Anthony Doob

Ongoing & Future Research

In collaboration with Cheryl Webster, at the University of Ottawa, I have been exploring the stability (and more recently the changes) in criminal justice policies in Canada. Since at least the mid-20 th century, Canada enjoyed a relatively stable rate of imprisonment of adult offenders. At the same time, there were, during this same period, quite dramatic changes in the rates of reported crime and the laws governing punishment. In that context, then, the changes that have taken place since 2006 represent a rather dramatic break from past policies and practices. In addition, I have maintained my interest in the operation of the courts and in the bail system in Canada.

Recent publications

• Webster, Cheryl Marie, Jane B. Sprott and Anthony N. Doob (2019). The Will to Change: Lessons from Canada’s Successful Decarceration of Youth. Law & Society Review. 53(4), 1092–1131.
• Webster, Cheryl Marie and Anthony N. Doob (2019) Missed Opportunities: A Postmortem on Canada’s Experience with the Conditional Sentence. Law and Contemporary Problems, 82(1), 163-197.
• Webster, Cheryl Marie and Anthony N. Doob (2018).  Penal Optimism:  Understanding American Mass Imprisonment from a Canadian Perspective. In Kevin Reitz (ed.) American Exceptionalism in Crime and Punishment.  New York: Oxford University Press. (Pages 121-180)
• Doob, Anthony N. and Cheryl Marie Webster (2016). Weathering the Storm?  Testing Longstanding Canadian Sentencing Policy in the 21st Century. Crime and Justice: A Review of Research, 45, 359-418.  (Michael Tonry, editor)  
• Webster, Cheryl Marie and Anthony N. Doob (2015). American Punitiveness ‘Canadian Style’?: Cultural Values and Canadian Punishment Policy. Punishment & Society 17(3), 299-321.
• Murphy, Yoko, Jane B. Sprott, and Anthony N. Doob (2015) Pardoning people who once offended.  Criminal Law Quarterly, 62, 209-225.
• Doob, Anthony N. and Cheryl Marie Webster (2014). Creating the Will to Change: The Challenges of Decarceration in the United States. Criminology & Public Policy, 13(4), 547-559. 
• Doob, Anthony N., Cheryl Marie Webster, and Allan Manson (2014) Zombie Parole: The Withering of Conditional Release in Canada. Criminal Law Quarterly, 61(3), 301-328.
• Sprott, Jane B. and Anthony N. Doob (2014). Confidence in the Police: Variation Across Groups Classified as Visible Minorities. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 56(3), 367-379.
• Webster, Cheryl Marie and Anthony N. Doob (2014). Penal Reform ‘Canadian Style’: Fiscal Responsibility and Decarceration in Alberta, Canada. Punishment & Society, 16(1), 3-31.