Intro To Criminal Justice Midterm 3

Front 1

Moffit's Categorization

Back 1

Adolescent Limited Offenders: antisocial behaviour evident only during adolescence

Life-Course-Persistent Offenders: Begin to engage in antisocial behaviour during childhood and continue throughout adulthood

Front 2

The two different views on youth crime:

Back 2

Rehabilitation advocates - advocate non-custodial options, including restorative justice, point to major cost savings.

sympathy for problems youth face, their own victimization.

public exaggerate and misrepresent you crime, with caustic consequences.

Get tough on crime/law and order advocates:

advocate the lock them up and throw away the key response.

de-emphasize costs and underscore public protection.

society requires protection from young offenders.

youth crime is out of control.

Front 3

Juvenile Superpredators

Back 3

Role of public criminologist/intellectual:

incentives to come up with drastic numbers for the evening news.

Other political and media criminologists admitted to using sensationalist language to grab attention.

Penal populist responses to youth crime are often based on the number of incidents rather than per capita average rates.

More youth in the population will mean more delinquency as a demographic fact.

School shootings (sensitization and escalation) "killers in the classroom, predators on the playground"

lowering statistical trends fail to change this impression

Front 4

The U.S punitive turn:

Back 4

Mythology and fear fuel penal responses.

ex: in 2001 when juvenal crime rates were at a 25 yr low 62% of the public believed they were on the rise.

States were incentivized to try juveniles 14 and older as adults and remove restrictions separating them from adults in prison by threatening to remove federal financial support if they did not comply.

this lead to doubling of youths in adult jails.

once a juvenal is transferred to adult court, future offences are automatically tried in criminal court.

the protection of identity is compromised now. The collective conscience is that the media and public have a right to know.

mandatory minimal sentences, limiting judicial discretion.

ethnic minority males make up about 1/3 of the population, but about 2/3 of those in secure detention.

Front 5

Diffusing the Panic?

Back 5

Child arrest rates decreased nearly by half from 1996-2010, and the rate of children in confinement decreased by 37 percent.

all states but Tennessee experienced this decrease.

The number of children in adult prisons has declined by 54% since 2000 and by 22% since 2010.

Front 6

Youth Criminal Justice Act:

Back 6

By the late 1990's, Canada led Western nations (including the US) in rate of custody.

Liberal gov'ts primary goal was to limit the use of custody.

emphasis on proportionate sentencing: holding young persons accountable so that consequences be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence and degree of responsibility of youth.

Rehabilitation is to be considered so long as does not violate the sentencing principle of proportionality.

Emphasis on diversion (increased use of pre-charge, extra judicial measures, post-charge, extra judicial sanctions and restorative justice.

the danger relates back to penal populism: illustrates the risk of fashioning public policy from political outrage and demonstrates the gap between the perception of juvenile crime and its reality.

Front 7

Moral Panics and Youth Crime:

Back 7

A condition, episode, person, or group of persons emerges periodically to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests

Presented in a highly stylized and stereotypical fashion by the mass media, often exaggerating the treat.

entail disproportionate responses that victimize the innocent, a "fundamentally inappropriate reaction" to exaggerated social problems and punitive threats to social order.

Front 8

Ambiguous Consensus on the matter...

Back 8

Social constructionist scholars have recently pointed to more ambiguous formulations that often play out as 'victim contests' characterizing young offenders as either 'cold-blooded, calculating predators' incapable of remorse or as 'innocent victims of the social conditions that had robbed them of youthful innocence.'

Front 9

Children as Victims:

Back 9

"as much as we want children to behave like adults, they're not going to. They're children"

"there's every reason to think that children who kill, like other children, are emotionally and intellectually undeveloped"

Front 10

Children as Victimizers:

Back 10

"kidnapping, torture, and murder are not crimes of children"

"I want those responsible to face court as adults. Children do not kill children. Children do not kill."

"young offenders read the papers, they see the TV and know that kids under 18 can't get anything serious"

Front 11

News and Crime Coverage:

Back 11

In Canada, there is evidence of both exaggerated and disproportionate representations, as well as 'balanced' and 'rational' assessment of social problems. Especially crime and consideration of crime causation.

conformation bias regarding information we gravitate towards.

moral panics in the media have become more complex:

media reflexivity: where media refers to itself in analyzing and deconstructing its own content, commenting on its own practices.

involves reactions to reactions to emotional and rational responses to youth crime.

Front 12

Newspapers:

Back 12

the Alberta report - known for being an alarmist newspaper. Underscoring youth offenders as victimizers. Emotional reactions are more rational than those who point to rational statistical trends in youth crime.

the Calgary herald - quality newspaper aimed at upscale readers. While presenting an objectively toned article which appears to be more liberal. Often feature multi-sided debates.

theme of innocence: children and kids, not young criminals.

emotions of sympathy, drawing attention to social forces that youth-in-conflict with the law and youth at risk face which push them into deviancy and crime.