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Canadians Open to Alternative Penalties for Non-Violent Offences Published on Jun 28 - 2010
More than half of respondents believe their justice system does not treat every person fairly.People in Canada have little confidence in their province’s criminal courts and are inclined towards allowing the use of alternative penalties for personal marijuana use, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.
The online survey of a representative national sample of 1,004 Canadian adults also finds that the provincial police forces in Ontario and Quebec garner a high level of confidence from respondents in the two provinces.
Community Problems and Crime
One third of respondents (34%) say that health care is the most important problem or concern in their community today, followed by the economy (26%), unemployment (15%), crime, violence and gangs (12%), and education and schools (7%).
In Manitoba and Saskatchewan, more than half of respondents (54%) select crime, violence and gangs as the most important problem or concern, while a majority of Quebecers (56%) pick health care.
Two-in-five Canadians (39%) believe there has been an increase in the amount of crime in their community over the past five years, while a similar proportion of respondents (41%) report no change, and 10 per cent say the crime rate has decreased.
Atlantic Canadians (51%), British Columbians (45%) and Albertans (43%) are more likely to believe that criminal activity has intensified in their community.
One-in-four Canadians (27%) say they fear being a victim of crime in their community “to a great extent” or “only fair amount”. Less than one-in-five respondents (14%) report that they have actually been victims of crimes which involved the police in the past two years.
Elements of the Justice System
This question seeks to gauge the level of confidence in the internal operations and leadership of five different elements of the Canadian justice system. Overall, the provincial police forces are rated highly by 38 per cent of respondents in Quebec and Ontario. Across the country, 35 per cent of Canadians express confidence in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), followed by the municipal police forces with 33 per cent, and the Supreme Court of Canada with 33 per cent.
Less than one-in-five respondents express “complete confidence” or “a lot of confidence” in the criminal courts in their province (18%). In fact, on this element, the proportion of negative responses (“Not much confidence” or “No confidence at all”) outnumbered the percentage of positive responses by a 2-to-1 margin.
Alternative Penalties
Seven-in-ten Canadians (70%) support the concept of using alternative penalties—such as fines, probation or community service—rather than prison for non-violent offenders, while one-in-four (25%) disagree with this idea. Four-in-five respondents (80%) would endorse alternative penalties for people who commit offences related to personal marijuana use. However, support is much lower for enacting a similar guideline for other crimes, such as credit card fraud (33%), drunk driving (25%), and arson (15%).
Final Assessment
Overall, a majority of respondents (60%) believe that the criminal courts in Canada do a good job in determining whether or not an accused person is guilty. However, only one third of respondents (34%) readily admit that the justice system in Canada treats every person fairly. In addition, two-thirds of Canadians (66%) disagree with the notion that the prison system in the UK does a good job in helping prisoners become law-abiding.
Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)
CONTACT:Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com
From June 16 to June 17, 2010, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,004 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/-3.1%. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.