Chapter 1 (Lecture 1) Flashcards
What are the 3 different legislative regimes that have evolved for administering juvenile justice in Canada?
- Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA) of 1908
- The Young Offenders Act (YOA) of 1984
- The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) of 2002
Define Juvenile Deliquency
The legal term, which came into popular use in the nineteenth century (1800-1900) to describe violations of the law by persons who had not reached the legal age of adulthood
What are Juvenile Courts?
Specialized courts first created in the late nineteenth century to apply juvenile justice laws in the care of dependent and delinquent children
What is the Youth Criminal Justice System?
A term used today as a substitute for juvenile courts. Critical criminologists argue that it signifies a shift toward treating young offenders more like adult offenders.
What is the Punitive Turn Thesis?
The argument that in recent decades the criminal justice systems of many Western countries have become more punishment oriented, with longer prison sentences and higher rates of incarceration.
This has been the general trend since 2002.
What were Bryan Hogeveens two views on youth crime in Canada?
- Reformable Young Offender
- Term coined by Hogeveen (2005) to describe discursive construction of some young offenders as ‘troubled’ and therefore needing intervention in the hope they can be rehabilitated. - Punishable Young Offender
- A term coined by Hogeveen (2005) to describe the discursive construction of some young offenders as ‘troublesome’ and therefore requiring punishment in order to make them accountable for their criminal acts
How is the Criminal Justice systems treatment of young people determined?
It is determined by the understanding of childhood and how the understanding has changed overtime.
This is understood through the work of historians
Who is Philippe Aries?
He was the first historian to propose and argument explaining how children were viewed and treated by adults in earlier times and how this has changed overtime
He looked at the change in views of society towards children in history.
Claimed the modern concept of childhood was ‘discovered’ in Western Europe in the seventeenth century (1600-1700)
Thought the high mortality rate encouraged a lack of emotional investment in parents
- He argued that parents did not invest emotionally in their children bc there was a high change that they’d lose them.
Said there was less status ambiguity and inter-generational conflict prior to concept of childhood.
Claimed children were happier prior to the 17th century
- Because they were free to be themselves without expectations
How do criminologists use Aries’s research?
They use it to explain the ‘invention’ of juvenile delinquency and juvenile courts
This shift in our understanding of childhood led to the concept of separate courts for juveniles
Who was Lamar Empey?
He used Aries’s ideas to support his arguments surrounding the changing treatment of children from ignoring/exploiting them to concern for their moral welfare (1982)
This shift in our understanding of childhood led to the concept of separate courts for juveniles
Who do some critics argue that Ariès shouldn’t be accepted without criticism?
Spangnoli points out that Ariès had a personal and religious bias that influenced research
Gottlieb discusses misleading aspect of ‘discovery of childhood’
- Women and children were always viewed with more sympathy in the eyes of the law therefore there was no ‘discovery’ of it.
How was Juvenile delinquency used in the 18th century?
Juvenile delinquency first used in the 18th century primarily as a legal term to describe ‘violation of the law by persons below the community’s age of adulthood’
By the 19th century, the term was in widespread use and new juvenile justice systems were put in place to deal with special needs of delinquent and dependent children
Why must we be cautious not to exaggerate the extent of this transformation in the legal treatment of kids?
Historically, judges have always been more sympathetic towards youth even before the 19th century
- Prior to mid-19th cent, children were still treated differently in justice system
- Children under 7 were not able to be convicted of offence
- Youths between ages 7 and 14 were subjected to doli incapax - presumption of inability to do harm unless contested by the crown
Prior to the 19th century, were children still treated differently in justice system?
Yes
Up to what age can children not be convicted of an offence?
7
