Only abstracts of full articles are contained in these Web pages. Research notes and commentaries are usually not summarized into abstracts. Readers who need the complete texts should contact the CCJA and subscribe to the Journal. They can also purchase single copies of back issues that are still in stock.
THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT: NEW DIRECTIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES
Richard Barnhorst
Department of Justice Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
This article explains some of the Youth Criminal Justice Act's key provisions and policy directions. It also identifies implementation issues that can significantly influence how the youth justice system operates under the YCA. Major objectives of the act include reducing the use of the youth court and reducing the use of incarceration.
The YCJA emphasizes restraint, accountability, proportionality, and greater structuring of the discretion of decision makers. It contains provisions to encourage the use of extrajudicial measures, including a presumption that non-violent first offenders should be dealt with through extrajudicial measures. Conferences are recognized as a potentially useful means of improving decision making. Pre-trial detention is prohibited for child welfare purposes and presumed to be unnecessary if the youth could not be sentenced to custody. The sentencing principles set out a new approach to sentencing. Sentences must be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and, within the limits of proportionality, must promote rehabilitation. The sentencing provisions also place specific restrictions on the use of custody.
Implementation issues include appropriate use of available funding, the risk of net-widening, the adequacy of provincial policies and guidelines for police and prosecutors, conditions of release, and the interpretation of provisions related to proportionality, rehabilitation, and restrictions on custody.
Implementation issues include appropriate use of available funding, the risk of net-widening, the adequacy of provincial policies and guidelines for police and prosecutors, conditions of release, and the interpretation of provisions related to proportionality, rehabilitation, and restrictions on custody.
THE FIRST MONTHS UNDER THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT: A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF CASE LAW
Nicolas Bala
Faculty of Law, Queen's University
Kingston, Ontario
Sanjeev Anand
Faculty of Law, University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
The Youth Criminal Justice Act was enacted to reduce the use of court and incarceration for young offenders who commit less serious crimes, while making it easier to impose adult sanctions on those youths who commit the most serious violent offences. Preliminary reports indicate that the act has resulted in significant increases in community-based responses to youth crime. Most judges seem to recognize that the YCJA makes proportionate accountability the dominant sentencing principle, although they also recognize the YCJA's limitations on the use of custody and rehabilitative principles. Further, a Quebec Court of Appeal judgement ruled unconstitutional some of the "get tough" provisions of the act that were intended to facilitate the imposition of adult sanctions for the most serious violent young offenders; but that decision also indicated that youth courts should "balance" accountability concerns with a consideration of the needs of young offenders.
WHAT DID QUEBEC NOT WANT? OPPOSITION TO THE ADOPTION OF THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT IN QUEBEC
Jean Trépanier
École de criminologie et C.I.C.C., Université de Montréal
Montréal, Québec
The review of the Young Offenders Act highlighted major differences between Quebec, where it was opposed, and other parts of Canada, where the act was discredited. This article is an attempt to understand contextual elements that may explain this split and to describe briefly the orientation of the positions taken by Quebec actors. Contextual elements include a deep-rooted rehabilitation approach in service for young offenders; changes that predated the YOA and paved the way for its acceptance in Quebec; a lesser degree of Americanization of perceptions; and a perception that the review responded to political rather than policy needs. New legislation was viewed a unnecessary since desired changes could be made under the YOA. The law that was to replace the YOA was an attempt to impose a criminal justice model that was viewed as a step backwards that would threaten the educative and rehabilitation approach that had inspired the youth justice system built over the years in Quebec.
HARMONIZING THE SENTENCING OF YOUNG AND ADULT OFFENDERS: A COMPARISON OF THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT AND PART XXIII OF THE CRIMINAL CODE
Julian V. Roberts
Department of Criminology, University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
This brief article reviews the principal sentencing provisions of the new Youth Criminal Justice Act, and explores their relationship to sentencing at the adult court level. As well, a number of normative issues raised by the YCJA are addressed. It is clear that a central goal of the act is to harmonize sentencing at the adult and youth court levels. However, several important differences remain, including the following: (1) the statement of purpose of sentencing in youth justice courts lays more emphasis on rehabilitation; (2) although the utilitarian sentencing objectives of deterrence, denunciation, and incapacitation are relevant to the sentencing of adults, they are not stated objectives for sentencing juveniles; (3) while important, proportionality plays a lesserrole in the sentencing of juvenile offenders, although the influence of the principle will increase with the age of the young person; (4) courts should resort to the incarceration of the offender less often when sentencing juvenile offenders; (5) when considering the principle of parity in sentencing, the frame of reference for youth courts should be the region in which the individual is being sentenced; there is no such statutory direction at the adult level.
AN ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR SEVERITY AND PROPORTIONALITY IN THE SENTENCING OF YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS
Jody Barber and Anthony N. Doob
Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto
Toronto, ON
This study provides some data regarding public support for certain principles in the Youth Criminal Justice Act. It focuses on the concept of proportionality and explores the relationship between support for proportionality and support for more severe sentences. Date were obtained from 150 respondents to a questionnaire distributed in various neighbourhoods in Toronto during May and June 2002. The findings suggest strong support for proportionality, particularly amongst those who view sentencing under the Young Offenders Act as too lenient. However, although those favouring proportionality and those favouring harsher youth court sentences tend to overlap, support for each of these may develop in somewhat different ways. The findings suggest that few people would support or oppose all aspects of the YCJA. Thus if the government's goal was to try to give something to everyone, they may have succeeded.
CONFERENCING IN THE YOUTH CRIMINAL JUSTICE ACT OF CANADA: POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
Doug Hillian
Youth Justice Consultant, Central/Upper Vancouver Island,
Ministry of Children and Family Development, British Columbia
Courtenay, British Columbia
Marge Reitsma-Street
Studies in Policy and Practice
Faculty of Human and Social Development, University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
Jim Hackler
Department of Sociology, University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia
The Youth Criminal Justice Act encourages but does not mandate conferencing. Conferencing is a process that brings people together to give advice regarding a decision required following the commission of a harmful, illegal act by a young person. It draws upon practices from diversion and restorative justice movements in juvenile justice. The article presents recent developments in conferencing policies and practices in British Columbia that may be used at various stages of judicial proceedings, and the roles played by different participants. The authors discuss several key issues that need to be evaluated as conferencing develops: the support required to encourage use of conferencing; its focus on minor or serious crimes; and the paradoxical initiatives that promote and restrict community participation in conferencing.
WORKING "IN THE TRENCHES" WITH THE YCJA
Peter Harris
Metro East Court
Scarborough, Ontario
Brian Weagant
Downtown Toronto Youth Court
Toronto, Ontario
Fern Weinper
York Region
Newmarket, Ontario
Four Toronto-area youth court judges describe aspects of working "in the trenches" with the YCJA in the first six months following 1 April 2003. All agree that the philosophical premises animating the YCJA hold out considerable promise to reduce the mostly futile "turnover of bodies", which regrettably characterizes so much of criminal justice processing in Canada. Each judge presides in a different courthouse, with different local practices and organizational priorities, so their experiences and expectations vary considerably. Providing examples from their four courthouses, the judges attempt to demonstrate that the mindset of many criminal justice professionals - and government funders - continues to be based on the assumption that it is still mostly "business as usual" in youth court.
