Each murder trial brings its own tangle of evidence, legal parameters, medical factors, social circumstances, and personalities. The tangle gets trickier when we must keep in mind that: «A person shall not be criminally responsible for an act or omission if they suffer from a mental disorder such that they were not able to appreciate the nature and quality of their act or to know that it was wrong.» Forensic Psychiatrist Stanley Semrau takes us through some of the more terrible and fascinating...
A single gunshot on Saturday night, October 6, 1894, shattered Toronto's prevailing sense of peace and security. That gunshot took the life of Frank Westwood, a respectable young man from one of the city's most prominent families. This unprecedented attack produced a feeling of hysteria throughout Toronto and baffled the municipal police forces. The mystery was even referred to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. However, even the Great Detective could not solve the...
In 1898, Spanish spies based in Montreal, Halifax, and Victoria monitored the United States war effort against their homeland, while U.S. counter-intelligence officials watched the Spaniards. Neither the Americans nor the Spaniards sought Canadian permission for these activities. Britain's enemies (and often America's enemies) have also been Canada's enemies. Without the heroic counter-intelligence of the mysterious Agent X, Irish Americans at the turn of the century might have...
Canadians are very polite – but they also commit murder. And those who think that mass homicides and wanton killings are recent phenomena in Canada should treat themselves to <i>Fatal Intentions</i>. Using contemporary accounts, Barbara Smith vividly recreates a number of murder cases from 1920s Nova Scotia to 1980s British Columbia. <br/> <br/> Some, like the Boyd Gang adventures, are still remembered often inaccurately or romantically; others, like the murder of...
In Paris, a static video camera keeps watch on a bourgeois home. In Portland, a webcam documents the torture and murder of kidnap victims. And in clandestine intelligence offices around the world, satellite technologies relentlessly pursue the targets of global conspiracies. Such plots represent only a fraction of the surveillance narratives that have become commonplace in recent cinema. Catherine Zimmer examines how technology and ideology have come together in cinematic form to play a...
Explores the role of stories in criminal culture and justice systems around the world Stories are much more than a means of communication—stories help us shape our identities, make sense of the world, and mobilize others to action. In Narrative Criminology, prominent scholars from across the academy and around the world examine stories that animate offending. From an examination of how criminals understand certain types of crime to be less moral than others, to how violent offenders and drug...
