Ycja Essay

The YCJA The Youth Criminal Justice Act is represented in all of the following sources, but only 2 of them agree with and support the YCJA. The other one does support them to a point, but are saying that the punishments are not harsh enough for youth. Going back to the sources, in the first one Graham Long is stating that the law is already hard enough on young people. In his case he has been to many court hearings and almost all the young offenders that he sees are not the first priority to the judge, the victim is. I don’t blame the judge for this, but if you are going to be dealing with a child that’s 12 – 14 or so, I think that you should have some feeling for them. An example that he describes is in Drayton Valley, Alberta where a youth offender was ordered to pay the victim $25,000. This is a bit too much for a teenager to be paying; most of them don’t even make that much in a couple years even if they have a job. The second source that I am looking at has a complete opposite view. They think that a lot of the young offenders that do go to prison get off to easy, with not enough punishment and that they will probably be a repeat offender. The third and last source is a line graph that shows the number of youths charged with crimes. This graph is showing that in the early 1990’s youth that were charged with offences went up from 8000 to 9000 in as little as 2 years. These numbers start to drop after 2003 when the YCJA was first introduced. It is proven by statistics that about 80% of first time youth offenders will not break the law again. These 3 sources of information are just a few of the many examples of the different views and opinions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In my opinion I agree with the YCJA, in that youth should get punished for their actions depending on the age of the person. For example going back to source one, Graham Long is saying that kids don’t get off easy and that some punishments are a bit harsh. Giving a teenager a fine of over $25,000 is a bit over the top, especially if they don’t even have a job. I’m not saying that kids shouldn’t get charged, but they should take into consideration the age of the child. The court should also take in mind that some of the kids may have a mental issue. My overall though on his perspective is that some kids should get a harder punishment depending on what type of crime they have committed and their age. I would agree also somewhat with source two in that some kids are not punished hard enough. Over all my opinion of the YCJA would be that they are harsh enough on youth crime most of the time.

For source two I somewhat agree with it because of the following reason. In 2006 the murder of Albertan parents Debra and Marc Richardson occurred. Their own daughter murdered them with the help of her 23-year-old boyfriend. She was charged with the maximum of 10 years in prison under the YCJA, but yet she got out early. In all she spent only around 6 years in prison for first degree murder, which in my eyes is not just. Even if she is only a child, she killed 3 people. As I said before they should get charged depending on their age but if the crime is serious enough they should receive an adult sentence. This is a regulation but it only applies for people 14-18.

The third source in here is something that I agree with because, as statistics from the chart show that kids most likely will not become repeat offenders. This is most because when they get in trouble with the law at a young age the punishment isn’t as harsh, its more of a warning to what could happen if you keep doing this. If you compare what I just said to the line graph you will see that after the YCJA was introduced in 2003 youth crime started to go down. I believe that it was decreasing because of the reason stated above.

Source number one is something that again I somewhat agree with. I would pick this one over number two, and here are some reasons why; as stated in this source by Graham Long, the YCJA is hard enough on kids. An example that he talks about is a youth getting charged $25,000. He doesn’t say what for but it shouldn’t really matter, like really a teenager getting charged that much. I know that for a fact almost any youth would not be able to pay off that, even with a job or not. This is just one of the many time where kids are judged to much like adults. They have to realize that they are kids, and yes they did do something wrong but you should give them a punishment that goes along with their age.

Out of everything that I have read about in all these sources, my personal opinion would have to be to agree with the YCJA to an extent. I believe that in most cases the YCJA is fair and just for everyone, and plus it helps to slow down that youth crime rate. Rare occasions can occur where the victim is not satisfied with the punishment that the offender got, and other times the offender has gotten a punishment that may be a bit too hard on them, but all in all the YCJA is something that I think Canada should keep enforcing.