On July 13, 2013, the Commission for Public Complaints released the Report Following a Public Interest Investigation into the Conduct of RCMP Members in Nova Scotia in Respect to Matters Involving Nicole (Ryan) Doucet. After interviewing all parties involved and reviewing 25 incidences involving Ms. Doucet and Mr. Ryan, the Acting Commissioner, Ian McPhail, concluded the RCMP’s policy regarding violence in relationships “was followed at all times.” According to The Report, the RCMP did not fail to protect Ms. Doucet. These conclusions, however, seem to be at odds with the evidence presented in The Report. After discussing coercive control and reviewing R. v. Ryan, the paper analyses the Commission’s findings to argue that the evidence presented to the Commission clearly illustrates that police ignored Ms. Doucet’s repeated pleas for help. The Commissioner missed a real opportunity to review current RCMP policies on domestic violence to bring them in line with current and on-going research on coercive control.

This study examines the ways in which unofficial cooperative practices hamper the effectiveness of official cooperative legislation as an expression of informal norms within mining cooperatives in South Kivu, in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The study is based on interviews and the observation of the practices of small-scale miners when setting up and running their mining cooperatives. The study of the normative organisation of mining cooperatives can contribute to reflection on a participative reform of public policies in order to improve governance in the mining sector in the DRC.

Feminist scholars and advocates struggle with how to confront the over-criminalization of the most marginalized girls and women. One of the most troubling illustrations of gross injustice is what happened to Ashley Smith. The anniversary of Ashley Smith’s death is a catalyst for amplifying feminist voices. In this paper, I use the Ashley Smith case as a way to frame how I teach critical social justice issues concerning the criminalization of girls and women. My aim is to encourage critical conversations about pedagogy in feminist criminology and socio-legal studies aimed at ameliorative change. With the discipline of Criminology’s systematic failure to understand the unique problems and shared circumstances of girls’ and women’s lives, feminist professors’ teaching, which offers a lens for our students that underscores young women’s constrained choices and the socio/political/cultural context in which their lives and behaviours are embedded, opens up possibilities for transformation.