Thursday, September 5. 2013

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

D Block Law 12 - Today, we will continue our discussion on what crime is, why we have laws, and figure out the difference between what is legal what is moral and what is ethical. We'll then jump in to our Introduction to Law unit by taking down a few notes on the five functions of law and the divisions of Public (criminal, constitutional, and administrative) and Private law (tort, family, contract, property, and labour law). Lastly we'll take a look at the differences between Substantive and Procedural Law. Your assignment will be to look up the penalties for a law (in the Canadian Criminal Code) that you disagree with and explain why we should have stronger or lighter penalties for this law. Consider "Mischief"

C.C. 430. (1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
(c) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property; or
(d) obstructs, interrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property.

Punishment

(2) Every one who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.

So if you are protesting the removal of old growth trees in a location and hammer spikes into trees then you are endangering the life of fallers (who would use chainsaws and chainsaws don't mix well with metal spikes)...that means you're eligible for life in prison much the same as if you tampered with someone's break lines in their car. Is that sentence too harsh or too light? Why? that's an example of what I'd like you to consider. You may use the pocket criminal codes in class or may use the computer to check the statutes on line.

C Block Criminology 12 - Today I want you to continue with your brainstormed list of all the reasons you can think why someone would commit a crime. We will collect all of your ideas on the overhead-computer-board and then try to categorize them into crime theory clusters (similar categories). We'll see where your clusters fit in terms of Choice, Trait, Social Structure, Social Learning, and Conflict theories. After this, we'll begin our look at the nature vs. nurture debate by focusing on the history of psychological and sociological criminology (Power Point).

B Block Social Studies 10 - Today we'll continue drawing our large scale mental maps of Canada in groups. When we finish, we'll share our maps and discuss why it is difficult to conceptualize and graphically represent our country. In the time remaining we'll begin a lab exercise on latitude, longitude, and time zones. We'll finish that activity tomorrow and start looking at the five themes of geography.

So why did I ask you to do a large scale mental map? Our activity yesterday was to collectively create mental maps of Canada. This was a difficult experience considering there were no outline maps of Canada in the class for you to base your individual and collective maps on. You had to use your own image/concept of Canada. Maps are subjective because they are made by people to represent data in a specific way. What you did yesterday was a highly complex activity working through non-verbal communication skills in order to collectively represent data in a graphic format (encoding rather than decoding). You had to negotiate a diverse set of frames, or points of view, with different sets of data in order to build something that represented your collective knowledge of Canada.

What do maps show? Professor Michael Peterson from the University of Nebraska (Omaha) said:
The purpose of a map is to show the world at a smaller scale so that we are able to get a sense of where things are located in relation to one another, and that we can have a better understanding of different patterns in geographical space. Maps are also valuable in that they are useful for gaining knowledge of patterns in geographic space and expanding our understanding of navigation. They are important to show trends in things as weather, population and growth. They are a visual source where spatial messages are transmitted from a cartographer to everyday people like you and me.

So maps are a language...the language of geography and today we'll look at some map basics.


A Block Law 9/10 - Today I want you to continue with your brainstormed list of all the reasons you can think why someone would commit a crime. We'll collect all of your ideas on the board for a discussion. We'll cluster your reasons why people commit crime into categories and see what biological factors and sociological factors may contribute to crime. After, you'll get two handouts on Crime Theories. The first handout will be on Economic exclusion and Social exclusion where you'll read a fictional story about "Suzanne" and will need to identify the factors that led her to a life of crime. The second handout will be on Classical, Biological, Sociological and Interactionist crime theory where you will need to evaluate them (what you like about them and what you disagree with them about)...don't worry we'll go through them together in class today. After, you'll have to complete part two of today's assignment - this means you need to create your own theory of why crime happens. Remember you need to use the brainstormed list we did in class along with part one of the assignment (analysis of classical, biological, sociological, and interactionist theories). I'll place more info on the blog tomorrow but for more help check out the Crime Theory Web Site found on this link.