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Introduction

Étienne Blais

L’arme du crime : relation entre le port d’arme à feu et les paramètres de la carrière criminelle

Étienne Blais and Frédéric Ouellet
Studies of the life trajectories of adult offenders generally focus on life events that can lead to desistance. By contrast, few studies examine deviant lifestyle habits that may encourage offenders to persist in crime or to commit additional offenses. Carrying a weapon represents such deviant lifestyle habits. This study therefore examines the relationship between carrying a firearm and participation in crime, as well as the frequency and diversity of committed offenses. Data was collected from 220 adult offenders regarding various topics, including their criminal histories, their relationships with firearms, and certain life events. Carrying a firearm was only weakly related to participation in specific types of crime. However, individuals who carried a firearm engaged in a wider range of criminal activities and had committed more instrumental crimes. Additionnally, the relationship between carrying a firearm, homicide or attempted homicide, and loan sharking was “contaminated” by the respondents’ criminal propensity. Fraud, as well as drug production and trafficking, were not related to carrying a firearm. In conclusion, firearms represent a deviant lifestyle habit that appears to be associated with certain parameters of the criminal career. Further studies are needed, first, to better understand the advantages of firearms compared to other weapons, and second, to examine these relationships in other samples of offenders.

Signaux numériques de violence : l’utilisation des médias sociaux par les membres de gangs à Montréal

Noelle Warkentin, Étienne Blais and David Décary-Hétu
Like most youths today, street gang members increasingly make use of social media ; however, they often do so by posting threats or boasting about their gang affiliations. With firearm and gang-related violence on the rise, this study examined how gang members in a Canadian city employ social media to display violent content. A visual content analysis of the Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok accounts of known gang members in Montreal, Canada was conducted. Posts were coded for indicators of violence : firearms, gun gestures, hand signs and other violent imagery. Firearms were present in 29 % of coded posts, while gun gestures and hand signals appeared in over 50 % of coded posts. Other violent images, including beatings and images of corpses, were rare. Instagram posts showed more hand signals and firearms ; YouTube featured more gun gestures. These findings highlight how gang members employ social media to signal violence, while revealing differences in how these platforms are used. The study offers insights into how gangs in Canadian cities communicate online and may help inform law enforcement strategies.

La prévention efficace des violences armées : s’attaquer aux racines du problème grâce à l’approche de santé publique

René-André Brisebois
A repression-based approach to preventing armed violence will, at best, be effective in the short term by temporarily incapacitating those responsible. However, a public health approach that addresses armed violence’s causes can act on the contexts in which this violence spreads while responding to the needs of the concerned populations, thus proving itself to be a better long-term option. This article describes two international programs (Community Initiative to Reduce Violence and Cure Violence) that have adopted a public health approach to prevent armed violence in the context of rivalries between criminal groups. The Montreal PIVOT project, inspired by these two international programs, is then presented. Finally, the article proposes a theoretical design combining components of the public health and criminology approaches aimed at improving current interventions and effectively preventing armed violence.

Science de la mise en oeuvre et prévention efficace de la violence : garantir la fidélité et la pérennité des stratégies de dissuasion ciblée

Anthony Braga and Brandon Turchan
Focused deterrence strategies attempt to reduce violence by analyzing the dynamics and conditions driving recurring violent crime problems, with the aim of changing offender behaviour through blended law enforcement, social service, and community mobilization actions. The approach has been effective in controlling recurring violence in cities in the US, Europe, Australia and other countries. However, the available evaluation literature also suggests that focused deterrence strategies are very difficult to implement and sustain. Drawing on an ongoing systematic review, existing evaluations suggest that roughly half of focused deterrence programs experience noteworthy implementation challenges. The developing field of implementation science could be used to improve focused deterrence program adoption and continuity, and to achieve desired violence prevention impacts through enhanced program fidelity. Available process evaluations of focused deterrence programs suggest that key capacities to ensure robust implementation include : (1) creating a network of capacity that aligns the work of individual agencies and their representatives toward common goals, (2) developing interagency accountability structures and sustainability plans, and (3) conducting upfront and ongoing problem analyses to ensure that strategy activities are tailored to local contexts and operational capacities. The lessons learned from focused deterrence implementations, related to putting evidence-based violence prevention programs into practice to control armed violence in Québec, are considered.

Prévenir la violence en milieu scolaire : une analyse logique du programme La Cour d’école

Lise Savornin, Raphaëlle Poirier and Étienne Blais, Ph. D.
The objective of this study was to conduct a logic analysis to assess the Cour d’École program’s potential for preventing school violence among youth aged 10 to 11. This logic analysis was carried out in three steps : (1) formulation of the program theory, (2) construction of a conceptual framework based on data collected regarding the expected effects of various prevention programs, and (3) comparison of the prevention program with the collected data to assess the relevance and soundness of the initiative. To conduct this logic analysis, official documents and the Cour d’École project developers were consulted. Additionally, a review of systematic reviews was carried out, with the findings from these reviews then compared with the components of Cour d’École. The results suggest that Cour d’École offers activities likely to prevent school violence. To enhance its effectiveness, schools participating in the program could consider offering specific services to both victims and authors of violence. Services could also be provided to teachers and parents to amplify the program’s impact.

Victimisations en abyme : les conséquences de l’homicide sur les proches de la victime lorsque le meurtre survient en dehors du territoire québécois

Mélina Beaulieu, M. Sc. and Catherine Rossi, Ph. D.
This study focuses on the relatives of victims murdered outside Quebec territory. Approved in 2021, the reform of Quebec’s compensation scheme for victims of crime allows, for the first time, the recognition of individuals who have been victims of a criminal offense outside Quebec. While this change appears to represent a satisfactory response to the social demands of recent years, it has become clear that scientific attention on this very specific form of victimization is required. This article thus reports on the main empirical findings emerging from interviews conducted with ten relatives of individuals murdered outside Quebec. These interviews were undertaken via a partnership with the Association des Familles de Personnes Assassinées ou Disparues (Association of Families of Murdered or Missing Persons - AFPAD), a non-profit organization whose main mission is to defend the rights of, and overcome the isolation experienced by victims’ families across Quebec. The analyses revealed three waves of victimization among the relatives (Beaulieu, 2023a), exceeding the consequences of victimization common to all relatives of homicide victims previously identified in this field’s literature. This study thus contributes to advancing knowledge about the experiences of relatives of homicide victims, as well as the phenomenon of victimization in the context of international mobility by highlighting the specific and complex dimensions of extraterritorial victimization. It offers a unique framework for better understanding and supporting these relatives, while demonstrating that the geographical context of a crime can have a decisive influence on the victimological journey.

Récits d’agression sexuelle : regards linguistiques sur les procédés évaluatifs émis par les enfants victimes au cours de l’entrevue d’enquête

Noémie Allard-Gaudreau, Mireille Cyr and Marty Laforest
This article aims to provide a better understanding of how child victims of sexual abuse use language during police investigative interviews to express their emotions regarding the abuse they experienced. This evaluation of oral personal experience narratives falls within the fields of linguistics and narratology. A secondary objective is to compare the discourse of victims who reported being coerced into performing sexual acts with that of victims who did not report such coercion. Five categories of evaluative devices were analyzed : intensifiers, comparators, modalizers, explainers, and expressives. The results show that children most frequently relied on intensifiers, but that victims who reported being obliged to engage in sexual acts were significantly more likely to use modalizers (e.g., “he forced me to do”). They also produced significantly more evaluative responses throughout the interview and a higher density of evaluative devices per answer. These findings suggest that being coerced into sexual touching is associated not only with how children recount their sexual abuse during the interview, but also how they perceive the experience itself.

Évaluation préliminaire de la formation Rebâtir – Violence sexuelle. Vers une culture éthique et respectueuse du traitement judiciaire en matière de violence sexuelle

Delphine Collin-Vézina, Catherine Gareau-Blanchard, Mélanie Corneau, Léa Couture, Francelyne Jean-Baptiste, Mylène Fernet, Marie-Pier Vaillancourt-Morel, Isabelle V. Daignault, Jean-Yves Frappier and Jacinthe Dion
The development and implementation of training courses for court personnel is a promising avenue for both adequately informing them of the realities and needs of individuals who have been victims of sexual violence, as well as guiding them in regard to best practices and those to avoid. This project was carried out by an independent group of researchers and social justice workers, and this article aims to present the preliminary evaluation results of the Rebâtir — Violence sexuelle training program, offered across various regions of Quebec since 2022. A pre- and post-training survey showed that the 303 participants were overall satisfied with their training experience. For several of the professions involved, scores on the myths and stereotypes subscales decreased after the training, while empathy scores increased. For all occupations, feelings of self-efficacy also improved following the training. Implications for refining the current training, as well as for the use of other similar initiatives, are discussed.

Naviguer parmi les contraintes : vivre le modèle Risque-Besoins-Réceptivité au quotidien

Kawssar Ajrouche, Geneviève Parent, Marie-Pierre Villeneuve and Diana Micheal
Although the effectiveness of the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model is well-established, its implementation in real-world clinical practice remains a significant challenge, with few studies having examined this process. The objective of this study was thus to explore how the RNR model is applied in the daily supervision of young people subject to the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in Quebec. The sample consisted of 12 youth probation officers (YPO ; nine women and three men) working in an Integrated University Health and Social Services Centre located in an urban region. Thematic analysis of the data highlighted the YPOs’ concern with adhering to organizational and RNR model procedures, while also needing to adapt these to address the complex and specific needs of each case. YPOs also appeared to place a strong emphasis on building a relationship with the youth, which was perceived as an essential lever for change. Thus, although certain of these adaptations could be interpreted as deviations from the RNR model, they instead appear to reflect the principle of responsivity, aimed at tailoring interventions to the characteristics and circumstances of each youth, with the intent of maximizing their capacity to benefit from the services provided.

Profil des joueurs à leur entrée en centre de réadaptation en dépendance : répercussions de la judiciarisation

Audréane Bertrand-Danjou, Francine Ferland, Stéphane Turcotte, Isabelle Giroux and David Paquet
Context : The commission of criminal offenses across the life course of gamblers could be an indicator of more severe gambling problems affecting multiple areas of their lives. As such, it has been postulated that gamblers who have committed a judicialized offense and then sought help will demonstrate gambling issues, as well as interpersonal and psychological consequences, of a more severe nature than those who have not committed such offenses. Method : All clinical assessments conducted upon intake at an addiction rehabilitation service in the province of Quebec between 2007 and 2019 were analyzed to differentiate gamblers who had committed criminal offenses (n = 122) from those who had not (n = 434). Results : Analyses show differences between these two groups with respect to suicide attempts and the ability to control violent behaviours. However, the two groups do not differ in their gambling (games of chance and money) habits. Consequently, it is possible to believe that the observed results are attributable to the gamblers’ judicial profile, rather than to their gambling profile. Differences between the two groups regarding suicide attempts and control of violent behaviours were also found. Discussion : The presence of a judicialized offense in adulthood for a gambler seeking help, as well as of violent behaviours, should be documented prior to beginning treatment for gambling. Properly identifying needs in these areas would also allow for a better tailoring of interventions in areas related to gambling.

Pratiques non conformes à l’aune de la prévention du blanchiment des capitaux dans le secteur de l’argent mobile à Kinshasa : relations conflictuelles et logiques d’action divergentes

Fabrice Bolenge
This article focuses on a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of preventive measures against money laundering in the mobile money sector in Kinshasa, particularly in the case of M-Pesa Congo. These preventive measures are based on two recommendations from the Financial Action Task Force, namely the obligation to report suspicions and the obligation of vigilance. The aim of this research is to understand the occurrence of problematic practices in the implementation of preventive money laundering measures. Our work is based on an inductive and empirical approach. In order to carry out this research, we mobilized a qualitative methodology. Our study shows that the problematic practices stem from the breakdown in collaboration between actors, due to conflicting relationships and divergent logics of action.