Answer To: Students must choose one of the controversial issues relating to women in the criminal justice...
Preeti answered on Oct 23 2021
Running Head: DISCUSSION
Discussion Question: Overview of women and Canadian criminal justice system
Introduction
The underlying assignment is based on discussing ‘Overview of women and Canadian criminal justice system’. In the discussion, Canadian criminal justice system and involvement of women is explored and analysed for evaluating the effectiveness of Canadian criminal justice system. The contrary or competing side of the topic or issue is also analysed in order to foster possible recommendations for improving concerning areas or aspects. In all, the purpose is to gain comprehensive insight of the overall viability and effectiveness of the criminal justice system prevailing in the country and how women are protected and secured from it.
Overview of women and Canadian criminal justice system
Criminal justice system always plays critical role in every country’s overall safety and security. Likewise, main purpose of Canadian justice system is to ensure overall safety, wellness and productivity of Canadians with the overall aim of developing and establishing an accessible, efficient and fair system of justice contributing to overall well-being of the country. Canadians are helped by Canadian criminal justice system to live in a safe and secure environment, imbibing confidence in the communities and justice system improving overall quality of life and contributing to country’s prosperity. Canadian criminal justice system operates on the basic laws and principles of common and civil law histories, international conventions, case laws dedicated to help victims, offenders, and communities (Chan and Chunn, 2014).
It also meant to led citizens towards respecting three arms of the government, i.e., legislative, executive and judicial. Criminal laws and procedures are passed and authorised under these arms, there is also provision of Criminal Code for passing necessary laws regarding criminal offences. The drafting of criminal legislation requires cooperation and involvement of all arms of government for administrating and implementing Criminal Code. The successful criminal justice system require addressing certain aspects such as law enforcement, legal aid, correctional services, legislatures, defence bar, victim services, and social support systems (Pavlich and Unger, 2019).
The analysis of Canadian criminal justice system showed that crime rates remained stable in 2016, according to the traditional police reported crime, 5,224 incidents per 100,000 populations occurred in 2016. Overall, it is seen that police-reported crime rates have decreased in comparison to the 2003 (The Canadian Criminal Justice System: Overall Trends and Key Pressure Points, 2019). A figure showing ‘Police-reported crime rates in Canada, 1962 to 2016’ is depicted with the help of underlying graph:
(Source: The Canadian Criminal Justice System: Overall Trends and Key Pressure Points,, 2019).
On the other hand, crime severity increases with the passage of time, an index called ‘crime severity index’ (CSI) is used to measure and volume and severity of crime reported in the country. CSI increased by 1% in 2016 to 71.0 from 70.0 in 2015, likewise, violent CSI remained relatively unchanged (The Canadian Criminal Justice System: Overall Trends and Key Pressure Points, 2019). In 2009, it is found that more than 9 Canadians were satisfied with the provision of personal safety and security given by the justice system and courts. The level of public confidence in criminal justice increased indicating confidence developed by Canadians in the police and court system that they will convict right individuals, and, prison system is effective enough to prevent offenders from escaping (Basic Principles of Canadian Criminal Law, 2019).
Examining issues facing women
Women and girls have always been considered and visualised as crime victims rather than perpetrators in the criminal justice system of Canada. It is argued that women make up around half of violent crime victims; they are represented as minority of offenders. The provisions of criminal justice in Canada supports several kinds of local events and projects for giving victims a strong and effective voice against crimes. The criminal justice system also aims at developing and raising awareness about the issues faced by women. For this, funding is also allocated and provided, which is distributed across the country with more emphasis on northern and rural communities (Women in Canada: A Gender-based Statistical Report Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2019).
There is special provision for funding of projects aimed at supporting and treating young women who are in conflicts with the law, it also aims at supporting organisations working for improving overall youth justice system and responding to emergency and critical issues. Family violence is another major issue faced by Canadians women, and, provision of Canadian criminal justice system support organisations for reducing family violence. The data collected from 2014 General Social Survey (GSS), around 20% of Canadians women aged 15 or older had been victim of different types of violence and crime from any of the household member (Women and the Criminal Justice System,...