midterm Flashcards
Age range for youth and why
Youth; 12-17, we are using 12-24
We use this age range because at 18 you gain rights such as voting, access to social assistance, marriage, signing legal contracts, no legal care and entering the adult legal system
young person; The YCJA defines a young person as someone who is at least 12 years old but younger than 18 at the time an offence is committed.
Emerging adulthood;
18 to mid 20s
Brain development continues to mid 20s
Areas with implications for youth justice; prefrontal cortex, amygdala, reward system
18 year old brain still presents risks for involvement in justice system
Social development
Crime is more likely to occur when social bonds are weak
Not many emerging adults hit “turning point” milestones that strengthen social bonds
Turning points; marriage, meaningful employment, etc
WHAT IS THE CRIME SEVERITY INDEX (CSI)?
How is it calculated?
Crime Severity Index (CSI); Developed and introduced by Statistics Canada, the CSI uses a weighting system to measure (youth) offences according to their seriousness. Although introduced in 2009, CSI data are available back to 1998.
Each offences is assigned a weight based on different sentences handed down by the courts.
More serious crimes are given higher weights, less serious crimes lower weights.
When all crimes are included, more serious ones have a greater impact on changes in the index.
Most youth homicides dont end up in life sentences
Move to YCJA (2003)
Punitiveness continued in society: Garland And Culture of Control
Self Discipline and Personal Responsibility (welfare, single mothers and ex-cons), placing more responsibility on the individual
E.G. Project Turnaround in Ontario (bootcamp), attempt at rehabilitation, first private prison in canada
New Legislation was needed to curb youth crime
Increase use of Adult sentences for 16-17 year olds
Easing restrictions on publishing names of Young Offenders
Holding parents accountable
Growth of Victim’s Rights in Canada
On the other hand…
Quebec did not want a more punitive Act
Some lobbying for more diversion (EJM’s (extrajudicial measures) and EJS’s (extrajudicial sanctions) [warning, caution (parents)], young person has to admit guilt, EJMS designed to put fewer youth in court
As it turns out, fewer youth in court after YCJA in part due to this change
BUT….
2012 amendments to YCJA (Safe Streets and Community Act) by the Federal Conservative Govt
Protection of public as key goal of Act
Specific Deterrence and Denunciation for youth
Pre-trial custody now not related if custody for crime if found guilty would not happen—more youth have been in pre-trial custody as a result
Neo-Classical Explanations
-Beccaria & Bentham:
reduce harshness of 18th century punishment
-Bentham: pleasure-pain principle, ‘Panopticon’; human behaviour dichotimized in between pleasure and pain, utilitarian perspective, humans are people in pursuit and pleasure, pain is the deterrent, pain shouldnt be excessive or torturous
Bentham; political strife during his time
‘Panopticon’; idea that inmates would be housed with inspector, inmates always feel their being watched, internalized notion that you are always being watched and can be punished at any time
Both were part of larger project on social control
Early Biological Positivism
-Lombroso:
criminal anthropology, criminals have animilistic characteristics, offenders from a more primitive state of evolution, Atavism
-Modern criminology, Positivism
Early sociological explanations; Durkheim and Anomie
Everything in society has a place and role
-Functionalism
-Anomie: a condition of normlessness
-Suicide (1897) analysed demographics of suicide statistics, men have higher rates etc
Less interested in why, more in the rates
-Social patterns, function of group’s relationship, integration and moral regulation
Sociological explanations; The Chicago School and Social Disorganization (Burgess, Shaw and McKay)
Social ecological approach
Looked at population density, residential instability, etc
-Concentric Zone Model: Zone of Transition (1925); burgess mapped out chicago in concentric areas and looked at different rates of crime in areas, zone of transition is highest crime rates, least desirable areas to live, poor infrastructure, poverty, etc, inhabitants in that zone experience anomie that causes deviance
Chicago school emphasized deviance is a structural phenomenon
Doesnt work well for cities out side of us
looking at individuals instead of characteristics
Shaw & McKay’s application to juvenile delinquency in Chicago (1942);
peak interest towards youth crime, analyzed and found delinquency clusters in certain areas, inner city areas, found consistency in delinquency rates across neighborhoods, regardless of characteristics of people being there
-Census data, official court records; delinquency across neighbourhoods over time
Critique of use of census data, cannot be taken at face value
The Strain/Anomie Tradition
Robert Merton
Took durkeims notion of anomie and stretched it to general deviance
-“Social Structure and Anomie” (1938)
Economic focused
-Data: social statistics in U.S.
-‘Innovation’: type of crime emphasized in his theory
-Lacks discussion of non-utilitarian crime
Critique; not all working class individuals commit crime, overestimation of working class vs white collar
Utilitarian crime serves a purpose ex stealing food, non utilitarian; crimes of passion, vandalism
The Strain/Anomie Tradition
Albert Cohen
-Delinquent Boys: The Culture of the Gang(1955)
-Theoretical explanation for gangs in the U.S.
-General Theory of Subcultures
Focused on middle and working class youth, value differences between middle and working class
Studied merton
Schools evaluate working class children based on middle class standards, resulting in strain
-‘Reaction Formation’: working class boys had status frustration, norm rejection and replacement, replaced norms with deviant norms
Control & Labelling
Control Theory (Hirschi)
-focus on Weakened social institutions & loss of control
Less about starin and more about drive towards crime
-Critique of Strain Theory
Most people can control urges but question is why offenders dont commit crimes vs why they do
-Self-report data rather than crime stats
-Shifting focus: why don’t individuals commit crimes?
Theorized notion of bonds; 4 bonds; attachment, commitment, involvement and belief
Attachment to pr social institutions
Commitment to social relationships
Involvement in pro social activities and curving deviant social activities
Beliefs
Significant because centres age particularly youth
Labelling Theory (Lemert, Becker)
-Symbolic interactionism, interpretive perspective
Interactive and constructive
Labels are given, labels stick and internalize
Recidivism
-’Primary’ and ‘Secondary Deviance’
Primary; reprimanded for devaint act, deviance is committed again until you are stigmatized and labelled
Secondary; individual resents label and begins to identify with label
Conflict Theory
Hierarchical power structures in society
Societies organizational structure
-Inequality & conflict as a root of crime
-Dominant groups: define & weaponize the law
-Oppressed groups: law weaponized against them;
crime as resistance
Social constructionism
Basic principles;
The bigger the problem objectively, the bigger the social reaction
Moral panic perspective;
1. An event happents and a group is targeted
2. Media exaggerates and simplifies
3. The public becomes concerned
4. Claims makers chime in
5. The legal system reacts, often more punitively
Jordan manners case
Objectivist-legalistic;
Crime is defined by the criminal code
Norms are codified into laws
Generally considered to be a consensus approach
Society agrees what should be against the law
Generally, the system functions in the interest of all (police courts and corrections)
2 ways to define crime
Objectivist-legalistic and Social constructionism
STRENGTHS OF POLICE REPORTED CRIME STATS
A consistent definition and measurement of crime
Can track crime trends over time
Can compare crime across different jurisdictions
PROBLEMS WITH POLICE REPORTED CRIME DATA
Only includes crime that comes to the attention of the police. Not all crime is reported to the police.
Difficult to know the % that is not reported
Depends on the crime (car theft high, sexual assault low)
WHY NOT REPORT?
Some crime is thought to be too minor to be reported to the police (minor assault)
Sometimes the victim is intimidated by the offender
Victims may not trust the police
Victim may believe that the police won’t be able to do anything about it (stolen bike).
juvenile delinquency;
The legal term that came into popular use in the nineteenth century to describe violations of the law by persons who had not reached the legal age of adulthood.
juvenile courts;
Specialized courts first created in the late nineteenth century to apply juvenile justice laws in the care of dependent and delinquent children.
youth criminal justice systems;
A term often used today as a substitute for juvenile courts. Critical criminologists argue that it signifies a shift toward treating young offenders more like adult offenders.
reformable young offender;
A term coined by Bryan Hogeveen (2005) to describe the discursive construction of some young offenders as “troubled” and therefore needing intervention in the hope they can be rehabilitated.
doli incapax;
A legal doctrine that, literally translated, means “incapable of doing harm” and refers to the English common-law presumption that children between 7 and 14 years of age could not be prosecuted for committing criminal offences, unless this presumption was contested by the Crown.
Literally meaning “incapable of crime,” this was a common principle in the English common law tradition that assumed young people (generally younger than 13 years) had the capacity to comprehend the wrongfulness of their actions.
diminished criminal responsibility;
The general view that individuals who are not adults should not be held fully responsible for their criminal behaviour.
Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA);
Canada’s first juvenile delinquency legislation enacted in 1908 and in force until 1984.
individual provinces could set their own maximum age of jurisdiction of the JDA at anywhere between 15 and 17 years old, while different age cate- gories could also be selected for males and females. This was the case in Alberta, where the maximum age of jurisdiction was 15 for boys and 17 for girls (Hackler 1978). In addition, although all Western countries eventually established separate criminal court processes and institutions for dealing with juvenile offenders, the specific nature and timing of these developments varied considerably and, in some jurisdictions, occurred only quite gradually over the course of the first half of the twentieth century
status offences;
Behaviours that are considered delinquent or criminal only because the person who engages in the behaviour is not yet an adult. Examples include truancy (e.g., skipping school), underage drinking, and promiscuous sexual behaviour.
indeterminate sentences;
Sentences of incarceration that have no fixed expiration date, which means that a person can be held in custody until he or she is deemed by correctional officials either to be rehabilitated or to no longer pose a threat to society.
Young Offenders Act (YOA)
The federal legislation that replaced the Juvenile Delinquents Act from 1984 to 2003.
Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA)
The federal legislation enacted in 2002 to replace the Young Offenders Act and which came into effect on 1 April 2003.
When the YCJA was enacted in 2002, for instance, it contained sections that provided for the harsher, adult-like punishment of violent young offenders while re- stricting the use of custody sentences for youth convicted of non-violent crimes. The Act also introduced a wide range of formal and informal extrajudicial measures for diverting first-time and less serious young offenders out of the youth justice system. Such measures included police warnings, cautions, and community-based conferences. In effect, these measures made Canada’s new youth criminal justice system, at least formally on paper, a bifurcated youth justice system—“wherein petty and non-serious offenders would be handled through community-based and diversionary programs while serious and violent offenders would be subject to more carceral and punitive interventions”
bifurcated youth justice system
Literally, a two-pronged justice system, meaning that it provides avenues for diverting first-time and less serious young offenders out of the system while at the same time making possible more punitive forms of punishment for more serious offenders.
Adulteration;
The dismantling of a distinct system of criminal justice for youth and the re-merging with systems of justice for adults.
“at-risk” youth;
Young people who are “at risk” of offending or being victimized due to various social, family, and/or personal factors.
official data
The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, a branch of Statistics Canada, collects offender and offence data from the police, courts, and corrections for administrative purposes. The Centre produces regular reports that are readily available to the public.
unofficial data
Refers to data that are collected and usually published by private or independent researchers or research facilities. The primary data-collection techniques are self-report surveys and victimization surveys. Unofficial data are often used to enhance official data.
administrative offences;
Under section 4 of the YCJA, there are provisions under the extrajudicial measures that allow for charges to be laid if the young person fails to comply with his or her disposition or fails to appear before the court. The charge can be initiated by either the police or the Crown.
Disposition;
For young offenders, this is the equivalent of sentencing for adults. Under the YCJA, a disposition should in theory be more rehabilitative and/or restorative than retributive.
Sebastien’s Law;
The namesake of the law is 19-year-old Sebastien Lacasse, who was beaten and stabbed to death at a 2004 house party in Quebec by a 17-year-old. The incident prompted the courts to consider adult sentences for youth age 14 or older found guilty of serious crimes like murder and aggravated assault. In 2012, the Omnibus Crime Bill was passed, which include an amendment of Section 3(1)(a) of the YCJA to read “protect the public,” which encompasses the spirit of Sebastien’s Law.
Recidivism;
Repetition of criminal and/ or delinquent behaviour. Recidivism can be measured through official sources or through self- report surveys.
self-report (SR) survey;
A social-science questionnaire survey designed to ask respondents to report on their involvement in criminal or delinquent activities.
Although self-report studies have become more popular and are proving to be useful in helping to uncover the “dark figure” (i.e., unreported or unrecorded crimes) for certain offences, they are not without their limitations. Some of the more common limitations to conducting SR studies with youth include young people’s literacy level and ability to comprehend questions, their short-term versus long-term memory, the extent to which they are willing to give information voluntarily, and the fact that respondents may exaggerate their answers in order to conform—or may even telescope their answers by admitting to something that took place before the actual reference period.
victimization survey;
A social-science questionnaire survey designed to measure the experiences of respondents as victims of crime(s).
VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
Began in Canada in early 1980s
Today: Canadian Social Survey
Done every 5 years
20,000 people interviewed
A stratified random sample; pop divided by sub groups
Questions about past victimization
•Can be used to better understand unreported crime
•Also research orientated
•Need to ask very specific questions
Also found that there is a strong correlation between youth who are involved in crime and youth who are victims of crime
Triangulation;
A research methods technique that involves using more than one source of criminological data to assess the validity of what is being observed. For example, this technique can include combining official crime data with self-report data to obtain a clearer picture of crime or delinquency facts.
Populism;
Appealing to or aiming at what are popular concerns among the public. In the context of criminal justice, this may include tough-on- crime-style legislation, or policy.
youth justice court;
The court in which young people charged with an offence created by Parliament—usually under the Criminal Code or the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act—appear in order to enter a plea and then to have their trial or be sentenced.
Diversion;
Responses to transgressions that aim to keep involved parties out of the justice system. Under the YCJA, this includes extrajudicial measures and extrajudicial sanctions.
Rehabilitation;
An underlying concept in corrections that seeks to repair the harmful attitudes and behaviours of an offender through specialized treatment(s).
