(CRM1a) Canadian Contributions to Criminology I

Criminology is a multi-faceted field that uses 'crime' as its subject matter but has no single methodological commitment or paradigmatic theoretical framework. Many areas and conversations in criminology, however, are often dominated by work from the US, Britain, and the Scandinavian countries that differ from the Canadian context in significant socio-political respects. The main objective of this session is to connect researchers and discuss work that advances our understanding of crime and criminal behaviour in Canada as well as criminological knowledge more broadly. Tags: Criminologie, Droit, Société Canadienne

Organizers: Timothy Kang, University of Saskatchewan, Daniel Kudla, Memorial University; Chair: Daniel Kudla, Memorial University

Presentations

Katharine Dunbar Winsor, Mount Allison University

Dance as revolution: Exploring prisoner agency through arts-based methods

Carceral spaces such as prisons are designed to restrict freedoms and keep inhabitants confined and under surveillance through various mechanisms. As a result, prisons are spaces where movement is restricted through confinement, while prisoners’ ability to move is conflated with freedom. We aim to move beyond this dichotomy and consider a complex rethinking of the body in criminological theory and practice through dance in carceral space. In doing so, we explore under what conditions movement represents agentic practices. Understanding these nuances requires an interrogation of prisoner agency, including prisoners’ subtle maneuverability of power dynamics within the prison. We explore these dynamics using feminist and arts-based methods, specifically dance workshops delivered to twenty participants incarcerated in a Canadian provincial women’s prison. We find that movement and expression in prison may create moments of agentic freedom for incarcerated women under certain conditions. We argue that more nuanced understandings of incarcerated women’s agency can be found in their daily negotiations of time and space, and movement can provide numerous meanings. Our findings suggest arts-based approaches within prison environments create opportunities for women to express their identity and sexuality through movement in ways otherwise not permitted in prison. For many incarcerated women in this study, this sense of freedom may be associated with the ability to focus and take care of themselves while confined.

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Non-presenting author: Amy Sheppard, Memorial University

Nicolas Carrier, Carleton University

Improper guilt: On exceptional postponements in the formal manufacture of criminals

Theoretical criminology has not yet taken stock of the crucial role played by the admission of guilt in summary justice: it allows criminal law to absolve itself from the violence it employs to manufacture criminals and produce ‘just’ punishments. Relying on some elements of Luhmann’s sociological theory, our thesis proposes that, in summary justice, the admission of guilt deparadoxifies legal self-referentiality, allowing criminal law to maintain a blind spot on the violence that precedes punishment. This thesis was developed following the observation of peculiar courtroom decisions, undocumented in the academic literature: exceptional instances where individuals are maintained in a state of pre-penal legal ensnarement on the grounds of an improper admission of guilt.

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Non-presenting author: Jeffrey Monaghan, Carleton University