NCJ Number
152335
Date Published
1994
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This report is a commentary on a 1994 workshop that discussed various proposals for amendments to Canada's Young Offenders Act (YOA).
Abstract
Workshop participants included academics, government officials, and professionals who work in the youth justice system. There was strong consensus at the meeting that the problems that do exist in the juvenile justice system are largely problems of administration rather than of the YOA itself. Generally, workshop participants believed that decisionmakers have not had sufficient direction on what the YOA is to achieve and how it should be administered. There was support for an overall strategy that would educate the public about the nature of youth crime and the limits on the ability of the juvenile justice system to impact it, that would focus resources and attention on prevention, that would provide clear direction to the Provinces on the administration of the YOA, and that would limit any significant changes in the YOA being contemplated for the near future that are likely to have complex, unpredictable, or undesired impacts. The preferred strategy would also create a bill that has a balanced approach in the manner in which it suggests crime be addressed under the YOA. This report also presents a framework for action and a declaration of principle. Other topics considered in the context of workshop discussions are dispositions, overuse of custody, maximum lengths of dispositions, increasing disposition lengths for first and second degree murder, and transfers of juveniles to adult court. Other issues discussed are dangerous young offenders, ensuring treatment, preservation of records of findings of guilt, the publicizing of names, and issues for the longer term review of the YOA.