The Canadian Criminal Justice System has been altered drastically over the years, specifically for youth. The introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act noted the connection between labeling theory, social learning theory, and crime, and thus created more diversion and reintegration strategies for police and courts to divert youth away from incarceration sentences including extrajudicial measures.
With the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003, Canadian youth were introduced to a new form of corrections with a focus on rehabilitative justice and protection of the public that separated them from the adult criminal justice system (Griffths & Murdoch, 2014, p.331). With the rehabilitative focus of youth corrections …show more content…
personal communication, September 30th 2014). By referring youth to programming, it allows for effective timely intervention and encourages the youth to acknowledge the harm done to victim(s) as well as providing opportunities for community involvement in non-violent cases so the youth courts may not be burdened by this and can put their attention on more severe cases (Department of Justice Canada, 2015). Under Section 4 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, it is stated that extrajudicial measures are the most appropriate and effective way to deal with youth crime as it is presumed to be an adequate way of holding youth accountable while allowing for effective and timely intervention for correcting criminal behaviour (Winterdyk & Smandych, 2012, …show more content…
The adult and youth justice systems are separated in Canada. The reasoning behind the separation of the two justice systems is to divide the productive members of society and those perceived to have full cognitive abilities, from the youth who are not yet productive members of society and are not perceived to have full cognitive functioning. Winterdyk and Samandych state that the reasoning for separating the justice systems is so the youth system can focus on protection of children until they reach the age of majority:
“Prior to the age of majority, children and youth receive the protection from the state in the form of restrictions on their freedom and investment in their development with the intent that such policies will pay dividends in terms of the promotion of competent adults as productive members of society.” (2012,
With the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003, Canadian youth were introduced to a new form of corrections with a focus on rehabilitative justice and protection of the public that separated them from the adult criminal justice system (Griffths & Murdoch, 2014, p.331). With the rehabilitative focus of youth corrections …show more content…
personal communication, September 30th 2014). By referring youth to programming, it allows for effective timely intervention and encourages the youth to acknowledge the harm done to victim(s) as well as providing opportunities for community involvement in non-violent cases so the youth courts may not be burdened by this and can put their attention on more severe cases (Department of Justice Canada, 2015). Under Section 4 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, it is stated that extrajudicial measures are the most appropriate and effective way to deal with youth crime as it is presumed to be an adequate way of holding youth accountable while allowing for effective and timely intervention for correcting criminal behaviour (Winterdyk & Smandych, 2012, …show more content…
The adult and youth justice systems are separated in Canada. The reasoning behind the separation of the two justice systems is to divide the productive members of society and those perceived to have full cognitive abilities, from the youth who are not yet productive members of society and are not perceived to have full cognitive functioning. Winterdyk and Samandych state that the reasoning for separating the justice systems is so the youth system can focus on protection of children until they reach the age of majority:
“Prior to the age of majority, children and youth receive the protection from the state in the form of restrictions on their freedom and investment in their development with the intent that such policies will pay dividends in terms of the promotion of competent adults as productive members of society.” (2012,