McLaughlin College hosts criminology conference this weekend

The Canadian Society of Criminology will hold its third annual conference at York’s McLaughlin College on Saturday and Sunday.


Pat O'MalleyTitled “Crime, Law, and Justice in Context”, the conference features keynote speaker Pat O’Malley, Canada Research Chair in Criminology and Criminal Justice in the Faculty of Public Affairs & Management at Ottawa’s Carleton University, who will speak between 11:45am and 1pm in the Junior Common Room, 014 McLaughlin College.


Right: Pat O’Malley, keynote speaker


O’Malley’s presentation of “Globalization, Glocalization and Criminal Justice”, will be introduced by Ian Greene, Master of McLaughlin College, and includes the presentation of the Dianne Martin Award by Margaret Beare of York’s Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime & Corruption.


A leading international criminologist from Australia, O’Malley has formed strong collaborations with government and academic researchers in criminal justice and crime prevention research. His work is advancing theoretical and practical knowledge into recurring, risk-based strategies and techniques related to criminal justice and crime prevention, such as actuarial sentencing, situational crime prevention and risk-minimizing illicit drug regulation. His areas of interest include risk in criminal justice and government; the politics of criminal justice; crime prevention; modern and postmodern legal sanctions; illicit drug use and policies; and crime, excitement and modernity.


Saturdays’ program begins at 10am in the Junior Common Room, with a session titled, “Emerging Trends in Criminal Justice and Higher Education” chaired by Kevin McCormick, dean of Applied Research & Innovation at Georgian College in Barrie. Panellists include York Professor Livy Visano, from the Atkinson School of Social Sciences; Bill Gordon, Georgian’s associate vice-president university affairs; Dave Dubois, dean of Community Studies at Georgian; and James Drennan, professor at Georgian’s Justice and Public Safety Institute.


After the lunch break, there will be a panel discussion on “The Growth of Criminology in Canadian Universities” which begins at 2pm, in the Junior Common Room. Katharine Kelly of Carleton University will lead the discussion by panellists Ron Stansfield, from the University of Guelph-Humber, Ron Hinch, from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Tulio Caputo, of Carleton University, and Thomas Fleming, of Wilfrid Laurier University.


The bulk of the conference agenda will be devoted to joint sessions on a variety of topics. The concurrent sessions, held in the McLaughlin Junior Common Room and in 109 McLaughlin College, begin Saturday at 3:30pm and continue all day Sunday until the close of the conference at 5:15pm. The conference agenda is available at the society’s Web site.


On-site registration for the conference is $250 or $100 for students and includes membership to the society for the year of the conference.