The Young Offenders Act
Canadian society, like many others, has fought to ensure that the youth of the nation are protected and brought up to be meaningful members of the country. Despite these efforts, there is still a population of young people in Canada that fall into some sort of criminal behaviour. The types of offences vary, as well as the seriousness, but crime is still crime, and in Canada, criminals face certain consequences. In an attempt to deal with the youths that belong in this category, Canada put into place the Young Offenders Act; a statute that holds youths aged twelve to seventeen responsible for their actions. This Act is intended, like the adult criminal justice system, to punish the guilty, protect society, and deter future criminal behaviour from occurring.
The Young Offenders Act did not actually come into effect until 1984, two years after it was originally passed.
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English: Northallerton Young Offenders Institute.The Act replaced the only other law regarding youth crime that had existed in Canada, that of the Juvenile Delinquents Act. The Juvenile Delinquents Act originated in 1908, when it was first deemed necessary for children who were believed to be guilty of a crime to be treated differently than adult offenders. Before this, children between the ages of seven and fourteen would go through the same process as an adult when they were shown to be guilty. Prior to the Juvenile Delinquents Act, it was in 1892 that the Canadian Criminal Code first acknowledged that provisions needed to be in place to deal with young offenders. Once the Young Offenders Act was put into action to replace the Juvenile Delinquents Act, the main goal turned more towards rehabilitating the young offender, and placing more responsibility on the mature members of society, specifically parents and guardians,