Marie-Andrée Bertrand (June 12, 1925March 6, 2011) was a French-Canadian criminologist, a feminist and anti-prohibitionist.

Biography

Bertrand was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

and started her career as a social worker for female offenders, mainly

prostitutes Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pen ...

. In 1963, she received a master's degree from the

Université de Montréal The Université de Montréal (UdeM; ; translates to University of Montreal) is a French-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university's main campus is located in the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood of Côte- ...

. She went on to study criminology at the School of Criminology,

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where she got her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1967. She held a professorship in criminology at the School of Criminology,

. She continued to work, until her death, doing research, teaching and publishing. In 1999/2000 and again in 2000/2001, she taught a course on "Gender, Colour and Legal Norms" in the Masters Program at the

International Institute for the Sociology of Law The International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL) in Oñati is the only international establishment which is entirely devoted to teaching and promoting the sociology of law, socio-legal studies, and law and society research. The IISL i ...

in Onati, Spain. Marie-Andrée Bertrand died on March 6, 2011, in Montreal.

Main areas of research

The focus of Bertrand's research was on three areas:

drug policy A drug policy is the policy regarding the control and regulation of psychoactive substances (commonly referred to as drugs), particularly those that are addictive or cause physical and mental dependence. While drug policies are generally implemen ...

, the treatment of women by

criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...

agencies, and, more generally, critical, feminist theory concerning criminology and

sociology of law The sociology of law (legal sociology, or law and society) is often described as a sub-discipline of sociology or an interdisciplinary approach within legal studies. Some see sociology of law as belonging "necessarily" to the field of sociology ...

. Among her main works is an international comparison of female

criminality In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

(1979, 2003) and a comparative analysis of women's

prisons A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

(1998).

Activism

Bertrand went beyond mere academic work in several fields. As a young professor, she served as one of 5 Commissioners on the Le Dain Commission, which was charged to look into the effects of non-medical drug use on Canadian society. The commission's final report came out in favour of repealing the prohibition against simple possession of cannabis (3 of the Commissioners: LeDain, Lehmann and Stein), along with two minority reports one to maintain the prohibition for all cannabis offences (Campbell) and the other, by Marie-Andree Bertrand, to adopt full legalization of cannabis. Later, she joined

Marco Pannella Marco Pannella (born Giacinto Pannella; 2 May 1930 – 19 May 2016) was an Italian politician, journalist and activist. He was well known in his country for his nonviolence and civil rights' campaigns, like the right to divorce, the right to a ...

and his International Antiprohibitionist League, becoming eventually president of the organization. Among her causes was also the abolition of prisons, which goal she called "a necessary utopia". But first and last, she was an untiring feminist. As late as 2007, she is being quoted as saying: "A retired feminist does not easily repose and has no desire to do so".Obituary from Bernard Voyer, National Order of Québec
downloaded March 10, 2011

Publications (selection)

* ''Self-image and social representations of female offenders : a comparative study of female criminality in seven countries'', Doctoral thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1967. Reprint: ''Self image and social representation of female offenders: a contribution to the study of women's image in some societies''. Ann Arbor, Michigan 1974. * ''La femme et le crime.'' Montréal 1979. * ''Perspectives féministes sur le droit pénal », Actes du Premier sommet mondial : Femmes et multidiniensionnalité du pouvoir, Montréal.'' 1990, pp. 138-140. * ''From La donna delinquente to a postmodern deconstruction of the "woman question" in social control theory.'' In: The Journal of Human Justice, 5, 2, Spring 1994, pp. 43–57. * ''The place and status of feminist criminology in Germany, Denmark, Norway and Finland.'' In: N. Rafter und F. Heidensohn (Hrsg.): ''International Feminist Perspectives on Criminology - Engendering a Discipline.'' 1995, S. 107–124. * ''Constructivism and postmodernism seen from feminism.'' In: Politischer Wandel, Gesellschaft und Kriminalitatdiskurse. Festschrift in Honour of Fritz Sack, Trutz von Trotha, editor, Baden-Baden, Nomos Publishing Co., 1996, pp. 167–181. * ''Women in Prisons: A Comparative Study.'' In: ''Caribbean Journal of Criminology and Social Psychology'', 1996, 1, 1, pp. 38–58 * ''Prisons pour femmes.'' (with Louise Biron et al.) Montréal 1998. * ''Le Droit comme Instrument de Mondialisation.'' In: J. Feest (Hrsg.): ''Globalization and Legal Cultures.'' Onati 1999, S. 113–139. * ''Incarceration as a Gendering Strategy''. In: ''Canadian Journal of Law and Society'', 1999, 14, 1, pp. 45–60 (Sondernummer über Gender, Ethnizität, (Hetero)Sexualität und Normen. Herausgegeben von Marie-Andrée Bertrand). * ''Les femmes et la criminalité.'' Montréal 2003. * ''Le reve d'une societé sans risques.'' In: ''Drogues, santé et societé.'' Band 4, Nr. 2, Dezember 2005, S. 9–48. * ''Comparing women's prisons: epistemological and methodological issues.'' In: D. Nelken (Hrsg.) ''Contrasting Criminal Justice.'' Aldershot 2006, 117–135.

References and footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bertrand, Marie Andree Canadian sociologists Canadian criminologists Université de Montréal faculty 1925 births 2011 deaths Officers of the National Order of Quebec Canadian women sociologists Canadian women criminologists