Akwasi Owusu-Bempah

The usual suspects: police stop and search practices in Canada

This paper explores police stop and search activities in Canada using data from a 2007 survey of Toronto residents. The paper begins by demonstrating that black respondents are more likely to view racial profiling as a major problem in Canada than whites or Asians. By contrast, white and Asian respondents are more likely to believe that profiling is a useful crime-fighting tool. Further analysis reveals that the black communitys concern with racial profiling may be justified. Indeed, black respondents are much more likely to report being stopped and searched by the police over the past two years than respondents from other racial backgrounds. Blacks are also much more likely to report vicarious experiences with racial profiling. Importantly, racial differences in police stop and search experiences remain statistically significant after controlling for other relevant factors. The theoretical implications of these findings – and their meaning within Canadas multicultural framework – are discussed.

Research Note: Revisiting the Collection of "Justice Statistics by Race" in Canada

There has been one major change, however: whereas racial min-ority groups were once vehemently opposed to the collection of justicestatistics by race, for fear that such statistics would be used to justify discrimi-natory policies, many minority groups are now advocating for the collectionand publication of this data as a means to redress racial discrimination inthe administration of justice.

Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Criminal Justice in Canada

Canada has an international reputation for being a tolerant, diverse nation comprised of people from many racial, ethnic, cultural and religious groups. However, as with all heterogeneous countries, Canada has not escaped moral panics regarding immigrant criminality nor concerns about the possible discriminatory treatment of racial minorities by the criminal justice system. This chapter begins with a brief description of Canada’s immigration history and provides a profile of Canada’s current racial minority populations. The chapter then documents the over-representation of certain racial minority groups within the Canadian criminal justice system, and briefly explores patterns of minority victimization and offending. We next examine minority perceptions of the Canadian police and criminal courts and examine evidence of racial bias in the Canadian criminal justice system. The chapter concludes by arguing that Canada’s current ban on race-crime statistics not only prevents the thorough study of minority crime issues, but it also hinders efforts to eliminate racism from Canadian policing, court processes and corrections.

Perceptions of race, crime, and policing among Ferguson protesters

Abstract Research demonstrates that race is commonly associated with perceptions of crime and thus, crime committed by people of color is often overestimated by the public, particularly white Americans. Studies also find that race is a predictor of citizens’ attitudes towards and experiences with the police. However, studies have not yet explored if and how minorities associate crime with people of color. Drawing from interviews with 81 men and women, this study explores the extent to which protesters from Ferguson, Missouri racially typify crime and their perceptions of how the police view and treat people who are black compared to people who are white. Results revealed that most respondents did not associate people of color with crime but believed that the police did. Additionally, the negative perceptions participants believed police to have were connected with broader social inequalities. Findings from this study reinforce the importance of police legitimacy.

Cannabis Impaired Driving: An Evaluation of Current Modes of Detection

De plus en plus préoccupé par la conduite avec facultés affaiblies, le gouvernement canadien a récemment adopté une loi pour contrer le problème. La nouvelle loi force les conducteurs à effectuer une série de tests menés par un agent de police s’il sait/croit que la personne conduit avec facultés affaiblies. L’objectif de cette étude est de présenter un survol d’études scientifiques ayant évalué l’efficacité de trois méthodes permettant de détecter la consommation de cannabis chez les conducteurs. Ces méthodes comprennent : le programme d’évaluation et de classification de drogues (ECD), des appareils de détection dans la salive utilisés sur les lieux et des appareils de détection dans les urines utilisés sur les lieux. Seules les études comprenant des mesures de fiabilité appropriées (c.-à-d. la sensibilité, la spécificité et l’exactitude) font partie de l’étude. Compte tenu de leur fiabilité croissante, les appareils de détection dans la salive semblent montrer les résultats les plus intéressants en matière de détection de la consommation de cannabis chez les conducteurs. Malgré les résultats encourageants, il est nécessaire d’établir un taux maximal d’affaiblissement des facultés causé par le cannabis, semblable au taux d’alcoolémie maximal, avant que ces appareils ne soient valablement utilisés et mis en œuvre.

Race and policing in historical context: Dehumanization and the policing of Black people in the 21st century:

Too little consideration has been given to conceptualizing race within mainstream criminological scholarship. One consequence of this oversight is the existence of a stale debate over the causes of racial disparities in crime and criminal justice outcomes. This article draws upon intersectionality to present an historical analysis of the policing of African Americans. The article argues that the concept of dehumanization helps explain the structural inequalities that produce crime within African American communities and the presence of racism within law enforcement agencies. The discipline may advance research in this area by adopting a constructionist racialization framework.

Ethnoracial differences in cannabis use among native-born and foreign-born high school students in Ontario.

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine the association of ethnoracial background and immigrant status to cannabis use among students in Ontario, Canada. Data were derived from the Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey, a school-based, province-wide survey of students in Grades 7–12. The survey utilized a stratified two-stage cluster design. Analyses were based on a pooled subsample of 12,527 students in Grades 9–12 during the 2011 and 2013 survey cycles and included adjustments for the complex sample design. Results indicate that youth who were of South Asian or East/Southeast Asian background were at lower odds of cannabis use than those who were White, Black, or mixed-race backgrounds. Youth who were of mixed-race background (i.e., White and another group) were at higher odds of cannabis use than youth who were of White background. The association between ethnoracial background and cannabis use also varied for some foreign-born and native-born youth. These findings suggest that ethnoracial background should be an important consideration in investigations of cannabis use among foreign- relative to native-born youth.

A Test of the Differential Involvement Hypothesis

This research draws on longitudinal data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) to examine whether African Americans report more trouble with the police than Latinos, Whites, and members of other racial groups after controlling for self-reported offending and other covariates. We tested whether the average self-reports of trouble with the police varied across the neighborhood clusters included within the PHDCN and generated a series of negative binomial models to assess whether African Americans self-reported more trouble with the police than others. The results generated from the unconditional hierarchical model showed that the average self-reports of trouble with the police did not significantly vary across the neighborhoods. The negative binomial results indicate that African Americans report significantly more trouble with the police while controlling for the respondents’ levels of offending, level of impulsivity, levels of anxiety and depression, gang membership, their family’s criminal involvement, whether they or their parents had serious mental health issues, the respondents’ current and expected economic conditions, their racial affinity, as well as other individual characteristics.