Rehabilitation, not revenge

Justice Minister Vic Toews' suggestion this week to lower the age of criminal responsibility to 10 from 12 would be akin to using a cannon to swat a fly. The question of how society deals with crime is perennially vexed by the thirst for revenge -- an eye for an eye. Rather, the aim should be rehabilitation; especially so with children. Toews made a plausible case in a speech in St. John's, NL. "The theory is that the child welfare system will take care of those children, but that is not the case in most provinces," he said.

But to go the law-and-order route would just harden youthful offenders and launch them toward a career of crime, warns UWO professor Alan Leschied. Those youngsters would inevitably come into the world of courts, lawyers and police, and on the "slippery slope" toward incarceration -- where they would rub shoulders with hardened criminal youths.

Until the 1970s, the age of criminal responsibility in Canada, incredibly, was seven. Then it was raised to 12, but Canada's youth incarceration rate was one of the highest in the world -- higher than in the United States -- Leschied said. That changed with the Youth Criminal Justice Act of 2001, which caused the number of children in custody to drop by 40 per cent.

The act brought in community justice panels as an alternative to youth courts. They typically require such measures as restitution or community service, like 40 hours at the YM-YWCA. Most youngsters who break the law come from troubled backgrounds. They need effective, positive intervention -- which is woefully under-funded. Harsh punishment is reflexive and easy, but it often does more harm than good.

Editorial
16 August 2006

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Opinion/Editorials/2006/08/16/1757980.html

 
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