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The purpose of this paper is to examine the fusion of psy-correctional discourse with the dominant risk logic to consider the implication this nexus can have on how self-injurious behaviour committed by women in prison is interpreted and responded to by the Correctional Service Canada (CSC).

The central focus of the study is an in-depth case analysis of the carceral death of Ashley Smith, a 19-year-old woman who committed suicide in her segregation cell in 2007 after enduring four years of excessively punitive treatment aimed at controlling her self-injurious behaviour.

Findings illustrate how the fusion of these logics creates a kind of “therapeutic-risk cloak” that reframes the behaviour as “abnormal” and “risky”, which masks the punitivity of strip search and segregation interventions in the name of safety, security and treatment.

Given that correctional officials knowingly failed to intervene when Smith tied the fatal ligature around her neck, a federal inquiry judged her death to be a homicide. By attempting to unveil the “therapeutic-risk cloak” the authors hope to challenge the underlying logic of CSC’s governance and management framework, which not only denies the oppressive gendered carceral reality that is linked to self-injurious behaviour amongst women prisoners, but is also used to justify intervention responses that exacerbate the very behaviour this framework aims to control. Until systemic transformation is achieved that eradicates CSC’s contradictory governance framework, there is no doubt that the authors will continue to see similar preventable deaths take place in prison.

The front page of the Toronto Sun displayed an image of Karla Homolka bruised and battered and read, ‘Bernardo Did This to Karla: Crown’. In 1993, Karla Homolka entered into a plea deal in exchange for the testimony against her then-husband Paul Bernardo. Though Homolka pled guilty to two counts of manslaughter, Canadian media outlets painted Homolka as a subservient and battered woman fearful of the abusive Bernardo's reprisal. Then, during Bernardo's trial, rumoured videotapes finally surfaced that exposed Homolka's seemingly wilful role in the gruesome murders of the young girls Kristen French, Leslie Mahaffy, and her sister Tammy Homolka. Although Tammy Homolka's death had been deemed accidental, her body was exhumed, and autopsy reports found lethal traces of sedative drugs in her system. While sedated, both Bernardo and Homolka raped her as she choked and died on her own vomit. After these videotapes surfaced, media representations shifted drastically – referring to Homolka's plea deal as ‘the deal with the devil’.

This chapter outlines the crimes committed by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka – also known as the Barbie and Ken Killers. Furthermore, it employs a qualitative literature review to document the evolution in the media representations of Homolka and exposes the media's role in the creation of this ‘monstrous’ woman in Canadian history. As this chapter outlines the representational shift of Homolka in the media, it deconstructs the hegemonic notions of proper femininity that often characterise women as deviant. Moreover, from a social constructivist lens, the brutality of Homolka's crimes are considered and examined in the context of the normative ideologies surrounding ideal womanhood and sexuality. I will argue that by dismantling these socially constructed ideologies, the significance of Homolka's whiteness also becomes apparent. As Homolka seems to deviate from her whiteness, media depictions illustrate an incitement of hysteria. Thus, this article questions the validity of the media representations that once depicted Homolka as ‘the girl next door’ – who was acting in accordance with her whiteness – but also inevitably paint her as the ‘devil’.

To explore the intersecting dynamics of gender, ethnicity, age, safety, power and sexuality in two cases of qualitative research

Reflexive analysis of community participatory action research.

Being an ‘insider’ is a nuanced and complex identity in social research leading to power flows that are not unidirectional. In addition, not only is gender not the only difference that makes a difference, but it is also important to consider the importance of difference within ‘sameness’.

In considering intersecting identities, difference and sameness this chapter adds to the assertion that research is never ‘hygienic’ and the role of self and research participants are vital considerations at all stages from design to dissemination.

This study aims to ask how HIV/AIDS is arranged as a public threat in and through Canadian law, particularly in relation to transmission, and how strategies of capture extend the affective force of criminalization leading to poor health outcomes for persons living with HIV/AIDS.

This is a conceptual paper with a focus on applying affect theorist Jasbir Puar’s work on assemblage and debility. The authors use Puar’s work to frame the conditions that persons with HIV/AIDS experience in the Canadian criminal justice context as debilitating.

The authors found that while HIV transmission is not itself a criminal act in the Canadian criminal justice context, activities where transmission is prevalent or possible have been criminalized, particularly in relation to nondisclosure of health status, sex work and substance use. Further, the authors found that when the activities associated with HIV transmission are criminalized, strategies of capture extend the affective force of criminalization first in the inadequate provision of health-care and pharma-care services, second in state resistance to implement harm reduction measure and third in punitive population management strategies.

Persons living with HIV/AIDS have historically experienced stigmatization, especially intersecting with neoliberal, white supremacist and heteropatriarchal axes of power. This paper uses assemblage theory to shore up how these relations operate in ways that close off possibilities, by constituting the HIV/AIDS assemblage as a criminal – rather than a health phenomenon. This paper, thus, holds Canada to account for debilitating a historically disadvantaged and multiplying marginalized population.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics between management approach, human resource systems and practices, and responses of seasonal workers.

After reviewing literature on contingent workers focusing on seasonal workers in particular, this paper presents a case study of how seasonal work is managed in a specific organisational context.

There is a noticeable gap between the organisation's initial approach to human resource management (during recruitment and induction) and the way employees are actually managed during the course of their employment. While seasonal employees may have low levels of organisational commitment as a consequence, nevertheless their commitment to colleagues, supervisors, and in some cases, clients has side‐benefits for the organisation.

The research is based on a single case study and has illustrative value. The characteristics of seasonal work described in the case reflect a specific industry and organisational context.

The findings suggest that employers of seasonal workers should consider the influence of human resource management systems and practices on the expectations and experience employees have of work.

The paper makes an empirical contribution as seasonal work has received little attention to date. Moreover, as seasonal work potentially combines short‐term finite employment with longer‐term relational aspects, we are able to highlight the relevance of cyclical time to an understanding of how employees perceive and experience work.