Youth Justice and Crime: Syllabus Intro

Week 3: Introduction - Syllabus

• The midterm will have short answer and essay questions with choices
• Make time to meet with the TA
• Class will run from 10 AM to 12 PM

Youth Justice and Crime

• Youth offenders can be clever when committing crimes, especially serious ones
• PC Styles' death was caused by a 15-year-old driving his parents' car, who accelerated when pulled over and killed Styles
• Youth crime differs from youth justice in the community, how it is apprehended, and its causes
• The most important challenge is understanding the causes of youth crime
• Questions to consider include defining "the invention of adolescence," the impact of youth depictions, and the goals of the youth justice system
• Other questions include the need for a separate system, diversion, intervention, rising violence among young people, and why some end up on the streets
• Issues in defining gang involvement include distinguishing hanging out from gang association
• Considerations include how to balance fear of youth with fear for youth
• The Youth Criminal Justice Act was enacted in 2001

Studying Crime

• Official statistics offer an objectivist/legalistic perspective
• Official statistics narrow focus, give a picture, and provide characteristics (UCR2)
• The Crime Severity Index (CSI) is standardized to a base of 100 in 2006, allowing comparisons across time and space

Notes on Statistics

• Explaining statistics to someone else, understanding what stats capture, and acknowledging limitations are key
• Juristat can be useful for research papers and other assignments

Media and Crime

• Drift theory suggests youth learn deviant justifications for criminality
• The biggest "cure" is for young offenders to grow out of crime
• Young people are more likely to commit deviant acts when unsupervised, with school being the safest environment
• Youth are more likely to offend in groups, but that does not always mean it is gang-related
• Provincial jurisdictions have variation of Youth Criminal Justice
• Recidivism suggests young people are likely to continue to offend, if they already offend
• There are no differences between first-time offenders and recidivists
• First time offenders tend to commit minor crimes like assault level 1, theft under $5000, possession of stolen property and mischief to property
• Self-report surveys differ from official metrics and focus on enforcers rather than offenders
• Youth are more likely to be victimized and engage in crimes

Police-Reported Youth Crime (2019-2020)

• Most youth crime is non-serious property crime
• Violent crime accounted for 46% of cases in 2020 and 42% in 2019
• The majority of violent crimes is non-serious level 1
• 71% of all assaults and 97% of sexual assaults are non-serious level 1, more serious assaults involve a weapon
• Homicides involve small numbers with n = 45, or 0.083% of cases

Crime Rates among Young People

• Assault Level 1/Mischief is the leading cause of youth coming before courts
• Administration of Justice Violations are also common
• Homicide and attempted murder are the least common serious crimes

Things of Note

• The aging-out effect of crime, geographical variation such as sentences to custody in PEI and the Yukon, and recidivism
• First time offenders are not likely to be serious offenders
• Schools are safe places however after school is not
• Offending often occurs in groups

Moral Panics and Social Reactions

• Societal anxiety, a moral panic is more specific than generalized anxiety related to racial anxiety or welfare state collapse etc
• Threats are labeled and depicted in stylized/stereotyped ways, like mugging or swarming
• Stanley Cohen is known for talking about moral panic, moral entrepreneurs can diagnose issues whereas experts can determine solutions
• Moral panic is more about the fear of crime or of young people
• The following link contains information about wilding: http://video.phs.org/video/236332776

Concerns with Moral Panic Literature

• Media and the public aren't homogenous
• There is no concerted effort as populace just needs better information
• Emotional aspects are important
• Moral panic is applied to successful interventions
• An example of failed moral panic includes concerns about ecstasy use / young people going to raves during their leisure time
• Moral panic helps to frame problems, identify narratives, and determine who gets othered

Social Reaction Research Topics

• Mods and rockers, as researched by Cohen
• Sub-culture theory considers deviance as a collective rather than an individual response.
• A.K. Cohen argued that subcultural deviance results from status frustration and is a non-utilitarian form
• Gender issues, such as the murder of Reena Virk in BC may relate to moral panic, race, the war on drugs and youth offenders

Punishable Youth Offender? (Hogeveen Ch. 8)

• This topic explores if young people were punished more due to the YCJA
• Hansard (Debates) are transcripts of chamber proceedings named after the Hansard family, who printed Britain’s parliamentary debates from 1812 to 1892

Annotated Bibliography

• Students should write a short paragraph introducing their literature review/final paper topic Five peer-reviewed articles should be summarized explaining their relevance, and contributions to the paper, and avoiding book chapters in the research

Introduction to syllabus on youth Justice and Crime. Topics range from youth offenders to the goals of the youth justice system. Questions focus on defining adolescence, the impact of youth depictions, and the goals of the youth justice system.