Criminal Justice

In deciding the fate of someone accused of a crime, the most important testimony often comes from people who saw the crime, or a fragment of it happen. Eyewitnesses often add a devastating credibility and clarity to a very confused moment in time. But today we realise that eyewitness reports can be tainted by subjectivity.

In this program we discover what a forensic psychologist actually does to put together a profile of an offfender. Using the leading case of the Railway Murders in the UK, the origins of profiling are explored, comparing the 'top down' approach pioneered by the FBI in the United States, and the European statistical, or 'bottom up' approach. It concludes with practical uses of profiling, potential benefits and drawbacks, and the emergence of a new evidence-based approach.

[The film] offers a timely and provocative examination of violence and mental illness, and the rights of victims. With unprecedented access to the patient, the victim, and the mental institution, the film looks at both sides of the debate and puts a human face on the complex ethical issues raised.

Living in a world that most of us know little about, six survival sex trade workers share their struggles with addiction, mental and physical health concerns, and the fear of violent assault, through gritty and often shocking, candid interviews.

Canadians entrust police officers with an enormous amount of power, including the authority to detain a person and use force against them if necessary. But are officers being held to account if they abuse their power?

The most consistent finding in the study of crime is the relationship between crime and gender. In almost every country, over 80% of crime is committed by males. The short film looks at explanations for gender differences in crime and why things may be changing.

This film looks at what hate crime is, how it can be measured and why popular media stereotypes of typical hate offenders are so misleading.

Nineteen years after a young woman from B.C. was killed during a trip to India, Jassi Sidhu's uncle and mother have been extradited to India to stand trial on murder charges. They are accused of murdering her because she married a poor Indian rickshaw driver instead of the wealthy Canadian they had chosen for her.

The trial of Gerald Stanley in the death of Colten Boushie exposed deep racial divides in our Canadian culture. Boushie was a young Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan. He and his friends drove onto the farm of Gerald Stanley, a 56-year-old white farmer, in August 2016. When the dust settled, Boushie was dead and Stanley was accused in his murder. But a trial acquitted Stanley. And that’s left questions and sparked anger among the Indigenous community, who say the Canadian justice system is racist.

Discusses a prison simulation experiment conducted in 1971 with students at Stanford University and considers the causes and effects that make prisons such an emotional issue. Documentary includes new film, flashback editing, follow-ups 20-years later, and an original music score; reveals the chronology of the transition of good into evil, of normal into the abnormal.

In September 2011 Maple Batalia, a 19-year-old health sciences student at Simon Fraser University's Surrey campus, was brutally stabbed and shot near the campus library by a jealous ex-boyfriend. Family and friends pay tribute to the life of a beautiful, multi-talented young woman--an actor, model and shining example of someone with a promising future.

Urgent, controversial and undeniably honest, The Skin We're In is a wake-up call to complacent Canadians. Racism is here. It is everywhere. It is us and we are it.

In Canada, a woman is murdered every six days by an intimate partner. Lawyer and advocate Pamela Cross says,“a woman will leave an abusive relationship 12 times before she stays out for good.