Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Lighting The Way Of The Learner: Towards A Social Virtue Epistemology In Aḥmad Al-Ṣaghīr’S The Faqīh’S Lantern, Amani Khelifa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis offers an original translation and analysis of a West African didactic poem in Islamic ethics and law, by the Mālikī-Ashʿarī Mauritanian scholar Aḥmad al-Ṣaghīr (d. 1272 AH/1856 CE) called The Faqīh’s Lantern (Miṣbāḥ al-Faqīh). In addition to the critical translation, I examine the poem thematically through the lens of social virtue epistemology. Chapter 1 sketches the background of the text and author, positioning the author historically as a product of a rich scholarly and pedagogical tradition while noting Mauritania’s contemporary place in the North American Muslim imagination. Chapter 2 is the translation of the text, making …

Colombian Women’S Experiences Of The Canadian Refugee And Asylum Adjudication Process, Camila N. Parra Carrillo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The present thesis “Colombian women’s experiences of the Canadian refugee and asylum adjudication process” is an ethnographic description and analysis of the experiences of Colombian refugee women as they move through the refugee and asylum adjudication system in Ontario, Canada. Using concepts such as liminality, politics of waiting, hermeneutics of suspicion and arbitrariness, the refugee and asylum adjudication system is shown to be a site of power and domination that creates negative emotions in the people who face it, especially in the oral hearing as a central event in the process. Centering Colombian refugee women’s voices, their experiences and emotions …

Faithfully Negligent: Religious Implications For Criminal Negligence Cases, Supreet Kaur Bath

Master of Laws Research Papers Repository

Do the actions of parents in withholding medical treatment from their children due to religious influence show wanton or reckless disregard for the safety and lives of their children? This project investigates the morally and legally complicated issue of the influence of religious beliefs in criminal negligence cases. My MRP is animated by the idea that similar cases in the past have been treated with leniency and ought to be given stricter punishments.

I focus in particular on cases in which parents opt for alternative remedies or faith healing for ill children in ignorance or defiance of available medical treatments. …

Gwaabaw: Applying Anishinaabe Harvesting Protocols To Energy Governance, Sakihitowin Awasis

Geography & Environment Publications

Oil and gas extraction has transformed Anishinaabe society in ways that undermine the consensual, holistic, and egalitarian basis of natural law. To many Indigenous people, framing fossil fuels and other energy sources as “natural resources” does not accurately define energy projects or capture related risks. Some Anishinaabe pipeline opponents have suggested that traditional harvesting protocols–culturally embedded moral precepts that govern the gathering of food and medicinal plants–also be applied to activities that produce energy. This paper explores how this could be done, focusing on tar sands extraction and the Line 3 expansion plan. I begin by discussing Anishinaabe harvesting protocols, …

Supports For Migrant Farmworkers: Tensions In (In)Access And (In)Action, Susana Caxaj, Amy Cohen, Sarah Marsden

Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Publications

Purpose: This study examined the role of support actors in promoting or hindering access to migrant agricultural workers' (MAWs) needs, and, to determine the factors that influence adequate support for this population.
Methodology: Employing a Situational Analysis methodology, we carried out focus groups and interviews with 35 support actors complimented by a community scan (n=28) with public-facing support persons and a community consultation with migrant agricultural workers (MAWs).
Findings: Two major themes were revealed: (In)access and (In)action, and; Blurred Lines in Service Provision. The first illustrated how support actors could both reinforce or challenge barriers for this population through tensions …

Terrorism And Its Legal Aftermath: The Limits On Freedom Of Expression In Canada’S Anti-Terrorism Act & National Security Act, Percy Sherwood

FIMS Publications

This analysis aims to demonstrate how s. 83.221 in Bill C-51 is likely to violate freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter. The first section employs the two-step Irwin Toy analysis to show that the speech offense infringes upon s. 2(b) of the Charter. The second section uses the Oakes test to determine whether the breach of freedom of expression is a reasonable limit. On whether the speech offense can be justified under s. 1 of the Charter as a reasonable limit, the legislation fails at the third and fourth step of the Oakes test. Section three of this paper …

Pilot And Adaptation Of A Social-Emotional Learning Program In Youth Justice Settings, Amanda J. Kerry

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Interventions for youth offenders should aim to reduce risk factors and promote protective factors. Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs aim to enhance intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competencies. Research demonstrates that SEL programs reduce antisocial behaviours and improve prosocial skills; however, to date, SEL programs have been primarily implemented in schools. This integrated-article dissertation explored the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of implementing a SEL program in youth justice settings. The first paper proposes the implementation of SEL programs in youth justice settings and identifies unique programming and implementation considerations for this population.

The second paper presents a two-phase study examining the feasibility, …

Police Prevention Of Domestic Homicide: Missed Opportunities And Barriers To Change, Michael D. Saxton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This integrated-article dissertation focused on the critical role of police in responding to domestic violence (DV) and recognizing the potential risk of adult and child homicides. The first study examined the police role in domestic homicide through an analysis of cases reviewed by the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee in Ontario, Canada. Homicide cases with police contact were found to have 1.6 times more risk factors compared to those without police contact. Cases also show an overall scarcity of formal risk assessments, even when there was prior police contact. The second study was a national survey on the types of …

Performing Spatial Justice, Ramona A. Radu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In Spatial Justice: Body, Lawscape, Atmosphere, Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos introduces a theory of spatial justice that takes into consideration the agential capabilities of nonhuman legal actors. However, in an effort to decenter the human legal subject, Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos argues that the co-constitutivity of law and space (the lawscape), as the site where (human and nonhuman) legal bodies take shape, cannot be mediated through the political. In response to this claim, I argue that spatial justice is an inherently political project, and I identify the practice of spatial justice (or performing spatial justice) as a means of understanding how to engage the political …

Exploring Dimensions Of Vulnerability In Victims Of Domestic Homicide, Natalia Musielak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gender-based violence is rooted in a network of multidimensional constructs encompassing personal, situational, social and cultural elements, as well as the intersectionality of these elements. Current research on victims of domestic homicide has not incorporated the use of this lens and has had a tendency to focus on a singular construct as independent and autonomous. The present study explored 20 dimensions of victim vulnerability. Cases from the Ontario Domestic Violence Death Review Committee were analyzed to examine the presence and frequency of these dimensions within the sample. Using two-step cluster analysis, different profiles of vulnerable victims were determined. Relationships between …

Conceptualizing Justice: Police Responses To Sex Crimes In Partnership With Canadian Police Departments, Keyanna Drakes

MA Research Paper

Justice exists in and through interpretations of past laws and legal procedures. Justice for sex crimes, however, is particularly complex due to the differences between victim needs and the operations of the criminal justice system. This study, using 70 semi-structured interviews and 2 focus groups from Canadian police departments, shows procedural and distributive justice as the two most prevalent forms of justice police officers use when dealing with sex crimes. The commonalities between the two forms of justice support the notion that police officers have adapted to using multiple methods of justice that are more compassionate to victims of sexual …

Social Relationships In Young Offenders: Relevance To Peers, Poverty, And Psychological Adjustment, Victoria Sabo

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The increasing influence of peers in adolescence is related to a developing array of skills, aspirations, attitudes, and behaviours. The nature and magnitude of this influence and the potential association of certain youth with deviant peers is among the most prominent risk factors in predicting youth crime. This becomes of greater concern for economically disadvantaged youth, whose neighbourhoods harbour greater susceptibility to negative peer influence. With social affiliations at the forefront of youth development and criminality, research efforts need to further characterize the nature, constitution, and influence of peers on adolescent offending. Two hundred and eighty-one Canadian youth were sampled …

Exploring Mental Health In Justice Involved Youth: Relevance For Policy And Practice, Angelina Sarah Maclellan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Over the past two decades, awareness of the prevalence of mental health problems in young offenders (ages 12 to 17 years) has grown, with estimates suggesting significantly higher rates compared to the general population. While experiencing poverty does not cause crime, recent research drawing from the Social Psychology of Crime suggests that individuals who experience poverty tend to live in adverse social environments, which can facilitate exposure to modeling and/or reinforcement that is related to antisocial behaviour. In the present study, archival data were drawn from 281 young offenders’ files from an urban-based court clinic to examine how the youth’s …

Theory And Practice, Together At Last: A Heretical, Empirical Account Of Canadian Legal Education, David Sandomierski

Law Presentations

No abstract provided.

Whose Finger On The Nuclear Trigger, Erika Simpson, Murray Thomson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Representations Of Youth Crime In Canada: A Feminist Criminological Analysis Of Statistical Trends, National Canadian Newspapers, And Moral Panics, Jennifer Silcox

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research explores different representations of youth crime in Canada from a feminist criminological and social constructionist perspective. Using a mixed-methods approach that draws upon historical scholarly works, official governmental crime and court statistics, and national Canadian newspapers, I investigate statistical and media representations of youth crime in Canada.

Official crime and court statistics were analyzed to identify trends in youth crime and how they vary by gender and legislative changes. I provide an historical overview of changing definitions of youth, crime and delinquency, and consider how these combined with changing norms regarding morality to shape youth crime legislation in …

An Evidential Review Of Police Misconduct: Officer Versus Organization, Emma Rose Bonanno

2015 Undergraduate Awards

This paper explores the critical societal issue of police misconduct. Though a vast amount of literature surrounds the issue of police misconduct, conclusions regarding the correlates of police misconduct remain inconclusive. Previous research that attempts to explain police misconduct has consistently shown to be divided based on either individual or organizational correlates. Thus, the crux of the debate has become whether police misconduct is the product of a "bad apple" (individual or micro-level correlates), or a "bad barrel" (organizational or macro-level correlates). The aim of this paper is to explore existing empirical evidence, and discover which factors most strongly correlate …

Policing Cyber Bullying: How Parents, Educators, And Law Enforcement Respond To Digital Harassment, Ryan Broll

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Some prior research has emphasised how adults ought to address cyber bullying, yet little is known about how they actually prevent and respond to digital harassment. This study addresses this gap in the literature by exploring the formal and informal “policing” of cyber bullying by a network of security actors: parents, teachers and school administrators, and the public police. Data were collected through a mixed methods research design consisting of semi-structured qualitative interviews with eight parents, 14 teachers, and 12 members of law enforcement (n = 34) and quantitative surveys completed by 52 parents.

Drawing upon nodal governance theory as …

Training Lawyers, Cultivating Citizens, And Re-Enchanting The Legal Professional, David Sandomierski

Law Publications

Law schools ought to have a vision for how they contribute to the public good. This article identifies two views of how public value might fit into the mission of the law school. The additive view holds that pursuing public value (cultivating “citizens”) and training “lawyers” are distinct objectives. This view underlies traditional claims that the law school should be housed in the university, and also accounts for the historic tension between academic law schools and the profession.

By contrast, the integrative view holds that training lawyers and cultivating citizens are mutually reinforcing. This view inheres in the desire to …

Psychopathy And Sentencing: An Investigative Look Into When The Pcl-R Is Admitted Into Canadian Courtrooms And How A Pcl-R Score Affects Sentencing Outcome, Katie Davey

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Little is known about how and when the Psychopathy Checklist Revised (PCL-R) is being introduced into Canadian Courts or how it affects sentencing outcomes. Using the Lexis-Nexis Quicklaw Academic Database to retrieve judge’s sentencing decisions, all 274 cases with PCL-R information for Canadian courts were included in this study. It was hypothesized correctly that PCL-R information would most often be introduced in Long Term Offender (LTO) and Dangerous Offender (DO) applications as well as sentencing cases for murderers and sex offenders. The 274 cases were then reduced to 37 cases in order to focus on sentencing without Dangerous Offender or …

Understanding Gendered Criminal Involvement With A Community-Based Criminal Sample: Assessing Substance Abuse And Mental Health Needs, Stacy Taylor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explored the gendered effect of substance abuse and mental health issues on the pathways to criminal convictions with a criminal population in the community setting. The data was retrieved through a file review of a sample of 48 female and 42 male offenders who received crisis care during a one-year period, at a community corrections agency in a medium-sized urban community in Ontario. The data collected was based upon factors derived from the LSI-R (Andrews & Bonta, 1995) and the Women’s Supplemental Risk/Needs Assessment (Van Voorhis, Wright, Salisbury & Bauman, 2010). Results of the present study revealed gender …

Rethinking Justice In Transitional Justice: An Examination Of The Mãori Conception And Customary Mechanism Of Justice, Stephanie Vieille

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a relatively young field of academic inquiry, the transitional justice scholarship presents some important difficulties, not least of which is its lack of critical evaluation of the approaches to justice it adopts and promotes. This research argues that the framework used in the transitional justice scholarship is ill-suited to account for, and to think about, the philosophy of justice embodied in customary mechanisms of justice. It explains that the type of “justice” embodied in customary mechanisms of justice is difficult to appreciate by using the retributive, reparative, and the restorative approaches. These Western, individualistic and legally based approaches are …

A Rawlsian Idea Of Deliberative Democracy, Angela D. White

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In my thesis, I develop a framework based on John Rawls's Political Liberalism that addresses the question: how is it possible for democratic institutions and their decisions to be legitimate, given that (i) they are supposed to be governed by the "will of the people", but (ii) the people will disagree with each other about what political institutions ought to do about any given issue? Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson advance a deliberative democratic response to this question, which has served as the basis of governments' attempts to "strengthen democracy". They argue that political decisions are justified insofar as they …

Contested Legality And The Insecurity Of Status: Some Snapshots From A Decade Of Refugee Law, Donald Galloway

Western Migration Conference Series

Bio:

Donald Galloway is a Professor of Law at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. He specializes in Refugee Law, Citizenship Law and Immigration Law. He was the founding President of the Canadian Association of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS) and is a former member of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Against Nomopolies, David Sandomierski

Law Publications

Legal pluralism stands in counterpoint to conceptions of l~ that sharply distinguish the legal from the non-legal. This essay considers a neglected feature of classical legal theory - prescriptivism - that sustains this binary ambition. Prescriptivists assert that legal artefacts such as norms are distinct from the human world upon which they operate. Each of centralism, monism, positivism and prescriptivism subsu'!1es diverse associational nomoi · into the nomos of a given community, often the State, thereby creating a nomopoly. To the prescriptivist, human beings are subjects under an external sphere of law. The anti-prescriptivist perspective invites legal subjects to imagine …

Characteristics Of Aboriginal Injecting Drug Users In Sydney, Australia: Prison History, Hepatitis C Status And Drug Treatment Experiences, Carolyn Day, Joanne Ross, Kate Dolan

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

Australian Aboriginals are overrepresented in prisons and tend to be overrepresented in studies of injecting drug users (IDU). The aim of this study was to examine differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal IDUs in terms of gender, prison history and hepatitis C status and testing. Secondary analyses were conducted on data from three cross-sectional studies of IDUs. These studies employed similar methodologies, with recruitment being through needle and syringe programs, methadone clinics, snowballing and street intercepts. All studies were coordinated through the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre. Aboriginal people were overrepresented in all studies, were more likely to have been …

Adapting Violence Rehabilitation Programs For The Australian Aboriginal Offender, Peter Mals, Kevin Howells, Andrew Day, Guy Hall

Aboriginal Policy Research Consortium International (APRCi)

In this paper the authors address the question of how treatment and rehabilitation programs for violent offenders might be modified to more appropriately meet the needs of different cultural groups and improve treatment responsivity. The focus of the paper is on the needs of Aboriginal violent offenders in an Australian context, although the themes have relevance to treatment programs internationally. Two broad sources of information are used: the published literature relating to violent offending in Aboriginal people in Australia, and a small-scale interview-based qualitative survey of service providers with particular experience in this area. The evidence suggests there may be …