NCJ Number
137402
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1992) Pages: 51-74
Date Published
1992
Length
24 pages
Annotation
The nature and extent of legal representation and the factors associated with variations in legal representation prior to the passage of the Young Offenders Act were examined as a first step toward analyzing the effects of the "major change" in Canadian juvenile justice wrought by the guarantee of legal representation.
Abstract
Goodman's modified path analysis, used to analyze observational and file data collected by the National Study on the Functioning of the Juvenile Court in 1981 in five large city juvenile courts, showed large variations in the extent and types of representation between courts. The number and/or seriousness of the current charges had a strong direct positive effect in all five courts on the likelihood of being represented or of being represented by a retained lawyer. Existence of a prior record increased the probability of representation or representation by a retained lawyer in four of the five courts. Extra-legal variables also had some effect on representation. The home or custody situation and school/employment status directly affected the presence and/or type of counsel in two courts. 6 notes, 1 figure, 5 tables, and 24 references (Author abstract modified)