NCJ Number
208541
Journal
Criminal Justice Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Dated: November 2004 Pages: 355-374
Date Published
November 2004
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes recent political rhetoric and opinion on the subject of youth crime in Canada.
Abstract
Adopting a social constructionist perspective, the author looks particularly at the Young Offenders Act of 1984 and the new Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2002. Current controversy over how to respond to youth crime has roots in differing views on the causes of crime in society and in differing ideological assumptions about human nature and the degree to which individuals are responsible for their behavior. The author illustrates the ways in which the current debates surrounding the Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2002 reflect these ideological differences. There is generally a wide divide between the rhetoric surrounding youth crime and justice and its reality and, although widely and loudly decried as a public crisis, youth crime and justice in Canada has hardly reached the point of crisis. Indeed, it is charged that the political rhetoric regarding youth crime and justice does little more than obscure the true picture of youth and crime. If the rhetoric is not altered, the author charges that it will lead to an on-going cycle of controversy that in the long run will stymie true criminal justice reform efforts and real attempts at effective crime prevention. Notes, references