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6. Trends in Youth Crime: Has Youth Crime Increased in the Past Few Years?

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Responding to Youth Crime in Canada
This chapter is in the book Responding to Youth Crime in Canada
CHAPTER SIXTrends in Youth Crime:Has Youth Crime Increasedin the Past Few Years?The level of crime in our society - and, more specifically, the level ofyouth crime in our society - is a political as well as an empirical issue.Those who suggest that crime is increasing are sometimes seen as usingscare tactics in an attempt to find support for harsh criminal justice pol-icies, on the assumption that harsh policies will cause crime rates tolevel off or decrease. Those who suggest that crime is not increasing aresometimes seen as attempting to minimize the impact of crime on vic-tims or as suggesting that leniency is the appropriate response to crime.As is pointed out in Chapters 1 and 11, our assessment of the empir-ical evidence is that the level of crime in society and the severity of themeasures society uses in response to crime are quite independent.Within the ranges of penalties that are plausible in our society, then, theseverity of the response of the criminal justice system to crime is notgoing to make a lot of difference to the amount of crime we experience.The political reality, however, is that independent of whatever con-clusions one might come to from a careful reading of the facts, it is likelythat if crime is seen as increasing, additional pressure will be placed onParliament and the youth justice system to 'do something about it/And, 'doing something about it' usually means getting tougher.It is easy to understand the source of this kind of pressure. In 1997 arepresentative sample of Ontario residents were asked whether theythought that crime in Ontario, and crime in their own neighbourhoods,was increasing, decreasing, or staying the same (Doob, Sprott, Marinos,& Varma, 1998). Overall 69 per cent of Ontario residents thought thatcrime was increasing in the province and 40 per cent thought that crimewas increasing in their own neighbourhoods. They were also askedwhether they thought that youth court sentences were too severe,about right, or not severe enough. As shown in Table 6.1, people who
© 2020 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

CHAPTER SIXTrends in Youth Crime:Has Youth Crime Increasedin the Past Few Years?The level of crime in our society - and, more specifically, the level ofyouth crime in our society - is a political as well as an empirical issue.Those who suggest that crime is increasing are sometimes seen as usingscare tactics in an attempt to find support for harsh criminal justice pol-icies, on the assumption that harsh policies will cause crime rates tolevel off or decrease. Those who suggest that crime is not increasing aresometimes seen as attempting to minimize the impact of crime on vic-tims or as suggesting that leniency is the appropriate response to crime.As is pointed out in Chapters 1 and 11, our assessment of the empir-ical evidence is that the level of crime in society and the severity of themeasures society uses in response to crime are quite independent.Within the ranges of penalties that are plausible in our society, then, theseverity of the response of the criminal justice system to crime is notgoing to make a lot of difference to the amount of crime we experience.The political reality, however, is that independent of whatever con-clusions one might come to from a careful reading of the facts, it is likelythat if crime is seen as increasing, additional pressure will be placed onParliament and the youth justice system to 'do something about it/And, 'doing something about it' usually means getting tougher.It is easy to understand the source of this kind of pressure. In 1997 arepresentative sample of Ontario residents were asked whether theythought that crime in Ontario, and crime in their own neighbourhoods,was increasing, decreasing, or staying the same (Doob, Sprott, Marinos,& Varma, 1998). Overall 69 per cent of Ontario residents thought thatcrime was increasing in the province and 40 per cent thought that crimewas increasing in their own neighbourhoods. They were also askedwhether they thought that youth court sentences were too severe,about right, or not severe enough. As shown in Table 6.1, people who
© 2020 University of Toronto Press, Toronto

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Preface ix
  4. 1. Introduction: Youth Crime and Youth Justice 1
  5. 2. Why Have a Separate Youth Justice System? 30
  6. 3. The Youth Justice System and Very Young Children 52
  7. 4. The Nature of Youth Crime 72
  8. 5. Youth Crime, Special Issues: Gangs, Schools, and Recidivists 96
  9. 6. Trends in Youth Crime: Has Youth Crime Increased in the Past Few Years? 117
  10. 7. Getting the Case to Court 142
  11. 8. Transfers to Adult Court: Treating Children as Adults 171
  12. 9. Sentencing of Youths 190
  13. 10. The Impact of Custody 228
  14. 11. Conclusion: How Do We Best Approach the Problem of Youth Crime? 240
  15. References 275
  16. Index 291
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https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442683808-007

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents vii
  3. Preface ix
  4. 1. Introduction: Youth Crime and Youth Justice 1
  5. 2. Why Have a Separate Youth Justice System? 30
  6. 3. The Youth Justice System and Very Young Children 52
  7. 4. The Nature of Youth Crime 72
  8. 5. Youth Crime, Special Issues: Gangs, Schools, and Recidivists 96
  9. 6. Trends in Youth Crime: Has Youth Crime Increased in the Past Few Years? 117
  10. 7. Getting the Case to Court 142
  11. 8. Transfers to Adult Court: Treating Children as Adults 171
  12. 9. Sentencing of Youths 190
  13. 10. The Impact of Custody 228
  14. 11. Conclusion: How Do We Best Approach the Problem of Youth Crime? 240
  15. References 275
  16. Index 291
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