Parental involvement has been a cornerstone of Canadian youth justice legislation and has been given greater importance under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (2003). Given the importance of parental involvement, one would expect that parental attendance and participation in court hearings would have some influence on the outcome of youth court cases. This study explores parental involvement in youth court proceedings at bail and sentencing hearings. The findings suggest that the majority of parents attended court hearings, and the courts heard that many parents were involved in their child's life, but that this information did not relate to the outcome of the hearing, except in relation to supervision and living arrangements at bail hearings. There is also a suggestion from the qualitative comments made at hearings that judicial decision makers did take into account parental support in determining the outcome of a case, but the number of cases where parental support was discussed in court was insignificant. The importance of these findings will be discussed in relation to the expanded scope of the parental role under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
This study examines public ratings of youthful offenders based upon varying descriptions of their apparent age and maturity. The premise for this study rests on the assumption that the public will respond more favorably, and therefore, less punitively to the most 'youthful' characterization of an offender. Findings indicate that in general, having any information about a youth offender, regardless of the qualitative details of that information, resulted in more favorable ratings by the public. The results are considered in relation to the movement toward community involvement in the sanctioning of youth.
Three decades of research on public perceptions in Canada has fundamentally shifted academic and policy approaches to understanding public views of crime and punishment. The contributions of Anthony Doob and his colleagues have influenced methodology, such as the inclusion of experimental design, and have supported an underlying commitment to understanding the public's view of crime and its relationship to policy. This article examines key findings coming out of this body of research and the impact of this work on current criminal justice policy in Canada. Despite the significance of this body of work on public perceptions research, the impact on current criminal justice policy appears to be diminishing.
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