Young Offenders Act

22 Pages 5542 Words

a part of a larger social movement to clear slum tenements, to enact and enforce humane factory laws, to ameliorate prison conditions and save future generations from misery, pauperism and crime. As a result of the work of these reformers, legislators introduced laws, which would treat young criminals by civil process.

• The JDA was one of these laws and its very language illustrates its intent. Young people were referred to as children. They committed delinquencies rather than offences, and they were then called juvenile delinquents rather than criminals or offenders. A young person who ran afoul of the law was to be "dealt with, not as an offender, but as one in a condition of delinquency and therefor requiring help and guidance and proper supervision". The Act stated further that " the care and custody and discipline of a juvenile delinquent shall approximate as nearly as may be that which would given by his parents, and that as far as practicable every juvenile delinquent shall be treated, not as a criminal, but as a misdirected and misguided child, and one needing aid, encouragement, help and assistance".
• Similarly, juveniles were not convicted of offences. They were "Adjudged" to have committed a delinquency or to be a juvenile delinquent. They were then dealt with, rather than sentenced. At that point they might be committed to an industrial school (rather than imprisoned or sent to jail), or committed to the care and custody of a probation officer (rather than simply being placed on probation).

• In some cases, these distinctions were quite appropriate. Unlike the YOA, which allows young people to be prosecuted only for crimes, the JDA included that and more. For example, the violation of any provincial statute or of any municipal by-law could lead to a finding of delinquency. Truancy constituted a delinquency. So did "sexual immorality or any similar form of vice". Rather than dealing only with criminal offenc...