which have since practiced the mandatory screening are also mentioned.

Having explored Foucault's notion of panopticism, the author highlights some socio-legal implications of criminal records in current Canadian society, such as access to employment, access to insurance, and international travel. She contends that there is a need to rethink the traditional notion of criminal records as a paper file, but as digitized criminal information that flows freely across national and international borders. Finally, she explores the use of sex offender criminal registries and their availability to general public in the Canadian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the international exchange of fingerprints. One of the activities of the Division of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice, which has attracted widespread interest and contributed materially to the cause of more effective law enforcement throughout the world, is its regular exchange of fingerprints with the identification bureaus of foreign countries. All law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and Canada which transmit finger-print records regularly have been invited to indicate to the Division the cases wherein they desire that the foreign exchange be arranged and to furnish duplicate copies of prints to relay to the foreign' countries. Further, the bureaus outside the continental United States have been offered the facilities of the Division's fingerprint files to elicit criminal records on Americans operating illegally in distant parts of the world. The numerous fingerprints, which are being exchanged, are an indication of the enthusiastic support, which has been accorded this project.