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Governments as Providers of Criminal Justice Information: Canada

NCJ Number
168804
Author(s)
C J Matthews
Date Published
1997
Length
11 pages
Annotation
After reviewing the current state of Canada's government support for disseminating the results of criminal justice research and data, this paper focuses on the availability of electronic criminal justice resources for information, since other information resources are in decline due to government cutbacks in funding.
Abstract
Following a review of the structure of government in Canada (Federal, provincial, and municipal), as well as its functions (legislative, judicial, administrative), this paper describes governmental and quasi-governmental electronic publication of criminal justice information. The Access to Justice Network is a joint venture of the Federal Justice Department and the University of Alberta and the University of Montreal. Since its beginning in 1992, it has expanded its reach through the World Wide Web, serving not just the criminal justice agencies, government, victims organization, and research institutions, but also anyone with an interest in accessing criminal justice information. The Network for Research on Crime and Justice is a Web site that supports the exchange of ideas for research and conferences; it posts full-text synopses of research findings. The Federal Government produces monographic and serial information and has had varying success in getting both into the hands of users in hard copy in recent years. The Department of Justice Web site permits an overview of the Department, access to news releases, fact sheets, judicial appointments, and links to laws and regulations and other statistical and information resources. Other information resources discussed, with emphasis on electronic capabilities, are the Ministry of the Solicitor General, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Criminal Intelligence Service, and Statistics Canada. Provincial and municipal governments as information providers are also addressed. Appended selected url's (uniform resource locator) for criminal justice Web sites.