State of the Criminal Justice System Dashboard

Understanding the Experiences of Youth with the Criminal Justice System as Accused and Offenders

The following sections provide a brief overview of youth experiences with the criminal justice system as accused and offenders. While this page examines some of the experiences youth may have with the criminal justice system, it is important to note the role that broader structural inequalities and systemic discrimination play in shaping their experiences and treatment. For more information, click on Indigenous youth and Black youth. For additional resources on youth and the Canadian youth criminal justice system, click on bibliography.

• Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Youth Criminal Behaviour

  Youth behaviour, whether criminal or not, is the result of complex interactions between a wide variety of factors. Research has identified several risk and protective factors associated with criminal offending among youth. Risk factors are influences that may increase a person’s likelihood of negative outcomes, such as criminal offending. Examples of risk factors for youth include having intellectual or cognitive disabilities, low family income, unstable home environment, social and structural inequality, negative peer influence, and negative educational experiences/outcomes.^Footnote37 In contrast, protective factors are influences that can reduce the likelihood of negative outcomes and can mitigate the negative impact of risk factors. In youth, these can include stable interpersonal relationships, employment opportunities, and positive self-esteem.^Footnote38

  Past experiences of victimization and other adverse childhood experiences have been identified in the literature as risk factors that can increase the likelihood of youth engaging in criminal behaviour and entering the justice system.^Footnote39 Such experiences can also increase the likelihood of youth engaging in risky and/or injurious behaviours^Footnote40 to cope with their trauma, such as drug and alcohol use, as well as self-harm. This is particularly true for youth who have experienced multiple types of adversity and trauma.^Footnote41 In fact, overlapping experiences of victimization, adverse childhood experiences, and mental health concerns are common among justice-involved youth.^Footnote42 Research has shown that at least half of all people imprisoned in Canada have experienced some form of abuse during childhood.^Footnote43

  The presence of neurodevelopmental disorders^Footnote44 is another recognized risk factor associated with criminal offending. Examples of neurodevelopmental disorders include: intellectual disabilities; attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; autism spectrum disorder; fetal alcohol spectrum disorder; and developmental language disorder. Youth with neurodevelopmental disorders tend to experience other related cognitive and behavioural impairments such as learning disabilities as well as reduced decision-making abilities, attention spans, impulse control, and memory.^Footnote45 Youth diagnosed with one or more of these disorders are significantly more likely to find themselves involved with the justice system compared to youth who do not have neurodevelopmental disorders.^Footnote46 As research suggests, youth who struggle with unaddressed neurodevelopmental disorders, and the related cognitive and behavioural impairments, are more likely to act out, thereby coming to the attention of police.^Footnote47

• Youth Crime and Police Interactions

  Youth crime rates in Canada have been declining^Footnote48 for over two decades. Most criminal offences committed by youth are considered minor, such as property-related offences and administration of justice offences.^Footnote49

  Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), youth may be diverted from traditional court processes, either before or after criminal charges are laid, via extrajudicial measures such as warnings, referrals to programming or counselling services, completing volunteer service, making restitution, and writing letters of apology. The goal of extrajudicial measures is to reduce the number of youth processed through traditional court settings and thereby limit, where possible, exposure to the youth criminal justice system. Research has shown that low risk youth with no prior court experience who are diverted away from the courts have lower rates of recidivism than youth who are sent to court.^Footnote50

  Police and Crown decisions to divert are shaped by legal factors (e.g., criminal record, prior police contact) and extra-legal factors (e.g., mental health concerns, the perceived attitude of the youth, substance use history).^Footnote51 Decisions to divert youth are also influenced by structural inequalities and systemic discrimination. In fact, studies on youth diversion have raised concerns regarding differential outcomes based on the ethno-cultural background of youth accused. For example, a study in Ontario found that police officers’ decision to divert were influenced by the perceived race of the accused; specifically, Black youth were less likely to be diverted than White youth and youth of other ethno-cultural backgrounds.^Footnote52 Click on Indigenous youth and Black youth for more information about their experiences.

  Research has long documented that youth are particularly vulnerable during their interactions with police and other criminal justice authorities, as they often do not fully understand their legal rights, even when they indicate that they do.^Footnote53 Further, youth tend to be more compliant with police and experience greater suggestibility during police interrogations. This results in youth being more likely than adults to confess to police and make false confessions, even after being advised of their legal rights.^Footnote54 Academics have suggested that one of the reasons for this is that youth are more likely to waive their rights and ultimately undergo police interrogation without legal representation present.^Footnote55 Therefore, additional safeguards and procedures are necessary during interactions with youth to ensure they fully understand their rights.^Footnote56 This further highlights the importance of the special protections and due process rights outlined in the YCJA. For more information on these special protections, click on Legal rights and special protections for youth.

• The “Revolving Door” of Youth Justice

  The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) recognizes the fundamental principle of criminal law that an individual accused of a crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Under the YCJA, youth accused can either be released into the community – known as “on bail” – or be held in custody while awaiting trial or sentencing – also known as pre-trial detention. Most often, a youth accused is released on bail and is subject to a list of conditions they need to follow that are set by the judge or justice. If the youth violates their bail conditions, they may be required to return to court on new charges, often for administration of justice offences.^Footnote57 In fact, one of the most common reasons for pre-trial detention is an administration of justice offence. While some bail conditions are intended to reduce the likelihood of offending (e.g., restrictions on associations with specified individuals, orders to abstain from alcohol or drugs, treatment requirements), concerns have been raised that bail conditions for youth are not always connected to the individual’s criminal offending behaviours and are prone to violation,^Footnote58 resulting in further criminal charges.^Footnote59

  Studies have found that imposing bail conditions can create a “revolving door” situation, where initial criminal charges are followed by administration of justice offence charges (e.g., breach of release conditions, failure to attend court), before a youth is found guilty or not of the initial criminal charge. This can extend involvement in the criminal justice system.^Footnote60 Research has shown that once a youth has been found guilty of violating a court order, the court is less likely to release them from custody.^Footnote61 This represents a significant challenge for the youth criminal justice system,^Footnote62 as youth are continually brought before the court for violating conditions because of behaviours that are not typically criminal in nature, such as attending school or respecting a curfew.^Footnote63 These high rates of charging and custody for administration of justice offences have contributed to the overrepresentation of Indigenous, racialized and vulnerable youth in the criminal justice system.^Footnote64

  In response to these concerns, former Bill C-75, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Youth Criminal Justice Act and other Acts and to make consequential amendments to other Acts amended the YCJA to include provisions that further promote the use of extrajudicial measures and sanctions (i.e., diversion measures) in relation to administration of justice offences. The amendments, which came into force on December 18, 2019, aim to:

  • further encourage the use of alternatives to charges for administration of justice offences, such as extrajudicial measures and judicial referral hearings;^Footnote65
  • ensure that the conditions imposed on a youth at the bail stage or at sentencing are only those necessary to address the offending behavior and are required for criminal justice purposes; and
  • limit the use of custodial sentences for administration of justice offences.

• The Use of Custody for Youth

  Custody may be used for youth who have been either charged with a criminal offence and remanded into custody—also known as pre-trial detention—or who have been found guilty of a criminal offence and sentenced to custody. There are two types of custody used in youth corrections:

  • open custody^Footnote66: youth are required to live in a correctional facility for a period of time and are permitted to temporarily leave the facility for a variety of reasons, such as rehabilitative programming, attending school in the community, part-time employment, and volunteer work.
  • closed or secure custody: youth are required to live in a more restrictive correctional facility, where access to rehabilitative programming and education is provided within the facility. After their release, which is generally after two-thirds of their sentence, they are placed under supervision and support in the community.

  The largest proportion of youth held in secure custody have been detained in pre-trial detention.^Footnote67 Studies have found that youth in pre-trial detention report experiencing various negative emotions, such as stress, frustration, distrust, and uncertainty.^Footnote68 Criminal justice professionals and correctional staff have also reported the adverse impacts of pre-trial detention,^Footnote69 particularly for child welfare-involved youth, as child service involvement and assistance is put on hold during the youth’s detainment.^Footnote70 Studies have also found that pre-trial detention does not contribute to promoting rehabilitation nor to reducing future risk of re-offending.^Footnote71

  Recognizing the detrimental effects that custody can have on youth, the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) aims to limit the use of custody. Since the law’s enactment, there has been a significant reduction in the number of youth sentenced to custody; for example, the number of youth custody sentences dropped by 63% in the first seven years following the implementation of the YCJA.^Footnote72 This is in part because this Act requires that the court first consider whether any non-custodial sentence would be sufficient to hold the youth accountable.^Footnote73

  For example, under the YCJA, if a youth has been found guilty of a non-violent offence, they may receive a deferred custody and supervision order instead of open or closed custody. This allows the youth to serve their sentence in the community, while being subject to specific conditions (e.g., curfew, house arrest). It is called “deferred custody” because if the youth violates any of the conditions in the supervision order, they may be ordered to serve the rest of their sentence in custody.