Summary
"A natioinal telephone survey of 1509 adults was conducted from October 28 to November 5, 1998 to measure Canadians' perceptions and opinions concerning selected aspects of organized crime and corrections"--Executive summary.
Contents
1. Introduction -- 1.1. The importance of enhanced public opinion research -- 1.2. Previous research -- 1.2.1. Corrections -- 1.2.2. Public knowledge of corrections -- 1.2.3. Public attitudes towards correctional issues -- 1.2.4. Organized crime -- 1.2. Structure of the report -- 2. Methodology -- 2.1. Purpose of survey -- 2.2. Sampling strategy -- 2.3. Sampling frame -- 2.4. Questionnaire development -- 2.5. Survey specifications -- 2.6. Margins of error -- 3. Corrections in Canada -- 3.1. Primary purpose of corrections -- 3.1.1. Rehabilitation somewhat preferred over punishment -- 3.1.2. People support restitution and community service -- 3.2. Knowledge of the use of imprisonment -- 3.2.1. Most Canadians unaware of high rate of imprisonment in Canada -- 3.3. Reactions to parole -- 3.3.1. Canadians support parole over flat-time sentencing by a large margin -- 3.3.2. Whan given an adequate amount of information, more people support parole -- 3.4. Reactions to a risk-based discretionary release system -- 3.4.1. The public support a risk-based discretionary release model -- 3.5. Knowledge of parole rates and recidivism rates -- 3.6. Target messages and target audiences -- 3.7. Aboriginal correctional issues -- 3.7.1. Canadians divided on whether Aboriginal communities should have more say over tratment of Native offenders -- 3.7.2. Disproportionate numbers of Aboriginal people in prison and out -- 4. Organized crime --
4.1. Responsibility for fighting organized crime -- 4.1.1. People see a role for all levels of government, but particularly the federal government -- 4.1.2. Conceptions of organized crime -- 4.1.3. To the public, organized crime generally means drug-related crime -- 4.2. Public ratings of the seriousness of various organized criminal activities -- 4.2.1. Drug-related crimes are seen as the most serious, cigarette smuggling the least serious -- 4.3. Experiences with illegal products -- 4.3.1. A third of the sample have been approached to buy illegal liquor, cigarettes, or drugs -- 4.4. Perceptions of changes in the incidence of organzied crime -- 4.4.1. Most people perceive organized crime to be increasing in volume -- 4.5. Perceptions of particular groups harmed -- 4.5.1. People see young people as the group in society most likely to be harmed by organized crime -- 4.6. Responding to organized crime -- 4.5.1. Almost all Canadians want government to spend more money to fight organized crime -- 4.7. Support for specific policy responses -- 4.7.1. People support tighter monitoring of cash transactions -- 4.7.2. Divided opinion on parole policies for organized crime figures -- 4.8. More information -- 5. Conclusions -- Appendix A. Profile of sample -- Appendix B. Survey instrument -- Appendix C. Bibliography