Do more charges lead to rising crime?

Assignment Option 1

The Edmonton journal published an article on May 6 in 1994 titled “Do more charges meaning rising crime? Many people believe youth crime is out of control and the justice system is not responding. Others think that’s not the case; Trouble with intolerance; Part 1 of 4 Series: Why kids go bad, a special series on youth crime.” You can access this article online via the link provided "Article". The subject being formulated in this article is the discussion on whether youth crime is becoming a crisis in our society due to the amount of charges being brought to our Canadian justice system.

The claims in this article that are being made are presented by a chief judge, criminologists, and victims/children advocates. The article focuses on the particular population called “youth”, which is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adult independence. This article only focuses on those the age of 17, and is geared towards youth that are attending Canadian high schools. Reviewing the article there are three major claims that are shown. The first claim that is being presented is that society is becoming intolerant towards youth crime, and that the media is affecting how our society portrays our youth crime; crimes which affects how society actually defines youth crime. A secondary claim is that our Canadian Justice system is becoming too soft and youth offenders going to court for minor charges are only getting a slap on the wrist, the argument is that this is not only costing money and wasting time, but it is also increasing our statistics on youth crime. The third and final claim that was shown in this article is that society wants all minor crimes to be dealt with (schools fights, minor shoplifting, etc.) and instead of police having discretion like the early years, law enforcement is now charging youth offenders more frequently. This is not technically causing a rise in crime in our society, but is presenting a rise in our youth crime statistics due to having these minor issues brought to our Justice systems and being counted towards our youth crime rate.

The evidence that was collected in this article by the author is primarily based on statistics, and by looking at just the numbers from the statistics one would infer that our youth crime is in a crisis due to the higher rates of youth presence in our courts systems. In 1993 Alberta courts held 1,240 cases involving minor assaults which are more than double than in 1986. In 1994 when this article was written, 56% of minor assaults with young offenders were ending in formal charges which revealed that Canada’s youth court instances rose more than 25% between 1988 and 1993. Edmonton’s Young offender centre opened in 1988 to hold 128 kids; by 1994 it held approximately 240. The evidence presented in this article based on these statistics proves that crime is rising, particularly in our youth population as opposed to just simply more charges overall. Therefore Canadians are seeing the increase as proof of a youth crime crisis. However additional evidence was revealed by the author by providing a study that was done by Peter Carrington’s a Criminologist who revealed and claimed that youth crime might still be an issue, however it has remained at the same level as it was in 1984 before the Young Offenders Act was established. Peter Carrington’s research showed police are charging more kids in 1994, but the street crime level has not increased. The evidence that was researched was collected not by looking into the statistics of cases in court; rather, Carrington studied the number of kids suspected of crimes. This evidence that was collected gave a better indicator on the actual amount of youth crime. When Carrington looked at the numbers, the author explained that youth offenders were suspected of crime at a rate of 2,080 per 100,000 populations in the last 5 years from 1994 of the Juvenile Delinquents Act. The rate dropped to 2,079, one fewer per 100,000 population’s during the first five years of the Young Offenders Act. This evidence provided proof that even though the statistics show more youth are being charged in court, actual levels of street crime within youth populations is not increasing.

The increasing number in minor offences with charges laid in court for youth offenders will affect how Canadian society views youth crime, and the subsequent labelling of these trends as a crisis. Looking at the evidence in this article, it proves that our youth crime rates are really not fluctuating that much, but the public’s perception of those crime rates changed drastically, due in large part to claims made by the media. Unfortunately the population demographic of those who are being victimized by the claims addressed in this article is not actually stated. Nevertheless due to the claims made in the article of society being intolerance towards crime, the public pushes for violent and harsher punishment for young offenders. This is because they assume that there is an issue with our youth crime rising. The court statistics are increasing with the number of charges being laid, which is causing a problem showing that even though our crime is not actually increasing due to the number of charges with minor offences, it’s given the idea to media and to our society that youth crime is an issue. The article does not propose any input on how to correct these issues of the misleading information on the youth crime crises to society, or how to decrease the information the media portrays to them. This is shown as an obstacle due to the fact the media will keep leaking this information because it makes good TV, which results in society believing our youth crime is becoming more of an issue, which is not actually the case. Furthermore the courts are charging more youths for minor offences like failure to comply with court orders. However in this article you will notice that there is no actual driving force claims being explicitly formulated; rather, they are hidden claims that are being directed towards the media and the justice system for the cause of society believing that our youth crime is at a crisis level, and that our justice system is overly charging youth with minor charges. Due to this article presenting claims for information, and providing evidence towards our youth justice system charges increasing, youth crime is either becoming a crisis or maintaining its level in society. There are no claim-makers appealing each other’s information, and therefore their claims are all presupposed.

The major claim maker would be the Edmonton Journal. It is reputable source of news in Edmonton Alberta, Canada and around the world, this is where the article was originally published. The article was posted on the website called the Infomart which is Canada's largest provider of news & broadcast media monitoring, financial and corporate data and with over 5000 news sources, including newspapers, magazines, and online blogging. It carries a considerable influence in shaping these perceptions of claims being addressed in the aforementioned article, and by working with the media it can profit from the sales that are generated by the public’s fear and interest with youth crime rising. The other claim makers listed in the article are Heino Lilles a Chief Judge, Bern Walter a former Alberta children’s Advocate, Jim Hackler and Peter Carrington who are both criminologists and Scott Newark, a victim’s advocate. Each claim maker has a professional significance in relation to the issue by high merit of knowledge linked with their positions. Heino Lilles the Chief Judge makes claims on how our society is becoming more demanding with how our court systems should be handling our youth offences. This is due to the fact that society has a collective guilt associated with neglecting youth populations. Bernd Walter claims that the public only is given a certain view that youth crime is growing, and if they understood the truth about our youth crime rates society would be able to make better decisions about this issue. Jim Hackler and Scott Newark make similar claims on blaming the media for the public’s views and worries on youth crime. They state that the media makes society believe youth crime is trending, which pushes the public’s perspective more towards the court system becoming too soft and demanding more changes in the system. The strongest claim is made by Peter Carrington who researched the evidence about youth crime not increasing, rather youth charges without convictions are. Peter proves that the police and justice system are charging more kids than they have in recent years. He also claims that more minor offences are getting notices in our courts which is becoming a trend in our society due to the fact the public and schools wants our justice system to correct kids behaviour and become more strict with their ruling. The only claims that are really not presented in this article would be an actual youth offender that has been through the Canadian youth justice system and the actual Youth Justice Act. Yes claims are being presented by a chief judge that has a great deal of relation and involvement in the issues, but I feel more evidence or personal claims from people who have actually experienced the youth justice system would have increased the strength of this article and the argument presented.

References

“Infomart” www.fpinformart.ca. Post media Network Inc. 2014

McKeen, Scott; Rick McDonnell (1994) Edmonton Journal Foster: “Do more charges mean rising crime?; Many people believe youth crime is out of control and the justice system is not responding. Others think that's not the case; Trouble with intolerance; Part 1 of 4 Series: Why kids go Bad; A special series on youth crime”