CRM 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Youth Criminal Justice Act, Young Offenders Act, Juvenile Delinquency

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 100
• Professor: Dan Horner

Document Summary

Dealings with children under the age of 18. Children acknowledged as less morally culpable, blameworthy. Young people not being tried as adults, but being sentenced as adults. Since 1920s, effort to treat children differently from adults. Treating children as distinct entities and are less developed than adults: age of 18 is where the line is drawn between child and adult. A controversial issue: youth crime itself is a controversial issue, followed up with huge public outrage, many think, especially considering with due process model, that we are too lenient with youth crime. Three major pieces of legislation that have guided how we deal with youth crime. I(cid:374)(cid:272)ar(cid:272)eratio(cid:374) (cid:374)ot the (cid:373)ost effe(cid:272)ti(cid:448)e pla(cid:272)e to reha(cid:271)ilitate, priso(cid:374)s are (cid:862)fi(cid:374)ishi(cid:374)g s(cid:272)hools(cid:863) Youth criminal justice act, 2003: not about being lenient on young offenders, use formal justice more selectively. Incarceration, while necessary, needs to be more of a last resort: greater focus on rehabilitation and reintegration, not to punish children, but to help them.