Amendment Of Criminal Code Research Articles

Analisis Penerapan Undang-Undang Nomor 1 Tahun 2023 Tentang KUHP Terhadap Batas Minimal Usia Perkawinan

This study aims to analyze the reasons for the legislators to change the setting of the minimum age for marriage for women according to the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code Amendment to Law Number 16 of 2019 concerning Marriage. The choice of this theme is based on the constitutional background in the previous Marriage Law, the contents of Article - Marriage Law Number 16 of 2019 are not in line with the law that was born later, namely Law 35 of 2014 concerning Amendments to Law Number 23 of 2002 on Child Protection. Based on the above, this paper raises the formulation of the problem: what are the reasons for the legislators to change the minimum marriage limit based on the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code for Amendments to the Marriage Law.
 This research is a normative juridical research, using historical approach (historical approach) and statutory approach (statue approach). and the statutory approach. Primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials obtained by the author were analyzed. The results of this study the reasons for the legislators to change the minimum marriage limit for women based on the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 1 of 2023 concerning the Criminal Code Amendment to Law Number 16 of 2019 concerning Marriage is the result of this research. Philosophically, this is to eliminate discrimination in the acquisition of basic rights and constitutional rights arising from differences in the minimum age limit for marriage as stipulated in Law no. 16 of 2019. Sociologically, this is to prevent the occurrence of early marriage which will have a further impact on the occurrence of pregnant women and childbirth at an early age which are at high risk for the health of the mother and baby. Juridically, this is a fulfillment of the mandate of the Constitutional Court Decision No. 22/PUU-XV/2017 related to the unification of the minimum age for marriage between men and women, synchronizing the law alongside the Child Protection Act, and part of ensuring the ability to act within the law.

The Commonwealth Criminal Code restricts the use of carriage services to access voluntary assisted dying in Victoria: a perspective.

A major barrier to Victorians with a terminal illness accessing voluntary assisted dying is the Commonwealth Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offences ) 2005 (the Code), which prohibits the use of any electronic forms of communication when discussing suicide. The proliferation of telehealth as a means of access to medical practitioners as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the anachronistic prohibition of such communication in relation to voluntary assisted dying, particularly in Victoria, as the federal law arguably prohibits its use. In this paper we explore the definition of suicide and its application to voluntary assisted dying and argue for a revision of the Code, to enable equitable and timely access to voluntary assisted dying for people of Victoria.

The Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Materials Act: The realities and implications of Australia’s new laws regulating social media companies

On 15 March 2019, a Facebook Live video was broadcast from Christchurch, New Zealand, documenting a terror attack which resulted in the death of fifty-one people. This attack highlighted a weakness in social media protections and a gap in legislation globally. In response, the Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Act 2019 (Cth) seeks to make internet service and social media providers accountable for the removal of abhorrent and violent content. This legislation sent waves through the international community, attracting criticisms for its fast adoption, perceived unrealistic obligations and harsh penalties, as well as its broad extraterritorial reach. This article will explore these criticisms. It asks, how is the Act exercising extraterritorial jurisdiction? Is there an unrealistic burden created? And if there is a breach, who will be charged? The article concludes that if these challenges are not adequately addressed, the Act will not only fail to achieve its goal of reducing the accessibility of abhorrent violent material, but will also pose a serious threat to the protection of human rights.

The 1969 Criminal Amendments: Constituting the Terms of Gay Resistance

This article explores the impact of the 1969 Criminal Code amendments partially decriminalizing homosexuality on the subsequent development of the gay legal subject and gay legal resistance. It argues that the language of privacy constituted the very terms of the resistance to the continued criminalization of many dimensions of gay sexuality.

Corruption in business

Purpose This paper aims to critically analyse the Criminal Code Amendment (Bribery of Foreign Public Officials) Act 1999 and Crimes Legislation Amendment (Combating Corporate Crime) Bill 2017 with special focus on the facilitation payment (FP) defence by referring to the UK Bribery Act 2010. The study will showcase how FP promotes disrespect for a good corporate culture inevitable for responsible and sustained business and as to why FP must be abolished to make the Australian regulation consistent with the international standards. Design/methodology/approach This research is based on primary and secondary sources including the Senate Committee Reports and recent legislative developments in Australia, and the relevant law of the UK. Findings Australia is lagging far behind comparative jurisdictions including the UK, and the FP defence must be abolished to make the Australian regulation consistent with the international standards and to foster international business backed up by globalisation, competition and interconnectedness of national economies. Originality/value This paper is the original work of the author and has not been submitted elsewhere for publication.

Analysis of concordance between conclusions of forensic psychiatric evaluation and court decisions after 2005 Criminal Code Amendment in a Taiwan psychiatric hospital

The aim of the study is to explore the relationships between results of forensic psychiatric evaluation on “mental status at the time of the offense (MSO)” and the final decision of the courts after the amendment of the Criminal Code in 2005. All criminal cases referred to Taipei City Psychiatric Center for MSO evaluation from July 1, 2006, to December 31, 2015, were reviewed, and only the completed trials were included. Concordance rates in each category of MSO conclusion and the court decision were analyzed and compared. The sample consisted of 366 MSO evaluations. Overall concordance was 95.6% (350/366). The concordance rate in conclusions of "full responsibility", "diminished responsibility", and "insanity" were 98.3% (177/180), 97.7% (126/129) and 91.9% (34/37) separately, and these three groups showed no statistical significance after compared with the other. Conclusions of “intentionally or negligently induced insanity or diminished responsibility” reached the lowest concordance at 65.0% (13/20) and compared with the other three groups all showed statistical significance. We found, after the amendment of Criminal Code, the lowest concordance rate in those conclusions of “insanity” before change seemed diminished. But the conclusions of “intentionally or negligently induced insanity or diminished responsibility” became the major origin leading to discordance. Comparing to the previous finding in the same hospital which revealed separate conclusions resulted in statistically significant concordance rates, the effect of the amendment seems likely to improve the consensus among psychiatric experts and trial judges except substance and alcohol related mental condition.

The Criminal Code Amendments

Recently, the Criminal Codes Amendments used many kinds of amendment strategies. They conducted significant amendments to the Criminal Code and exhibited the legislative trend of early intervention of criminal law, interactive intervention, and the continuous expansion of the crime circle. Such a trend does not mean that the pursuit of liberal criminal rules in a law-based country has been abolished. Also, it does not mean that the idea of active criminal legislation has already been established in China. Overall, the legislative trend of the expansion of the crime circle has the objective necessity and practical rationality. However, some provisions in the Criminal Code Amendments have defects in fitness for purpose, clarity, and systematic logicality. The 1997 Criminal Code's transformation of the structure from the “severe but not comprehensive” to the “comprehensive but not severe” has not been successful. As a result, the fragmented legislation method of the Criminal Code Amendments has destroyed the outer surface and the inner logic of the 1997 Criminal Code. 1997 Criminal Code has entered into the last stage of its lifecycle and a comprehensive amendment should be commenced at an appropriate time. In such an amendment, instead of the single-track criminal code legislative model, a dual track legislative model of Criminal Code and administrative criminal code should be adopted.

“Wholesale” and/or “retail”

General Principles of the Civil Law is orientated as “detailed retail of the contents of the General Provisions Volume of Civil Code” and “brief wholesale of the contents of the Specific Provisions Volumes of Civil Code”. The “Compilation of Civil Code” is the last phase of the fourth time of drafting of Civil Code which follows the transfer from “wholesale” to “retail” in the third time of the drafting of Civil Code, and the Decision to Rule by of Law realizes the historical transfer from “retail” to “wholesale” in time. In essence, the amendment of Criminal Code in 1997 is “Compilation of Criminal Code”. By reference to the “Compilation of Criminal Code”, the compilation of Civil Code is the exercise of “Amendment Right” provided in Paragraph 3 of Article 62 of the constitution rather than “Enactment Right”. Substantially, the legislative plan for the compilation of Civil Code in two steps is the “wholesale” of Civil Code in two steps, namely the first step “to wholly sell” the contents of the General Provisions Volume of Civil Code, that is the General Provisions of Civil Law. And the second step “to wholly sell” the contents of the Specific Provisions Volumes of Civil Code. The General Provisions of Civil Law has the dual natures of “wholesale” and “retail”. Most of the articles of the General Provisions of Civil Law are the “wholesale” of the contents of the General Provisions Volume of Civil Code, which falls into “definite wholesale” and “temporary tentative wholesale”. A few articles provisions of the General Provisions of Civil Law directly or indirectly “retail” the contents of the Specific Provisions Volumes of Civil Code, and are the legislative reaction to make response to political determination, social opinions and practical needs in time.

Criminal Justice Policy against Terrorism in China

China is defending the terrorist crime through the Anti-Terror Law and anti-terrorism criminal legislation. Chinas Anti-Terror Law and the Criminal Code Amendment (9), which were promulgated in 2015, provide legal grounds for preventing and hurting ever-growing terrorist crimes. In particular, Chinas amendment to the Criminal Code (9) is designed to rigorously enforce the legal framework for terrorist crimes, protect prejudicial rights that might be violated by serious terrorist crimes, and protect the penalties for terrorist crimes. However, Chinas anti-terrorism legislation still has drawbacks such as lack of systematicity, limited regulatory boundaries, and lack of rigorous penalties for the establishment of anti-terrorism legislation. To counter this, Chinas anti-terrorism legislation must strictly regulate the legal system of terrorist crimes, secure penalties, and prescribe anti-terrorism laws as professional chapters.

The Role of Criminal Law as an Anti-corruption Tool in the Public Sector

The Albanian society is making efforts for the consolidation of democratic institutions and the fulfillment of standards as a condition for European integration. In the context of these efforts, the fight against corruption remains a major challenge. The need to address the fight against it is one of the main issues of public interest. Corruption in the field of public administration is one of the most disturbing phenomena of the Albanian society. European Commission Progress Report 2011 for Albania considers public administration reform as one of the key priorities. To this end, the Albanian government has undertaken concrete steps to combat and prevent corruption in the public sector in particular. Concrete steps in the context of the fight against corruption,consists on a very important place which is given to legal reform, especially the amendment of criminal legislation as an important war of the fight against corruption. Although the legal framework has improved significantly, there has been no proper success in changing the reality in relation to the prevention and suppression of corruption. Studies and surveys indicate an improvement of the situation, but the corruption practices in the public sector continue to be embodied as the economic dimension, as well as in social. The purpose of this paper is to present some issues regarding anticorruption legal reform in the field of public administration based on an analysis of international law, provisions of the Criminal Code and special laws aimed at preventing and combating corruption in the public sector. More specifically, the paper will focus on: - Analysis of the Criminal Code amendments that occurred as a result of demand for harmonization of legislation with international conventions in this field, and the importance in combating corruption in the public sector. - Analysis of legislation and other measures in the field of public administration that enable the prevention and suppression of certain behaviors related to acts of corruption in the sector. - Identification of issues related to the practical application of these provisions in view of the fight against this phenomenon. - Identification of relevant suggestions to increase the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures and mechanisms to control and fight against corruption in public administration. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n1p99

Canada's New Drug-Impaired Driving Law: The Need to Consider Other Approaches

Objective: The objects of this study were: To review the state of drug-impaired driving in Canada, particularly in light of the 2008 amendments to the Criminal Code, which authorized police to demand standardized field sobriety testing and drug recognition evaluations, and to consider whether alternative enforcement models would be more effective in terms of detecting and prosecuting drug-impaired drivers and thereby achieve greater deterrence.Method: This article provides a review of survey data, roadside screening studies, and postmortem reports that indicate the prevalence of driving after drug use in Canada. It evaluates the Criminal Code's 2008 amendments and their impact on charges and convictions for drug-impaired driving. It then reviews some alternative enforcement models for drug-impaired driving that have been adopted in other jurisdictions, particularly toxicological testing, and evaluates them against Canada's social, political, and constitutional framework.Results: Survey data, roadside screening studies, and postmortem reports indicate that driving after drug use is commonplace and is now more prevalent among young people than driving after drinking. Unfortunately, the 2008 Criminal Code amendments have not had their desired effects. The measures have proven to be costly, time-consuming, and cumbersome, and are readily susceptible to challenge in the courts. Accordingly, the charge rates for drug-impaired driving remain extremely low, and the law has had minimal deterrent effects.The review of alternative enforcement models suggests that a system of random roadside saliva screening, somewhat similar to the model used in Victoria, Australia, will be the most effective in terms of detecting and prosecuting drug-impaired drivers and most consistent with Canada's legal and constitutional system.Conclusions: Canada should establish per se limits for the most commonly used drugs, enforceable through a system of screening and evidentiary tests. This will be more efficient and cost-effective and will result in more reliable evidence for criminal trials. Although this system will inevitably be subject to constitutional challenge, existing case law suggests that it should be upheld as a reasonable limit on constitutional rights.

Missing the targets — Bill C-45: reforming the status quo to maintain the status quo

The meek approach adopted by Canadian regulators to the grossly deviant conduct by the corporate owner and management of the Westray mine forced law-makers, brought under pressure by union militants and public disgust, to demonstrate that they have always believed in, and continue to be wedded to, profit maximisation, but only if pursued by virtuous private actors. After 12 years, the Westray Bill was given life. It does not challenge the logic of capitalism. The chase for profits by wealth owners continues to be seen as desirable and normal, and to be criminalised only in extreme circumstances. This paper sets out the assumptions that allow us to treat the catastrophic incidence of workplace harms as acceptable collateral damage to be subjected to administrative regulation and mediation rather than to the strictest sanctions available to law. This is achieved by underplaying the fact that, in our political economy, the purpose of production is profit, rather than need. The paper elaborates the way in which the logic of the Westray Bill reflects those capitalist-favouring assumptions and how the Criminal Code amendments have been drafted to maintain and perpetuate what should be seen to be an intolerably benign approach to workplace slaughter.

A Promising Solution? Changing the Current Russian Business Climate by Amending the Criminal Code

This article aims to explore a question of whether the situation of Russian large as well as small and medium size businesses would be improved by the introduction of the current set of economic reforms by way of the 2010 Russian Criminal Code amendments. The article concludes that the amendments are unlikely to make any difference when it comes to large enterprises given the current extra-legal relationship between big business and the state. In terms of small and medium businesses, the 2010 amendments may make it more difficult to lay criminal charges against business owners and thus reduce some of the pressure facing small and medium businesses. However, the 2010 amendments are unlikely to cause a radical shift in the overall plight of small and medium businesses.

THE NEED FOR BALANCING THE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND THE UNBORN IN THE MEXICAN COURTROOM

On 28 August 2008, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Mexico endorsed a groundbreaking judgment on abortion law in Mexico.1 It upheld as constitutional the amendment of the local Criminal Code by the Mexico City Legislative Assembly in April 2007. The amending provisions permitted elective termination of pregnancy before the end of the twelfth week of gestation.2 It also added clauses 16 Bis 6 and 14 Bis 8 to the local health law act stipulating that the Mexico City Ministry of Health, through its health providers (i.e. public hospitals and clinics), should provide first-trimester abortion services at no cost to Mexico City residents and for a moderate fee to women from outside the city. Historically, abortion in Mexico City has been severely restricted; it was not allowed even in cases of rape. From 2000 onwards, however, gradual changes to the local Criminal Code were implemented when feminist and pro-choice groups initiated strong campaigns supporting the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies. In August 2000, abortion was exempted from penalty when the mother's life was at risk or when there was a severe congenital conditions affecting the foetus.3 A further key change was in January 2004, when the Criminal Code advanced the notion that women's consent was central to abortion issues by incorporating a clause providing that abortion was permissible when a woman is artificially inseminated without her consent. It also incorporated the right of conscientious objection for health providers.4 Campaigners highlighted the high number of ‘back-street’ abortions sought by poor, rural, adolescent, and indigenous women and stressed the significance of this as a social problem. The most recent Mexico City Criminal Code amendments were considered a major step in reducing maternal mortality by eliminating the need for women to seek clandestine abortions.

The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915 (review)

Reviewed by: The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915 Karen Dubinsky (bio) Sarah Carter . The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915. University of Alberta Press. xvi, 384. $34.95 Sarah Carter starts her magnificent new book by taking aim at right-wing Alberta journalist Ted Byfield, one of many contemporary conservatives who extol the timeless stability of marriage as a 'fortress' that guards a way of life. Her meticulously researched response stands this argument on its head. Marriage is, historically, complex, convoluted, and all over the map. It defies definition, generalization, and thus sentimentalization. Anxiety-prone defenders of marriage, on the other hand, seem to be made of stone, timeless and unchanged. In the nineteenth century, argues Carter, Canada was awash in anxieties about marriage. The nation was thought to be under threat, from the 'pernicious, corrupt and immoral' influence of - wait for it - the United States. Relatively liberal divorce laws in the United States (relative to Canada's mate-for-life philosophy) made the United States a particularly sinister neighbour, but the bulk of this book is about a variety of domestic dissenters. The intimate life of nineteenth-century Canadians ranged dramatically. First Nations communities practised monogamy, polygamy, same-sex marriage, and divorce. Mormons practised polygamy, Doukhobors thought the state had no place in their bedrooms, Chinese immigrant women were discouraged by the head tax, and some socialists even set up free love communities. This is not your grandmother's Western Canadian history. Western Canada - the geographical focus of this book - features heavily in marital anxieties because it was a colonial outpost, on the 'edge of Empire,' as historian Adele Perry has described it. Remoteness from imperial centres of power often creates an especially jittery ruling class, but what was it about marriage customs that made some people so worried and so insistent on imposing a recognizable form of monogamy? Here Carter relies on some of the best of contemporary postcolonial theorizations about the intimacies of empire to show how the imposition of a single standard of gender and family life was a key feature of imperial expansion. As in other imperial contexts, this was a racialized process, but Carter has told a complicated story here that both highlights and de-centres race as the motor of the story. The imposition of the monogamous model on the First Nations of the prairies was, she argues, but one part of a broader program for the diverse peoples of Western Canada. 'The same cluster of laws, attitudes, and expectations . . . similarly applied to everyone else.' The difference, she suggests, was one of force, not kind; the colonial Canadian state was able to 'invade the domestic affairs of First Nations societies and impose these laws, attitudes, and expectations to [End Page 582] a much greater extent than was possible with other communities.' In places this could use more thought; it's more than 'ironic' - Carter's term - that the only person to be convicted under a Criminal Code amendment designed to prohibit Mormon polygamy was an Aboriginal man. However, that feminists and missionaries argued that Ukrainian girls should also be sent to residential schools is just one example of a detail that, though it has dropped off the historian's radar, contains important, potentially paradigm-altering insights about the relationships among race, ethnicity, and power in Canada's past. Also fascinating is Carter's exploration of how the famous 'Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon' scandal in London resonated in Western Canada on the heels of the Riel Rebellion. The book is full of such untold stories, making it a must-read beyond the confines of 'regional' Canadian history. [End Page 583] Karen Dubinsky Karen Dubinsky, Department of Global Development Studies and Department of History, Queen's University Copyright © 2010 University of Toronto Press Incorporated

The Phenomenon of Cybersuicide: An Examination of Australia's Solution, the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offenses) Act 2005 and the Difficulty of International Implementation

The Phenomenon of Cybersuicide: An Examination of Australia's Solution, the Criminal Code Amendment (Suicide Related Material Offenses) Act 2005 and the Difficulty of International Implementation

Human Trafficking and Sexual Slavery: Australia’s Response

1.0 INTRODUCTION On 26 September 2001 Ms Puangthong Simaplee died in Vilkwood Detention Centre after being discovered by immigration officials during a raid on a Surry Hills brothel. She told the immigration officials that at a young age she had been sold into sexual servitude by her parents and trafficked from Thailand to Maylasia, then re-trafficked to Australia more recently as a young adult. After being discovered, Ms Simaplee was detained in Villawood Detention Centre as an unlawful non-citizen, weighing 38kg. Three days later, weighing only 31kg, she died as a result of heroin withdrawal.1 The inquest into the death of Ms Simaplee remains a particularly illustrative event that highlights the failure in the Australian legal system, and particularly the migration system, to deal effectively with the phenomenon of trafficking.2 Acknowledging the magnitude of the trafficking industry and the existence of Australia as a destination country for victims of many kinds of trafficking, this paper will focus on the scope and limitations of Australia's migration and criminal justice approaches to sex trafficking. The paper will outline the nature and extent of trafficking in Australia, current responses of the Australian government towards trafficking, the successes and failures of Australia's criminalisation approach, and the limitations of Australia's visa system for victims of trafficking in regard to international standards and human rights. Finally, the paper concludes with a number of recommendations that the government adopt a transparent, coordinated, monitored and holistic human rights and social justice approach to combat trafficking and slavery, developed in conjunction with human rights and non-government organisations, to ensure unconditional culturally-appropriate victim protection to prevent retrafficking and address wider systemic issues of globaUsation, poverty and gendered harms. 2.0 TRAFFICKING IN AUSTRALIA The United Nations 2002 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, ratified by Australia on 27 May 2004, defines human trafficking in Article 3 as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, habouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, or fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power of a position of vulnerability or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purposes of exploitation. Divergent definitions of what constitutes sex trafficking have largely characterised policy debates on the issue and dictated responses to it. When the offences of slavery, sexual servitude and deceptive recruiting were introduced to the Australian Criminal Code Act in 1995, the Act required an element of bondage or coercion to establish a case of trafficking, a legal test that was arguably more onerous than international best practice by not accepting that trafficking could result from more insidious means such as fraud or abuse of power. The Act was also criticised for failing to address the experiences of vulnerable groups, the gendered nature of trafficking and reimposing border control.3 Despite amendments through the Criminal Code Amendment (Trafficking in Persons) Act 2005 that recognised factors such as threats, force, deception or debt bondage, feminist debates linger over the extent to which women can freely consent to sex work,4 and how such frameworks should be adopted into the definition of trafficking. Some anti-trafficking organisations view women's 'choice' as limited in the context of wider socioeconomic circumstances and argue that sex work victimises women and widens gender inequality: the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women argues, 'All prostitution exploits women, regardless of women's consent.'5 Other anti-trafficking organisations defend the right to self determination and expression and recognise women's agency in making informed decisions. …

At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969 (review)

Reviewed by: At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969 Garry J. Smith Suzanne Morton , At Odds: Gambling and Canadians, 1919-1969. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003, 245 pp. Legal gambling offerings in Canada were sparse up until several decades ago when circumstances changed drastically as a result of watershed Criminal Code of Canada amendments in 1969 and 1985. Owing to a profusion of new games and gambling outlets, legal gambling now operates on a scale that was unimagined thirty years ago. Recent Statistics Canada (2003) data shows that employment in the Canadian gambling industry has risen from 12,000 workers in 1992 to 42,000 in 2002 and that provincial gambling profits have billowed from $1.6 billion in 1992 to over $6 billion in 2002. Morton provides a backdrop for this Canadian gambling explosion by chronicling how gambling alchemized from a sin, to a vice, to a harmless amusement in a relatively short time frame. No anti-gambling screed, Morton's book is a sweeping analysis of the social, economic and political influences that shaped Canadian gambling attitudes, behaviour and legislation in the half century between the end of World War I and the 1969 enactment of a Criminal Code of Canada amendment that liberalized previously frowned upon activities such as abortion, homosexuality and gambling. [End Page 614] At Odds is a social history that utilizes insights into prevailing social structures and patterns of power and privilege to explain how gambling became legitimized. The cornerstone of Morton's analytical framework is the social values pertaining to gambling, particularly, their derivation and how they were negotiated and maintained. Anti-gambling adherents tended to be influential middle/upper-class, Anglo-Celtic Protestants whose "Victorian" beliefs on morals, economics and social organization dominated Canadian society in the first half of the twentieth century. This faction (typically Protestant religious leaders and conservative and socialist leaning politicians) argued against relaxing gambling laws, because in their view, gambling 1) challenged the sanctity of work, self-discipline and thrift; 2) threatened family stability; 3) diverted recreational spending from legitimate businesses; and 4) created social and economic calamity in the form of crime, bankruptcy, unemployment and suicide. No comparable pro-gambling contingent existed; however, some sectors of Canadian society were more tolerant of gambling including Catholic Quebec, ethnic communities (e.g. Chinese Canadians), as well as vested interest groups that stood to benefit from looser gambling laws (e.g. horse breeders, agricultural societies, fraternal organizations, and newspapers, whose circulation was helped by printing horse racing results). Also softening anti-gambling sentiments in the decade following World War II was "the general secularization of a pluralistic society" (Morton, p 167) as reflected in gradually more permissive public attitudes toward activities such as alcohol consumption, extramarital sex, and Sunday observance. Amid this culture of tolerance, Morton notes how the public discourse on gambling was subtly altered to associate the perceived evils of widespread gambling (e.g. cheating, corruption of public officials, using gambling proceeds to finance criminal activity) with commercial interests and organized crime. The idea promoted was that gambling, in and of itself, was not inherently immoral; rather, it was a neutral activity with good or bad consequences depending on the purity of the players and operator's motives and objectives. In other words, honestly run, socially responsible gambling that advanced the worthy causes espoused by religious, charitable, cultural, and recreational organizations was different from the shadowy world of commercial and illegal gambling and therefore deemed acceptable. Later, the state (both federal and provincial) was added to the list of good causes that could be supported by gambling dollars. This line of reasoning was evident in the discussions leading up to the momentous 1969 Canadian Criminal Code amendment. Morality issues took a backseat to practical and functional concerns such as Canadians' gambling proclivities, the difficulty in policing gambling, and the potential to generate revenues for good works while also keeping taxes down. The association of gambling with charitable fundraising and economic benefits (e.g. job creation [End Page 615] and government revenue generation) effectively neutered morality arguments and helped launch gambling as a powerful social, economic, and political force in Canadian society. Morton's book provides a...

A follow-up study of persons found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder in British Columbia.

To describe the characteristics of individuals found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments and to track their movement through the forensic system, as well as to unveil the changes to British Columbia's forensic psychiatric system that resulted from Bill C-30. Profile information relating to persons found NCRMD between February 4, 1992, and February 4, 1998, in British Columbia was collected and analyzed. Community follow-up data was collected and analyzed for a 24-month period following a subject's discharge from hospital. A substantially greater number of individuals entered the forensic psychiatric system in British Columbia after Bill C-30 was implemented. The post-1992 forensic psychiatric population contained fewer persons charged with serious index offences and a greater number of persons charged with relatively minor offences. The length of hospitalization for the NCRMD cohort decreased substantially after the 1992 Criminal Code amendments. The Bill C-30 provisions have made the NCRMD defence an attractive option for defendants and legal counsel.

An analysis of public support for special consideration of aboriginal offenders at sentencing

The 1996 Criminal Code amendments which require judges to consider "all other sanctions other than imprisonment that are reasonable in the circumstances… with particular attention to the circumstances of Aboriginal offenders" (Section 718.2(e)) are obviously controversial. Controversy did not disappear with the Supreme Court's assessment of this section as being legitimate. The Supreme Court of Canada in Gladue (1999) made it reasonably clear that the Government's goal in creating this subsection was legitimate: addressing the over-representation of aboriginal people in Canada's prisons. The Supreme Court noted that "The drastic over-representation of Aboriginal peoples within both the Canadian prison population and the criminal justice system reveals a sad and pressing social problem. It is reasonable to assume that Parliament, in signaling out Aboriginal offenders for distinct sentencing treatment in s.718.2(e), intended to attempt to redress this social problem to some degree" (Gladue, para. 64).