Course Descriptions

This course explores the relationship between crime and society, emphasizing that crime is shaped by social, economic, and cultural forces. Drawing on classical, contemporary, Indigenous, and critical perspectives, students examine how definitions of crime reflect systems of power, inequality, and colonialism. Canadian case studies will be used to explore how criminalization is used to manage difference and maintain social control.

This course provides an introductory analysis to the concepts, theories and institutions of criminal law and justice, and its place in society. It will explore the historical development of the criminal legal system, with attention to the influence of settler colonialism and the constitutional principles that shape criminal law. Students will study the structure and functions of key institutions, including courts, correctional agencies, Indigenous legal systems, and the roles of various actors within the system.

This course examines the impact of contemporary crime prevention, surveillance and security practices. Students will learn how social control is achieved through a widening network of public and private agencies, including social services, law enforcement and urban planners, who regulate and 'police' our everyday interactions at the local, national and global levels. The second part of the course will focus on the targeting of minority and protest groups who are constructed as 'risks' to society, and impacts on Indigenous sovereignty.

This course explores the gendered experiences of women and LGBTQ2S+ people involved in all phases of the criminal justice system, such as victims/survivors, offenders, and professionals. We will critically engage with the intersections among gender, race, class, and sexuality, and analyze the ways in which these affect the treatment of women and LGBTQ2S+ people inside and outside the criminal justice system. Particular attention will be paid to the experiences of Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirited people, as well as the links between inequality and criminalization.

This course provides an overview of youth justice in Canada. It examines how youth crime has been constructed throughout history and how young people experience the criminal legal system today. Different forms of trauma suffered by youth before they have come in conflict with the law (individual, historical, intergenerational), and during their time within the system, are examined, as well as alternatives for dealing effectively with the problem of criminalizing young people.

This course examines the social world of drugs people who use, produce, and sell drugs. It looks at how drug policy has developed over time, and the structural effects these policies have on shaping the culture of drug use in Canada today. It explores how changing social conditions shape how we understand addiction, what we know about the effect drugs have on our bodies, and how we think about prevention and harm reduction.

This course examines the law in relation to social relationships, processes, and structures. It will consider the social function of law and how the practice of law impacts different communities and individuals. The course will include discussion of how legal theories relate to conceptions of society, critiques of law from a sociological and feminist perspective, and the relationship between law as form of social control and change.

This course examines the relationship between marginalized groups and the criminal legal system. Students will analyze how unequal power relations are created and sustained through the operations of the police, courts, social services, and correctional system both within Canada and internationally. Of particular concern is how crime and the justice system further marginalize minority groups, including those with statuses associated with gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, citizenship, and religion.

Green criminology moves beyond an anthropocentric view of crime to include how and why certain forms of environmental harm are criminalized while other harms are encouraged by the state. It examines the various factors that drive these harms, such as capitalism, consumerism, and productivity, and considers different ways we might address these problems, including Indigenous perspectives which posit non-speciesist understandings for ecological wellbeing.

This course explores the theory and practice of restorative and transformative justice. In contrast to retributive models of criminal justice, restorative justice presents an alternative model based on the principle of restoring balance. Transformative justice goes beyond restoration by seeking to change the social conditions that generated the harmful behaviour. This course will compare these models with Indigenous Justice systems, while recognizing their distinctiveness.

This course explores the history, laws, and societal impacts of commercial sex work in Canada. Students will examine sociolegal frameworks, theories of sex work, and the roles of sellers, buyers, and third parties. Centering sex workers' voices and lived experiences, the course challenges dominant narratives by highlighting how sex work can disrupt patriarchy, promote bodily autonomy, and contest puritanical values. Through critical and intersectional lens, students will analyze how laws, politics, and social structures have the capacity to marginalize sex workers and explore sex workers' resistance, resilience, and contributions to social justice and feminist thought.

Street level crimes, such as robbery and assault, receive a great deal of media attention, and yet what is happening at the level of the boardroom, i.e. misconduct on the part of corporations and states, contributes more financial loss, injury, and death than all street level crimes combined. This course will focus on understanding the crimes of the powerful, including those conducted by states, corporations, and wealthy individuals.

Criminology has long relied on Eurocentric frameworks that neglect Indigenous knowledge and the impacts of colonialism. This course recentres Indigenous and other colonized voices, examining how colonial systems shape crime and justice. Students will explore Indigenous law and resistance to injustice provide alternatives to settler thought and consider how decolonizing approaches can reimagine justice in more relational, land-based, and community-driven ways.

This course explores the operational realities of Canadian prisons and penitentiaries, focusing on the rules, regulations and legislation empowering federal, provincial, and territorial governments to create and maintain prisons systems. It explores the rights that apply to prisoners and the specific remedial mechanisms instituted to protect prisoners within a carceral setting in Canada and examines the problems which may arise in these environments, such as power and legitimacy, the complex needs of prisoners with mental health issues, and the use of prolonged isolation. Jurisprudence on these and other issues relating to the care and custody of prisoners is examined.

This course examines domestic abuse, focusing on domestic and intimate partner violence, family violence, and child abuse. Students explore theoretical explanations, risk factors, barriers to safety, and the challenges and complexities involved in understanding and preventing these forms of violence. Emphasis is placed on social and legal responses, with particular attention to how race, class, age, and other intersecting factors shape experiences of domestic abuse. The course draws attention to the amplified barriers to safety faced by Indigenous peoples, 2SLGBTQQIA+ individuals, immigrants and refugees, and other marginalized communities to foster an intersectional understanding of domestic abuse and systemic inequality.

In this course, students critically examine wrongful convictions and other miscarriages of justice within the Canadian context. With a focus on how systemic and structural issues such as racial bias, settler colonialism, and institutional misconduct impact criminal legal processes and access to justice, students consider the major factors that contribute to miscarriages of justice and the ways to prevent or reduce such injustices through social and legal reforms.

In what has been described as 'the punitive era', attention will be given to the rise in punitive sanctions, including its causes, consequences, and alternatives. This course is concerned with the sentencing and punishment of offenders. It considers, in historical context, the philosophical underpinnings of punishment; sentencing policy and practice within Canada; and the myriad forms of punishments available to respond to criminality. This course will analyze and reflect on public attitudes towards punishment, the sources of public punitiveness, and the relationship between public opinion and punishment policy.

This course explores the role of discretion within the criminal legal system. Discretionary power is examined in terms of the ethical challenges it raises, the risks of bias it presents, and its role in flexible and humane decision-making. Examined in this course will be factors that influence decision-making at key junctures in the criminal legal system, from arrest to parole to detention reviews. By exploring the manner in which discretion operates, this course offers a critical lens into forces that shape 'justice' in practice.

This course examines high-risk, nearly lethal, and lethal forms of domestic violence with a focus on causes, patterns, risk factors, prevention and intervention strategies, and structural and systemic barriers to safety. Through the application of critical and intersectional lenses, students explore how gender, race, Indigeneity, legal status, class, sexuality, and ability impact victimization, perpetration, and access to justice in cases of domestic homicide. A key component is case-based domestic homicide reviews that mirror the processes and procedures of real life domestic violence death review committees, which are guided by the principle: we speak for the dead to protect the living.

This individualized course invites students to step beyond the classroom and put their criminological knowledge into action. Working under the mentorship of a criminology faculty member, students design a hands-on, community-based learning experience tailored to their interests and career goals.

Students will work with a Criminology faculty member to guide them in an independent study or research project. Specific course details will be arranged between individual students and faculty members.