Youth Crime and the Youth Justice System: A Research Perspective

Charlotte Neff is an associate professor of law and justice at
Laurentian University and co-author of The Annotated Competition Act
1992.

Commissioned by the Canadian Department of Justice, this book aims to
summarize “the criminological knowledge on youth crime and the
operation of the youth justice system in Canada [for those] who find it
difficult to get access to systematic information [about such
issues].” It is, in effect, a sophisticated annotated bibliography
intended not for the academic researcher but for the members of the
House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs.

The material is organized by topics that are subdivided into a series
of questions listed in the table of contents. Prominent numbering of the
questions in both the contents and the text would have significantly
improved the book’s user-friendliness. The topics range from the
specific (e.g., “Deterrence” [Part 4]) to the general (e.g., “The
Operation of the Youth Justice System [Part 6]). Part 5 (“The Impact
of Criminal Justice Processing”) is essentially about deterrence and
thus should probably have been combined with Part 4. Part 6, which
covers such diverse topics as youth comprehension of crime, crime
reporting, police discretion in charging young offenders, and pre-trial
detention of young people, might more logically have been titled
“Pre-Trial Treatment of Young People.”

Within the text the writers highlight the issues they see arising from
each question, refer to major research findings on these issues, offer
their own conclusions with respect to each question, and provide a list
of related references. All the references are repeated in a bibliography
that appears at the end of the book. Provided the reader keeps in mind
that these are selective rather than comprehensive references, the book
should prove a useful research tool.