The academic study of crime and crime coverage from the mass media almost exclusively focus on crime committed in modern, urban, industrial or post-industrial milieux. Most Americans and Canadians live in such areas, and this is where the most pressing social issues about crime emanate. Daily we are bombarded with news of the most recent criminal acts almost invariably taking place in an urban conglomeration, and for most of us it is easy to extrapolate from the reported situation to our own. Living in or near largely homogeneous towns or cities, most of us assume that almost everyone else in...

In order to understand outport behaviour in general, we must become at least somewhat familiar with the outports’ general history. Not surprisingly, that history revolves around the salt water fishery. To understand outport patterns of crime in particular, we must delve into patterns of policing that have developed. It turns out that both the settlement and development of the outports and their history of policing are full of unique and colourful events, which are not only interesting in their own right but have contributed to the development of unique outport cultural attitudes towards law enforcement officials. The goal of this...

The field work in this study was undertaken in two research sites, Main Harbour and Fish Arm.¹ Main Harbour and Fish Arm are located about forty sea miles apart on one of Newfoundland’s rugged peninsulas jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean on the northeasterly side of the triangle-shaped island (see map 2). The two communities are neighbouring in the sense that there is no other major settlement separating them,² owing to the harshness and impassability of the coastal terrain and the abandonment of many smaller communities during the resettlement program described earlier. Main Harbour is located near the most inland...

How much crime is there in the outports of Newfoundland, and what type of crime is it? The goal of this chapter is to provide some official statistics indicating the amount of officially reported crime in rural Newfoundland, and to critically assess the validity of these figures through a consideration of outport cultural values relating to reporting to the police, and of the social processes involved in reporting.

Amount of Crime from Official Crime Rates On the basis of police statistics, the Atlantic region has the lowest rates of serious crime in Canada, which has lower rates than the United...

This chapter examines the practice of illegal hunting of game animals, especially moose and caribou. Big game poaching as a crime in the outports is of particular significance because it is perhaps the most visible manifestation of the process of cultural conflict and change that is occurring with alarming speed in fishing and forestry-based communities in Newfoundland and other parts of Atlantic Canada in the throes of modernization. As indicated in chapters 1 and 2, hunting for the table was a necessary economic activity that was part of the traditional way of life in outport communities. Because of this and...

The hunting of big game like moose and caribou in the unforgiving environment of uninhabited, snow-covered woods during winter is a collective activity requiring considerable skill, knowledge, effort, and team work.Illegalhunting of such game requires not only the same basic skills as legal hunting, but also a whole set of skills and orientations associated with the precautions and secrecy needed to avoid detection. The following case study describes the circumstances and activity involved on a particular hunting trip.

This trip occurred in the winter. By this time I had become a familiar person in Main Harbour, having visited...

Just as hunting has its roots in the traditional outport economy and has become part of a cultural tradition, so has the home manufacture and consumption of alcohol. The manufacture of alcoholic beverages undoubtedly has been affected by the geographical isolation and relative poverty of inhabitants of outport communities. Historically, bottled liquor was purchased in the outports from sailing vessels that occasionally plied the Newfoundland waters. However, the lack of cash income in the outports combined with the tradition of self-sufficiency in domestic production spurred on the home manufacturing of alcoholic beverages. The beverages produced included homebrew (made from malt...

This chapter describes incidents of interpersonal crime and vandalism, ranging from property damage and negligence to assault, including one incident of sexual assault. First, violence statistics produced by the police are examined. This is followed by a discussion of tensions and conflicts which occur in the small, face-to-face communities, and of informal social control mechanisms which limit and channel outbreaks of aggression in Newfoundland’s outports. The remainder of the chapter describes incidents of fighting and assault, tormenting, and negligence and vandalism, including local perceptions of their causes and the ensuing reactions. Finally, an assessment of the effectiveness of traditional social...

One of the central themes in studies of Newfoundland life is the unchecked exploitation of the masses by the few in positions of power.¹ An historical treatment of some political and economic dimensions of this theme was offered in chapter 2. The goal of this chapter is to describe patterns of behaviour that are manifestations of the severe economic and social inequalities in the outports in the past two or three decades. Also described are the cultural modes of acquiescence among the powerless, deference to authority and submission, which have helped maintain such inequalities.

It is important to note that...

In the preceding chapters, the major argument has been that patterns of crime in the outports have been affected by their unique social arrangements and culture, a culture that has emerged out of a peculiar adaptation to geographical constraints and economic history. The complete collapse of the fishery and the subsequent moratorium on commercial fishing for ground fish in 1992 (described briefly in chapter 2) have drastically affected life in the outports. The goal of this chapter is to describe the present and suggest the future near-term impact on crime and social order of the catastrophic economic changes that have...