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In the wake of the Defund the Police and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movements, police accountability and legitimacy are commanding a significant amount of attention. Importantly, questions are being raised about how to effectively govern and manage policing especially with respect to police violence and misconduct. While much of this discussion has focused on the actions of the police, there has been little research examining the civilian bodies responsible for holding police accountable: Police Service Boards (PSBs). In recent years, a few high-profile public reports have identified that certain PSBs in Canada, are struggling to carry out their roles and responsibilities and offered numerous recommendations to address existing shortcomings. These detailed reports have important implications for oversight and governance. However, the scale and generalizability of the response to the concerns raised in these reports remains unknown. In this study, we explore issues of capacity and training for PSB members to better understand the gap between the expectations of PSBs to provide meaningful governance of the police and their perceived capacity to do so. Our research suggests that a significant gap in governance exists, related to the lack of adequate training and capacity building in PSBs across the country. Recommendations and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the call to explore pedagogical relations and dialogues in considering how to create climate pedagogies that are responsive, dynamic, and transformative in thinking about human and nonhuman relations. Using the lens of entanglement, the paper attempts to bring into dialogue children's rights and more-than-human ways of thinking to understand what, if any, commonalities lie in these two projects and whether and how a rights-respecting approach can be productively reconfigured in envisaging a dynamic climate pedagogy. It considers several tensions that arise from this entangled dialogue to probe both the overlaps and points of incommensurability in the two approaches. This includes viewing asymmetrical power and logics of coloniality that assert themselves through rights discourses and rights-based techniques based in an Anglo-Eurocentric worldview that narrowly defines who is included in the "human" of human rights. To illustrate these entanglements, the paper draws on a child/youth-led and child/youth-driven participatory model called Shaking the Movers (STM) created in 2007 by the Landon Pearson Centre and used with youth as well as with children in early childhood and other settings across Canada each year. The model aims to enable children's civil and political rights. Shaking the Movers was used as the framework for a workshop held in Williams Lake, British Columbia in 2017. The workshop serves as a case study in this paper to illustrate some of the entanglements that arise in practice when considering rights-respecting and more-than-human approaches. The analysis draws on scholarship from several disciplinary locations, including Stuart Aitken's critical childhood concept of the post-child, Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw and Affrica Taylors notion of agency as not exclusively human and conceived as collective rather than an outcome of individual intent, and Shenila Khoja-Mooljis analysis of an ethic of interdependency and alliance when understanding human rights in context. Each of these perspectives informs a contemplation of how to reconfigure the Shaking the Movers model amplify its strengths. The paper concludes with thoughts on the ways entanglements create a productive space both for bringing together a more-than-human and rights-respecting approach to attend to actions emanating from the margins and for invigorating and understanding how to meaningfully engage children located in interconnected and interdependent worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present the results of a case study of an innovative organizational performance assessment approach implemented within a specialty unit of a large Canadian police service. The CIV Tool (Capability, Importance and Value) was used in the case study to identify opportunities for enhancing the unit's performance. The CIV Tool is based on an action research methodology that focuses attention on police roles and the value these provide to stakeholders. Information garnered through the use of the CIV Tool is intended to inform actionable changes. Its use helped unit supervisors identify issues around role creep and role relevance. Working closely with team members, supervisors made changes to operating practices within the unit resulting in an increase in the services provided, a significant reduction in repeat calls for service and a positive response by unit members. These results were achieved within the existing budget and staffing levels at a time when the organization was experiencing significant budgetary challenges. These findings suggest that using the CIV Tool can provide important insights into police organizational performance that can be used for continuous organizational improvement which can enhance service delivery and employee engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the sustainability of policing organizations and propose approaches to enhance their sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – This paper uses an action research approach involving the researchers and partners from the main national policing bodies in Canada and six police service research sites. Findings – This paper presents a Sustainable Policing Framework (SPF) intended to enhance the sustainability of policing services. Practical implications – The SPF the authors present can be implemented by police service organizations to assist with organizational development as the external environment changes. Originality/value – No other approaches to police sustainability that involve a framework similar to the one that is presented are known. This paper provides specific tools for police services to deploy to address their sustainability concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Anthropologica is the property of CASCA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Young Offenders Act (YOA) has been a source of much public debate, much of which has focussed on sentencing patterns in youth courts. This article contributes to the current debate over dispositions under the YOA by examining how the youth justice system responds to repeat offenders. The data, supplied by the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics from the Youth Court Survey, examine 47,088 youth court cases reaching disposition in the fiscal year 1995-96. Results indicate that, amidst all the controversy surrounding the leniency of YOA dispositions, judges do tend to give custody dispositions more often to repeat offenders. Severity of disposition is affected by the number of prior convictions, gender, and seriousness of offence, while repeat offender's age did not contribute substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops and tests a multivariate model accounting for attitudes of punitiveness toward criminal offenders. While those with accurate information about the prevalence of violent crime in Canadian society tend to favor less severe sentences for the convicted, the only factor that has a substantial effect on the degree of punitiveness expressed by various respondents is the nature of the crime, that is, whether it is violent or not. Results further indicate that, while those individuals with accurate information about violent crime were significantly less fearful, lower fear levels were not translated into less punitive attitudes. These respondents attributed a far higher level of harm to acts of violence, suggesting that their attitudes of punitiveness are rooted in their perception that violent crimes are far more serious than property crimes.

Copyright of Canadian Public Policy is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this conceptual piece, we argue that the current approach to police performance measurement typically based on the use of traditional police metrics has failed to achieve the desired results and that a different strategy is required. Traditional police metrics have a narrow focus on crime and the police response to it. They provide little information on how well police organizations are performing. Importantly, traditional police metrics do not incorporate input from police stakeholders in goal identification, nor do they use specifically designed indicators to assess progress towards achieving these goals. Following an analysis of the criticisms levelled at the use of traditional police metrics, and subsequent attempts to address these issues, we argue that a networked governance approach represents a more promising foundation for undertaking police organizational performance assessment. Such an approach would engage stakeholders more directly in goal identification and performance assessment, and potentially lead to more successful, responsive and accountable policing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]