Police Discretion with Young Offenders

Methodological Appendix

Annex A-3. Introductory Letter and Project Summary

Police Discretion with Young Offenders

This project was commissioned by the Youth Justice Policy Branch of the Department of Justice Canada as part of the preparation for the implementation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. It has two objectives:

We believe this study will benefit police in Canada in at least two ways, in addition to the objectives stated above:

We are particularly interested in assessing the factors which influence two decisions: how young offender cases are cleared (by charge, by referral to alternative measures, or informally); and whether youth who are charged are held in detention. Of course, we are aware that these decisions are not made by police alone, but our mandate is to examine the role of police in these decisions.

Our review of previous research on this subject has led us to define the scope of possible factors very broadly: from the environment in which a police service operates, including federal and provincial legislation and programs, and the nature of the community being policed, through the internal organizational structure, policies and procedures of the police service, to decision-making by the front-line officer. These are the main topics which we plan to cover:

Environment

Organizational structure

Organizational processes

Our main source of information will be interviews with police services. We will also analyze statistical data on communities and crime trends, and on young offender cases provided by Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics from the UCR2 Survey, and, if possible, from a sample of police services which do not contribute to the UCR2. We will try to interview a sample of police forces which is representative of the variety of policing environments and organizations in Canada: the regions, communities of different sizes, and the various policing arrangements: independent municipal, contract municipal, provincial, etc.

For each police service which we interview, we would like, if possible, to talk with someone in senior management, who can answer questions about the environment in which the service operates, and its overall structure, policies, and procedures; and also with one or two front-line officers, preferably who specialize in young offender cases. In addition, in the case of police services with a Youth Bureau, we would like to interview someone in a management position in the Youth Bureau. Each of these interviews should take no more than an hour. We would also like, if possible, to arrange a ride-along with an officer who deals with young offenders, in order to observe decision-making firsthand. We would also appreciate being provided with copies of documents which concern the handling of young offender cases, such as any procedural guidelines.

Of course, it is entirely up to each participating police service, and each officer being interviewed, to decide what questions they choose to answer, and what documents they provide.

For further information, please contact the undersigned at 519-743-0214 or by email at pjcco@sympatico.ca; or the Project Authority for Justice Canada, Jharna Chatterjee, at 613 954 3591 or by email at JChatter@justice.gc.ca.

Sincerely,
Peter Carrington, PhD
Principal Investigator