This unique and timely collection brings together 24 of the very best and most controversial readings on the history of crime, deviance and criminal justice in Canada. Divided into five sections, the first part of Crime and Deviance examines developing issues in crime and punishment while the second part introduces key aspects of a 'working criminal justice system'. Policing ethnicity is the focus of section three, which includes articles on the relocation phenomenon and the Africville study as well as Ontario Aboriginal women confronting the criminal justice system, 1920-1960. Similarly, regulating gender and sexuality, section four, examines moral reform in English Canada, 1885-1925; and anti-homosexual campaigns in the Canadian Civil Service in the mid-20th century. The final section profiles the moral regulation of behaviour. Articles in this section include non-medical opiate use and control policies in Canada, 1870-1970; as well as moral fervour and the evolution of Canada's prostitution laws, 1867-1917. Power relations is a very strong unifying theme that is, relations of gender, social class, ethnicity and age. regulation of sexuality, we can trace these relations of power and how they link to the definition of crime in society. Canada's top criminologists and social critics are included in this special collection. This impressive list includes Russell Smandych, Rick Linden, Constance Backhouse, Helen Boritch, John Hagan, Carolyn Strange, Tina Loo, Joan Sangster, Mariana Valverde, Kelly Hannah-Moffat, Gary Kinsman and Robert Menzies.

In any given society, most behaviors are accorded a socially significant status as either acceptable or not, reputable or disreputable. A basic proposition of modern sociology is that deviance varies by social location. This book discusses the causes and consequences of disrepute in Canada. The argument is that there are both similarities and differences between the Canadian and American situations and this pattern is explored with the hope of developing a sociology of deviance that is more sensitive to the socially significant and national boundaries.

In the complicated interaction between sport and law, much is revealed about the perception and understanding of consent and tolerable deviance. When a football player steps onto the field, what deviations from the rules of the game are considered acceptable? And what risks has the player already accepted by voluntarily participating in the sport? In the case of Canadian football, acts of on-field violence, hazing, and performance-enhancing drug use that would be considered criminal outside the context of sport are tolerated and even promoted by team and league administrators. The manner in which league review committees and the Canadian legal system understand such actions highlights the challenges faced by those looking to protect players from the dangers of the sport. Although there has been some discussion of legal and institutional reforms dealing with crime and deviance in Canadian sport, little exists in the way of sports law, with most cases falling into the legal categories of criminal, administrative, or civil law. In Game-Day Gangsters, Fogel argues for a review of the systems by which Canadian football is governed and analyzes the reforms proposed by football leagues and by players. Juxtaposing material from interviews with football players and administrators and from media files and legal cases, he explores the discrepancies between the players’ own experiences and the institutional handling of disciplinary matters in junior, university, and professional football leagues across the country.