A Police Reference Manual on Crime Prevention and Diversion with Youth
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CANADIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR LAW AND THE FAMILY A Police Reference Manual on Crime Prevention and Diversion with Youth Joseph P. Hornick, Ph.D. Tullio Caputo, Ph.D. Ross Hastings, Ph.D. Patrick J. Knoll, Q.C. Lorne D. Bertrand, Ph.D. Joanne J. Paetsch, B.A. Lyle Stroeder, Insp. A. Owen Maguire, B.A. 1996 A POLICE REFERENCE MANUAL ON CRIME PREVENTION AND DIVERSION WITH YOUTH By: Joseph P. Hornick, Ph.D. Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family Tullio Caputo, Ph.D. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Carleton University Ross Hastings, Ph.D. Department of Criminology, The University of Ottawa Patrick J. Knoll, Q.C. Faculty of Law, The University of Calgary Lorne D. Bertrand, Ph.D. Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family Joanne J. Paetsch, B.A. Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family Lyle Stroeder, Insp. Royal Canadian Mounted Police and National Crime Prevention Council Secretariat A. Owen Maguire, B.A. Saskatoon Police Service Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family and Solicitor General Canada 1996 2 The views expressed in this manual are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family, the Solicitor General Canada, or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. This manual states the law as of May 1996. Copies available from: Solicitor General Canada Police Policy and Research Policy Branch 8th Floor, 340 Laurier Avenue West Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P8 Telephone: (613) 991-3310 Fax: (613) 993-5252 This manual is also available via the Internet @ http://www.sgc.gc.ca Également disponible en français Copyright © Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family and Solicitor General Canada 1996 Cat. No. JS42-75/1996E ISBN 0-662-24921-6 ii Ottawa, Canada K1A 0P8 A MESSAGE FROM THE SOLICITOR GENERAL OF CANADA I am pleased to offer police agencies across Canada this Police Reference Manual on Crime Prevention and Diversion with Youth. This new manual builds upon information in the Police Reference Manual on Youth and violence provided to you in 1994. Like this publication, this manual is intended for both front-line officers and senior police managers. It provides front- line police with useful information to assist them in dealing with crime and safety concerns at the community level, and, equally important, it gives police managers the information they need to support community-based prevention efforts of front-line officers. Youth are the principal focus in this new manual because most persistant adult offenders began committing offences as youth. If we are to succeed in improving the quality of life in Canadian communities, we need to do more to prevent crime and its underlying social causes. This is the philosophy upon which the Government’s National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention is based. The manual sets out a series of options for police for taking proactive approaches in preventing and responding to youth crime. Examples of various crime prevention programs involving police participation are provided, as are the useful resources to further guide and support the police. The use of police discretion is advocated as a type of crime prevention measure to divert youth from the traditional court-based system. The emphasis is on reducing the incidence of first-time offending by focusing on social determinants to identify high-risk groups of youth, as well as on preventing further offending by youth. iii It is my hope that this manual wil be a useful resource tool to support the efforts of Canadian police to make our homes and streets safer places. THE HON. HERB GRAY, M.P. iv v FOREWORD This is the second manual that CRILF has prepared on the problem of youth crime for the Solicitor General Canada. The first manual, A Police Reference Manual on Youth and Violence, dealt specifically with youth violence, and presented specific strategies for dealing with youth violence in different situations, e.g., school violence, dating violence. This manual is much broader in one sense in that it deals with all types of youth crime, and more focused in another sense in that it deals more specifically with the role of police in crime prevention. In conducting the supporting research for this manual, we became aware of a number of trends and issues regarding the response of police to youth at risk of criminal exploitation, victimization, or chronic involvement with the criminal justice system in Canada. First, there is considerable variation in practices across the country. In some locations, police are very innovative in their approach to youth crime. In other locations, police are overwhelmed by their workload and feel that the Young Offenders Act (YOA) restricts their ability to develop proactive prevention strategies. Second, regardless of current practice, most police officers recognize the long-term benefit of moving away from a reactive model of policing with youth to a more proactive problem-solving approach, which is consistent with community policing. Further, the recent increase of police involvement in innovative crime prevention activities is testimony to their commitment. Third, there is a lack of systematic information available on all aspects of practice regarding the YOA. The YOA was implemented over 10 years ago, yet we know very little about its effects. The lack of knowledge is due primarily to the fact that very little research has been conducted on any aspect of the YOA. Further, even the Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data are of little use for tracking trends since the reporting categories do not reflect the reality of police decision making. In the future, information must be gathered to reflect on the true nature and scope of youth crime, what crime prevention strategies work, and what they cost. This manual is an attempt to address the current problems in establishing the role of police in a comprehensive crime prevention strategy. In developing this reference manual it became obvious that it had to meet the needs of two user groups: (1) senior police managers; and (2) frontline police officers. Thus, some sections of the manual focus on conceptual and policy issues which might be of more interest to police managers, and other sections focus more on practical issues concerning the role of the frontline officer in crime prevention and diversion. The need to recognize the two user groups is based on the understanding that the goals of crime prevention cannot be achieved unless police agencies and senior vi management support and reward crime prevention activities in the same manner as other police functions. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge a number of people whose assistance and cooperation made the completion of this manual possible. First, we would like to thank Ms Joan Fisher, Project Manager, Solicitor General Canada, for her guidance and comments throughout this project. While collecting information to be included in this manual, the authors contacted a number of individuals across Canada. We would like to express our appreciation to these people for their invaluable assistance. In particular, we would like to thank the individuals from the provincial and territorial Attorney Generals' offices who responded to our telephone survey, and the people from police services across the country who responded to our mail-out questionnaire. We would also like to thank the following individuals and their agencies for their assistance in organizing the focus groups: Inspector John Barnes, Calgary Police Service; Corporal Walter Coles, Lethbridge RCMP Detachment; Staff Sergeant Shamus Hall, Ottawa-Carleton Regional Police Service; Sergeant Tom Payne, Whitehorse RCMP Detachment; Deputy Director Claude Rochon, Montreal Urban Community Police Service; Corporal Rayburn Ross, Surrey RCMP Detachment; Constable Bob Small, Halifax Police Department; Staff Inspector Ed Stewart, Metro Toronto Police; Corporal Fiona Weller, Vancouver Police Department; and the Halifax RCMP Detachment. Thanks also to all the individuals who participated in the focus groups for providing us with insights into current police practices across the country. We would also like to express our appreciation to the people who served on the Advisory Group for their comments and suggestions regarding the material contained in the manual. Thank you to: Mr. Rob Allen, National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, United Kingdom; Assistant Commissioner D.C. Cooper, RCMP; Ms Lynn Cuddington, Correctional Service Canada; Ms Rita Dagenais, Ms Shelley Trevethan, and Ms Lorri Biesenthal, Department of Justice Canada; Mr. Jacques de Verteuil, Department of Canadian Heritage; Ms Sylvia Kasper, Crown Prosecutor, Calgary; Dr. Barry Leighton, Solicitor General Canada; The Honourable Judge Heino Lilles, Board of Directors, Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family; Mr. Doug McNally, Board of Directors, Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family; Mr. Gerry Minard, Correctional Service Canada; Ms Donna Neil, Health Canada; Ms Elaine Scott, National Crime Prevention Council Secretariat; Ms Wendy Taylor, British Columbia Ministry of the Attorney General; and Ms Lorraine Touchette, Status of Women Canada. Thank you also to the individuals from police services across the country who participated in the field test, and helped to ensure that the manual is a useful tool for police. These individuals included: Sergeant Jake Bouwman, Sparwood RCMP Detachment; Staff Sergeant Harvey Cenaiko, Calgary