This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighb... more This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement (PCMB), a participatory program for upgrading social infrastructure and public spaces in marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City. The PCMB is an example of the range of upgrading programs supported by progressive local governments throughout Latin America over the past 20 years. Proposed by the city's urban popular movement as part of their longstanding commitment to "city-making from below," the PCMB was launched in 2007. At its inception, the PCMB was designed to co-produce neighborhood improvements through providing state support for resident-led planning and governance of community spaces. In 2019, the Mexico City government unexpectedly dismantled key participatory elements of the PCMB and folded it into other city priorities, including safe pathways and its surveillance-oriented security strategy. Based on fieldwork involving site visits and interviews with residents, community leaders, and city officials, we narrate the transformation of the PCMB (2007-2021) as statesociety struggles over city-making. We argue that these tensions pivot around different spatial and political logics pertaining to territory, agency, and citizenship in city-making. The analysis also brings into focus how local governments attempt to diffuse, co-opt, or contain more radical city-making initiatives.
This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighb... more This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement (PCMB), a participatory program for upgrading social infrastructure and public spaces in marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City. The PCMB is an example of the range of upgrading programs supported by progressive local governments throughout Latin America over the past 20 years. Proposed by the city's urban popular movement as part of their longstanding commitment to "city-making from below," the PCMB was launched in 2007. At its inception, the PCMB was designed to co-produce neighborhood improvements through providing state support for resident-led planning and governance of community spaces. In 2019, the Mexico City government unexpectedly dismantled key participatory elements of the PCMB and folded it into other city priorities, including safe pathways and its surveillance-oriented security strategy. Based on fieldwork involving site visits and interviews with residents, community leaders, and city officials, we narrate the transformation of the PCMB (2007-2021) as statesociety struggles over city-making. We argue that these tensions pivot around different spatial and political logics pertaining to territory, agency, and citizenship in city-making. The analysis also brings into focus how local governments attempt to diffuse, co-opt, or contain more radical city-making initiatives.
The 2018 election of Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative (PC) government ushered i... more The 2018 election of Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative (PC) government ushered in a new era of neoliberal populism in Ontario, Canada. Ford’s election platform, titled a “Plan for the People,” resonated with the business elite who supported his free-market reforms but also with middle-class and blue-collar workers living in suburban and northern areas of the province. The article examines how Ford positioned his rivals as “out of touch” members of the political and cultural urban elite, responsible for a spiralling deficit that would economi-cally burden hard-working people. Unlike many other right-wing populist leaders, who have relied on xenophobic or anti-immigrant narratives, we argue that Ford’s populist stance is dema-gogic and pragmatic. This enabled him to pivot and shift his political strategy to amass support from a diverse range of economic, racial, ethnic, and religious groups, including new immigrants. We draw on newspaper articles, public documents and...
Disclaimer: Statements of fact and opinion in the articles, notes, perspectives, and so on in the... more Disclaimer: Statements of fact and opinion in the articles, notes, perspectives, and so on in the Islamophobia Studies Journal are those of the respective authors and contributors. They are not the expression of the editorial or advisory board and staff. No representation, either expressed or implied, is made of the accuracy of the material in this journal, and ISJ cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. The reader must make his or her own evaluation of the accuracy and appropriateness of those materials.
The targeting of Muslim communities through “the War on Terror” has given rise to a variety of sc... more The targeting of Muslim communities through “the War on Terror” has given rise to a variety of schemes and tactics informed by Islamophobia and racializing narratives. Yet, there are few studies examining the specific intelligence practices deployed by governments as they engage in forms of racialized surveillance. This study analyses 95 in-depth interviews with Muslim community leaders in five Canadian cities to map the material structural practices employed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) in its racialized surveillance of Muslim communities. This study documents how CSIS engages in the mass surveillance of Muslim communities, transforms Mosques into spaces of surveillance, creates a community of informants, and targets political activism. Moreover, we found that CSIS deploys illegal practices such as threatening citizenship and refugee status, intimidating people in their homes during the night and denying legal representation during interrogations. The artic...
While it is widely acknowledged that Canadian Muslims are targeted at airports and borders, few s... more While it is widely acknowledged that Canadian Muslims are targeted at airports and borders, few studies have focused on their actual experiences of state surveillance practices. Moreover, little attention has been paid to how these experiences impact and shape identity formation and their understanding of citizenship. To address this gap, we conducted 50 in-depth interviews with young Canadian Muslims living in Vancouver and Toronto. Our interviewees referred to being repeatedly stopped, questioned, detained, and harassed by security personnel. They felt that any evidence of their Muslim identity – name, country of birth, appearance, or clothing – makes them a target for extra surveillance, resulting in heightened fears about being stripped of their rights and a lack of ability to assert their religious identities. This paper explores the implications of racialized border practices on identity formation and citizenship depletion among Muslim Canadians.
As police records expand with big data analytics, so too has the range of non-conviction informat... more As police records expand with big data analytics, so too has the range of non-conviction information seeping into the public domain through criminal background checks. Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of background checks for those with criminal convictions, but less understood are the effects of non-conviction records. We draw on 8 focus groups and 52 interviews to understand how the release of non-conviction records are: (1) creating new institutional risk management pressures for police institutions, (2) expanding the role of employers as arbiters of risk, (3) redefining understandings of ‘the risky subject’ to include victims, those with mental health challenges and other innocent individuals subject to police contact and (4) raising critical legal questions about privacy and presumptions of innocence.
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2016
Reforms to Canadian sentencing law in 1996 and the Supreme Court of Canada decisionR. v. Gladue[1... more Reforms to Canadian sentencing law in 1996 and the Supreme Court of Canada decisionR. v. Gladue[1999] opened the door to a new normative set of legal practices that endeavour to integrate racial knowledge about offenders’ collective and individual experiences of race relations and oppression into traditional legal criminal practices. One outcome of the reforms and court cases was the formation of dedicated Gladue courts for Aboriginal peoples. This paper explores the formation of Gladue courts, the legal techniques used to produce contextualized racial knowledges, how this information is admitted as evidence before the court, and how this knowledge is used to reframe legal subjects and the risk they pose.
By the late 1980s, Canada was at the forefront of women’s prison reform: it was poised to be the ... more By the late 1980s, Canada was at the forefront of women’s prison reform: it was poised to be the first country to integrate feminist principles into the development of a new prison regime for women (Hannah-Moffat and Shaw, 2000). The design of this new model was laid out in the document Creating Choices: The Report of the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women (Task Force, 1990). This plan for prison redevelopment symbolised a unique turn in the history of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). For the first time, the government partnered with women’s organisations in a collaborative effort to advance a new vision for women’s punishment. This collaboration with community organisations was championed as evidence of an opening of the political process that would invite women’s prison advocates and organisations to play a greater role in prison reform.
Specialized courts rely on partnerships with community agencies to address multiple issues relate... more Specialized courts rely on partnerships with community agencies to address multiple issues related to offending. Despite their popularity, little is known about the implications of such partnerships or about how stakeholders negotiate client support, therapeutic interventions and correctional prac-tices. We analysed six Canadian sites (four drug treatment courts and two community/wellness courts), specifically focusing on how they conceptualize and respond to housing issues. We found that practices are pushing the boundaries of punishment and producing unintended consequences related to (1) positioning homelessness as criminogenic, (2) emphasizing short-term stability to the detriment of longer-term solutions and (3) facilitating enhanced supervision/knowledge exchange. When legal concerns dominate, therapeutic potential is compromised, along with efforts to restruc-ture supports needed by marginalized offenders in the community.
In the past two decades, Canadian policies governing the structure and content of presentence rep... more In the past two decades, Canadian policies governing the structure and content of presentence reports (PSRs) have shifted to focus more directly on the systematic identification of offender’s criminogenic risk and needs. In this article, we (1) examine how risk-based approaches to offender management have altered the structure and format of the PSR in Canada, and (2) contrast the structure of risk-based PSRs to Gladue reports for Aboriginal offenders in Canada. Gladue reports are designed to identify the unique systemic race/cultural and historical factors specific to Aboriginal offenders and to recommend alternatives to incarceration. We argue that although risk-based PSRs incorporate recognition of race-related issues, their structure and emphasis on actuarially based risk assessments frames race and risk differently from Gladue reports. In Gladue reports, holistic approaches and cultural impact factors are documented and used to understand risk and need. Finally, we argue that th...
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007
Proportionality, as stipulated in the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), sets out the parame... more Proportionality, as stipulated in the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), sets out the parameters within which we examine the implications of embedding risk assessments within youth pre-sentence reports (PSRs). Our article raises questions for academic and legal professionals and, ultimately, judges, who may or may not elect to consider risk/need assessments in the determination of a sentence. The sentencing principles contained in section 38(2) stipulate that (c) the sentence must be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the young person for that offence; and that (e) subject to [the aforementioned] paragraph (c), the sentence must (ii) be the one that is most likely to rehabilitate the young person and reintegrate him or her into society. (emphasis added) The YCJA is unequivocal in the priority afforded to proportionality. By contrast, rehabilitation, albeit important, is of less relevance to sentencing. We do not dispute the importance or impact of treatment and rehabilitative approaches in the management of offenders. Our concern is with whether the use of risk-assessment information at sentencing contravenes the principle of proportionality and/or disparity. The ''seriousness of the offence,'' the degree of harm caused, and the youth's ''degree of responsibility'' are central to proportionality, but
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007
Increasingly, risk assessments are being adopted throughout the criminal justice system in Canada... more Increasingly, risk assessments are being adopted throughout the criminal justice system in Canada, and they are playing a significant role in the preparation of pre-sentence reports. Over the past five years, nine of Canada's jurisdictions have adopted the use of risk assessments for the preparation of youth pre-sentencing reports (PSR). While ample theoretical knowledge about risk exists, there are noticeably fewer empirical studies of how risk frameworks (re)shape and (re)organize local institutional decision-making practices or of what the socio-political effects of these processes are. Drawing on interviews, case law review, and analyses of risk-assessment documents, this article considers the implications of using risk assessments in the preparation of youth pre-sentencing reports (PSRs). In particular, attention is paid to the tensions between emerging risk practices and the emphasis on proportional sentencing under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighb... more This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement (PCMB), a participatory program for upgrading social infrastructure and public spaces in marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City. The PCMB is an example of the range of upgrading programs supported by progressive local governments throughout Latin America over the past 20 years. Proposed by the city's urban popular movement as part of their longstanding commitment to "city-making from below," the PCMB was launched in 2007. At its inception, the PCMB was designed to co-produce neighborhood improvements through providing state support for resident-led planning and governance of community spaces. In 2019, the Mexico City government unexpectedly dismantled key participatory elements of the PCMB and folded it into other city priorities, including safe pathways and its surveillance-oriented security strategy. Based on fieldwork involving site visits and interviews with residents, community leaders, and city officials, we narrate the transformation of the PCMB (2007-2021) as statesociety struggles over city-making. We argue that these tensions pivot around different spatial and political logics pertaining to territory, agency, and citizenship in city-making. The analysis also brings into focus how local governments attempt to diffuse, co-opt, or contain more radical city-making initiatives.
This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighb... more This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement (PCMB), a participatory program for upgrading social infrastructure and public spaces in marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City. The PCMB is an example of the range of upgrading programs supported by progressive local governments throughout Latin America over the past 20 years. Proposed by the city's urban popular movement as part of their longstanding commitment to "city-making from below," the PCMB was launched in 2007. At its inception, the PCMB was designed to co-produce neighborhood improvements through providing state support for resident-led planning and governance of community spaces. In 2019, the Mexico City government unexpectedly dismantled key participatory elements of the PCMB and folded it into other city priorities, including safe pathways and its surveillance-oriented security strategy. Based on fieldwork involving site visits and interviews with residents, community leaders, and city officials, we narrate the transformation of the PCMB (2007-2021) as statesociety struggles over city-making. We argue that these tensions pivot around different spatial and political logics pertaining to territory, agency, and citizenship in city-making. The analysis also brings into focus how local governments attempt to diffuse, co-opt, or contain more radical city-making initiatives.
The 2018 election of Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative (PC) government ushered i... more The 2018 election of Premier Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative (PC) government ushered in a new era of neoliberal populism in Ontario, Canada. Ford’s election platform, titled a “Plan for the People,” resonated with the business elite who supported his free-market reforms but also with middle-class and blue-collar workers living in suburban and northern areas of the province. The article examines how Ford positioned his rivals as “out of touch” members of the political and cultural urban elite, responsible for a spiralling deficit that would economi-cally burden hard-working people. Unlike many other right-wing populist leaders, who have relied on xenophobic or anti-immigrant narratives, we argue that Ford’s populist stance is dema-gogic and pragmatic. This enabled him to pivot and shift his political strategy to amass support from a diverse range of economic, racial, ethnic, and religious groups, including new immigrants. We draw on newspaper articles, public documents and...
Disclaimer: Statements of fact and opinion in the articles, notes, perspectives, and so on in the... more Disclaimer: Statements of fact and opinion in the articles, notes, perspectives, and so on in the Islamophobia Studies Journal are those of the respective authors and contributors. They are not the expression of the editorial or advisory board and staff. No representation, either expressed or implied, is made of the accuracy of the material in this journal, and ISJ cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. The reader must make his or her own evaluation of the accuracy and appropriateness of those materials.
The targeting of Muslim communities through “the War on Terror” has given rise to a variety of sc... more The targeting of Muslim communities through “the War on Terror” has given rise to a variety of schemes and tactics informed by Islamophobia and racializing narratives. Yet, there are few studies examining the specific intelligence practices deployed by governments as they engage in forms of racialized surveillance. This study analyses 95 in-depth interviews with Muslim community leaders in five Canadian cities to map the material structural practices employed by the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS) in its racialized surveillance of Muslim communities. This study documents how CSIS engages in the mass surveillance of Muslim communities, transforms Mosques into spaces of surveillance, creates a community of informants, and targets political activism. Moreover, we found that CSIS deploys illegal practices such as threatening citizenship and refugee status, intimidating people in their homes during the night and denying legal representation during interrogations. The artic...
While it is widely acknowledged that Canadian Muslims are targeted at airports and borders, few s... more While it is widely acknowledged that Canadian Muslims are targeted at airports and borders, few studies have focused on their actual experiences of state surveillance practices. Moreover, little attention has been paid to how these experiences impact and shape identity formation and their understanding of citizenship. To address this gap, we conducted 50 in-depth interviews with young Canadian Muslims living in Vancouver and Toronto. Our interviewees referred to being repeatedly stopped, questioned, detained, and harassed by security personnel. They felt that any evidence of their Muslim identity – name, country of birth, appearance, or clothing – makes them a target for extra surveillance, resulting in heightened fears about being stripped of their rights and a lack of ability to assert their religious identities. This paper explores the implications of racialized border practices on identity formation and citizenship depletion among Muslim Canadians.
As police records expand with big data analytics, so too has the range of non-conviction informat... more As police records expand with big data analytics, so too has the range of non-conviction information seeping into the public domain through criminal background checks. Numerous studies have documented the negative effects of background checks for those with criminal convictions, but less understood are the effects of non-conviction records. We draw on 8 focus groups and 52 interviews to understand how the release of non-conviction records are: (1) creating new institutional risk management pressures for police institutions, (2) expanding the role of employers as arbiters of risk, (3) redefining understandings of ‘the risky subject’ to include victims, those with mental health challenges and other innocent individuals subject to police contact and (4) raising critical legal questions about privacy and presumptions of innocence.
Canadian Journal of Law and Society / Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 2016
Reforms to Canadian sentencing law in 1996 and the Supreme Court of Canada decisionR. v. Gladue[1... more Reforms to Canadian sentencing law in 1996 and the Supreme Court of Canada decisionR. v. Gladue[1999] opened the door to a new normative set of legal practices that endeavour to integrate racial knowledge about offenders’ collective and individual experiences of race relations and oppression into traditional legal criminal practices. One outcome of the reforms and court cases was the formation of dedicated Gladue courts for Aboriginal peoples. This paper explores the formation of Gladue courts, the legal techniques used to produce contextualized racial knowledges, how this information is admitted as evidence before the court, and how this knowledge is used to reframe legal subjects and the risk they pose.
By the late 1980s, Canada was at the forefront of women’s prison reform: it was poised to be the ... more By the late 1980s, Canada was at the forefront of women’s prison reform: it was poised to be the first country to integrate feminist principles into the development of a new prison regime for women (Hannah-Moffat and Shaw, 2000). The design of this new model was laid out in the document Creating Choices: The Report of the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women (Task Force, 1990). This plan for prison redevelopment symbolised a unique turn in the history of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). For the first time, the government partnered with women’s organisations in a collaborative effort to advance a new vision for women’s punishment. This collaboration with community organisations was championed as evidence of an opening of the political process that would invite women’s prison advocates and organisations to play a greater role in prison reform.
Specialized courts rely on partnerships with community agencies to address multiple issues relate... more Specialized courts rely on partnerships with community agencies to address multiple issues related to offending. Despite their popularity, little is known about the implications of such partnerships or about how stakeholders negotiate client support, therapeutic interventions and correctional prac-tices. We analysed six Canadian sites (four drug treatment courts and two community/wellness courts), specifically focusing on how they conceptualize and respond to housing issues. We found that practices are pushing the boundaries of punishment and producing unintended consequences related to (1) positioning homelessness as criminogenic, (2) emphasizing short-term stability to the detriment of longer-term solutions and (3) facilitating enhanced supervision/knowledge exchange. When legal concerns dominate, therapeutic potential is compromised, along with efforts to restruc-ture supports needed by marginalized offenders in the community.
In the past two decades, Canadian policies governing the structure and content of presentence rep... more In the past two decades, Canadian policies governing the structure and content of presentence reports (PSRs) have shifted to focus more directly on the systematic identification of offender’s criminogenic risk and needs. In this article, we (1) examine how risk-based approaches to offender management have altered the structure and format of the PSR in Canada, and (2) contrast the structure of risk-based PSRs to Gladue reports for Aboriginal offenders in Canada. Gladue reports are designed to identify the unique systemic race/cultural and historical factors specific to Aboriginal offenders and to recommend alternatives to incarceration. We argue that although risk-based PSRs incorporate recognition of race-related issues, their structure and emphasis on actuarially based risk assessments frames race and risk differently from Gladue reports. In Gladue reports, holistic approaches and cultural impact factors are documented and used to understand risk and need. Finally, we argue that th...
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007
Proportionality, as stipulated in the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), sets out the parame... more Proportionality, as stipulated in the 2003 Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), sets out the parameters within which we examine the implications of embedding risk assessments within youth pre-sentence reports (PSRs). Our article raises questions for academic and legal professionals and, ultimately, judges, who may or may not elect to consider risk/need assessments in the determination of a sentence. The sentencing principles contained in section 38(2) stipulate that (c) the sentence must be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and the degree of responsibility of the young person for that offence; and that (e) subject to [the aforementioned] paragraph (c), the sentence must (ii) be the one that is most likely to rehabilitate the young person and reintegrate him or her into society. (emphasis added) The YCJA is unequivocal in the priority afforded to proportionality. By contrast, rehabilitation, albeit important, is of less relevance to sentencing. We do not dispute the importance or impact of treatment and rehabilitative approaches in the management of offenders. Our concern is with whether the use of risk-assessment information at sentencing contravenes the principle of proportionality and/or disparity. The ''seriousness of the offence,'' the degree of harm caused, and the youth's ''degree of responsibility'' are central to proportionality, but
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2007
Increasingly, risk assessments are being adopted throughout the criminal justice system in Canada... more Increasingly, risk assessments are being adopted throughout the criminal justice system in Canada, and they are playing a significant role in the preparation of pre-sentence reports. Over the past five years, nine of Canada's jurisdictions have adopted the use of risk assessments for the preparation of youth pre-sentencing reports (PSR). While ample theoretical knowledge about risk exists, there are noticeably fewer empirical studies of how risk frameworks (re)shape and (re)organize local institutional decision-making practices or of what the socio-political effects of these processes are. Drawing on interviews, case law review, and analyses of risk-assessment documents, this article considers the implications of using risk assessments in the preparation of youth pre-sentencing reports (PSRs). In particular, attention is paid to the tensions between emerging risk practices and the emphasis on proportional sentencing under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA).
This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighb... more This article traces the trajectory of the making and unmaking of the Community Program for Neighborhood Improvement (PCMB), a participatory program for upgrading social infrastructure and public spaces in marginalized neighborhoods of Mexico City. The PCMB is an example of the range of upgrading programs supported by progressive local governments throughout Latin America over the past 20 years. Proposed by the city's urban popular movement as part of their longstanding commitment to "city-making from below," the PCMB was launched in 2007. At its inception, the PCMB was designed to co-produce neighborhood improvements through providing state support for resident-led planning and governance of community spaces. In 2019, the Mexico City government unexpectedly dismantled key participatory elements of the PCMB and folded it into other city priorities, including safe pathways and its surveillance-oriented security strategy. Based on fieldwork involving site visits and interviews with residents, community leaders, and city officials, we narrate the transformation of the PCMB (2007-2021) as statesociety struggles over city-making. We argue that these tensions pivot around different spatial and political logics pertaining to territory, agency, and citizenship in city-making. The analysis also brings into focus how local governments attempt to diffuse, co-opt, or contain more radical city-making initiatives.
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Papers by Paula Maurutto