The Social Responses to Murder in Canada
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THE SEVENTH CIRCLE OF HELL: THE SOCIAL RESPONSES TO MURDER IN CANADA Elizabeth M. Elliott M. S.W., Carleton University, 1386 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the School of Criminology OElizabeth M. Elliott 1996 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY April 1996 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission sfthe author. 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It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. ?lurder in Canada Author: (signature) APPROVAL Name: Elizabeth M. Elliott Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: The Seventh Circle of HelI: The Social Responses to Murder in Canada Examining Committee: Chair: Joan Brockman, LL.M. d7eSYd,L~.M. Karlene Faith, Ph.D. Senior Supervisor Associate Professor Pqofessor & Lowman, P~.D. Robert Menzies, Ph.D. Professor Professor Brian Burtch, Ph.D. Associate Professor To?- Intern 1 Examiner Laureen Snider, Ph.D. Professor, Sociology Department, Queen's University External Examiner Date Approved: ABSTRACT The Seventh Circle of Hell: A History of the Response to ,Murder in Canada This dissertation explores responses to murder in Canada from 1763 to the present. It is a historical study of pon-er in the construction of murder and the murderer, and in struggles to determine suitable punishments. Death is sigpificant both to the crime itself and in ways of conceptualjzing and responding to murder. As thc thesis examines power in responses to murder, it is a study of a particular politics of death. In the first part of the stud:,.- theoretical and methodological considerations are laid out in three contexts. The first of these: contests is conceptual, in which different ways of thinking about murder are explored. Thz second context addresses the problem of juridico-discursive power and its relationship to thought on murder. The third deals with methods of studying murder through the analysis of texts, as reprelented in a randoin sample of federal archival documents. The discourses on murder and the murderer expressed in the documents are the subject of concern in the second part of the dissertation. These have been grouped according to three "knowledges" which prevailed in the documents selected: law, medical science, and popular media and literature. Each of these contribute a particular and the murderer, explored as representations of thought on murder. The seventh circle of heii is what Dante described in the 14th century as the final punishment for murderers. Punishment, the primay response to murder, is the subject of the last part of the dissertation. The death penalty and life imprisonment are reconsidered in view of death and Foucault's notion of power!l<rowledge. Finally, this study considers how responses to murder in Canada might rather work towards reducing instances of murder through moral pra_gnatism. "Why does mj action strike them as so horrible?" he said to himself. "Is it because it \-as a crime? W-hat is meant by crime? hly conscience is at rest. Of course it was a legal crime- of course the letter of the law was broken and blood was shed. Well, punish me for the letter of the lax\ . and that's enough. Of course, in that case many of the benefactors of mankind who snatched power for themselves instead of inheriting- it oughtb to have been punished at their first steps. But those men succeeded and so they wvrz. rlg/~/~and I didn't, and so 1 had no right to have taken that step." It was only in that that he recognised his criminality, only in the fact that he had been unsuccessfut and had confessed to it. f Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 1866) Long before 1933 there 1%-asa smell of burning in the air, and people were passionately interested in discovering the locus ofthe fire and in tracking down the incendiary. And when denser clouds of smoke were seen to gather over Germany, and the burning of the Reichstag gave the sigpal, then at lsst there was no mi,'ake where the incendiaq- evil in person, dwelt. Terrifying as this discovery was, in time it brought a sense of reliet': now- we hew for certain where all unrighteousness was to be. found, whereas we ourselves lvere securely entrenched in the opposite camp, among lespectable peapie whose moral indignation could be trusted to lice higher and hieher- with every fresh sign of guilt on the other side. Even the call for mass executions no longer offended the ears of the righteous, and the saturation bombing of German cities was looked upon as the judgnent of God. Hate had found respectable motives and ceased to be a personal idiosyncrasy, indulged in secret. And all the time the esteemed public had not the faintest idea how closely they themselves were living to evil. One should not ktagine for a moment that anybody could escape this play of opposites . The sight of evil kindles evil in the soul -- there is no getting away from this fact. The victim is not the only sufferer; everybody in the vicinity of the crime, including the murderer, suffers with him. Something of the abysmal darkness of the world has broken in on us, poisoning the very air we breathe and befouling the pure water with the stale, nauseating taste of blood. (C. G. Jung, Collected Works Vol. 10, orig. 1946) Over the duration of the nine years that went into the development of this dissertation, I have become indebted to many people who provided assistance in different ways. At the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser University I was fortunate to have the academic advice of five faculty members -- Neil Boyd, Brian Burtch. Karlene Faith, John Lowman and Bob Menzies -- ~vhoseinput made the project a rich learning experience to the very end. Neil, Brian and Karlene were also kind enough to provide me with research employment throughout my candidacy in the Ph.D. program. Bob Gaucher of the Department of Criminolog at the University of Ottawa, who was particularly helpful in guiding my previous graduate work, continued to be generous with his academic advice throughout this project. The staff of the National Ai-chives of Canada \vs;ere consistently helpful over the years in guiding me through complicated indices, suggesting routes to travel through the mass of documents in the archival holdings and quickly accessing the material requested. Their efficiency and cot~scientiousnessmade this research project a productive esperience. A number of friends have also been subjected to the arguments presented in this thesis and hake offered feedback along the why. Thank you to Petra Accipiter, Carey Christianson, Ron Cooney, Jeannette Cooney. Claire Cuihane, Sharon Fraser, George Fraser, Tammy Genesove, Heidi Gra\v, David Snook and Paul Virtanen. Thanks also to Joseph Kibur, who kindly made himself available for solving my last minute computer problems. My family has been enormously supportive, throughout the whole project. I owe my initial interest in social justice to my parents and first teachers, Albina Mihelich Elliott and Wallace Elliott, who have also relieved me of my own family responsibilities from time to time so that I could work on this research. My brother Peter Elliott helped me access material from Statistics Canada, in addition to thf,.noral support which he and Colleen Elliott have consistently provided. In particular, I owe thanks to my partner Milt Gluppe for technical assistance and supporting me in every way throughout this endeavour. Kristofor and Maya were understanding about the frequent inaccessibility of their mother. To Milt, Kris and Maya, thank you for your love of life: and the joy and meaning you bring to mine. vii TABLE OF COXTENTS Approval :ustractI * Quotation