Introduction:This proposal is for the purposes of looking at alternatives to court sentencing of youth charged with criminal acts.I. Shortcomings and deficiencies with the current traditional justice system A.Traditional Justice goals are based on Retributive model as opposed to Restorative 1.Traditional Justice trend to sentencing 2.Traditional Justice lack of Offender accountability 3.Traditional Justice neglect of victims B.Advantages to Restorative Justice Model 1.Makes the offender take more responsibility for their part and helps the offender see the effects of their crimes 2.Provides victim and community with a sense of justice 3.Lowers the cost of incarceration 4.Emphasises t ...view middle of the document...
According to a report written by Anthony M. Doob and Jane B. Sprott in the article, The Use of Custody Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the rate of custodial sentencing dropped from 16,000 in 1991 to 1992 year to 9562 in the year 2003 to 2004 Page 2 since the implementation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. So why has this trend of non-custodial sentencing been set? One reason for the drop in custodial sentences is the key objectives of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. According to the article The Daily , written for the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics on 2006 March 28th , "The YCJA does not recommend a young person to be sentenced to custody unless the person has committed a serious violent offence, has not complied with a non-custodial sentence, has committed an indictable offence for which an adult would be liable to imprisonment for more than two years and has a history indicating a pattern of findings of guilt, or in exceptional circumstances where the youth has committed an indictable offence and a non-custodial sentence would be inconsistent with the Act's purpose and principles of sentencing." Is this trend a deficiency or a positive trend or better yet could we use this trend of sentencing to promote the use of other alternatives? I will intend to answer this question in the following paragraphs.According an article The Daily , written for the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics on January 11, 2006, there has been a significant increase in offences against the administration of justice ( I.E. such as compliance Page 3 with community sentencing such as Probation, Deferred Custody Supervision Orders, Pre trial Orders, and Community Supervision Orders). In addition, according to The Daily , January 11, 2006, four out of every ten cases heard before youth court has been an offence against the administration of justice. The number of these type of offences rose from 28,992 in 1994/95 to 43,300 in 2003/04. In addition, only half of these cases resulted in a jail terms being imposed.This leads me to the next topic of how the system is failing the victim, the offender, and community. These type of numbers before the courts and the lack of consequences imposed for violating these orders, which is a key objective of the Youth Criminal Justice Act which suggest incarceration for these offences, suggest to the me that there is a definite deficiency with the Youth Criminal Justice Acts policy on non-custodial forms of sentencing. This leads me to how the Youth Criminal Justice Act is failing the offender. I could relate lack of sentencing youth to a jail term for administration of justice violations, to a parent telling a child no he or she cannot have cookie and then after he or she begins crying and throwing a temper receives a cookie from the parent anyway. Much like the parents giving the cookie to Page 4 the child just because they want one, the lack of the courts sentencing youth to jail terms for offences against...
