The role of social science in crime and delinquency policy

Abstract. At present in Canada we are facing an era of increasing change, not only of the institutions and systems within our society, but in the values of both individuals and groups in society itself. These changes are perhaps nowhere more apparent than in the increasing crises and problems in the administration of justice in Canada. Given the many impacts of technology, increased communication and urbanization, the future of the society, of crime, and of the administration of justice are extremely uncertain. As discussed in the paper, in responding to this uncertainty those guiding the criminal justice system have a triple responsibility: to the public, to the offenders, and to the staff of the system itself. However, as I suggest, there are some major difficulties in carrying out these responsibilities. The paper then reviews the past application of social science to crime and delinquency policy in Canada. As I suggest, the contribution of social scientific research to the administration of justice has been minimal, probably because of limited resources and a lack of good information and statistics. Even if these problems were not present, there are other important problems facing the application of social science to this policy area in the future. The paper describes problems as the negative result, which seems to dominate social scientific results and does not encourage administrators to return for more advice, since typically the advice is either, we don't know, or the way we have been proceeding is wrong. The paper concludes by suggesting some alternatives for improving the interface between social science and social policy in the future. Sommaire. A l'heure actuelle nous traversons au Canada une ère de changement croissant, non seulement dans les institutions et les systèmes au sera de notre société, mais aussi dans les valeurs fondamentales des individus et des groupes. Ces crises et changements croissants se manifestent peut-être davantage dans l'administration de la justice que dans toute autre activité au pays. Vu les nombreuses influences de la technologic, des communications accrues et de l'urbanisation, l'avenir de la société, de la criminalité, et de la justice sont extrêmement incertains. Les personnes chargées de guider le système de justice pénale ont, comme en discute mon exposé, une triple responsabilité: envers le public, envers les délinquants et envers le personnel du système lui-même. Toutefois, certaines difficultés majeures entravent l'exercice de ces responsabilités. Dans le même exposé, j'examine ensuite l'application des sciences humaines aux politiques concernant la criminalité et la délinquance au Canada. J'ai trouvé plutôt minime la contribution que la recherche en sciences humaines a apportée à l'administration de la justice, à cause peut-être de ressources limitées et de manque de bonnes données et de statistiques. Même si les problèmes susmentionnés étaient absents, il existe néanmoins d'autres problèmes importants que devra surmonter à 1'avenir l'application des sciences humaines aux politiques concernant la criminalité et la délinquance. Les problèmes sont décrits dans mon exposé comme étant le résultat négatif qui parait caractériser la recherche en sciences humaines et qui décourage les administrateurs à solliciter d'autres conseils, vu que typiquement ont leur répond: ‘nous ne savons pas’ ou bien ‘la voie suivie jusqu'ici est mauvaise.’ Pour conclure, 1'exposé suggère quelques solutions de rechange en vue d'améliorer à l'avenir la liaison entre les sciences humaines et la politique sociale.     

Sir Henry Bland and the Fraser Government's Administrative Review Committee: Another Chapter in the Statutory Authority Wars?

The release of the 1976 Commonwealth cabinet records on 1 January 2007 provided the opportunity to review the work of the Administrative Review Committee (ARC) appointed by the Fraser government and headed by Sir Henry Bland and so to open up a hitherto little appreciated chapter in Australian administrative history. At first glance, it appeared that Bland's ARC had been strongly opposed to widespread use of statutory authorities, for so long a regular part of Australia's machinery of government, thus providing an interesting point of comparison with the Uhrig inquiry of 2003-04, which attracted much notice for its antipathy towards statutorily independent agencies. Given the unusual methodology of the ARC, it was also likely that an account of its work would shed further light on public inquiries generally, perhaps assisting in development of a typology of such inquiries.     

Spectres of Transnationalism: Changing Terrains of Sociology of Law

The growth of 'legal transnationalism'– that is, the reach of law across nation-state borders and the impact of external political and legal pressures on nation-state law – undermines the main foundations of sociology of law. Modern sociology of law has assumed an 'instrumentalist' view of law as an agency of the modern directive state, but now it has to adjust to the state's increasingly complex regulatory conditions. The kind of convergence theory that underpins analysis of much legal transnationalism is inadequate for socio-legal theory, and old ideas of 'law' and 'society' as the foci of sociology of law are no longer appropriate. Socio-legal theory should treat law as a continuum of unstable, competing authority claims. Instead of taking 'society' as its reference point, it should conceptualize the contrasting types of regulatory needs of the networks of community (often not confined by nation-state boundaries) that legal transnationalism addresses.     

An Isolated Perfused Rat Kidney Model for the Evaluation of the Effect of Glucose on Renal Tubular Epithelial Morphology

An isolated perfused kidney model was used to evaluate the effect of hyperglycemia on renal tubular epithelial cell morphology. Ten Sprague–Dawley rat kidneys were perfused with Krebs–Henseleit buffer containing 70 mmol/L of glucose (five for 1 h and five for 2 h). Two control groups consisted of 10 kidneys perfused with Krebs–Henseleit buffer without hyperglycemia (five for 1 h and five for 2 h), and 10 nonperfused contralateral kidneys placed in the same environment for the same duration. The hyperglycemia group had significantly increased renal tubular vacuolization (p < 0.001) compared to both control groups at 1 and 2 h. The isolated perfused kidney model recapitulates the renal tubular vacuolization phenotype found in hyperglycemia and may be a potential tool for the investigation into causal factors in renal histology. The full pattern of the Armanni–Ebstein phenomenon was not, however, reproduced, suggesting that this change requires more time or involves more complex factors.     

Classification of Porcine Cranial Fracture Patterns Using a Fracture Printing Interface,,

Distinguishing between accidental and abusive head trauma in children can be difficult, as there is a lack of baseline data for pediatric cranial fracture patterns. A porcine head model has recently been developed and utilized in a series of studies to investigate the effects of impact energy level, surface type, and constraint condition on cranial fracture patterns. In the current study, an automated pattern recognition method, or a fracture printing interface (FPI), was developed to classify cranial fracture patterns that were associated with different impact scenarios documented in previous experiments. The FPI accurately predicted the energy level when the impact surface type was rigid. Additionally, the FPI was exceedingly successful in determining fractures caused by skulls being dropped with a high‐level energy (97% accuracy). The FPI, currently developed on the porcine data, may in the future be transformed to the task of cranial fracture pattern classification for human infant skulls.