The Criminalization of Youth

The Criminalization of Youth

The headlines are horrific. The statistics are alarming. Albertans believe their communities are unsafe. Youth crime seems out of control. In placeCityLethbridge, a 12-year-old girl was recently convicted of murdering her parents and 8-year-old brother. By age eighteen, 25% of boys born in 1987 had committed a criminal offence (Carrington 57). In StateAlberta last year, youth violent crime increased 6% (Forsyth 21), and placeStateAlberta’s rate of violent victimization is the country’s highest (Forsyth 16). Gang violence is escalating and gangs are recruiting younger and younger persons. 50% of youth charged are visible minorities and recent immigrants. (Interview November 21, 2007). The cost of crime in placeStateAlberta is $5 billion annually (Forsyth 6). Does the root of the problem lie within the family unit and peer structure, with substance abuse or with lack of community support? Is the answer simply found by providing more social and community counseling and treatment programs, or should we simply jail all young offenders for longer and longer periods of time so they get the message and stop offending?

Jailing most young offenders is the wrong thing to do, as 41% of teen offenders end their criminal careers before the age of 18, and 80% of teen offenders only commit one crime. In fact, 10% of young offenders commit 46% of all teen crime (Carrington, 59). By the age of 15 for girls and 16 for boys, most teens have peaked in their crime participation (Carrington 57). Judge Prowse-O’Ferrall, a youth court judge in Calgary for 17 years, gives important insight when she observes that due to police and community diversion programs, a significant number of less serious offences (such as mischief, shoplifting and possession of stolen property) are dealt with by Alternative Measures and never get to court. Most of those diverted never re-offend. Most often, those more serious matters such as assaults, break and enters and robberies, are dealt with by the courts. Of the young people she sees, Judge Prowse-O’Ferrall estimates at least 50-70% have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Due to this mental illness, they will never learn from their mistakes and without strict community supervision and structure, will continue to re-offend, as followers as opposed to instigators. Jailing these FAS youth will have no effect but to introduce them to other young offenders, some of whom may recruit the FAS youth and draw them deeper into more complex and serious criminal activity. (Interview, November 21, 2007). That leaves a very small proportion of Young Offenders whose propensity to offend might be changed by their experience with penalties in the justice system coupled with community intervention.

In placeStateAlberta, only 14% of young offenders are actually jailed; the rest serve their sentences in open or deferred custody, with most put on probation and ordered to do community service, take counseling, or make restitution, all within a very structured and controlled supervision. (Quote) Judge Daniel, an adult criminal court judge, believes the reason non-FAS youth most often re-offend as adults is because they have serious substance abuse issues and are not given the appropriate treatment and counseling within the community as young offenders (Interview, November 21, 2007). Judge Prowse-O’Ferrall confirmed that a very large proportion (almost all) of the youth she deals with take drugs and/or consume alcohol. She notes there are very few youth substance abuse treatment facilities for offenders, and the wait times are often over six months, by which time the youth has often progressed to more serious addiction and crime (Interview, November 21, 2007). In conclusion, it is apparent that jailing the 10% of hardened criminal youth is an important step in reducing community crime; the rest need extensive community support.

StateAlberta’s Crime Reduction and Safe Communities Task Force (the Task Force) identified substance abuse as a heavily influencing factor in the commission of crime in placeStateAlberta (Forsyth 24). Judge Daniel indicated that 17 years ago when she became a judge, the primary substance abused was alcohol. It was at the root of most crime. Over the last ten years, however, drugs (particularly marijuana and cocaine) have emerged as the common denominator with 98% of the criminals in court. A specialized drug court was instituted to deal with the increasing drug trade (Interview, November 21, 2007). The statistics illustrate the enormity of the drug problem in placeStateAlberta. More than $1 million in cocaine (with a street value nearing $2.5 million) is sold by wholesalers in placeCityMedicine Hat each month (Forsyth 20). Many of those who sell illicit drugs are affiliated with gangs based in CityEdmonton and placeCityCalgary (Forsyth 19). Virtually every youth appearing in Alberta’s courts takes drugs and consumes alcohol, and at least a third have serious substance abuse issues (Interview November 21, 2007). Cocaine offenses have increased 67% since 2002 (Statistics Canada 5), 12% over last year alone, with StateAlberta having the fourth highest drug offence rate in placecountry-regionCanada (Forsyth 16). Sentences for drug trafficking have increased by 27% over last year (Forsyth 22), due to the prevalence of the crime and the attempt to deter it by the courts imposing more significant penalties (Interview, November 21, 2007). There is obviously a real connection between crime and substance abuse. The Task Force concludes: “If there were one solution that would bring about immediate crime reduction and safer communities, it would be an all out attack on substance abuse” (Forsyth 24). Judge Daniel listed the derivative crimes related to substance abuse: marijuana grow operations and drug trafficking (marijuana is traded pound for pound for cocaine at the U.S. border), thefts, car prowling, break and enters, assaults, murders, robberies (with or without weapons), prostitution, all designed to get money directly or goods to pawn for money to purchase drugs, and impaired operation of motor vehicles (by drugs and/or alcohol) (Interview November 21, 2007). The cost to society is enormous, not just in terms of the trauma of victimization, but in increased insurance costs, increased prices of goods, and increased resources for counseling and health care (for victims and substance abusers). Hepatitis, HIV and other diseases are easily transmitted by the injection of drugs. Children are at risk because they are being approached at younger and younger ages to either sell or consume drugs and they are finding contaminated needles and other drug paraphernalia discarded on the streets. Young girls are lured with free drugs only to find themselves drug-dependant and