chapter 12

Question 1

CHAPTER 12: A Century after the Fact: What Do We Know? Where Are We Going?

Answer 1

This chapter first reviews what we know about youth crime and justice from history, moves to a focus on current youth justice issues and considers reform directions that can address issues of inequality and injustice. After reading this chapter, students will:

1) Appreciate how what we have learned about youth crime and justice through the last century helps us understand today’s issues.

2) Know the strengths and limitations of current youth justice system practices and the implications of proposals for reform.

3) Identify ongoing and new issues with the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), as policy and practice, and the implications of both for future reform and addressing current injustices.

Question 2

a century ago, what factors did Canadians think to be the sources of youth crime?

creating what was their solution?

Answer 2

A century ago, Canadians thought poverty, neglect, and poor parenting were the sources of youth crime. Creating a juvenile justice system was their solution.

Family courts were the cornerstone of this system, and they were supported by probation, supervision, and institutions that would teach morals and trade skills to neglected and delinquent children.

Today, many academics, policymakers, and members of the public still think that the family is the source of youth crime, and we still rely on probation and institutions to solve the problem.

Question 3

While some things have not changed, others have.

what is it?

Answer 3

An important structural change to the juvenile justice system came in the 1980s with the Young Offenders Act (YOA) and the introduction of alternative measures, a change that was maintained and strengthened with the extrajudicial measures of the YCJA.

And, as we saw in previous chapters, there have been some innovations in how we respond to youth crime. Unfortunately, the YCJA has also introduced a structural change with provisions for adult sentences, thereby eroding the fundamental precept of a juvenile justice system—its separateness from the adult system. And Bill C-10 revisions to the YCJA, enacted in October 2012, continue to move the system in that direction.

Question 4

throughout the years, how did or do we conceptualize and think about young people and their involvement in criminal activity.

Answer 4

. A hundred years ago, youth were talked about in public discourse as “delinquents.”

Then by the 1970s, as “young offenders

Now they’re “youth criminals.”

Question 5

Where we go from here in creating a system that responds positively to youth crime issues depends on how we use the wealth of theoretical, empirical, and research knowledge that has been accumulated over the past century.

Answer 5

If we are to move ahead in positive directions, we need to consider what we know about youth crime and our responses to it, and we need to learn some lessons from the past in order not to repeat mistakes.

Question 6

(rethinking juvenile justice)

> what we know

Question 7

All crime rates in Canada are down, including violent crime and youth crime. Yet, moral panic still rages as the public continues to be warned about new and frightening dangers and threats, even from toddlers.

Answer 7

see textbook for the story

Question 8

One objective of this book has been to locate today’s issues about youth crime and justice in a historical context, so that we might unearth the myths, rhetoric, and ideologies behind current discourse about these issues.

Related to this is a second objective:

Answer 8

Related to this is a second objective: to deconstruct media images of youth crime and justice by contrasting them to the “facts” so that we can understand the central role that the media play in this discourse.

The “facts” of youth crime, as gleaned from wading through two full chapters of official statistics, tell us, quite simply, that very few young people in Canada are actually involved in criminal activity and the justice system, and that a majority of the offenders are involved in minor offences

Our look at the history of youth crime told us that these facts have not changed much throughout Canadian history, and that youth crime always seems to be an issue to every new generation of adults.

Question 9

This then leads us to other questions about youth crime—and also about the media—that revolve around why youth crime is a public issue, what role the media play in defining and perpetuating the issue, what messages are sent by these images, and whether these messages have changed over time.

How do these messages compare to the “social facts” of youth crime and the reasons and explanations for youth crime, as gleaned from research findings, youth voices, ethnographies, theories of youth crime, and statistical profiles?

Question 10

This book is also about the juvenile justice system, so another objective has been to locate today’s justice system in the context of youth justice reforms throughout the 20th century and into the 21st century, in Canada and elsewhere, so as to understand the nature and dynamics of the Canadian system and current issues that revolve around it.

Answer 10

Our examination of the history of juvenile justice and its structure tells us that there is a persistent cycle of juvenile justice, that reform has been an integral part of juvenile justice and that reform has always been contentious, largely because there have always been a number of consistent yet conflicting principles and philosophies supporting the system.

Our examination of research, case files, and voices from the system tells us that “[y]outh justice is a confusing and messy business” (Muncie & Hughes, 2004, p. 15). And for far too many Canadian children and youth, it is also an injustice.

Question 11

A lesson we should have learned from an examination of the history of juvenile justice and continued reform efforts is that

Answer 11

A lesson we should have learned from an examination of the history of juvenile justice and continued reform efforts is that our system is failing children and youth. As a society, we are failing to provide young people with the care and protection they need and that they should be entitled to under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Question 12

We should also have learned from Canada’s history of youth justice and youth crime that

Answer 12

We should also have learned from Canada’s history of youth justice and youth crime that supervision and institutionalization are punitive, repressive control ­measures and that they are not solutions to youth crime.

At best, they are merely piecemeal efforts that focus on children, youth, and their parents as the source of problems. At worst, because they direct reform efforts from a focus on the kinds of issues raised by Schissel—marginalization and the ideologies that support it—supervision and institutionalization become mechanisms and tools that perpetuate injustices.

Question 13

ow we are faced with questions about why the justice system changed the way that it did; why policies, practices, and programs that do more harm than good remain as part of the system; and, above all, whether contemporary advocates, reformers, and academics are doing anything in the continual reform process that will move the juvenile justice cycle in new and positive directions.

Question 14

(answering the questions)

Answer 14

Answers to some of these questions were offered throughout this textbook through discussions of a variety of perspectives, traditions, and schools of thought.

Question 15

from the social constructionist perspective

Answer 15

From the social constructionist perspective comes the view that “crime,” “criminal,” “­dangerous,” and myriad other labels associated with young people and their actions are social constructions, products of social activity and enterprise.

Question 16

The british cultural studies of the Brimningham school

Answer 16

The British cultural studies of the Birmingham School informed us about the specifics, dynamics, and consequences of these constructions: that public discourses about youth crime and justice are moral panics, and that youth are the measuring stick of all that is “good” about our society and all that adults hope and dream for regarding the future.

At the same time, youth and children are scapegoats for all that is wrong in society and for all that adults fear about themselves. From this come the constant comparisons, from each new generation of adults, to the “good old days” when children and youth were not so “bad,” “disrespectful,” “criminal,” “disobedient,” and “out of control.”

Question 17

These labels are all moral statements about what adults fear, as opposed to what they value and wish for.

American filmmaker Michael Moore addressed these adult fears in his film Bowling for Columbine

Answer 17

Moore may be correct in the view that Canadians are not as fearful as Americans because we tend not to “lock our doors,” but his film misses the larger point about fear. While Canadian adults may not be as fearful about their personal safety, they are as fearful about the future of their cherished values, beliefs, and way of life and any threat to it as are Americans. There are many perceived threats, and a significant one is youth crime and the inability of the youth justice system to control it—this is the “youth crisis.” We also have many examples of the news media as a powerful force in defining, shaping, and reinforcing these moral panics.

Question 18

• media texts s The Birmingham School and, more recently, feminists, postmodernists, and other critical criminologists have made us aware that there are specific and consistent “texts” in public discourse: moral panics and “youth crisis” fears.

Answer 18

These consistent texts revolve around intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, and colonialism. These fears and sources of danger are not generalized—they are about poor Black male youth, the male children of Asian immigrants, girls who transgress the boundaries of appropriate femininity, and Aboriginal youth who are members of gangs in core areas of major cities, to name but a few. And the discourse and constructions are not about behaviour that is problematic; they are about who is engaging in the behaviour or who is at the receiving end of the behaviour and why both are signals of danger.

Question 19

Violence in itself is not considered a problem by most people, as is clearly evidenced by the amount of violence in contemporary Western culture that is eagerly shared in a variety of ways as “entertainment.”

Violence is constructed as problematic when ..

Answer 19

Violence is constructed as problematic when white, middle-class girls and boys are seen to engage in it and when the victims are white and middle-class, or adults, or the elderly.

see textbook for recent example

Question 20

Child and youth victimization by adults is not problematized unless it is perpetrated by a stranger.

Answer 20

While a “youth crisis” seems to arise with each new generation, the crisis changes when dominant hierarchies based on classism, racism, sexism, and heterosexism are challenged. Hence, as a backlash to feminism, the crisis of violent girls in public discourse has shifted focus from the dangerous girls of the 1990s, who were said to be more vicious than boys and men, to the nasty, mean, backstabbing, too assertive/aggressive girls of the 2000s

see textbook for example

Question 21

• locating change: global context

The juvenile justice system is a system of governance designed to set rules about how youth are to be governed, regulated, and managed.

Answer 21

. While this system is informed by moral panics and youth crisis discourse, it is also influenced and informed by larger changes at the national and global levels. For example, as the international community moved toward establishing legal standards for human rights and then children’s rights, so too did the Canadian government. This was reflected in the introduction of legal protections in the YOA and similar appropriate modifications in the YCJA, such as restrictions on the use of custody and a more legally correct mechanism for bringing more and younger youth under the jurisdiction of the adult system (sentences and correctional policies). These were changes that balanced international standards with the interests of Canadian lobby groups.

Question 22

As Western governments responded to global political and economic forces, they also moved to a neoliberal form of governance, which some have referred to as more actuarial and managerial modes of governing and regulating

Answer 22

neoliberal: a form of government that prioritizes setting targets and perfromance indicators to audit progam efficiency and cost-effectiveness

These modes entail setting targets and performance indicators to enable an auditing of efficiency and effectiveness, a costing and testing of all activities to ensure value for money

Question 23

ence, as governing philosophies changed from a welfare orientation, with a rehabilitation focus; to a liberal orientation, with a justice/rights focus; to a neoliberal orientation, the juvenile justice system changed from the Juvenile Delinquents Act to the Young Offenders Act to the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Answer 23

With these changes also came a change in how we talk and think about youth and justice—from rehabilitating delinquents, to reintegrating young offenders, to making youth criminals accountable, to being concerned about “youth at risk”. Even concerns about “youth at risk” are inconsistent and changing. Does this mean a concern about social justice, or for youth crime and its consequences, or a concern about the cost to government and the “taxpayer” of responding to “youth at risk”?

Question 24

As a case in point, it is worth noting that, since 2000, Statistics Canada’s Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics has been changing police reporting of statistics; collecting different kinds of information, such as on gang-related crime; and breaking youth apprehensions into categories of “charged” and “cleared otherwise.”

Answer 24

” It is also changing how the information is distributed. Library branches of Statistics Canada are closing in some cities, and information that used to be readily accessible, with librarian assistance, is now available only online in a condensed form or for a fee.

Question 25

For its part, the federal government is busy funding Justice Department and Public Safety Canada research projects about subjects of interest to governance, such as meta-analyses of “what works” in the area of therapeutic interventions and independent pilot tests of intervention/crime control programs with strict evaluation criteria.

Answer 25

An integral part of these evaluation criteria is a cost-of-delivery analysis. Many of these government works have been used in this book to inform our understanding of youth crime, the justice system, and correctional programs. While the amount of information now available is impressive and useful (albeit only to some), the result is also that we have more information that is government-controlled than ever before. Stated differently, in the absence of independent academic research, the federal government controls what is known about crime and justice, more so now than ever before.

Question 26

• locating change: criminological context

Meanwhile, the development of North American schools of criminology gave us a tradition of theory and research that offered an understanding of why youth engage in criminal and delinquent behaviours.

Answer 26

A considerable amount of research activity revolved around testing these theories, mostly control and association theories, for their ability to predict rates of delinquency. Nonetheless, little effort was devoted to specific applications for developing programming from this work, other than the three large-scale projects discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. First, from disorganization theory came the Chicago Area Project, which operated through the 1940s and 1950s under the direction of sociologists Clifford Shaw, its founder, and co-researcher Henry MacKay. The detached street worker was considered the most unique and promising feature of this project.

see textbook for more

Question 27

• control texts:

The work of the teams of U.S. researchers in the 1990s also sowed the seeds for a new way of thinking and talking about delinquency control

Answer 27

In the history of delinquency theory, there has always been a gap between theory, the research that accompanies it, and actual programming for youth. Often, programs are developed in response to a need, such as probation developing in response to a need for supervision. While changing directions in programming may come from “flavour of the month” preferences, new directions, as we have seen, also come from innovative “border crossings,” that is, from theoretical and research directions that cross the boundaries between disciplines and perspectives.

see textbook for examPLE

Question 28

• science prevention:

n the 21st century, we find ourselves in an era of “crime-­prevention” discourse, not treatment and rehabilitation, and we talk about “at-risk youth,” “resiliency,” and “protective factors.

Answer 28

In a climate of neoliberal governing strategies, crime prevention is the flavour of the era. To the extent that we do talk about remnants of other periods—treatment and reintegration and rehabilitation—it is done in the context of crime-prevention goals. We no longer treat youth for the purpose of rehabilitation, but rather to protect against risk factors and increase protective factors, both designed to enhance resiliency to the crime “disease.” These interventions can occur in community or institutional settings.

It appears that a new science is developing—the science of crime prevention

Question 29

(where are we going?)

A third objective of this textbook has been to present juvenile justice as something other than a structure of laws, procedures, processes, and practices designed to respond to and control youth criminal behaviour, as is implied by the title of the youth justice system’s legislation—the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Answer 29

Juvenile justice is more than law and its administration and system of governance. It is also a package that includes youth, their behaviour, and how we respond to it, both legally and informally, as well as the assumptions, beliefs, and philosophies that underlie both law and a system of governance and the laws, policies, and practices that develop from these.

Question 30

The YCJA, for example, comprises merely the rules and regulations that provide a structure, objectives, procedures, and rules for the application of the Criminal Code and of sanctions to young people who have been accused or suspected of Criminal Code violations and a select few “special” YCJA violation

Answer 30

Understanding the YCJA and assessing how it is working involves an analysis of the beliefs, assumptions, and philosophies that underlie all of these aspects of the youth justice system.

Question 31

With this in mind and with the foundation of what we know, we can now assess the directions we are pursuing in our efforts to understand youth crime and the directions in which youth justice is headed under the YCJA

Answer 31

An important part of this assessment involves a consideration of whether these directions are regressive or positive. Regressive policies and practices are ones that take us back to old practices or are essentially “more of the same,” keeping us exactly where we are or have been, but under the guise of new names and labels (Rothman, 1980). Positive policies will take us in new directions and hold promise for positive change in the lives of children and youth. Regressive policies perpetuate hierarchies of domination and injustice, while positive policies challenge and break down these hierarchies and offer solutions to injustice. For this assessment, we will look again at what is being done now in the thinking, practice, policy, and reform efforts.

Question 32

> philosophy and assumptions

Answer 32

• youth scripts
• feminity and “erasing race”
• youth justice
• peacemaking
• perpetuating injustice
• transformative justice
• transformative processes
• community change model
• system reform

Question 33

youth scripts

While British youth criminology has always been focused on race and class, North American work, particularly that in the United States, tended to be more classless in its approach, with occasional references to “working-class” boys, and race was largely addressed in terms of “problem” visible minorities

Answer 33

s. As we saw in Chapters 5 and 6, the focus of discussion in North American youth criminology at one time was “youth,” but the theoretical and empirical knowledge was largely about white, working-class (or classless) boys. Both British and North American works were silent on “girl” questions. That has all changed. The feminist discussion about whether we need gender-specific theories has spilled over to other perspectives and traditions in criminology, and a trend in criminology now is the search for the conditions under which a particular theory, hypothesis, or program will be effective. These “conditions” are most often defined in terms of race and gender, with class scripts assumed for both. “Black youth,” for example, is still mostly assumed to mean “male and poor.”

The significance of these former omissions for “new directions” lies in how criminologists are now attempting to correct them. Those whose work focuses on questions of omission, or what is missing, are now pointing our thinking in some illuminating directions. Still almost completely absent in thinking about youth is youth sexuality, in that “youth heterosexuality” is assumed in public and academic discourse.

Question 34

The focus of youth sexuality, if it is addressed at all, is whether youth are “active.”

Answer 34

In neoliberal society, this is important information because to be “active” is to be in the “at-risk” category, and at that point corrective measures of a preventive nature can come into play—preventing pregnancy or HIV/AIDS and STDs. Yet, we know from youth ethnographies and youth telling their experiences that, all too often, it is their alternative sexual orientation that led to them being forced out of their homes and onto the streets. This does put these youth at risk of criminalization, and the corrective/preventive measures required should not involve repressive/punitive measures designed to pathologize and demonize anything other than heterosexuality. Opposition to same-sex marriage is a case in point. More productive and positive responses here would mean providing safe homes for youth and opportunities for affordable independent living. Yet, with cost-cutting measures as a government priority, this type of resource is few and far between and usually only available to youth in large cities, if at all (Balla & Balla, 2000, pp. 43–47).

Question 35

Sexuality is present in the thinking about (assumed) heterosexual girls, but the discourse continues to sexualize girl behaviour and understand “girl crime” in terms of “promiscuity” or “vulnerability” to men and older boys who would exploit their sexuality by getting girls “hooked on drugs” or involved in criminal activity.

Answer 35

While girls may be involved in prostitution to support drug habits and may be involved in crime to support their boyfriends, what is telling about the dominant discourse is that the reasons why girls are vulnerable are not problematized. Some of the most interesting work today comes from a socialist feminist and postmodern perspective, largely because it focuses on intersections of race, class, and gender and uncovers what is missing in the current discourse about girls. Reena Virk’s murder and how it was talked about by the news media (see Box 12.4) is a case in point.

Question 36

• femininity and “erasing race”

A number of scholars analyzed the discourse (court trials and news coverage) about Reena Virk over the years that the accused youth were processed through the courts (Batacharya, 2004; Chakkalakal, 2000; Jiwani, 1999). The fundamental finding from this research is that, while overt discussions of race were absent in the discourse, what happened at the Gorge and how it was talked about were about race. It was a racialized discourse.

Answer 36

Explanations of “girl violence” usually stem from assumptions about what is essentially feminine; simply put, girls are not supposed to be violent. Explanations must focus then on ascertaining how “violent” girls are different from girls who are not: She is a sociopath, shows no remorse (the “bad” girl); she has herself been a victim of violence (the victim); she is behaving like a boy (liberation or “too masculine”); or (something more misogynist) girls when “aroused”/not controlled are “more vicious than boys.” Kadi (1996, p. 64) maintains that these types of explanations are attempts “. . . to make simple something that is not simple” and, further, that “girl violence is an empty concept.” It is based on a good girl–bad girl dichotomy that vilifies the “bad” girl and sexualizes the “good” girl as a “passive female.” These are all views that fail to locate the “bad girls” as negotiating their survival within a context of violence.

see textbook for moew

Question 37

• youth justice

Two years after the introduction of the YCJA, when just about everything about youth crime was on the decline (police arrests; youth crime, particularly violent crime; use of courts; and the use of custody sentences), a defence lawyer tried to use these statistics—including those indicating that Canada has one of the highest rates of youth incarceration among Western countries—at a sentencing hearing for a 14-year-old who was facing an “escape custody” conviction. The judge, Robert White, was apparently unimpressed. He is quoted in a newspaper article as saying, (see textbook)

Question 38

As we learned in earlier chapters, a different philosophy has worked its way into the justice system through a restorative model of justice (see Table 2.1).

Answer 38

Based on an assumption that crime harms the victim, the offender, and the wider community, the central philosophy underlying the restorative model is one of healing and peacemaking. The model is based on a belief that the central objective of justice should be one of repairing harms through a reconciliation of victims, offenders, and communities.

This is a philosophy new to formal juvenile justice systems but one that has roots stretching back to the precolonial era. Liz Elliott (2005), in tracing the origins of the restorative justice model, maintains that it was used as a means of conflict resolution in communities throughout Europe prior to the development of the formal justice systems that we are familiar with today. In Canada, and prior to colonization, community-based justice was practised in Aboriginal communities as part of an overall holistic way of life, and these traditional practices are now being revived (Elliott, 2005, pp. 244–246).

Question 39

The resurrection of traditional justice practices in Aboriginal communities began in the mid-1980s in Hollow Water, Manitoba, by a group of mostly Aboriginal women concerned about youth behaviour in the community. The initial non-Aboriginal restorative practices worked parallel to the existing justice system as a diversionary measure; they began prior to the YOA and were eventually supported by alternative measures principles in the YOA.

Answer 39

In the non-Aboriginal community, restorative justice principles began in 1974 in the Kitchener–Waterloo area of Ontario through the work of the Mennonite Central Committee and a probation officer who used the principles with youth who were vandalizing property. This initial project spread across Canada to other communities with Mennonite traditions and became known as the Victim–Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP). The program involves a meeting with a trained community mediator and the wrongdoer(s) and victim(s) to bring about a “greater understanding of the offence and to come to a restitution agreement.” VORP was limited to minor offences and first-time offenders (Elliott, 2005, pp. 244–246). Box 8.10 ­provides an example from a VORP session.

Question 40

• peacemaking

The restorative justice philosophy has been reinforced by YCJA principles and is being practised through extrajudicial measures, provisions for sentencing conferences, and Youth Justice Committees that act in an advisory capacity.

Answer 40

The principal tool of restorative justice as practised today is the peacemaking circle, which is grounded in the belief that the responsibility for crime rests partly with the community, not solely with the offender and his or her family (Sharpe, 1998, p. 37). It is differentiated from more formal justice system decision-making in that it is non-hierarchical in structure and is based on core values of equal support to all parties, equal power in decision-making for all concerned parties, and the fostering of individuals’ capacities for productive participation in the community.

In theory, peacemaking circles are structured so that all participants “share equal responsibility for the process and its outcome . . . [and] outcomes are decided by consensus” (Sharpe, 1998, p. 40). Three types of peacemaking circles are currently in practice in Canada in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities: the healing circle, the sentencing circle, and the community peacemaking circle (Stuart, 1997, p. 12).

Question 41

healing circles vs sentencing circles and community peacemaking circle

Answer 41

Healing circles work outside the formal justice system and bring people together to solve problems before criminal incidents occur; they also provide support for people already serving sentences.

Sentencing circles work inside the formal justice system. They are supported by and referred to in the YCJA as “sentencing conferences” and in some discussions as “circle sentencing.” All refer to an alternative to standard sentencing practices, where the Crown and the defence make recommendations at sentencing hearings or make a “joint submission” to the court based on former meetings and agreements. The sentencing circle brings the Crown, defence, judge, court workers, and a number of other relevant professionals together, possibly with the offender and family members, for as many meetings as might be necessary. The purpose of these meetings is to gather information that will be useful in making decisions about sentences that will assist in the rehabilitation and reintegration of the youth. An example is the case heard by Justice Turpel-Lafond discussed in Chapter 11.

A community peacemaking circle is used in cases where criminal charges have been or might be laid, and usually take place as a pre-plea form of conferencing, such as family conferencing. Police activity in this regard began before the YCJA, but under YCJA provisions, some judges (for example, in Newmarket, located in York Region, Ontario) are using this type of gathering in their courts.

Question 42

While the YCJA allows for and promotes this new practice, how it is organized and structured is left to provincial governments and sometimes to local jurisdictions. In York Region, proceedings are recorded, but the sessions are closed to the public and information provided by the youth is not permitted to be entered into proceedings if the case ends up in a court trial. Sessions are used as a mediation and conflict resolution tool, and they involve the offender and victim, their supporters, court officials, and other professionals.

Answer 42

Some judges see this as a highly useful and productive form of “conferencing” because it allows them to make decisions about diversion or accepting a guilty plea with a full knowledge of the youth, the circumstances of the offence, and community resources available for assistance with rehabilitation and reintegration. Most important, according to Justice Fern Weinper, is that “the young person accepts responsibility for the behaviour and agrees with the conference plan knowing that the resolution was decided by consensus and a genuine concern for rehabilitation” (Hillian, Reitsma-Street & Hackler, 2004, p. 386).

Question 43

The sentencing circle is the most important of these peacekeeping circles because it is promoted by the YCJA as an integral part of the youth justice system and its principles of promoting rehabilitation, reintegration, “meaningful consequences,” and community and victim involvement in these processes. It is not yet widely used, even in Aboriginal communities, because it is a costly undertaking that involves far more court time and use of “professional” time (Chartrand, 2005, p. 329; Hillian, Reitsma-Street & Hackler, 2004, p. 350).

Answer 43

As we saw in earlier chapters, some criminologists and social activists have expressed concerns about net widening and how the practice of shaming is often used in a disintegrative way rather than as an integrative tool for restoration and integration. Others have pointed to concerns about the potential for professionals to bring long-standing practices into play in the circles. Sharpe (1998, p. 93) cautions that non-hierarchal structures can be undermined by professional domination if, because of the training, skills, and experience of professionals, they begin to dominate conferencing sessions, or if they and others think that the professional “knows best.” Similarly, to the extent that professionals are involved in conflict resolution on a regular basis, their participation may become routinized and the uniqueness of each case can be lost.

Question 44

• perpetuating injustice

Answer 44

here is also a concern that these initiatives can too easily sustain and perpetuate existing injustices. Without government funding, careful planning, community resources, and community commitment to restorative justice principles, peacemaking circles are likely to develop only in some areas, be restricted to dominant languages, or exclude people who are not “easy” to serve, such as women with children who need baby-sitting services or people without money for transportation to sessions. Some people may be reluctant to participate if circles and meetings use language, vocabulary, and practices that are unfamiliar or uncomfortable, or if professionals and other community participants are drawn only from privileged groups (Sharpe, 1998, pp. 94–98).

Question 45

An important challenge for peacemaking circles is to ensure that

Answer 45

An important challenge for peacemaking circles is to ensure that “vulnerable” individuals or groups are not subject to the tyranny of more powerful community individuals and groups

Others do not trust or are not optimistic about the potential benefits of programs based on healing and restorative justice principles. In Nova Scotia, for example, women’s groups successfully lobbied to have sexual offences excluded from the restorative justice process. Also, some Aboriginal women have insisted that Aboriginal men, including chiefs and Elders, must be held accountable in the Canadian justice system for the harms they have perpetrated on women and children. Leaders of the Native Women’s Association of Canada have also expressed reservations about First Nations self-government, fearing that women and children in First Nations communities will not be protected if local chiefs and national leaders do not address violence in their communities (Faith, 1993, pp. 200–201; Hamilton & Sinclair, 1991, p. 485). Within this context then, peacemaking circles and the healing philosophy have been problematized.

see textbook for more

Question 46

• transformative justice

Just as Mennonite communities, through the Mennonite Central Committee, played a key role in bringing restorative justice principles to the practice of justice in Canada, people with a Quaker background have also played a central role in justice reforms, particularly with regard to prisons.

Answer 46

Quakers have been advocating and working toward prison reform in North America since the 19th century, when prisons were first developed and institutionalized through legislation as a means of responding to crime. Contemporary Canadian Quakers, through the Quaker Committee on Jails and Justice, represent the first religious body in the world to unanimously endorse prison abolition. Ruth Morris, now deceased, is, through her works (Morris, 2000) and the people she inspired, a contemporary reformer working from this tradition.

see textbook for morw