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Summary of Three Chapters Ethnographic studies provide detailed information on the lives of youth and their families. Longitudinal studies of youth crime focus on age as an important factor in youth crime rates. The public discourse on youth crime is highly racialized. There is no evidence to sugges...

Summary of Three Chapters Ethnographic studies provide detailed information on the lives of youth and their families. Longitudinal studies of youth crime focus on age as an important factor in youth crime rates. The public discourse on youth crime is highly racialized. There is no evidence to suggest that children of visible minorities are more likely than Canadian-born or white youth to be “gang” members. Aboriginal youth crime is part of a larger pattern of violence directly related to the aftermath of colonialism, residential schools, poverty, and their oppressed status in Canadian society. Young adults (primarily males 18 to 30 years of age) are responsible for far more violent crime than youth. Notwithstanding changes in policing practices, a not insignificant portion of the increase in violent crime with the YOA, as well as in all categories of youth crime, can be explained by the introduction of 16- and 17-year-old youth into the juvenile justice system. Crime rates for both adults and youth fluctuate with changes in the age composition of the overall population. Youth under 12 do not appear to be any more “criminal” than they were 25 years ago (less than 2 percent of all offences known to police). Nor are they being coerced into criminal activities by older youth or adults; only a small proportion of the under-12 cases in police files involved an accomplice over the age of 16. Girls are far less involved in “official” crime than boys, but the gap has been closing with changes in charging practices. Self-reported studies suggest that girls engage in the same behaviours as boys, but less frequently. Boys’ criminal behav-iour begins earlier than girls’ and is more likely to extend into adulthood. There appears to be a gender gap with respect to charging practices. Proportionately more girls than boys are charged for minor crimes of violence (and at younger ages), and more girls are charged with administrative offences, particularly fail to comply and bail violations. As boys and girls age, violence charges increase for boys ad decrease for girls. The risk of violent victimization is greater for 12-year-olds than for anyone over 24, and 12- to 17-year-old youth are more likely to be victimized than anyone over 25. Twenty-two percent of all violent crime victims in Canada are youth aged 12 to 19, which is double this group’s proportion of the Canadian population. Boys are more likely than girls to be the perpetrators as well as the victims of violence. Girls experience higher rates of violent victimization than boys, boys experience higher rates of assault than girls. Girls are more likely than boys to have been assaulted, sexually or otherwise, by family members. Almost half of those accused of crimes against teens are also teenagers. Adults are more violent with their children than with their adult partners. A majority of offences against children occur outside the home, but offences are as likely to occur at home as at school. In the home, adult males and older brothers are the most frequent perpetrators of violence against children and youth. Recent investigations into violence and physical and sexual abuse in foster homes, correctional facilities, and other state institutions indicate that Canadian politi- cians and assorted institutional bureaucrats bear some responsibility for violence against children and youth under state care Family structure, measured as a “broken home” or a home with a working mother, has consistently been identified empirically as a factor in delinquency. However, the evidence suggests that parenting styles, the quality of family relationships, and internal family dynamics are far more important factors than family structure. According to power-control theory, differences in degree of delinquency and between boys’ and girls’ delinquency, are based on whether families are structured as egalitarian or patriarchal. Tests of interactional theory have shown that low parental attachment increases delinquency, which in turn worsens attachments to parents. However, as adolescents age, parental influences diminish; delinquency lessens parental attachments, not vice versa. Public discourse and moral panics blame parents as well as children for the problem of youth crime. A new ingredient in the public blame game is “parent abuse,” yet child victimization at the hands of parents is not a public issue. Most family research focusing on parental attachments has ignored child and youth victimization and continues to define the problem as one of lack of attach- ments. The blame game and its components are indicative of a colonial way of thinking about the status of children and youth relative to parents, and our Western culture continues to promote a punitive disciplinary model of parenting roles and responsibilities. School research has tended to focus on Cohen’s and Hirschi’s theories, with most attention devoted to levels of school commitment and delinquency. Research has demonstrated that grades and level of commitment to school are better predic- tors of delinquency than are IQ scores. However, while low commitment leads to delinquency, delinquency also reduces commitment to school. The organization of schools and classrooms and the class structure of Canadian society are also seen as a source of delinquency. Contrary to Cohen’s suggestion that a middle-class school system creates status frustration for working-class boys (1955), research has shown that middle-class boys with poor grades are more likely to behave in delinquent ways and to rebel against schooling. School resistance on the part of Black students is a consequence of a conflict between schools’ cultural assumptions and rules and these students’ own cultural backgrounds and experiences. Classroom climate has a greater impact on delinquency than does the management style of the school. While schooling used to be viewed as part of the solution to youth crime issues, by the 1990s it came to be viewed as part of the problem. Violence in schools, based on isolated, atypical, and extreme incidents of school shootings, became a defining symbol of “youth gone mad.” Bullying, along with other forms of serious school violence, is a largely white, middle-class, suburban “problem.” Boys and girls are not very different in their use of indirect relational aggression against their peers Schools have responded to youth violence with repressive and potentially criminalizing policies, such as “zero tolerance,” rather than restructuring and refocusing priorities on the well-being of children and youth. The single most important predictor of “official” delinquency is having delinquent friends. Research findings indicate that boys and girls are both “differentially exposed” to and “differentially affected” by criminogenic conditions. Both the cultural hypothesis and differential association and control theories may explain delinquency among youth from different ethnic backgrounds. Information on gangs varies depending on how “gang” is defined and how gang activity is measured. Definitions of both are politically motivated and reflect the interests of researchers and the agendas of law-enforcement agencies, politicians, and the media. Research on youth gangs indicates that not all such gangs are involved in illegal activities, that members do not spend much time on criminal activities, that their activities tend to be no more severe or frequent than those of non-gang youth, that only some gangs claim a territory, and that not all gangs are highly organized with identifiable leadership. Tanner and Wortley’s (2002) research with youth gang members in Toronto challenges some of these findings. Research indicates that street gangs in Canada today are not much different from those in the 1970s. Canadian street gangs tend to be short-lived and composed of males aged 14 to 26 who are primarily interested in lucrative property crime. Boys and girls seem to join gangs for the same reasons: Gang membership provides a social outlet, escape from an abusive or neglectful family life, and compensation for an impoverished community life. In contrast to the liberation hypothesis, some scholars argue that a “search for equivalencies” is not a useful way of understanding girls’ behaviours. Rather, their behaviours should be understood as “girls being girls,” as acts of resistance to claim or reclaim femininity from the grasp of domesticity. Over the past 15 years, research on family, school, and peers has focused on identifying risk and protective/resilience factors associated with youth crime and delinquency in general as well as violent and serious crime and gang membership. Many Western governments have capitalized on this work to launch a variety of crime prevention initiatives aimed at communities, ,while justice systems have incorporated this work into the justice system by using risk-assessment tools as a basis for decision-making and programming The most important legal factors influencing police discretion are offence seriousness and prior record of the offender. Minor offences offer more latitude for police discretion. Police contact in itself also increases the chances of future arrest. Race, class, gender, age, demeanour, homelessness, and complainant preference have all been identified as significant factors affecting police decision-making Racial profiling and carding is being challenged in Ontario courts as a human rights issue. Other important extralegal factors include family, community, neighbourhood, and the structure and organization of police departments. The extent to which the personal views and beliefs of individual police officers affect their decisions depends to a great extent on the organization of their departments. Extrajudicial measures as expressed in the YCJA are based on the philosophy that diversion is the most appropriate and effective way to address non-violent youth crime. The YCJA requires that, in every case, an extrajudicial sanction should be proportionate to the offence and provide an effective, timely opportunity for young offenders to acknowledge and repair the harm their behaviour has caused for victims and communities. Bill C-10 requires police officers to keep records of extrajudicial measures. Diversionary measures programs are usually restricted to first-time offenders charged with minor offences. Some provinces are lobbying to follow Quebec’s lead in including more serious offences. Diversionary measures programming can be categorized as reconciliation/ mediation, retributive/restitutive, rehabilitative/educational, or restorative interventions. In most provinces, police make referrals for diversionary measures. Only Ontario uses a post-charge system, in which all youth are required to go to court before entering diversionary programs. Most provinces use both a pre- and post-charge referral system. In some provinces, Youth Justice Committees made up of citizens participate in these decision-making processes. Province by province, anywhere from 16 to 36 percent of apprehended youth have been referred to diversionary measures; success rates range from 80 to 98 percent. Critics charge that diversionary measures are a net-widening mechanism because programs are largely restricted to minor offences by youth with no prior record and because, in most provinces, failure to comply may result in court processing and custody sentences. Police release conditions contribute considerably to pushing youth further into the justice system. Who should control or administer diversionary measures and the extent to which governments are willing to adequately fund programs are problematic issues. Important questions have been raised about the lack of accountability for referral decisions and the resulting potential for lack of consistency and unfair decisions. Some argue that to be truly diversionary, programs should be community-based and administered independently of the justice system