Every victim has the right, on request, to information about (a) the criminal justice system and the role of victims in it; (b) the services and programs available to them as a victim, including restorative justice programs; and (c) their right to file a complaint for an infringement or denial of any of their rights under this Act.
Canadian Victims Bill of Rights
Dr. D. Scharie Tavcer [she/her]
I am an Associate Professor in the Criminal Justice Degree Program at Mount Royal University and a Gladue Writer for Alberta Justice & Public Safety.
I live, work, and teach in the place the Blackfoot call Mohkinstsis. My acknowledgment of this is only one of many steps towards Truth & Reconciliation. Personally and professionally I support the work that individuals and communities are doing to promote equity for Indigenous and other racialized peoples.
I feel privileged to teach and supervise students – future justice workers. One particular agenda I always include within my curriculum is to inspire students to put compassion and empathy in their toolboxes. I want my students to realize that each of us has a story – we know someone who struggles with addiction, sexual violence, mental illness, or is in an abusive relationship … or maybe it’s us. And how people treat us, how people make us feel, has a huge impact on the way we navigate in this world and deal with and recover from trauma. How we treat our clients is the same: how we make them feel will make a difference in how they recover and how they reintegrate back into society. Doing that with compassion and empathy will make all the difference.
Celebrating Multi-disciplinary Scholarship
To purchase any of these texts: Dr. Aliyah Dosani – Community Health Nursing: A Canadian Perspective (forthcoming 2024 with Pearson Canada) Dr. Natalie Meisner – It Begins in
Did you know: Opioids
The statistics and information for this post can be found here: The Alberta Substance Use Surveillance System Alberta opioid deaths surpass 1,000 in 2022 More
Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian Perspective, 3rd Ed.
The 3rd edition is published by Emond and is the only text that addresses the criminal justice issues that surround criminalized women, victimized women, and
Sexual Violence Policies and Sexual Consent Education at Canadian PSIs
D. Scharie Tavcer and Vicky Dobkins. This book published by Routledge, is the culmination of three years of research into sexual violence policies and sexual
Consent 101
The Consent 101 online module is one of the outcomes from my three-year research project about sexual consent education at post-secondary institutions across Canada. The
Canadian Criminal Law and the Criminal Code
Oxford University Press Within Canadian criminal law there is reform including how the system approaches its colonial foundations. When teaching this material, I see how
Scholarship & researcH
- Feminist lens to understanding crime, law, gendered violence, and the criminal justice system.
- Intersectional examination of gendered-violence, sexual violence, and sexual consent education.
- Criminalized people and the challenges they face reintegrating into the community.
- Trauma informed care and practices.
- Occupational stress injuries in justice workers.
- Criminal law and sentencing.
- Research Associate with the University of Guelph Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence.
- Advisor for the Gender-Based Violence Collective.
Education & experience
- Doctorate in Sociology, major in Criminology (2007) with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law and the Albert-Ludwigs Universität both in Freiburg, Germany.
- Masters of European Criminology (2000) with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Belgium.
- Dr. Tavcer worked for the Correctional Services of Canada in Alberta & British Columbia, as a parole officer, correctional worker, and program therapist.
- Member on the Board of Directors Governance Committee for NextGenMen.
- Canadian Sociological Association Book Award Adjudication Committee member (2023).