Suchergebnisse

In 2010, Correctional Service Canada closed two decrepit prisons designated for men. Hoping to reduce prison overcrowding, the Québec government rented one of them-the Leclerc prison-and transferred approximately 250 male prisoners serving a provincial sentence. One year later, Québec closed its main provincial prison designated for women, and swiftly transferred the women to the Leclerc prison where men were housed. At Leclerc, women endured dehumanizing conditions condemned by scholars, advocacy groups, and the media as violations of basic human rights. Challenging living conditions enduring at the Leclerc prison suggest that women's imprisonment is resisting significant change despite studies and governmental inquiries since the middle of the 19th century having documented the dire situation, and the specific needs of imprisoned women in Canada. This book proposes a critical rereading of women's penal history in Canada and argues that policies and practices regarding women's prisoning are path dependent and tend to follow a locked-in trajectory.

This article reflects on the confession as a traditional focal point of criminal law and penal theories. Specifically, it questions the privileged status traditionally conferred to the confession within the hierarchy of legal proof and punishment as a remnant of Christian influence which should be made visible. This reflection draws on the case of Robert Latimer, one of the few judicial cases historically to have polarized Canadian public opinion. After serving seven years in a federal penitentiary for the 'mercy killing' of his 12-year-old severally handicapped daughter, Saskatchewan farmer, Robert Latimer, was denied day parole by the National Parole Board of Canada on 5 December 2007. Despite in-prison psychological and parole reports confirming Latimer's low risk to reoffend, parole board members denied his request on the apparent sole basis that he had not developed sufficient remorse. This case highlights how remorse, as a particular discursive transaction, is an obligatory passage point or an oral corroboration indispensable to complete the written demonstration (i.e. psychological and parole reports) of an offender's successful integration of the 'truth' about her and her crime. Hence, remorse may constitute the only valuable way for offenders to re-take their place within the ritual of 'Truth' production.

After her intense battle for the decriminalization of assisted suicide in the Supreme Court of Canada, Sue Rodriguez committed suicide with medical assistance in 1994. Following her suicide, government and law representatives remained silent and no criminal charges were ever brought against the person(s) who presumably assisted Ms Rodriguez in her death. This apparent non-intervention of criminal law is examined in view of the useful role that the Rodriguez event may have played in a possible shift in the dominant morality. It is argued that the Rodriguez assisted suicide may have been a useful 'crime' (in the Durkheimian sense) in that it brought to the fore the possibility that social conditions - which made the 'crime' possible - may no longer be in harmony with conventional morality. Similarly to Socrates' crime, the Rodriguez case can be seen as an anticipation of a new morality. It can be analysed as a prelude to alterations, as directly preparing the way for changes in the dominant morality. The role of criminal law as a preferred mode of moral regulation is also examined in relation to the moral demands and expectations that arose during as well as after the judicial saga.

Au Québec, le rapport prédécisionnel est un outil d'évaluation qui permet d'éclairer la magistrature avant qu'une peine ne soit ordonnée à l'égard d'un mineur déclaré coupable d'un acte infractionnel. Au Québec, les artisans de ces rapports sont des intervenants sociaux. Cet article discute de la confection des rapports prédécisionnels qui se situe au confluent de deux logiques d'action antagonistes. L'une est portée par des stratégies organisationnelles d'uniformisation des rapports prédécisionnels et l'autre par des contraintes contextuelles pesant sur leurs auteurs. L'affrontement de ces logiques génère des signaux discordants chez les « artisans » de ces rapports, pouvant culminer en une tension non discutée. En réponse à cette tension, les intervenants-artisans tenteront des réconciliations ouvrant la voie à une pratique créative.

Depuis quelques années déjà, certains auteurs luttaient pour faire reconnaître l'utilisation d'Internet comme un objet potentiel de « dépendance » à inclure dans la cinquième version du Manuel diagnostique et statistique des troubles mentaux (DSM-5) alors que d'autres ne partageaient pas cet avis. Par le prisme d'un regard critique, cet article trace les principaux discours des acteurs sociaux qui participent à la construction sociale de la « cyberdépendance ». Plus spécifiquement, les affrontements, conciliations et fronts communs qui se constituent et se métamorphosent au sein de deux sphères d'influence importantes sont mis en lumière, soit celles de la science et de l'intervention sociale.