Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology

Research News

The research interests of faculty at the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology span an array of wide ranging and interdisciplinary topics. The breadth of our faculty’s current research projects are highlighted below. Much of this work expresses a strong sense of civic engagement and a dedication to helping to shape criminal justice policy and practice in matters that pertain to their specific areas of expertise.

Scott Clark has recently completed fieldwork relating to community-based alternatives to the mainstream justice system in Inuit communities in Nunavut.  On a related topic, he published the results of his research on the Nunavut Court of Justice in 2011 and is following up on his work on community policing in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.  He has recently started research on the sentencing of Indigenous offenders, Toronto’s Aboriginal Persons Court (Gladue Court), and the new Aboriginal Youth Court.

Graham Hudson has wide-ranging interests in security studies, international human rights, international criminal law, and legal theory. He has published his research in a number of venues including the Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Refuge, and Constitutional Forum. He teaches courses on security threats, criminal law, criminal courts, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Tammy Landau is preparing a second edition of her book “Challenging Notions: Critical Victimology in Canada.” The new edition will include a chapter on genocide, Aboriginal people and the residential school system in Canada, and the state as a perpetrator of crime. She is also contributing a chapter on police policy and governance for an upcoming manuscript on criminal justice policy in Canada.

Alexandra Orlova’s research pertains to both traditional and non-traditional security threats, such as transnational organized crime, international terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking, and other international crimes. She has published in the area of consent in international instruments pertaining to human trafficking, attempting to define organized crime and terrorism in international law, and examining the role of anti-money laundering measures as a tool in the fight against organized crime and terrorism.

Anne-Marie Singh is interested in the role of coercion in modern governing practices and has explored this through the lens of policing. She is currently writing on the punitive practices of private security and the implications for urban governance, especially the construction of race and other identity categories.

Jane Sprott’s research interests include the operation of the juvenile and adult justice systems, sentencing, issues around pre-trial release, and public perceptions of criminal justice policies. She is currently working on a project investigating the conditions placed on youths at bail hearings.

Sara Thompson’s research interests include the spatial distribution of serious violent crime in Toronto’s neighbourhoods, and the neighbourhood-level characteristics that may shape the risk of this violence. She is also interested in risk and governance at the Canadian border, with a particular emphasis on the activities of frontline border control officers in the post-9/11 context.

Emily van der Meulen's research is action-oriented, focusing broadly on issues of gender, sexuality, labour, and the law. She is primarily interested in the ways in which criminalization marginalizes certain individuals and communities, and how individuals and communities organize to affect policy change. Her current projects include a study with Aboriginal sex workers and a pilot-project on gender and video surveillance.

Kim Varma has completed research and published in the areas of youth justice processing at bail and sentencing hearings, parental involvement in youth court, public perceptions of youth and adult crime and deterrence-based policies in relation to fraud.  She is currently working on two other projects: an empirical examination of the incidence of social assistance fraud in Ontario and social assistance fraud penalties, and a survey of parental experiences of youth court in Toronto.