Transfer to adult court : punitive approaches to youth justice and their implications for violent young offenders

This study will examine the relationship between punitive reforms to provisions of the youth justice system dealing with violent young offenders and patterns of violent youth crime over time in order to show that the current trend of government to increasingly transfer violent young offenders to adult court is inappropriate and unwarranted. This thesis will show that there has been relative stability in the patterns of violent youth crime both historically and in recent years but that changes to the way the youth justice system deals with violent young offenders to make its approach more punitive dictate that there is a crisis in the violent youth crime rate. The reality is that Canada’s violent youth crime problem is neither out of control nor changing in such a way to warrant a more punitive approach towards dealing with violent young offenders. Approaches to youth justice that emphasize the welfare of young offenders are more appropriate to deal with violent young offenders.