Responding To Youth Crime In Canada

The authors describe what is known about Canadian youth crime, and the operation of the youth justice system in the context of the changes in the law that are taking place. The authors posit that the youth justice system has a relatively modest impact on youth crime. In order to respond intelligently to it and to evaluate the response of the state, two sets of information must be understood. First, society must try to understand what 'youth crime' looks like in Canada. Second, in order to understand 1 and evaluate 1 the changes that are being made in youth justice legislation in Canada, a clear understanding of the manner in which the youth justice system currently operates is necessary.

Antisocial and criminal behaviour involving children and young people have been a cause of heightened public concern in England and Wales for more than a quarter of a century. It has been the subject of numerous policy papers, research studies and academic assessments as well as extensive newspaper, radio and television coverage. This has set the context for an ever expanding volume of legislation seeking to amend and improve society's official response. Yet despite a massive injection of resources into the youth justice system the results achieved have been unimpressive, reoffending remains a persistent problem and the general public appears to have little confidence in the youth justice system. The time is ripe therefore for a new look at the problem of youth offending and government and society's response to this. This book accompanies the Report of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, published 2010. In it leading authorities in the field, from a variety of different disciplines, review youth crime and different responses to it, focussing particularly on England and Wales but also analysing for comparative purposes the nature of responses in other parts of the world, especially Canada. It will be essential reading for practitioners, policy makers, students and others with an interest in addressing one of today's most intractable social problems.

The Youth Criminal Justice Act replaces the Young Offenders Act to provide the legislative framework for a fairer & more effective youth justice system.

A society’s response to youth crime reveals much about its broader cultural values, social circumstances, and political affairs. This book examines reactions and policy responses to youth delinquency and crime in Hong Kong during its colonial and post-colonial periods, and in doing so, underscores the history of Hong Kong itself and its present-day circumstances. Exploring how officials have responded to youth crime in Hong Kong over time, this book tracks the emergence of a penal elitist mode of governance, highlighting concerns not only about young people’s behavior but the need for officials to establish state authority and promote citizen identification. In turn, it reveals an alternative to the ‘usual story’ about youth crime found in many western regions and provides an opportunity to begin to develop a comparative criminology. The book examines the emergence of the ‘disciplinary welfare’ tariff during the 1970s, debates and policy changes related to the minimum age of criminal responsibility and youth sex crimes, and inaction regarding the introduction of restorative justice initiatives in the post-colonial era. It also addresses the power of ‘Post-80s’ youth to protest and challenge government policies, which directly combat contemporary fears regarding the ‘mainlandization’ of Hong Kong. Drawing on archival sources, official reports and interviews with key stakeholders in the juvenile justice system, Responding to Youth Crime in Hong Kong will appeal to students and scholars interested in Chinese society, criminology, social work, sociology and youth studies.

This book presents a critique of the traditional responses to youth crime by criminal justice agencies in Australia, UK, New Zealand, USA, Canada, and a vision of how these agencies could respond more effectively. The critique examines the ways in which traditional criminal justice approaches trap young people into, rather than turn them away from, a life of crime. The vision is for criminal justice agencies - police, courts, and corrections - to become more pro-active partners in society's efforts to guide young people towards becoming happy and productive citizens; for these agencies to focus less on the exercise of retributive powers and to embrace restorative approaches; and for agencies to develop a crime prevention role through partnership with community organisations. Author Paul Omaji argues against concentrating resources on the symptom when the underlying causes are within our intellectual grasp and amenable to effective criminal justice responses. Omaji demonstrates the capacity of criminal justice agencies to become constructive partners with community organisations in preventing youth crime and constructs ground rules for high impact partnerships.

Most youth who come in conflict with the law have experienced some form of trauma, yet many justice professionals are ill-equipped to deal with the effects trauma has on youth and instead reinforce a system that further traumatizes young offenders while ignoring the needs of victims. By taking a trauma-informed perspective, this text provides a much-needed alternative--one that allows for interventions based on principles of healing and restorative justice, rather than on punishment and risk assessment. In addition to providing a comprehensive historical overview of youth justice in Canada, Judah Oudshoorn addresses the context of youth offending by examining both individual trauma--including its emotional, cognitive, and behavioural effects--and collective trauma. The author tackles some of the most difficult problems facing youth justice today, especially the ongoing cycles of intergenerational trauma caused by the colonization of Indigenous peoples and patriarchal violence, and demonstrates how a trauma-informed approach to youth justice can work toward preventing crime and healing offenders, victims, and communities. Featuring a foreword written by Howard Zehr, case stories from the author's own work with victims and offenders, questions for reflection, and annotated lists of recommended readings, this engaging text is the perfect resource for college and university students in the field of youth justice.