• Most Canadians believe that crime is increasing. In fact crime is declining.

• Homicides are reported more often and instantly however the rates are dropping.

• Organized crime involvement effects our perception also. Violent activities distort reality…… gang / biker wars … crime increases however our safety may remain stable.

Maurice “ Mom” Boucher, former President of the Hells Angels' Montreal chapter. led Montreal's Hells Angels against the rival Rock Machine biker gang during The Quebec Biker War from 1994 to 2002

Outlaw biker gangs

Biker Culture

U.S.A, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, England/Wales, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Russia, Bohemia, Portugal, Chile, Croatia, Luxembourg & Northern Ireland, Hungary. Prospects: , Dominican Republic

HAMC WORLD CHARTERS *

Hells Angels is located in:

HAMC WORLD CHARTERS *

Hells Angels is located in:

* In Ontario It's was the worst mass murder in recent history.…… Eight Bandidos bikers were found shot to death near Shedden in April of 2006.

• The biker war had killed about 150 people in Quebec since 1994, and police blame organized crime for half of the 30 murders committed in Montreal this year.

• The authorities will often choose to step away from biker / gang wars in an attempt to stay safe and allow these organizations to feed upon one another.

• It was not until an 11 year boy was killed in Montreal by shrapnel that the government took a serious stand on the gang culture.

Daniel Desrochers

Anti biker legislation 1997

* The legislation makes it illegal to be a member of a motorcycle gang or other criminal organization.

"Every one who …participates in or substantially contributes to the activities of a criminal organization within the preceding five years is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years."

TORONTO - The family of teenage girl killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout on Boxing Day 2005 found closure Thursday as the last of the men to stand trial for the crime were found guilty of manslaughter. Toronto Metropolitan Police crake down on gangs. (Known as the Boxing Day Shooting)

(May 13, 1990 – December 26, 2005) Jane Creba, age 15

Jane Creba was shot on Young Street on Boxing Day 2005.

Aaron Marriott has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for a shooting outside a Halifax children's hospital in 2008.

The sentence was seen as a deterrence for similar crimes.

Punishment • Any action that is designed to deprive a person of things

of value (including freedom)

• It serves four functions.– Retribution : the penalty to the offender “ the punishment

should fit the crime “.– Social Protection : reduce the risk to society. – Rehabilitation : for returning offenders to society.– Deterrence : reducing crime by fear of punishment.

Deterrence : Fear of punishment

More examples of deterrence !

The Restorative Justice Model • This is an Aboriginal model that seeks to restore harm

done to the victim and community .

• The victim is an active participant.

• To reconcile between victim and offended.

• The offender receives acceptance.

• If this model fails it’s only due to the short comings of the participants and but the model.

Youth Justice • In Canada we have traditionally treated

younger offenders differently due to their lack of maturity.

• Prior to April of 2002 “ the Youth Criminal Justice Act “ Canada had the highest incarceration rate for youth of any industrialized nation.

Waterville youth detention center and dorm room

• There has always been an issue with the amount of “ Justice “ a youth should receive.

• Some see Justice and Punishment as the same thing…..they are not !

• Many of these issues are becoming political platforms …… the be “ tough on crime “.

The Harper government promises to build more jails even though research shows that this approach does not solve problems related to crime.

Who are the criminals ?• Citizens under age 25 have the highest rates of

crime. Those charged with assault or homicide tend to be older.

• Those charged with white collar crimes are usually older and of a higher social class.

• Women have a much lower rate of crime.

• Those of the lower classes are more likely to be arrested for street crime…..why ?

Theory's .... Explaining Criminal Behaviour

think about it!!

Strain Theory (race)

• Strain Theory: people feel strain when they are exposed to cultural goals that they are unable to obtain because they do not have social access and opportunity to achieving those goals

• Their race works against their ability to prosper ….. They want what the main stream has

• Example: smuggling organized by Canadian Mohawks (study from the early 1990s)

Boxes of cigarettes are raced across Canada U.S. Boarder on Mohawk reserve

Opportunity Theory• Opportunity Theory: for deviance to occur

people must have access to illegitimate opportunity structures …. Gangs / Smuggling Connections / Networks with Criminals

• If you remove the opportunity for deviance the risk will diminish…… Moving in to a safer neighborhood / Carefully selecting peers / Investing in education to increase opportunity

This film focuses on several stories about Asian Canadian organized gangs, set mostly in Vancouver and Richmond, British Columbia

Control Theory• Control or Social Bond Theory: Holds

that the probability of deviant behavior increases when people’s ties to society are weakened or broken …. Socially isolated people = criminals

• Deviant behavior is minimized when people have strong bonds that bind them to families, peers, religious organizations, and other institutions …. The Duggers ….

The Conflict Theory Approach• Elements of criminal behavior:

– The marginalized / poor commit crime in order to survive, not to become rich

– Often in the struggle for survival, marginalized persons victimize other marginalized persons … example: ‘’ black on black crimes ‘’

– Law protects the rich and the powerful and not, as is claimed, the “common good”

Feminist Theory Approaches

• Focus: to examine the relationship between gender, deviance and crime

• Evidence is that women’s crime rates increase with women’s liberation movement

– Women’s deviance and crime as a rational response to oppression and discrimination…..abusive relationships / living in poverty as signal parent

Feminist Approaches

• Keeps women tied to family and home. Example: prostitution—women are more likely to be charged than the “Johns”

• Women are exploited by capitalism and a male dominated world.….. Because more women have low-paying jobs, women tend to become involved in prostitution and shop-lifting.

Somebody's Daughter: Inside the Toronto Halifax Pimping Ring 1996 Phonse Jessome

Feminist Approaches

• More often, visible minority women suffer abuse in the home

• Deviance and crime as an effect of abuse

• Deviance and crime as a form of resisting abuse

Billy Stafford is murdered by his wife Jane after years of serious abuse

Ten years after Billy’s death, Jane Hurshman / Stafford shot herself in the font seat of her car in a deserted parking lot on the Halifax waterfront.