Official statistics provide us with some of our most
important insights into crime and the criminal justice
system. Sociologists, however, have generally not examined
the institutions which produce these statistics. "Making
Crime Count" addresses this lacuna through a study of the
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS), which is
Canada's sole source for national criminal justice
statistics. To do so it employs a methodological combination
of focused interviews, participant observation and
documentary analysis.
The availability of criminal justice statistics has
fostered a distinctive approach to the governance of crime
and criminal justice. A form of 'actuarial justice' has
emerged whereby crime is increasingly understood as a
statistical probability rather than a moral failing. At the
same time, criminal justice statistics render criminal
justice organizations amenable to governmental strategies
that aim to manage the system.
To examine the means by which the Centre has been able
to produce its statistics, I draw from contemporary work in
the sociology of science which emphasizes the role of
complex knowledge networks in the production of scientific
facts. Within the Centre's 'knowledge network' assorted
elements and institutions must be aligned. We document the
ways in which the CCJS is in continual negotiation with the
police in order to secure data for the 'uniform crime
report' survey. The Centre's controversial 1990 proposal to
collect race/crime data is also explored as an example of
the power and politics of official classifications.
Although the Centre must maintain the appearance of
being apolitical, they are occasionally engaged in micro-
political negotiations in order to produce their statistics.
We document the role that different jurisdictions play in
shaping the Centre's knowledge production regime. Once their
statistics are collected, there can be negotiations over how
they should be publicized. The style of presentation
employed by the CCJS is ultimately influenced by
organizational constraints, audience considerations and
epistemic concerns.
The overall results of this research underline the
importance for authors writing on 'governmentality' to
consider the means through which governmental knowledge is
produced.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/9472 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Haggerty, Kevin Daniel |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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