Criminological Research in Canada

Abstract

The organization and funding of almost any area of research might be described, in the aggregate, as falling somewhere along a continuum from a highly planned, unitary, focused research program to an unplanned laissez-faire--even anarchistic-situation without an identifiable focus. Any single portion of this aggregate, for example, within a research institution or within a funding agency, might be expected to be located closer to the focus end of the continuum than would be the aggregate. The issue that I explore in this essay will relate largely to the possibility of shifts in the aggregate, in Canada, in the direction of a more unitary focus. Canada, like some other Western countries, both funds and carries out its social science research through a number of different mechanisms. The federal government is involved both through its granting council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and two government departments, the Ministry of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice. The provinces each have at least one ministry involved in criminal justice matters, and from time to time they fund specific projects having to do with their responsibilities. The provinces and federal government also support criminological research through their funding of the universities--direct in the case of the provinces and indirect in the case of the federal government. Criminological research centers, funded by the universities and by direct contributions from the federal government, now exist in seven Canadian