Legal definition of Crime and Murder in Canada

In modern society, crime can be referred to as an act or an omission to do an act which is prohibited under law and contravention of such law would attract punishments and sanctions. Broadly, the concept of crime is viewed as equivalent to immoral, antisocial and sinful approach of people which contravene the usual course of life in a civilized society. An act is marked as a crime when the laws guiding it are violated. The idea of crime differs from one can culture to the other except for certain severe wrongful actions like treason and incest which are condemned in all civilized societies. Law in general reflects the interest of the majority and prohibited such act which would hurt the norms of the dominant group. This is certifying the principle of ‘happiness of the maximum number’ propounded by Bentham. This paper would include the legal definition of crime and the crime statistics as per the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) system established in Canada in 1962 and the characteristics of the victims as per the General Social Survey (GSS) (Cotter, 2014). It would also include a criminal theory to explain the concept of crime. The paper strives to include a program which is currently used in Canada for suppressing the serious crime of murder .

Under the Canadian law, a crime is an act that contravenes the provisions of the Criminal Code of Canada. It is also regarded as an ‘offence’ under the criminal code. For Example, if someone breaks into another person’s home and threatens the person for money, it gives effect to an offence of burglary under the Criminal Code of Canada (Gartner, 2017).

In Canada, murder is defined as culpable homicide with particular intention. Section 230 of the Canadian Federal law of Criminal Code defines Murder. Murder, a form of culpable homicide seems to occur when a person causes death of another person while he intends to cause bodily harm knowing that his actions might cause the death of the other person. It becomes irrelevant whether the person meant to kill the other person or not. In Canada, the offence of murder is classified under the First and Second degree Charge.  First degree murder in general involves a punishment of 10 to 25 years where as Second degree murder involves a life-sentence imprisonment of 25 years (Adjorlolo & Chan, 2014).

Murder falls under the massive concept of Culpable Homicide which involves putting a person to death by:

• By way of an illegal act,
• By way of negligence which is criminal in nature;
• By threatening or intimidating the person which was likely to cause his death;
• By frightening a child, old or a sick person who is likely to be scared and encounter death.

The Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) along with the corporation of the Policing community has reported 2, 204,812 actual incidents in 2017, out of which 1,880.70 cases involved an adult (“Uniform Crime Reporting Survey”, 2018). Regina is having the highest crime rate among the cities followed by Saskatoon. Quebec has the lowest rate of crime (Douglas et al., 2013).

In 2016 the number of homicide victims was reported to be 611. This makes the rate of homicide in 100,000 populations to 1.68. In 2017, 660 homicides have been reported which is 48 more than last year (“Canada at a Glance 2017 – Crime”, 2018). It has been pointed out that there is an increase of 7% of the homicide rate. From 1.68 in 2016, it has increased to 1.80 in 2017 (“Canada’s homicide rate declines to 44-year low | CBC News”, 2018). The number of homicide had dropped to 594 in 2007 which was 12 lesser than the last year. Winnipeg has been declared as the ‘Murder Capital’ of the country for topping the homicide chart rate since 1981 and being the topper for 20 times. The eastern provinces observe lesser number of crimes than the ones in the west, of which Manitoba and Saskatchewan have the highest rate of crime (“Uniform Crime Reporting Survey”, 2018).  

Crime statistics by UCR

The General Social Survey (GSS) carried out a survey on victimization on the Canadians which helped them form 8 types of offences (“Global Skills Strategy (GSS)”, 2018). They are as follows:

1. Sexual assault
2. Physical assault
3. Robbery
4. Theft of personal property
5. Theft of motor vehicles for its parts
6. Theft of household properties
7. Break and enter
8. Vandalism

The characteristics of the victim depend from offence from one page to another depending on the circumstances (“Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014”, 2018). The Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) and the General Social Survey (GSS) have been quite successful in reporting the crime statistics and various types of victimization of the offences pertaining to Canada.

With the help and support of data provided by the UCR and GSS, the characteristics of the murder victims are identified and analysed. The demographic features and characteristics of the victim leave an impact on the disposition of a murder case at the different stages of Police investigation. The colour, race, sex, DNA, blood sample, etcetera helps the investigating authority to connect the victim with the murderer. Even though these factors may differ from case to case yet they are usually consistent with their purpose.

A Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) enable a person function normally in his day to day life. The trauma imbibed in such person mind does not damage his ability to conduct a normal life. He faces identity crisis at times; this somehow helps him to manage his traumatic past.  In this case, the person purposely and consciously avoids the traumatic and unpleasant experiences of daily life. In this condition, the pathological patient shifts between different identities.  The traumatic and dark past of the patient instigates him to commit immoral acts like homicides (Edelstein, 2015).  Previously, the Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) was known as multiple personality disorder which made the patient experience different types of characters and emotions within him. Scientist Carlisle states that murderer runs an imaginative scenario in their mind which may instigate them to commit a crime.  

The National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) is a significant program of the Canadian government which aims to tackle crime in order to construct stronger, better and healthier community. The NCPS is the regulatory framework which strives to support the purpose of preventing crime, financially and strategically; also by spreading knowledge about what is needed for preventing crime (“National Crime Prevention Strategy”, 2018).

In addition, Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program targets the youth who commits criminal acts frequently. It is an extensive collaboration between the criminal justice Agencies and community services (“National Crime Prevention Strategy”, 2018). The aims and objective of the Serious Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP) is to disseminate resources and information to various agencies and authorities who are working the habitual young offenders. SHOCAP supports the agencies that strive to provide extra attention to the severely affected habitual juvenile offenders by making them realise their mistakes and offer them rehabilitation services so that they could start their life afresh with the head held high in the society, without opting for the support of an illegal work to support his livelihood. The purpose of SHOCAP is to:

• Looks for the habitual or serious offenders in the society,
• Arrange for resources to provide the requirements of the juvenile offenders,
• To check and diminish the number of habitual juvenile offender, and
• To protect and enhance the safety of the public large.

Conclusion

The Canadian criminal courts strive to protect the people of Canada from crimes in every possible way.  The provincial government shares the responsibility with the Federal government to enforce law when there is a violation of the rules and regulation. However, the authority to adjudicate criminal offences is vested upon the Federal government. This privilege is only dedicated to the provinces for some type of criminal offences. The country follows a uniform civil code for adjudicating criminal cases. However, the Level for spirit may vary to some extent from one province to another. The data regulatory bodies like the Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR) and the General Social Survey (GSS) have been doing a commendable job by collecting, analysing and making use of the data, not only relating to crime but other aspects as well, to provide for a better society.

References:

Adjorlolo, S., & Chan, H. C. O. (2014). The controversy of defining serial murder: Revisited. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 19(5), 486-491.

Canada at a Glance 2017 – Crime. (2018). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2017000/cri-eng.htm

Canada’s homicide rate declines to 44-year low | CBC News. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-homicide-rate-declines-to-44-year-low-1.1010738

Cotter, A. (2014). Homicide in Canada, 2013. Juristat: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1.

Criminal victimization in Canada, 2014. (2018). Retrieved from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14241-eng.htm

Douglas, J., Burgess, A. W., Burgess, A. G., & Ressler, R. K. (2013). Crime classification manual: A standard system for investigating and classifying violent crime. John Wiley & Sons.

Edelstein, A. (2015). Dissociative identity disorder theory explaining serial murder and murderers. Journal of Trauma and Treatment S, 4, 2167-1222

Gartner, R. (2017). Homicide in Canada. In Violence in Canada (pp. 186-222). Routledge.

Global Skills Strategy (GSS). (2018). Retrieved from https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/results-by-topic.asp?st=17.11

National Crime Prevention Strategy. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/cntrng-crm/crm-prvntn/strtg-en.aspx

Promising and Model Crime Prevention Programs. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/prmsng-mdl-vlm1/index-en.aspx#toc_1a

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/survey/business/