Politics, Policy and Practice Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act By
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Community-Based Responses to Youth Offending: Politics, Policy and Practice Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act by Lorinda Stoneman B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2005 M.A., Simon Fraser University, 2008 A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the School of Child and Youth Care © Lorinda Stoneman, 2016 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopying or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Supervisory Committee Community-based Responses to Youth Offending: Politics, Policy and Practice Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act by Lorinda Stoneman B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2005 M.A., Simon Fraser University, 2008 Supervisory Committee Dr. Sibylle Artz, Supervisor (School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria) Dr. Douglas Magnuson, Departmental Member (School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria) Dr. Tara Ney, Outside Member (School of Public Administration, University of Victoria) Professor Neil Boyd, Additional Member (School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University) iii Abstract Supervisory Committee Dr. Sibylle Artz, Supervisor (School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria) Dr. Douglas Magnuson, Departmental Member (School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria) Dr. Tara Ney, Outside Member (School of Public Administration, University of Victoria) Professor Neil Boyd, Additional Member (School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University) This research focused on diversion and community-based alternatives to custody for young offenders. For the purposes of this research, diversion, and community-based responses to youth crime include informal processes and non-incarcerating sanctions utilized for young offenders for the purposes of diverting youth away from the formal justice system at any juncture, and/or reintegrating that offender within the community. Measures of interest included extrajudicial measures, extra-judicial sanctions, conferencing, restorative justice, and intensive support and supervision under the YCJA (2002). This research followed a qualitative approach to examine policy and practice. Phase 1 involved an examination of over a decade of policy-related discussions within the House of Commons and Senate as well as their respective committees and resulting legislation reported by Legisinfo. Initially, all transcripts were examined. At a later stage, a proportional stratified random sample was drawn, restricting the sample to 32 items. Phase 2 involved semi-structured interviews conducted with 14 professionals in the field of youth justice with the aim of accessing practice narratives on policy implementation. Chain-referral and maximum variation sampling techniques were employed to access a diverse group of professionals including police, youth workers, restorative justice personnel and probation officers iv in the regions of Greater Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island in the province of British Columbia. Participants ranged in length of service from one year to over 35 years. Thematic narrative analysis of phases 1 and 2 occurred iteratively with data collection. In this dissertation, I present findings regarding community youth justice measures at three levels: the operational/practice level, the policy-making level and the macro socio-political level. Specifically, findings related to the operational level include: insufficient resources available to individual workers; narrowing the net of youth who are eligible for services; a reliance on informal and formal charitable contributions to provide basic youth justice services; and outsourcing of diversion strategies by government to community organizations. On a policy- making level, I discuss findings related to the complex fusion of restorative justice and diversion strategies; the substitution of anecdotes for evidence in policy-making; and the simple rather than complex stories used to frame the “youth justice problem” by policy-makers. Finally, on the macro socio-political level, I highlight the reversal of the welfare state and the associated implications of this reversal. I analyze and discuss the impacts that ideological and policy shifts have on policy-making and individual practice, notably on the efforts of professionals who must begin the work of closing the gaps in youth justice services, and who do so based on their own understanding of social responsibility and the “ethos of care.” This research contributes to the body of work on youth justice in Canada by exploring the connections and disconnects between policy discourses at each of the political, policy and practice levels and highlights how such a multi-dimensional analysis is a meaningful way to assess an important social policy issue. v Table of Contents Supervisory Committee .............................................................................................................. ii Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ v List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1: Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Statistical Trends in Youth Justice ............................................................................................. 3 Trends in police charging, 2002 to 2013 ................................................................................ 4 Trends in youth court and guilty findings, 2002 to 2013 ...................................................... 10 Trends in the use of custody, 2002 to 2012 ......................................................................... 12 Approaching the Research ...................................................................................................... 15 Dissertation framework ........................................................................................................ 17 CHAPTER 2: Historical and Legislative Context of Youth Justice in Canada and British Columbia .................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................... 19 The Juvenile Delinquents Act .................................................................................................. 20 Community alternatives under the JDA ............................................................................... 21 Youth justice reform from the 1960s to the 1980s ............................................................... 25 The Young Offenders Act ........................................................................................................ 28 Alternative measures under the YOA .................................................................................. 28 Controversy and the YOA .................................................................................................... 31 A decade dater: Post-1995 youth justice reform .................................................................. 36 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 42 CHAPTER 3: The Youth Criminal Justice Act ........................................................................ 45 Chapter Overview .................................................................................................................... 45 Philosophy of the YCJA ........................................................................................................... 45 The YCJA’s Community-based Responses to Youth Crime ................................................... 49 Extrajudicial measures ......................................................................................................... 50 Youth justice committees ..................................................................................................... 56 Conferences ......................................................................................................................... 58 Sentencing and alternatives to custody ............................................................................... 61 The Challenges of a Mixed Model of Justice ........................................................................... 63 The punitive turn debate ...................................................................................................... 66 Implementation .................................................................................................................... 68 Restorative justice ................................................................................................................ 74 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 80 CHAPTER 4: Youth Justice Reform from 2007 to 2012 ........................................................