CRIMINAL JUSTICE AGENCY VISIT
Table of Content
Introduction 3
The significance of Criminal Justice Agency 3
Various Methods for Crime Prevention 4
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada 5
Expected achievement 6
Impact of CISC on the Criminal Justice System of Canada 7
Media view on CISC 8
Relation to class 8
Interview 9
Conclusion 10
References 11
Introduction
The aim of this study is to undertake a visit and document the operations of a criminal agency in Canada. Downes et al. (2016, p. 3) refer crime to be a deviance rebellion that provides conformity collusion to the social norms. This can be considered as an offence and disrupts the natural balance of welfare of human societies. As such, crime can refer to any unlawful act that is punishable by authority. The terminology derives statutory definitions from applicable and relevant law. A criminal offence is essentially a harmful act to individuals, community, state or society. The concepts of crimes that are relevant to activities like murder, theft and rape are prohibited by law. The criminal law of Canada contains a crime catalogue called criminal code that is developed in the perspective of a comprehensive statute. The Canadian government has the power to impose a severe restriction that involves liberty towards crime. Criminal investigations, as well as their trials, adhere to the national legislation. When an offender is found guilty, they are subjected to a community sentence that is driven by the extent of their offence. The offender can undergo imprisonment, execution or life imprisonment (Perry, 2015, p. 38). Canadian lawmakers have formulated different methods of measurement to determine the rate of illegal activities in the country. The significant determinants that give rise to crime rates can be rooted back to mental health, substance abuse, or economic distress. Despite the presence of conflicts in multiple countries about legalized issues, some of the acts like rape, murder, or fraudulence can be considered crimes in a unanimous notion.
The significance of the Criminal Justice Agency
Criminal justice systems provide a set of guiding protocols regulated by national governments to reduce rates of crime and penalize the violators. There is noted a significant difference in the notions of criminal justice agencies in Canada but is a network of individual laws (Mamzer, 2017, p. 11). Processing of criminal justice systems can depend on genres of jurisdiction applicable in the designated city, province, or tribunal. Agency of criminal justice involves different government institutes and authoritative bodies that facilitate reaching the reason and the person behind the crime (Allen & McCarthy, 2018, p. 38). The documentation and arrest of charges by the prosecutor are driven by sufficient crime evidence. The offender can bear proceedings that enable him to plead or deny the charges brought against them (Branaşco & Filip, 2017, p. 113). In this case, liabilities can be avoided with due grounds of mental health, maternity or chronic complications that are approved by a registered council.
Various Methods for Crime Prevention
There is no specific or solitary method of crime prevention processes in criminal justice systems of Canada. This is because crime prevention drives the purpose of prevention or reduction rates of crime through the application of correctional measures that follow multi-dimensional pathways to reach the cognitive outcome. These measures can be effective for the prevention of the crime by safeguarding anticipated victims (Sergi, 2018). This is an effective measure to control the rate of crimes as it stops the occurrence even before implantation. In all, crime preventions can be segregated among three subdivisions; primary (investigation), secondary (documentation) and tertiary (identification). According to Downes et al. (2016, p. 17), the aforementioned tiers collaborate among themselves to help the criminal investigators to deduce the offender and subject them to appropriate penalization.
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada
Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (CISC) refers to an inter-agency body that coordinates and communicates criminal intelligence among the police forces. The agency was established in the year 1970, with its central bureau situated in Ottawa. There are ten subordinate bureaus in each Canadian provinces that offer services to more than 400 agencies of law enforcement (CISC, 2019). Intelligence bureaus of member units provide raw data to provincial centres of CISC for adding them to an online data repository, called Automated Criminal Intelligence Information System or ACIIS. Ottawa Bureau retains the custody of this national data repository through consultation and collaboration with its member units (Branaşco & Filip, 2017, p. 58). The goal of CISC is to coordinate data exchange across the jurisdictions and facilitate criminal investigations in an organized and methodical manner.
People involved
CISC is operated by three membership tiers in its bureaus.
Level I: Police Officers
Level I is comprised of the police forces that are responsible for provincial and federal law enforcement. These members report to their specific unit for criminal intelligence. These personalities aid in the planning and development of the prevention program. The professional backdrop of their policing career facilitated the application of own experience through their assistance in providing various crime reduction strategies (Mamzer, 2017, p. 11). However, policing background has enabled these people to comprehend a better idea of crime numbers, genres, rates and intervention
Level II: Law Enforcement Agencies
Level II involves the agencies that are responsible for the roles of stringent law enforcement, such as Wildlife Service and Canada Border Services Agency. This group includes a number of professionals and corporate bodies directly linked to criminal justice of Canada. Specifically, these people deal with providing appropriate punishment to offenders. These people provide ample assistance to facilitate the success of enforcement programs. This is done by utilization of personal experiences as well as practical knowledge (Picanço et al. 2016, p. 77).
Level III: Information Centres
Level III accounts for agencies, which play a complementary role to Canadian legal enforcements or serve as assistance to them. An example of this membership can include the Canadian Police Information Centre. Information centres are termed as backbones of an initiative in the contemporary platforms. This is because they contain databases that can raise awareness and provide data to multiple bureaus of the CISC.
Expected achievement
The agency, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada aims to reduce crime rates in Canada. These people who are directly or indirectly linked to the agency focuses on providing important information and investigation services to the law enforcement agencies. CISC is also motivated by the complications by international entrants and related crimes in Canada. The aforementioned program contains various function and agendas that focus on the betterment of the social and economic conditions of the Canadians. This program attempts to decrease crime rates that are committed against people by facilitating investigations through various consultation and information services. The agency educates the criminal investigators and make them aware of the raw data generated from the crime scenes (CISC, 2019). In addition to this, Criminal Intelligence Service Canada attempts to educate people on possible methods of prevention of crimes by reducing their gullibility. These people can, therefore, help police officers and law enforcement officials to prevent adverse situations that can turn them into criminal victims. The program also guides existing victims of crimes about criminal justice systems in Canada (Keşci, 2015, p. 125). The participation motivates multiple forms of people from Canadian society to assist people by teaching them about their legal rights and court process in Canada.
Impact of CISC on the Criminal Justice System of Canada
CISC serves as a multipurpose organization to aid the criminal justice system of Canada. Effective prevention of crime can be termed as an action, which results in the reduction of criminal activity rates as well as resulting harm. The numbers of existing offenders and victims help to determine the future scopes of this study. This agency acts as a body of primary crime prevention in Canadian Judiciary systems. CISC works on the purpose of seeking appropriate information in law enforcement agencies. This data is especially applicable for people who are in the high-risk zone of taking on criminal careers. The professionals who are involved in Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, serve their roles as primary obstacles to crime by collecting, documenting and supervising raw information from several observational points to aid investigations. Another purpose of this program is to inform law enforcement officers to avoid errors relative to crime detection. These programs can aid in the criminal justice systems of Canada that can facilitate the commission of crime by the offender. Furthermore, CISC collaborates with national jurisdiction of Canada to offer ample evidence relevant to cases. The focus of this program is retained on the rapid implementation of effective interventions (Stein & de Andreotti, 2016, p. 229). These events can generate awareness among the law enforcement officers and ensure effective investigation, resolution and prevention of crime.
Media view on CISC
Media can be termed as a major root of mass-communication in modern interactive platforms. Media provides essential updates to the people in relevance to occurrences around the globe. Media is responsible for a critical role in the social construction of criminology and criminal psychology. This can be included as the construction of private as well as public opinion on the related crimes. Mass media, as well as individual news, possess a direct link among crime events. Hence, the media can facilitate locations for the stakeholders to gather new information (Guo & Guo, 2017, p. 860). CISC has a progressive media impact. This agency is an initiative for aiding law enforcement agencies or individuals to document the data relevant to several crimes. In Canada, CISC procured full support from media in terms of privacy and restricted access. Multiple information about criminals is aired on news channels to ensure detection.
Relation to class
The CISC schedule involves multiple topics of criminology and information sharing that has been covered in the learning module. This program is relevant to Information Management in the context of criminal records. Other topics like discrimination, racism, and inequality persist in Canadian criminal justice and society. However, due to victims of the activities prefer anonymity, the disclosure of the information has to be done carefully. This agency helps to reduce errors in the criminal investigation by appropriately enhancing criminal intelligence through resource direction. This can cultivate appropriate intelligence equipment and expertise to introduce fresh talents to CISC through recruitment and installation policies (CISC, 2019).
Interview
For the present evaluation, I have interviewed Pierre-Paul Pichette who is Director General of CISC (Quebec Bureau) through ten open-ended questions. Earlier, Pichette had worked with Montreal Police Services for approximately 33 years. Pichette revealed in the interview the necessity of presenting secure sharing of information to the masses to discuss issues about crimes in Canada. The main issues that criminal investigations face are data exploitation, the absence of correct information relevant to a seamless transition that enables overall crime resolution. This may hinder investigation protocols of the Canadian police force and their whole choice of entering the profession itself. A disturbing parameter that has been discussed in this exchange was unauthorized access of data to third-party that limits the quality of the investigation. This often is not documented owing to technical errors and absence of awareness about database structures. Pichette revealed that he had chosen this issue to be cultivated upon in an attempt to provide an accurate and meaningful investigation to law enforcement officers in Canada. This opportunity has enabled officers to study the statistical data relevant to crimes as well as possible areas that need help. A significant amount of aid is provided by collaborative organizations as well as stakeholders that gather to brainstorm ideas and provide insights into the issues. Pichette is grateful towards organizers and volunteers who actively set up the program to aid the new recruits. Since the social health of the common people shapes a major part of the Canadian future, it is essential to appreciate and nourish this population through appropriate guidance.
Conclusion
Based on the given analysis, it can be concluded that crimes in Canada are significantly confronted by the prevalence of correctional measures. Agencies like CISC aim to provide accurate information to law enforcement agencies and individuals in Canada. The policies of this body involve safeguarding their virtue and prevent exploitation in fields of data authenticity, redundancy, or unauthorized access. A prominent benefit of this agency is that it involves people from different segments of Canadian society to maintain and protect the welfare of new immigrants in the country. However, limitation persists in the sense that not too many officials can avail this service owing to lack of awareness and restricted access. The organizational agents are striving to promote this corporation to reduce errors and develop service qualities.
References
Perry, B. (2015). Disrupting the mantra of multiculturalism: Hate crime in Canada. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(13), 1637-1654.
Allen, M., & McCarthy, K. (2018). Victims of police-reported violent crime in Canada: National, provincial and territorial fact sheets, 2016. Juristat: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1-62.
Sergi, A. (2018). What’s in a Name? Shifting Identities of Traditional Organized Crime in Canada in the Transnational Fight against the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 60(4), 427-454.
Branaşco, N., & Filip, N. (2017). Profile and trends of labour migration from the Republic of Moldova [Articol].
Mamzer, H. (2017). The conflict of values in the context of acceptance of multiculturalism. CULTURE-SOCIETY-EDUCATION, 67.
Picanço Cruz, E., & de Queiroz Falcão, R. P. (2016). A bibliometric review of Immigrant and Ethnic Entrepreneurship. Internext: Revista Electrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, 11(3).
Keşci, G. (2015). The impact of the migration on the economic development and international trade. Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 3. Общественные науки, 10(4), 124-135.
Stein, S., & de Andreotti, V. O. (2016). Cash, competition, or charity: international students and the global imaginary. Higher Education, 72(2), 225-239.
Guo, Y., & Guo, S. (2017). Internationalization of Canadian higher education: discrepancies between policies and international student experiences. Studies in Higher Education, 42(5), 851-868.
CISC (2019) Home, Retrieved from: http://www.cisc.gc.ca/index-eng.htm [Accessed on 12 March 2019]
Downes, D., Rock, P. E., & McLaughlin, E. (2016). Understanding deviance: a guide to the sociology of crime and rule-breaking. Oxfordshire, UK: Oxford University Press.