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, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University
Areas of Scholarship & research
- Feminist lens to understanding crime, social disorder, and the criminal justice system.
- Intersectional examination of gendered-violence, sexual violence, and interpersonal violence.
- 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.
- Research Associate with the Centre for Research on Youth at Risk at St. Thomas University. The Centre is the Eastern hub of the Students Commission of Canada/Centre of Excellence for Youth Engagement.
- Committee member for the Board of Directors of NextGenMen.
- Canadian Sociological Association Award Adjudication Committee member.
- Advisory member 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 in Leuven, Belgium.
- Prior to a career in academia, Dr. Tavcer worked for the Correctional Services of Canada in Alberta and British Columbia, as a parole officer, correctional worker, and program therapist in a violent offender treatment program.
- Dr. Tavcer has served as on the Board of Directors with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary; as a researcher and advocate in various projects with the United Way of Calgary & Area, CEASE Edmonton, the Shift Program, RESET Society, Fear is not Love Shelter, and the Justice Sector Constellation of the Poverty Reduction Coalition of Calgary.

Consent 101
An online sexual consent module. Forthcoming. In the meantime, please read this summary.

Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian Perspective, 3rd Ed.
Women and the Criminal Justice System: A Canadian Perspective, 3rd Edition is the only text of its kind to address the experiences of female offenders,

“Good People with Good Intentions”: Deconstructing a Post-Secondary Institution’s Sexual Violence Policy Construction
New research by Dr. Irene Shankar and Dr. D. Scharie Tavcer finds that despite members’ intentions, the committees that construct post-secondary institutions’ sexual violence policies lack

Courage to Act: Sexual Consent Education at Canadian PSIs
Dr. Tavcer asks what can be done differently to reduce the prevalence of sexual violence on campus, especially in the face of dwindling budgets and

An Introduction to Criminal Law: A textbook for criminal justice programs and students
Expected spring 2023 in print and ebook editions. Forthcoming publication with Oxford University Press, my text grew from my years of teaching in an undergraduate

I’m tired of talking about consent
For years I have studied sexual violence. It’s an issue that divides people in the room. Whenever I tell folx what I research they either