Canadian crime control in the new millennium: the influence of neo‐conservative US policies and practices

Abstract

An important issue facing Canadians today is crime control and prevention. Research done in the late 1980s and early 1990s by three sociologists shows that Canadian federal criminal justice policies and practices adopted by the Mulroney government from 1984 to 1990 were inconsistent with US ‘law and order’ models in place at that time. However, since the mid‐1990s, Canadian federal and provincial governments have mimicked some US authoritarian and gender‐blind means of curbing crime. The main objective of this paper is to provide some key examples of criminal justice policy transfer from the USA in Canada. At first glance, Canada may appear to be a ‘kinder, gentler nation,’ but not to the extent assumed by many, if not most, outside observers.

Keywords:

• Canada
• neo‐conservative
• gender
• violence
• police
• prisons

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank John Crank, Colleen Kadleck, and Barbara Perry for their advice and guidance.

Notes

1. The first part of this title is the subtitle of James Travers’ critique (2007) of the Canadian federal Progressive Conservative Party’s crime control policies under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

2. Following Skogan (1990), social disorder is defined here as behavior such as prostitution, vandalism, etc. Physical disorder ‘involves visual signs of negligence and decay,’ such as abandoned buildings, rat‐infested garbage on the streets, broken streetlights, and so on (p. 4).

3. Although the term critical criminology has been around since the early 1970s, there is no widely accepted definition (DeKeseredy & Perry, 2006). For the purpose of this paper, however, critical criminology is defined as a perspective that views the major sources of crime as the class, ethnic, and patriarchal relations that control our society. Further, it is a perspective that rejects as solutions to crime short‐term measures such as tougher laws, increased incarceration, counseling therapy, and the like. Rather, it regards major structural and cultural changes within society as essential steps to reduce criminality and to promote social justice (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 1996; Young, 1988).

4. Sponsored by the Ontario Crime Commission, the title of this conference was ‘Crime Control: International Strategies for Success.’

5. The homicide rate increased in the Northwest Territories when it included Nunavut.

6. The proposed Tackling Violent Crime Act calls for revisions to the Canadian Criminal Code, such as: automatically refusing bail to people charged with gun crimes; making it easier for police to charge people driving under the influence of drugs; raising the legal age of sexual consent to 16 from 14; making it easier to prosecute and indefinitely incarcerate ‘dangerous offenders’ after three convictions for serious crimes; and mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug dealers (MacCharles, 2007, p. A17).

7. Statistics Canada’s 1993 national Violence Against Women Survey was heavily influenced by feminist scholarship. See Johnson (1996) for more information on this study and the data gleaned by it.