D. Scharie Tavcer
Director of Research
Mount Royal University
Dr. D. Scharie Tavcer joined Mount Royal University in 2004 and is an Associate Professor in the Criminal Justice Degree Program. She teaches Introduction to Criminology; Introduction to the Criminal Justice System; Crisis Intervention Strategies; Introduction to Criminal Law; Corrections; and Women and the Criminal Justice System. Dr. Tavcer believes in teaching that has components of experiential learning and/or community service learning. This involves incorporating lived experience into her lectures through guests or off-campus events and providing students with real world scenarios with real people in real situations.
Dr. Tavcer completed a doctorate in Sociology, major in Criminology in 2007 with the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law and the Albert-Ludwigs Universität both in Freiburg, Germany; a Masters in European Criminology in 2001 from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Leuven, Belgium; a Bachelor of Arts major in Psychology/Sociology in 1997 from the University of Alberta; and a Diploma of Law Enforcement & Security from Grant MacEwan College.
Prior to a career in academia, Dr. Tavcer worked for the Correctional Services Canada with male offenders in halfway houses, community residential facilities, as a parole officer, and program therapist, in Alberta and British Columbia.
Today, her academic endeavours revolve around social justice issues particular to women and marginalized populations in the justice system. From a community-based perspective and a feminist lens, Dr. Tavcer teaches and researches addiction & mental illness, sex work & sex trafficking, gendered violence, sexual violence policies and programming at post-secondary institutions, criminal law and its application, and occupational stress injuries in first responders.
Dr. Tavcer has also served on the board of directors with the Elizabeth Fry Society of Calgary, NextGenMen; on the book award committee for the Canadian Sociological Society; as an advisor for the Gender Based Violence Resource Collective; and as a Research Associate with The Centre for the Study of Social and Legal Responses to Violence. She’s also a member of the European Society of Criminology, Western Society of Criminology, Canadian Law & Society Association, and American Society of Criminology-Victimology.
Take a look at her publications:
Women and the criminal justice system: A Canadian perspective (3rd edition)
Criminal Law and the Criminal Code
Sexual violence policies and sexual consent education at Canadian post-secondary institutions
Dr. Tavcer is Editor-in-Chief of (De)constructing Criminology: International Perspectives which is an international journal which publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed, and open access works in criminology and its adjacent disciplines. The journal provides a broad forum to deconstruct criminology, its established power structures, and the dominant understandings of criminology and its adjacent disciplines.
My goals as the Director of Research:
Re-engage relationships with academic institutions across Canada to gather an inventory of research and scholarship related to police education. This inventory and its researchers, staff, and faculty can be emphasized by posting info in a quarterly newsletter, AGM invitations, AGM invitations to present, and support undergraduate and graduate students in their scholarship.
In conjunction with other Execs, develop a communication strategy. Develop and distribute a quarterly newsletter of police education initiatives and scholarship.
Re-engage relationships with police services across Canada to identify who is a leader in police training and education (professional development and otherwise). This inventory could inform the AGM as speakers, they could be connected to scholars at academic institutions.