Historical Context of Youth Justice

Question 1

Explain what childhood was like prior to its discovery in the 1600s.

Answer 1

○ Prior to this time, no distinction between children & adults
○ Youth engaged in agriculture
○ When kids were old enough, sent to work
○ Young people were ‘adults in training’

Question 2

What was life in Canada like in the 1700-1800s?

Answer 2

○ Many immigrants from Western Europe
○ Most escaping poverty
○ Farming & land considered a colonizing force
○ Putting Out Sx - predated the factory sx
§ Households - unit of production
□ Households would sell goods to merchants who brought it to markets

Question 3

What happened when the Canadian economy shifted to to cities in the mid-1800s?

Answer 3

○ increased migration
○ Recognition that it was cheaper to have centralized production - factories brought labour under one roof
○ Putting out sx disappeared
○ Cities began to grow

Question 4

Why were children from Britain being sent to Canada during the 1800s?

Answer 4

○ Coming bc they are orphaned or they were too poor
○ Children worked in factories & didn’t attend school
○ child labour began to decline due to technology changes & introduction of unions

Question 5

After the decline of child labour, more youth become unemployed. What was the result and the intervention it?

Answer 5

○ large concentration of unemployment amongst men, especially those involved in crime
○ Gave rise to Street Urchins - poor, dirty, steal to survive, drive attention in cities bc people were fearful
○ Intervention: put them in school or get them to do time for the crime

Question 6

Explain 2 aspects of the reform impulse that brought change to youth.

Answer 6

• Mandatory education - state required children to go to school (depending on the province)
  ○ Young people exposed to new things - reading, writing, better job eligibility
  ○ Poor kids didn’t benefit from mandatory education
• Unions - collective agreements between employers & employees

Question 7

Describe the Juvenile Delinquents Act (1908)

Answer 7

Separate youth court & correctional sx
§ Goals set put by federal government not thoroughly implemented at provincial level - variation
□ Quebec treats youth different compared to other provinces
® Encourages diminished responsibilities
§ Wanted less emphasis on custody
□ Given 2 forms of custody
□ Probation - curfew, banned from certain areas, etc.
□ Open custody - open bars, training schools, group home
® Rehab involved learning to read, write, values of work

Question 8

What 2 features were specific to the JDA?

Answer 8

• Status Offences - youth could be charged for things adults not normally charged w/
  ○ Skipping school, running away from home, truancy
• Indeterminate Sentences - up to experts to decide when kids are released
  ○ No set amount of time
  ○ Both closed & open custody

Question 9

What does the positivistic philosophy/social welfare orientation claim about free will?

Answer 9

○ Free agency/ free will - humans make decisions based on social environment, inherited traits
§ Improving the environment of youth, minimizes the need to be delinquent
§ Street urchins choose crime bc of their poor environment - remove them from the environment & away from crime

Question 10

List 4 reasons why activists advocated for youth to be treated differently (according to JDA).

Answer 10

1. Youth are seen as less responsible than adults because they are less mature
2. Young people have greater probability to reform in comparison to adults
3. Youth have diminished responsibilities
4. Youth lack knowledge of court procedures & the full extent of their rights.

Question 11

List 3 different Canadian legislative regimes for administering juvenile justice (over past 120 years)

Answer 11

a. Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA) - 1908
b. Young Offenders Act (YOA) - 1984
c. Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) - 2003

Question 12

List 2 ways society has dealt w/ troubled youth

Answer 12

○ Reformable Young Offender - troubled youth require intervention & can be rehabilitated
○ Punishable Young Offender - troubled youth require punishment first & rehabilitation second

Question 13

What is the punitive turn thesis?

Answer 13

idea that in recent decades the criminal justice sx of Western countries have become more punitive w/ longer prison sentences & higher rates of incarceration

Question 14

what is the principle of parens patriae?

Answer 14

idea that the state had a duty to intervene in the lives of children and assume the role of a substitute parent for those who were found to be either “delinquent” or “dependent”

Question 15

What replaced the JDA in 1984?

Answer 15

Young Offenders Act - brought in due process rights & safeguards to young offenders (e.g. right to obtain & instruct legal counsel
Criticized for shifting away from child welfare approach

Question 16

What replaced the YOA in 2003?

Answer 16

Youth Criminal Justice Act

Question 17

what was the treatment of youth like even before the emergence of a juvenile justice system?

Answer 17

there was a long-standing practice to treat juvenile offenders differently, than adult offenders
since about the 11th century, under English common law, children under 7 could not be convicted of an offence
those between the ages of 7 and 14 were subject to doli incapax

Question 18

what were the characteristics of early welfare model policies?

Answer 18

diminished criminal responsibility for youth, based on parens patriae, perception of young offenders as “misguided”; probation officers held a prominent role in the early days of youth justice - they could help to reform these young offenders

Question 19

what is doli incapax?

Answer 19

incapable of doing harm (committing a criminal act) unless it could be proved otherwise; the onus was on the Crown to prove that the child had the capacity and then they would be treated as an adult

Question 20

What changes did the JDA bring?

Answer 20

• based on a child welfare model & was initiated by the child savers
• minimum age of jurisdiction was 7 years, maximum age ranged from 15-17 years - (provinces could set their own maximum age within range, and age could differ by sex)
• broad definition of delinquency and dependency, including status offences and indeterminate sentences; - could be held until they were deemed to no longer be a threat, or until they turned 21
• probation officers played a significant role in all aspects