Canada and the World Backgrounder articles from December 1996

Canada and the World Backgrounder archives from December 1996

Sticking to the rule of law. (citizens take law into their own hands; pursue vigilante justice against criminals)(Editorial)
December 1, 1996... September 1996 was a very bad month to be caught pulling off a crime in Mexico. Felipe Trejo and several buddies held up a grocery store in Santiago Tolman, about an hour from Mexico City. The robbery went wrong and three store clerks were...

A one-child crime wave.(boy goes on crime spree with little consequences)
December 1, 1996... By the time he was 14, a single boy in the English town of Elland had quite a rap sheet: Arrest: 88 Crime convictions: 130 Days spent in custody: 0 Jackie Smith runs a newsstand in Elland. The kid starting stealing...

Distorted picture. (crime statistics, trends)
December 1, 1996... The experts tell us one thing, the people believe another. The experts say the crime rate is going down. The people ask "Then, how come, I have to secure my home like a fortress, and I'm afraid to walk alone in certain places at night?" ...

Crime - a definition.
December 1, 1996... A crime is a violation of a law that prohibits specific activities and for which a punishment is set out by the state. In Canada, only offences defined in federal law can actually be called "crimes." Offences covered by provincial or municipal...

Global trends. (common denominators in crime)
December 1, 1996... Certain international patterns of crime have been identified by studying data from many countries. The richer the nation, the more likely it is to have a high rate of property crime. That makes sense because there's obviously more stuff to...

Youth crime up - er down - whatever. (statistics can prove anything)
December 1, 1996... Statistics can be used to prove just about anything. We can use official figures to show there's been a dramatic increased in the number of youth murderers out there just waiting to pounce. Between 1987 and 1992, the number of youths aged 12 to...

A death on the street. (effects violence on community in Winnipeg, Manitoba)
December 1, 1996... Jospeh Spence was only 13 when he was killed by a shotgun blast. A week later, a 15-year-old was wounded in a drive-by shooting. The crimes has a profound effect on the community in which he lived. Until Joseph was gunned down in the street,...

What makes criminals tick? (researchers analyze causes)
December 1, 1996... Researchers are finding all sorts of causes for crime from having a high lead content in the environment to vigorous shaking of infants causing brain damage.

Strong images. (television can be a catalyst for violence)
December 1, 1996... U.S. psychologists and sociologists say images of distant war on television and in newspapers act as a catalyst for violence. Research shows that especially gruesome news events plant violence thoughts in the minds of others. Also, watching or...

When everybody cares. (common traits in countries with low-crime rates)
December 1, 1996... Freda Adler of the American Society of Criminology has studied low-crime countries around the world - including Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and Japan. Some were democratic, some authoritarian; some rural, others urbanized; some were religious,...

Double standards? (big effects of theft, small-scale crime)
December 1, 1996... There are a lot of thieves about. And, mostly they're small-time crooks. Theft of property valued at less than $5,000 is by far the most common crime in our society. It's also the one for which you are least likely to get caught - police only...

The five-finger discount. (shoplifting)
December 1, 1996... Shoplifting is a $4-billion headache for Canada's retailers. That's the value of the goods that disappear from store shelves but never pass through a cash register. Retailers call it shrinkage, and it includes goods stolen by employees and...

Cybercrime. (fraud and computers)
December 1, 1996... Big-time fraud often involves the use of computers. Someone who knows their way around bits and bytes can create havoc in large corporations. Early practitioners of the art skimmed fractions of a cent off bank account interest. Hacking into the...

Export industry. (car theft)
December 1, 1996... Late-model luxury car theft is a booming business. A stolen car is packed with others into a sealed shipping container, marked as farm equipment, and sent off to the Middle East, Asia, or Eastern Europe. There's little chance of getting caught...

Murder. (Canadian homicide rates)
December 1, 1996... Canada's murder rate has remained stable over the years despite our fears that crime is on the rise. In 1991 it was lower that it was 15 years earlier, and it continues to decline. In the 1920s and 1930s, the murder rate was stable at about...

Risky jobs. (work-related homicides)
December 1, 1996... According to an Ontario government report released in 1990, gasoline station attendants and taxi drivers in Ontario are killed on the job at almost the same rate as police officers. The average annual homicide rate was only 0.17 deaths per...

Computer gumshoes. (Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System helps to identify serial criminals)
December 1, 1996... A computer program known as ViCLAS, which stands for Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System, aims to help track down serial criminals. The program is designed to track killers and rapists by comparing crimes across the country and looking...

Treating the 'untreatables.' (giving repeat offenders a second chance)
December 1, 1996... They are social predators who charm, manipulate and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets." That's how Vancouver psychologist Robert Hare describes psychopaths...

Chemical aggression. (imbalance might trigger hostile impulses)
December 1, 1996... In Saskatoon, researchers examined blood samples from seven particularly aggressive inmates at the Region Psychiatric Centre. They found that a substance called phenylacetic acid may explain why some criminals cannot control their hostile...

Duh! (stupid mistakes criminals make)
December 1, 1996... * Arthur Gloria of Chicago was so eager to join the city's police force that he drove a stolen car to the department's exam and parked it illegally. Mr. Gloria was arrested when he returned from the exam and tried to start the car with a...

Trendwatch. (crime rate forecasting)
December 1, 1996... The good news is that Canada's crime rate is expected to drop over the next 25 years. The bad news is that charges related to public morals, sexual assaults, and threats are likely to increase in relation to other offences. These are the...

Treating the young. (without treatment recidivism rates rise)
December 1, 1996... People who work with juvenile sex offenders say that without treatment, the offenders' crimes become more severe, that a 13-year-old exhibitionist is more likely to become a 19-year-old rapist. Offenders, who often have been sexually abused...

Global links. (Canada's international, organized crime scene)
December 1, 1996... When the words "organized crime" are mentioned, almost everybody thinks of the Mafia - a secret society of mostly Italian people with a reputation for extreme viciousness in protecting their criminal activities. But, organized crime has become...

Canadian haven? (center for international crime)
December 1, 1996... Experts on international crime say Canada has become a centre for their operations. This is because, compared with the rest of the world, it's relatively easy to enter and leave the country and to move money in and out. At a 1994 conference,...

Omerta - the silence. (how the Mafia enforces its tradition of silence)
December 1, 1996... The Mafia has been very difficult for police to combat because of its tradition of omerta - silence. No member of the Mafia informs on any other member without risking the severest punishment. However, lured by offers of money and new...

Cleaning up the cash. (distributing drug money)
December 1, 1996... Drug dealing generates huge quantities of cash (drug profits in the U.S. alone are thought to total $100 billion a year.) Disposing of that kind of money is a major problem for organized crime. Anybody making regular bank deposits of millions...

An ounce of prevention. (crime prevention)
December 1, 1996... Sherlock Holmes, the great fictional detective, could study a single footprint and declare that the person who left it was bald, left-handed, spoke with a Russian accent, had recently eaten a supper of mutton curry, and carried a pearl-handled...

Blinded by technology. (high-tech detection equipment backfires)
December 1, 1996... Many old-school detective are mistrustful of high technology - and sometimes with good reason. There have been some high-profile goof ups recently that can be blamed on investigators relying too heavily on science. Paul Bernardo's is a...

A stitch in time.... (advocates say tough penalties deter crime)
December 1, 1996... Conservative politicians and their supporters believe the way to deal with bad guys is to "lock 'em up and throw away the key." Typical is Alberta Justice Minister Brian Evans. He has: * called for a doubling of the maximum penalty for...