Children in the Justice System Overview

Just Desserts Model

• The Just Desserts model emphasizes retribution and punishment as the primary goals of sentencing.
• This approach focuses on the severity of the crime committed and the offender's culpability, aiming for proportionate punishment.
• The model's effectiveness in reducing reoffending is debated; evidence suggests it might not be particularly effective.

Juvenile Delinquents Act of 1908

• The act emphasized a "parens patriae" principle, where the state acts as a parent to protect children.
• It focused on rehabilitative measures for young offenders, emphasizing their upbringing and individual circumstances.

Negative Outcomes of the Just Desserts Approach

• The Just Desserts approach can lead to harsher sentences for young offenders, potentially increasing recidivism rates.

Ideal Sentencing Model

• The ideal sentencing model aims to balance retributive elements with rehabilitative approaches.
• It seeks to address both the need for punishment and the potential for offender rehabilitation.

Factors Influencing Children's Lies

• Children are more likely to lie when they fear punishment or negative consequences.
• They may also lie to protect themselves or others, or to gain a desired outcome.

Children's Understanding of Lying Cues

• Children generally have difficulty understanding lying cues as effectively as adults.
• They can often be misled by appearances and verbal cues, leading to incorrect judgments about truthfulness.

Parental Role in Child's Lying

• Parents' behavior significantly influences a child's decision to lie.
• Children who witness or experience dishonesty are more likely to lie themselves.

Assessing a Child's Honesty

• One suggested method for assessing a child's honesty involves observing their consistency over time in their accounts.
• This approach examines if their story is consistent throughout interactions and over time.

Reasons Why Children Might Lie

• Children might lie to avoid punishment, gain rewards, impress others, or protect themselves or others.

Deciding Child Witness Capability

• The judge ultimately decides whether a child can testify in court.

Concerns Regarding Child Testimony

• A major concern is the potential for manipulation or suggestibility in child witnesses due to their age.
• It raises concerns about the reliability of their testimony.

Detecting Lies by Children

• Children typically begin to understand when another child is lying around the age of 7.

Hindering Child Testimony

• Factors that can hinder a child from providing testimony include fear, anxiety, trauma, or the inability to express themselves effectively.

Judge's Disagreement on Child's Testimony

• Two judges may reach different conclusions about a child's capability to testify due to differing interpretations of their behavior, communication, and comprehension.

'He Said Vs She Said' Implication

• "He said vs she said" implies a lack of corroborating evidence in a case involving a child's testimony.

Societal Factors Influencing Children's Testimony

• Societal factors like stereotypes and biases can impact how seriously child witnesses are taken and how their testimonies are perceived.

Young Offenders Act (1982)

• The primary focus was on rehabilitative measures with an emphasis on community-based programs.

Judge's Lack of Information for Child Testimony Evaluation

• A significant factor that judges might lack is the child's developmental stage and understanding of the situation.

Youth Criminal Justice Act (2002)

• It de-emphasized incarceration and aimed for more individualized interventions.

Principle of Individualized Intervention

• The principle of "individualized intervention" highlights the importance of tailoring rehabilitation programs to the specific needs and circumstances of each offender.

Risk Assessment Instruments in Youth Rehabilitation

• Risk assessment instruments assess the risk of re-offending for youth offenders.
• They help in tailoring rehabilitation programs to target specific risk factors.

Youth Incarceration Rates under YOA

• The Young Offenders Act led to a decrease in youth incarceration rates compared to the previous system.

Dynamic Risk Factors in Youth Rehabilitation

• Dynamic risk factors refer to changeable aspects of an offender's life that influence their likelihood of re-offending.
• These factors include their behavior, temperament, relationships, and skills.

Criticism of the Young Offenders Act

• A criticism of the Young Offenders Act was that it was too lenient and failed to adequately deter criminal behavior.

YCJ Act Emphasis for Interventions

• The Youth Criminal Justice Act emphasized restorative justice approaches and reintegration into the community for interventions.

Children Testifying in Court after 2006

• After 2006, changes to the legal framework brought renewed attention to the significance of children's testimonies in Canadian courts.

Misconception about Children and Promises

• A common misconception is that children understand promises in the same way that adults do. This belief fails to consider their developmental stages and understanding of the concept of "truthfulness".

Assumption about Adults' Testimony

• Adults testifying in court are typically presumed capable of understanding the gravity of their oath and the importance of truthfulness.

Recent Research on Asking Children to Promise to Tell the Truth

• Recent research questions the effectiveness of asking children to promise to tell the truth, suggesting it might not always be an effective method for encouraging truthful accounts.

Truth-Lie Research on Children

• Research has found that children often struggle to differentiate between truth and lies, especially in complex situations.

Truth-Lie Research Premise

• The premise of the truth-lie research focuses on understanding how children develop the ability to distinguish between truth and lies and the factors that influence their understanding.

The Temptation Resistance Paradigm

• This paradigm studies children's resistance to temptations to lie.
• Research suggests that children who have better self-control are less likely to lie.

Legal Reform Focus on Children's Testimony

• Legal reform is focused on improving the understanding of children's abilities and vulnerabilities when they testify in court.
• The goal is to ensure that children's testimony is reliable and treated fairly.