Statistics Canada Article on Youth Court Statistics in Canada, 2011/2012

The Statistics Canada publication Juristat has published an article on Youth court statistics in Canada, 2011/2012 that shows a decline for the third straight year in the number of cases in Canada's youth justice system:

"In Canada, the youth justice system has operated separately from that for adults for over a century. From the inception of the Juvenile Delinquents Act in 1908, to the Young Offenders Act in 1984 and the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003, it has long been recognized that the principles that govern the adult criminal justice system are not necessarily suitable for young people accused of crime."

"The YCJA legislation currently in place applies to young persons aged 12-to-17 years and emphasizes the principles of the protection of society, crime prevention, rehabilitation and reintegration, meaningful consequences and timely interventions. In this regard, emphasis is placed upon diverting youth who commit crime away from the traditional justice system and reserving the most serious sentences for the most serious types of crime. That said, although the number of youth court cases has dropped substantially under the YCJA, many cases continue to be processed through the courts."

"Using data from the Integrated Criminal Court Survey, this article presents information on youth court cases completed in Canada in 2011/2012.1 It discusses short and long-term trends in the number and types of cases, the characteristics of youth who appear in court, case decisions, sentencing outcomes and the length of time taken to complete youth court cases ..."

"In 2011/2012, Canada’s youth courts completed just over 48,000 cases involving about 166,000 Criminal Code and other federal statute offences, such as those contrary to the Youth Criminal Justice Act ... This number represented a 10% drop from the previous year (almost 5,300 fewer cases) and the third consecutive annual decline. The 2011/2012 decrease reflects the lowest number of completed youth court cases since these data were first collected by Statistics Canada in 1991/1992 ..."