Wednesday, March 14, 2018

The ides of March, 2018

Today's schedule is D-C-B-A

D Block Human Geography 11 - So today we'll start to examine the key issue "Why Do Countries Face Obstacles to Development"? Developing countries are confronted with two fundamental obstacles in attempting to stimulate more rapid development:

  1. Adopting policies that successfully promote development and
  2. Finding funds to pay for development. 

Developing countries can choose one of two models to promote development...self-sufficiency or international trade. In the self-sufficiency model, countries encourage domestic production of goods, discourage foreign ownership of businesses and resources, and protect their businesses from international competition. The idea is that this will promote all parts of the economy, leading to jobs and development. The International Trade Path sees the sale of raw materials, food, or manufactured products in the world market bringing funds into a country than can be used to finance development.

You'll need to complete the chart in the week 7 package with notes from the text on the two different models of development.

What are the primary challenges facing the developing world?
Are natural resources a blessing or a curse for developing countries?

C Block Criminology 12 - The 2016 GTI (Global Terrorism Index) report reinforces the fact terrorism is a highly concentrated form of violence, mostly committed in a small number of countries and by a small number of groups. The five countries suffering the highest impact from terrorism as measured by the GTI; Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria, accounted for 72 per cent of all deaths from terrorism in 2015. Similarly, only four groups were responsible for 74 per cent of all these deaths; ISIL, Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qa’ida. While terrorism as a form of violence has a major psychological impact on the societies it touches, there are other forms of violence which are more devastating. Major armed conflicts resulted in more deaths in 2015 as well as the wholesale destruction of economies. The global homicide rate is 15 times the death rate from terrorism.

Fact-Check: Terrorism from Wolfram Friele on Vimeo.

Global Terrorism Index 2014 from Vision of Humanity on Vimeo.


Statistical analysis of the drivers of terrorist activity show there are two distinct sets of factors associated with terrorism, depending on whether the country is developed or developing.

The first set of factors which are closely linked to terrorist activity are political violence committed by the state and the presence of a conflict. The research finds that 93 per cent of all terrorist attacks between 1989 and 2014 occurred in countries with high levels of state sponsored terror, involving extrajudicial killing, torture, and imprisonment without trial. Similarly, over 90 per cent of all terrorist deaths occurred in countries already engaged in some form of conflict whether internal or international. This means only 0.5 per cent of terrorist attacks occurred in countries that did not suffer from conflict or political terror. This underlines the close link between existing conflicts, grievances and political violence with terrorist activity.

When analyzing the correlates of terrorism there are different factors that are statistically significant depending on the level of development. In the OECD countries, socio-economic factors such as youth unemployment, militarization, levels of criminality, access to weapons and distrust in the electoral process are the most statistically significant factors correlating with terrorism. This reinforces some of the well-known drivers of radicalization and extremism. In developing countries, the history of conflict, levels of corruption, acceptance of the rights of others and group based inequalities are more significantly related to terrorist activity.

I'll have you work on the following questions:
  1. Despite cultural awareness and various initiatives in schools and in the media, hate crimes continue to happen in significant numbers in Canada. Discuss the types of hate crimes most prevalent in Canada and the current responses to them. 
  2. Governments have tried numerous responses to terrorism. Discuss some of these responses. 
  3. It is unlikely that the threat of punishment can deter robbery; most robbers refuse to think about apprehension and punishment. Wright and Decker suggest that eliminating cash and relying on debit and credit cards may be the most productive method to reduce the incidence of robbery. Although this seems far-fetched, society is becoming progressively more cashless; it is now possible to buy both gas and groceries with credit cards. Would a cashless society end the threat of robbery, or would innovative robbers find new targets?
  4. Based on what you know about how robbers target victims, how can you better protect yourself from robbery? 

B Block Introduction to Law 10 - Today I'll have you identify the total number of loops, arches, and whorls for each finger (and thumb) for the class (for everyone's sets of prints) and then graph the data. The graph is a comparative bar graph. For each finger (thumb, index, middle, ring & pinky) count up the total number of loops, arches, and whorls and graph that out next to each other. Our goal is to see what the most common type of fingerprint our class has and see if that is consistent with the larger population of Canada. After we will continue our look at crime scene investigation and we'll look at ballistics, fibres and the collection and processing of DNA evidence. I will have an ultraviolet light to illuminate the foreign fibres that may be lurking about on your clothes and we'll have a brief look at Rice University's CSI: The Experience Web Adventure .


A Block Law 12 - Today in order to prepare for tomorrow's Law & Order episode I'd like you to finish with question 7 from page 179:

The plea negotiation has become the primary means of dispensing justice in Canada. It is effective, both for accused criminals looking to minimize their punishment and for prosecutors coping with the torrent of cases sloshing through the courts. Is it morally correct to trade the legal rights guaranteed by the Charter for convenience and cost savings?
 
This question deals with Plea Bargains in Criminal Law. From the Department of Justice here in Canada: Broadly speaking, the promises that may be made by Crown counsel fall into three, overlapping categories: (1) promises relating to the nature of the charges to be laid (charge bargaining); (2) promises relating to the ultimate sentence that may be meted out by the court (sentence bargaining); and (3) promises relating to the facts that the Crown may bring to the attention of the trial judge (fact bargaining).

  1. Charge Bargaining
    1. Reduction of the charge to a lesser included offence;
    2. Withdrawal or stay of other charges or the promise not to proceed with other possible charges; or
    3. Promise not to charge friends or family of the defendant; or
    4. Promise to withdraw a charge in return for the defendant's undertaking to enter into a peace bond.
  2. Sentence Bargaining
    1. Promise to proceed summarily rather than by way of indictment;
    2. Promise to make a specific sentence recommendation;
    3. Promise not to oppose defence counsel's sentence recommendation;
    4. Promise to submit a joint sentencing submission;
    5. Promise not to appeal against sentence imposed at trial;
    6. Promise not to apply for a more severe penalty (for example, by not giving notice to seek a higher range of sentence based on the accused's previous conviction – s. 727 of the Criminal Code);
    7. Promise not to apply to the trial court for a finding that the accused is a dangerous offender (s. 753 of the Criminal Code) or a long–term offender (s. 753.1 of the Criminal Code);
    8. Promise to make a representation as to the place of imprisonment, type of treatment, etc.; or
    9. Promise to arrange the sentence hearing before a particular judge.
  3. Fact bargaining
    1. promise not to "volunteer" information detrimental to the accused during the sentencing hearing;
    2. promise not to mention a circumstance of the offence that may be interpreted by the judge as an aggravating factor (see, for example, the aggravating factors listed in s. 718.2(a) of the Criminal Code).
Today we'll start with a CBC Fifth Estate documentary on Karla Homolka and her plea bargain that includes real interviews with her.. Her husband, Paul Bernardo was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the murder of Tammy Homolka (Karla's sister) and the kidnappings/murders of French and Mahaffey, while Karla Homolka accepted a ten-year plea bargain for her roles that was later upgraded to a twelve-year plea bargain. Homolka was released on July 4, 2005, and has opted to live under the name Karla Teale (Bernardo and Homolka had originally planned to change their surname to Teale, in honor of fictional killer Martin Thiel). For more news on Karla Homolka (now called Leanne Bordelais) check out the article at the Globe and Mail here...or The Toronto Star here.

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