Sunday, September 15, 2013

Monday, September 16. 2013

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

A Block Law 9/10 - Today we'll spend time discussing the differences between mass and serial murder. We will look at profiling and begin to understand what a psychopath is. Dr. Robert Hare of the University of British Columbia created a checklist called the PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised). We'll examine the "Unholy Trinity" of serial killer characteristics and today we'll watch a video on how profiling was developed in the F.B.I. Behavioural Science Unit (through the efforts of many highlighted by the work of John Douglas) today. The first part of the video focuses on Wayne Williams and then looks at Robert Hansen. Don't forget that in Canada the R.C.M.P. call the technique criminal investigative analysis.

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue to work on the foundations of Geography focusing on the Five Themes. In order to understand the increasingly complex and interconnected world we live in we need to find a way to make sense of information in a way that doesn't overwhelm us. The Five Themes (Location, Place, Human-Environment Interactions, Movement, and Regions) are a framework for making sense of geographic data. Today I hope that we'll finish the explanation of the themes and then we'll deal with systems and spheres of geography. When this is done, you should be caught up to grade 10 for geographic skills and content for Social Studies. Once we've completed this work we'll shift into our Physiographic Regions of Canada poster / presentation assignment which we'll start in the library tomorrow.

C Block Criminology 12 - Today we will be in the library working on our first journal / blog entry. Over the past two weeks I've asked you to develop your own theory as to why crime happens. I asked you to use the list of brainstormed items from our class discussions, your notes on the history of criminology and from the Crime Theory website. I also asked you to tell me what you think about crime trends here in Canada / B.C. I wanted you to tell me if you thought crime is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same. In the end we found out that violent and property crime patterns are generally decreasing however the one area that is on the rise is drug possession, trafficking, importing, and exporting (specifically possession of marijuana - up 4% since 2002 - and cocaine - up 19% since 2002 see Stats Can CSI here).

In addition to this Stats Can states, "British Columbia has consistently had a relatively high rate of police-reported drug offences. Regardless of the type of drug or the type of offence, the rates of drug crime in British Columbia have been among the highest in Canada for 30 years. In 2007, the total drug crime rate in this province (654 incidents per 100,000 population) was more than double the rate in Saskatchewan, the next highest province. In accordance with the province as a whole, relatively high rates of drug offences are found in the census metropolitan areas (CMA) of Vancouver, Victoria and Abbotsford. Along with Trois-Rivières and Gatineau, these cities have reported the highest rates in Canada for the past five years. The rates in Vancouver and Victoria have been among the highest in the country since 1991".

So....Today you will need to set up a blog for the course. You may use Google's Blogspot, Wordpress, Live Journal, Bloguni, or any other blog creation site you choose. I would HIGHLY recommend staying with blogspot, wordpress, or live journal. You will need to develop a blog, and then write your thoughts on the following: Why has British Columbia consistently had high rates of police reported drug offences? Use what you've learned about crime theories, your own thoughts on crime theories to answer why. Once you've done this, then find an article about a recent drug crime here in B.C., make a link to the news article on your blogsite and then write how crime theories explain the crime. An excellent crime news website is the CANOE CNews Crime site...at the bottom of the Crime Headlines section there is an excellent archive of three months of crime stories for you to use. Don't forget that you have your first quiz in Criminology tomorrow. It is on the history of Criminology work from week 1 & 2. 

D Block Law 12 - Today, we'll identify what our fundamental freedoms are (section 2 a-d of the Charter) and today we'll build on that. In partners I'll have you work on the R. v. Oakes (1986) case which established the "Oakes Test" in Canadian law which allows reasonable limitations on rights and freedoms through legislation if it can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. Then, on your own, you'll need to complete questions 1-5 on page 40 of the All About Law text. After that I'll have you back in partners to work through the Multani v. Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys (2006) case on pages 41-42 of the All About Law text. 

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