Volume
45, No. 3
July 2003
Articles
Cannabis
Law Reform in Canada: Is the "Saga of Promise, Hesitation and
Retreat" Coming to an End?
Benedikt Fischer, Kari Ala-Leppilampi, Eric Single, and
Amanda Robins
Crime
and Destiny: Patterns in Serious Offender's Mortality Rates
Pierre Tremblay and Paul-Philippe Paré
Does
Family Intervention Work for Delinquents? Results of a Meta-Analysis
Craig Dowden and D.A. Andrews
Commentaries
on Policing in Toronto
Introduction
Julian Roberts
Do Toronto
Police Engage in Racial Profiling?
Ron Melchers
Data, Denials,
and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto
Scot Wortley and Julian Tanner
Media Hype,
Racial Profiling, and Good Science
Alan D. Gold
Book Reviews
Abstracts/Résumés
Cannabis
Law Reform in Canada: Is the "Saga of Promise, Hesitation and
Retreat" Coming to an End?
Benedikt Fischer, Kari Ala-Leppilampi, Eric Single, and Amanda
Robins
The Canadian Federal government
has promised legislation that will decriminalize the simple possession
of cannabis by the summer of 2003. This paper will first review the
socio-historical context as it pertains to the criminalization of
cannabis use in Canada. Specifically, it will discuss the numerous
(unsuccessful) legal and political attempts at cannabis-control reform
in the past 30 years, called "the saga of promise, hesitation
and retreat" by Giffen, Endicott, and Lambert (1991: 571). It
will then review some distinct forces in the current cannabis law
reform debate, namely a series of high-profile court cases, patterns
of public opinion, and the recommendations of two federal inquiries,
all of which contribute to the momentum for reform. After summarizing
the diverse landscape of cannabis-control regimes in other Western
countries, this paper will examine more closely the actual options
that exist for cannabis decriminalization in Canada and their possible
effects and implications. Specifically, making simple cannabis possession
a civil offence, as suggested, would provide for both discretionary
interpretations and net-widening effects in law enforcement and would,
in addition, leave the cannabis supply question unresolved.
Crime
and Destiny: Patterns in Serious Offender's Mortality Rates
Pierre Tremblay and Paul-Philippe Paré
Large scale cohort studies
suggest that offenders are more likely to experience premature death,
We argue, in this paper, that strain, self-control and differential
association theories would all predict higher fatality rates among
offenders but rely on different processes in order to account for
differential outcomes. Whereas low self control theory argues that
higher offender mortality rates are unrelated to crime, accident driven,
strain theory emphasizes the significance of suicides and overdoses
as critical features of offenders' excess mortality. Co-offending
research, on the other hand would predict that offenders' higher mortality
rates incorporate a significant crime related occupational hazard
component.
Does
Family Intervention Work for Delinquents? Results of a Meta-Analysis
Craig Dowden and D.A. Andrews
Previous meta-analyses of the
correctional treatment literature have demonstrated that family intervention
programs for delinquents are some of the strongest treatment modalities
available for this population. However, a recent meta-analysis by
Latimer (2001) argued that although family intervention appears to
be effective on first glance, when controls are introduced for the
methodological quality of the evaluation study, the effects substantially
decrease and ultimately disappear under the strictest methodological
conditions. The present meta-analysis explored the impact of methodological
rigour on family intervention programs for young offenders, but attention
was paid to the "appropriateness" of the program (e.g.,
whether they adhered to the principles of risk, need, and general
responsivity). Although the effects of the program were decreased
mildly under the strongest methodological conditions, "appropriate"
treatment continued to yield significant mean reductions in reoffending.
The implications of these finding for the broader literature are discussed.
