CJCCJ
/ RCCJP
July/juillet 2006 Volume 48, no. 4
Contents/Sommaire
Articles
The Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological
Tool:Suing the Government for Data
Matthew G. Yeager
From Community to Intelligence: Executive Realignment
of RCMP Mission
John Edward Deukmedjian
Violence and Threats against Lawyers Practising in
Vancouver, Canada
Karen N. Brown and David MacAlister
Tracking High-Risk, Violent Offenders: An Examination
of the National Flagging System
Annie K. Yessine and James Bonta
Research Note
The Use of Custody for Failing To Comply with a Disposition
Cases
under the Young Offenders Act
Jane B. Sprott
Book Reviews / Recensions de livres
July / juillet 2006
Books Received / Livres rec us
July / juillet 2006
Coming Events / Prochains evements
The
Freedom of Information Act as a Methodological Tool:Suing the Government
for Data
Matthew G. Yeager
The U.S. Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 1966, and the corresponding
Access to Information Act in Canada, circa 1983, were designed to
make
government more open and accountable to the general public. However,
neither act has functioned that way, with most requests being made
by
lawyers, information professionals, corporations, and political parties.
Academic researchers, including criminal justice types, have used
the act to
access a variety of information from government files. For instance,
Alan
Block (1975; 1980) used old FBI files for his study of Jewish gangsters
in New
York City. Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall (1990a; 1990b) used
the act
to illustrate government law breaking in the FBI COINTELPRO program,
involving Native Americans, the Black Panthers, and other progressive
groups. Only rarely, however, have academics elected to take the government
to court and file for judicial review of the government’s disclosure
decisions.
This article describes two lawsuits filed by the author, one under
each act, and
illustrates both the potential of those acts for obtaining data from
the
government and the pitfalls a potential plaintiff faces when prosecuting
the
state for a violation of the Freedom of Information Act. The two lawsuits
in
question are Yeager v. Drug Enforcement Administration (1982) and
Yeager v. Canada (Correctional Service) [2003]. This methodological
approach undoubtedly falls under more progressive theories of criminology,
such as conflict, radical, or critical perspectives, since mainstream
researchers
rarely resort to this technique.
From Community to Intelligence: Executive Realignment
of RCMP Mission
John Edward Deukmedjian
RCMP executive problematizations of community-policing misalignments
during the 1990s created the conditions for adopting intelligence-led
policing
since late 2000. Executives identified three areas as acute problems:
front-line
acceptance, training, and mid-level management. These ‘‘sites’’
of executive
problematization are expected to re-emerge under intelligence-led
policing. As
such, this article proposes that new model adoptions and subsequent
organizational restructuring initiatives form part of broader cyclical
alignment. This paper also discusses the broader implications of this
study in
terms of possible relocations of expertise and knowledge production
at the
agency-network level.
Violence and Threats against Lawyers Practising
in Vancouver, Canada
Karen N. Brown and David MacAlister
Society does not normally consider the practice of law a dangerous
occupation, but a significant number of lawyers, particularly those
practising
in specialties such as criminal defence, government prosecutorial
positions,
and family/divorce law are encountering violence and threats. Although
past
research in the United States demonstrated that lawyers have been
victimized
by objectionable behaviour and threatening communications, there are
no
relevant Canadian studies on this topic. In the present study, survey
data
from 1,152 lawyers in Vancouver and surrounding suburbs in British
Columbia, Canada, were examined to determine if British Columbia lawyers
are being threatened, and if so, what are the types, quantity, and
locations of
such threats and/or violence. Results of this current study indicate
that 59.2
percent of respondents, or 683 lawyers, reported varying degrees and
numbers
of threats. This article will discuss those findings.
Tracking High-Risk, Violent Offenders: An Examination
of the National Flagging System
Annie K. Yessine and James Bonta
The present study investigated the effectiveness of the Canadian National
Flagging System (NFS), a policy initiative intended to identify offenders
who
are judged to be suitable candidates for a Dangerous Offender (DO)
or a
Long-Term Offender (LTO) application. Analyses comparing the profiles
of
256 flagged offenders and 97 known high-risk, violent offenders indicated
that
the flagged offenders generally showed less serious and persistent
criminality
characteristics than the known high-risk, violent offenders. However,
scores
on actuarial measures of risk demonstrated that both groups comprised
especially high-risk offenders. Furthermore, the violent and/or sexual
reconviction rates of the flagged offenders were significantly higher
than those
reported among the typical Canadian male federal offender population.
Judged
against our expectations, the base rate of DO/LTO designations among
the
violent/sexual recidivist flagged offenders was also much higher than
the one
estimated among the general high-risk, violent offender population
in Canada.
As a whole, the findings suggested that the NFS was successful in
appropriately identifying offenders who pose a risk to the community
as well
as in subsequently responding to this threat by facilitating the use
of the DO/
LTO provisions. Recommendations for the development of guidelines
to assist
criminal justice professionals in screening, monitoring, and processing
high-risk, persistent offenders are made.
Research Note
The Use of Custody for Failing To Comply with a
Disposition Cases
under the Young Offenders Act
Jane B. Sprott
Throughout
the 1990s there were increases in bringing ‘‘failing to
comply
with a disposition’’ cases into youth court and sentencing
them to custody.
This study investigated how the nature of these cases affected their
sentencing. All cases in Canada that were disposed of in 2002/2003
and had
a conviction (or convictions) for ‘‘failing to comply with
a disposition’’ (FTC)
were identified, and their previous convictions and sentences were
gathered.
Results revealed that if the previous conviction was an administration
of
justice offence, the current sentence was significantly harsher than
if the
previous conviction was for any other type of offence, even serious
violence.
Thus, it appears that judges see these sorts of cases – in which
a youth has
violated an order of the court – as particularly serious. The
implications for
the Youth Criminal Justice Act, if these sentencing patterns persist,
are discussed.
