Youth Criminal Action in Canada free essay sample

There has been a significant increase in criminal activity among youth in Canada, in recent years, threatening the safety of future generations. People are beginning to recognize this fact and are concerned whether or not the justice system will be able to protect them from the rise in crime. The justice system utilizes many resources to correct criminal behaviors in the youth of today. Strain on the courts and corrections divisions of the justice system have been amplified directly resulting from these youth offenses causing a greater need for probation officers, rehabilitation and correction centers, school resource officers and extracurricular activities such as sports or specialized programs that keep youth off the streets. What types of crimes are being committed by youth and why are they committing these crimes? Do they realize the effect that their actions have on the victims and their families? What consequences are there for their actions and how can society deter youth from participating in criminal activity? How has Canada’s youth justice system changed over the years and more importantly how effective is the criminal justice system in assisting youth criminals enlisted to their care programs? The youth of today are the future of tomorrow. We will write a custom essay sample on Youth Criminal Action in Canada or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In order for our children and grandchildren to live in a safe and secure society, we must examine the resources that we currently have in place, and make extensive efforts to reduce criminal activity in Canadian youth now. The types of crimes committed by youth have been becoming more serious over the last 50 years in Canada. Children have been known for petty crimes, such as shoplifting a candy bar or a soda, but crimes have become much more extreme in recent years. Although murder, aggravated assault and sexual assault are a smaller portion of youth crime, it is still a huge scare to society. How can people feel secure in their communities if there are fifteen year old killers and rapists skulking about? According to Canadian court statistics, the youth crime rate rose dramatically, between the years of 1984 and 1991. These crimes were mainly property offenses such as breaking and entering, vandalism and graffiti. Other charges include sexual, physical and verbal harassment. The average annual increase in the rate of youth charged with violent incidents was 11% between 1986 and 1994, while the rate of youth charged with property crimes dropped 2% for the same period of time. From 1996 to 2000, the percentage of violent crimes involving youth was 16 percent while the percentage of property offenses involving youth was 30 percent. An alarming fact is that the Canadian youth homicide rate is higher than that of many other countries. Victims of violent crimes are almost always committed by youths against other youths. On an evening in November, 1997, a 14 year old girl, Reena Virk, was beaten severely by peers of the same age in British Columbia. Later that night, two other teens found her and killed her. The trial for the assailants ended up in multiple assault charges, as well as two second-degree murder charges for two of the attackers when they were arrested later in November of 1997. This is an example of just how severe criminal actions in youth have become. Adolescents who on their own would not usually engage in violent activities become involved with gangs who commit these kinds of crimes. Often times, a new gang member must perform a criminal act of initiation to prove their worthiness to be a gang member. Once they are a member of the gang, they would be willing to commit many more criminal actions, escalating to drug trafficking, assaults and theft along with many other summary and indictable offenses. Based on the previous information criminal activity has been on the rise in young offenders, both in numbers and severity, in recent years in Canada. There is a lot of attention paid to the types of crimes being committed by youths, but not many people ever ask why they perpetrate crimes. During early adolescence, many young people break the law, due to the fact that they lack self confidence or they have a lack of respect for property, as well as other people. Adolescents who were abused or neglected as children are prone to violent behaviour. A study of over 3000 10 and 11 year old Canadian children revealed that aggressive children are more likely than other children to feel unhappy, rejected and have a negative self-image. Very aggressive children are more likely than other children to be bullied and have negative relationships with friends, parents and teachers. Some youths break the law just because they don’t have anything productive to do. Others are just young and naive, and make irrational decisions, resulting in mistakes. Parental conflict, spousal abuse, parents who are involved in criminal activity or who abuse alcohol or drugs can negatively affect a youth’s respect for the law. If a child is growing up in a home where his father abuses himself and his mother, he is bound to believe that this is normal and beat up his peers at school. I recall being in school with another boy who used to constantly pick fights with other students on a daily basis. Later I found out that he was in a home with an abusive father. Also, both of his parents were drug and alcohol users, so eventually he was relocated to live with his uncle in another city. Youths who leave home and live on the streets are more likely to commit crimes. Another very big reason youths are delinquent is peer pressure. A child’s behaviour can sometimes change when they’re with friends. A perfect example of this can be referenced from my childhood. I had one friend that I would often cause havoc with around the neighborhood. When apart from him I would not misbehave the way that we would when we were together. At one point we harassed a young man at his home by disturbing his dog, yard and vehicles. His response was to chase us down the street. He caught up to my friend and assaulted him, which resulted in charges being laid against the man, as well as fines for myself and my friend. Our foolish actions were directly related to our dares and bets against each other on who could do something funnier. Even more influential on young people than friends are gangs. Gangs will often recruit young people in the school systems because they have direct access to other young people who are openly vulnerable to trying drugs. Youth are also much easier to convince to join a gang than adults are. Many drug pushers use young kids on street corners, or near playgrounds and other inconspicuous locations, to do deals for them, as a kid will not get the same sentence as an adult would for selling and trafficking drugs. As well, it is easier to instill fear in a kid than it is in an adult. If the kid did get caught, he wouldn’t divulge any names of gang members to the police, for fear of retribution. It is easier to be empathetic for troubled adolescents when we understand the reasons behind their law breaking behavior. We also sympathize with the victims of crimes and their families. Science says that every action has an equal and opposite reaction which is true when dealing with criminal activities; in this case it is the effects on the victims. If a kid breaks a window, the owner of the property has to pay to have the window replaced. The same rule would apply to any other crime, but the effects are not always so minor. Many victims or other family members associated with the victim may need to seek professional help, like a psychiatrist, to help them get over the traumatic incident they have recently experienced. Referring back to the Reena Virk killing of 1997, when she was beaten to death by her peers, her death was not simply the end of the story. Her family would have grieved her loss. Her father wrote a book about his life and his family involving the things they used to do leading up to the time of her murder. He said writing the novel helped him to recover from the loss. The murder trials dragged out for almost 10 years before the accused killer was found guilty after 3 trials. It must be unimaginable and unbearable to lose a child in this way. Not only is the victim harmed when someone commits an offence against them, but everyone in society is affected in some way. People will feel threatened until the perpetrator is brought to justice and placed in a corrections institution away from the public. Restorative Justice Programs, also known as Alternative Justice Programs, are an alternative to incarceration uniting victims, offenders and the community. Different from traditional approaches, these programs focus on using joint problem solving to deal with the harmful effects of crime, holding the offenders accountable for their crimes and giving them opportunity to make amends. One of the 3 types of Restorative Justice Programs is Victim-Offender Mediation. This program involves the victim, the offender and a mediator who try to come to an agreement on appropriate payment and/or services for the offence. Secondly, there is Family Group Conferencing involving the victim, offender, family members, community support groups, police officers, social welfare officials and lawyers. The offender and his/her family discuss restitution privately before presenting it as an offer. Thirdly, Victim-Offender Panels provide opportunity for closure. Victims and offenders, linked by similar crimes, express their feelings about the offence, with a moderator issuing guidelines. This program is useful where victims and offenders refuse to meet or are unable to meet. Both offenders and victims suffer when crimes are committed. When young people break the law they may be punished in several different ways. The judge will weigh the facts presented in each case to decide what kind of retribution is appropriate for each situation. The main goal of sentencing is to protect the public, including protection of the person, their property and their individual rights and freedoms. Retribution satisfies the public that the offender has paid for the crime and discourages people from committing crimes. The principles for sentencing young people are set out in Section 38 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. A young person will be held accountable by imposing a fair and meaningful sentence. The sentence will help in the process of their rehabilitation, directly proportionate to the crime that they have committed, and cannot be greater than the sentence an adult would be given for an identical crime. The usual sentence does not exceed 2 years. Serious criminal offences will last up to 3 years, 1st degree murder can be up to 10 years and 2nd degree murder can be to a maximum of 7 years. Sometimes rehabilitation will be imposed on an offender, to treat problems that interfere with the offender’s ability to function in society, for example medical treatment for drug/alcohol dependency. Restitution requires offenders to pay society back for the injury, loss and suffering they caused by performing community service or paying a fine. A fine is a specific amount of money paid to the court by the offender as punishment for a crime that has a minimum sentence of imprisonment and a maximum prison term of less than 5 years. Failing to pay the fine may result in a prison term. Probation is another sentence allowing a convicted offender to live in the community under close supervision and subject to certain restrictions. Probation can be in addition to or in replacement of a prison term. Most of the time the probation officers will assign curfews, set mandatory one-on-one meetings regularly with their subjects, require the youths to attend school for every class and appear in court if they are required to. Also, probation officers could confine the youths to a designated area, like from school to home, and could require them to perform community service work. In some rare cases subjects will be confined to their own houses. Leaving a certain perimeter would be considered breaching the probation rules. More serious offences would require a young offender to be placed in open custody in a group home or wilderness camp, where the youth would still attend school, have a curfew, attend meals and do chores. Being put into a youth correctional facility under secure custody is reserved for serious and repeat offenders, and is often seen as a last resort for more extreme crimes, as it prevents youth from being with their families and attending school. Most facilities have education, counseling and recreation but this varies from place to place. Finally, strict discipline facilities referred to as boot camps are physically demanding and tightly supervised. 2/3rds of the sentence is served in custody and the last 1/3rd of the sentence is served in the community under supervision. The above-mentioned methods of punishing youth for their crimes should deter them from breaking the law. It is very difficult to interpret how efficiently we deal with young offenders in today’s society without looking into the past. At one point in time in Canada, children at the age of 7 and over could be tried as adults. Reformers believed that children lacked the maturity and judgment to take full responsibility for their actions and needed to be handled differently than adults. They also claimed that with proper guidance children could be rehabilitated more easily than adults. In 1908 the Juvenile Delinquents Act came into effect in Canada stating that youth offenders will be treated as misdirected children rather than criminals. This is when the justice system began sending them to custody facilities like training schools where they would be given disciplinary and vocational lessons. In the 1970’s, many Canadians thought the welfare approach was not working any longer, as there was a very high rate of recidivism in juvenile offenders released from these schools. Judges and police had considerable power in deciding how children who broke the law would be treated. The upper age limit of an offender was 16 to 18 years of age and this varied from province to province. A 17 year old offender could be tried as an adult in one province and a juvenile in another. The Act did not recognize the legal rights of youths which were heavily advocated with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982. Then in 1984 Canadian law was refined again and the Young Offenders Act came into being. Very significant changes were made to the way we dealt with youths. The minimum age was changed from 7 to 12 and the maximum age was extended to 18 in all provinces. Youths were still being held accountable for their criminal acts but to a lesser degree than adult offenders. Serious charges could land the perpetrator in adult court. Rights of youths according to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as additional rights for juveniles due to their age and vulnerability, were extended to all Canadian youths. An increase in the number of reported crimes by youths in the early 1990’s brought an outcry from the public for a tougher approach to youths committing violent crimes and repeat offenders. More revisions increased the maximum murder sentence from 3 years to 10 years for minors. Many organizations and political figures continued to lobby the federal government for tougher legislation in the mid 1990’s. The result was the passing of the Youth Criminal Justice Act in 2002 which came into effect in 2003. Under this Act, children under 12 who break the law or commit serious crimes cannot be held criminally responsible, as they are incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of a criminal act, and are to be dealt with by their parents or according to the provincial or territorial welfare and mental health laws. It concentrates on conditions underlying a youth’s behavior and focuses on measures that will attempt to rehabilitate the youth and makes the sentence match the crime. For young people committing minor crimes measures other than custody are to be considered. In the past, youths would be separated from society to try to correct their behaviors, but now members of the youth’s family, the victim, youth workers and members of the community become involved in the process. However, adult sentences can still be imposed for murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, aggravated sexual assault and repeat serious offences. Furthermore, the identities of youth offenders and any other youths involved in the trial will not be published during the trial to ensure that the rehabilitation of the youth will not be hindered in any way. Only after the youth is sentenced can the name of the youth be disclosed. In addition, the law now protects youth from making false confessions, as they have a right to have a lawyer present during questioning and to consult a parent or guardian. No oral or written statement made by a person less than 18 years of age is admissible in court unless the statement was voluntary. Children, who broke the law before the Youth Criminal Justice Act came into effect, were treated much differently than they are today. All the changes made to the Canadian youth justice system over the years are meaningless unless the public has confidence in the system and the reduction of crime is evident. The Canadian approach is to heavily incarcerate violent, high risk criminals and find alternatives to incarceration for low-risk, non-violent offenders. It is more difficult for youths to be incarcerated under the new act because numerous studies have shown that rehabilitation of youths occurs best while they are still involved in the community. It is theory versus reality; it gives them a chance to see how to correct what they have done wrong rather than to just be told what is correct. Troubled youths already feel rejected by parents, teachers and peers. When the state imprisons them, they feel as if they are being abandoned and rejected by the state as well, leading to further anger and disparity in these youths. Placing kids in detention centers can be disruptive as they are prevented from attending school and being with family. These centers can also be dirty, overcrowded and have little or no planned activities. As well, the cost for correctional facilities is extremely high. Prison is the most expensive but the toughest penalty for offenders. Federal and provincial systems cost $2 billion annually. One offender in a provincial in a federal prison for 365 days costs nearly $55,000 annually, $26,000 yearly for a half-way house and $12,000 for supervision of an inmate on parole. These numbers can be put into perspective. There are 120 incarcerated individuals for every 100,000 Canadians. There is no conclusive evidence to show that prison has a deterrent effect, reduces crime, or reduces the rate of recidivism. The goal of all rehabilitation programs for youths is to correct their behavior by breaking the cycle. Breaking the cycle of their behavior will successfully set them on the right path in their lives so they can be better people, but how difficult is this to accomplish? Recidivism is defined by offenders recommitting crimes within 5 years of their release from their last rehabilitation program. Programs that match the treatment to the offender’s needs have been shown to reduce recidivism rates by 50% on average. Incarceration is only a way to fix a problem temporarily. When people are jailed for life sentences they become reliant on the system and need the system to supply their basic needs. This is because they become institutionalized, meaning they only know how to live with the prison telling them what to do. Inmates who were released after life sentences would often recommit crimes just to have a safe place to sleep at night, because they cannot support themselves- they do not know how. The Youth Offenders Act gives juveniles extra-judicial sanctions. These community-based programs give the youth a chance to make amends for the crime committed instead of going to court. For example, if a youth was caught vandalizing a park, the youth would be required to plant flowers or rake leaves in a public park for a designated number of hours per week as retribution. According to many professionals who work with youths, this type of program helps reduce the rate of recidivism, which benefits society in the long run. Next, studies indicate that Restorative Justice Programs, discussed previously, benefit both victims and offenders, reduces fear and anxiety among victims and decreases incidence of criminal behavior. Also, these programs ease the backlog in the courts, lower court and prison costs and keep offenders away from the negative influence of hardened criminals in prison. In conclusion, a higher percentage of Canadians are satisfied than dissatisfied with the justice system. International comparisons have shown that the levels of public confidence in criminal justice are higher in Canada than in many other countries and as stated in a review of the criminal courts in England and Wales â€Å"public confidence is not so much an aim of a good criminal justice system, but a consequence of it† (Auld 2001:18).