Young Offenders and Youth Victimization
by Youth offenses and victimization has increase over the last few decades, in Canada. This piece takes a look at these issues and what researchers have revealed.
The types of victimization, which are showed in Table 1 of this article, seem to diminish, as youths get older. For instance, in Table 1, under the “Something Damaged on Purpose” column, in Grade 7, there 105 (87.6%) cases reported, but, in Grade 12, there are only 17 (20%) cases reported. Some of the types don’t have the same kind of drastic numbers, but they follow approximately the same pattern.
Secondly, Bertrand and Paestch turn to self-reported delinquency. They divide the data they collected into categories: property-related behaviors and violence-related behaviors. A little more than half of the students (56%) questionned “reported engaging in at least one delinquent behavior within the past year.” (Bertrand, Paestch 
Then 45 % of the students say that they were engaged in at least one violent behavior and 39% said they were involved in at least one type of property offense. However, there appears to be offenses committed between Grades 9 and 11, within the property-related delinquency. In the violence-related delinquency, the data is a different matter. Each sub-category varies from each other. Though, the students in Grade 12 still appear to commit fewer offenses in this category.
A second article involving victimization is “The Extent of Youth Victimization, Crime and Delinquency in Alberta, 1999,” by Jeanette T. Gomes, Lorne D. Bertrand, Joanne J. Paetsch, and Joseph P. Hornick. Much like in the article, “Victimization and Delinquency among Canadian Youth,” the writers use studies that focus on junior and senior high school, in the Province of Alberta. The studies looked at schools located large cities, smaller cities, and rural areas.
These writers look at two prevailing aspect in regards to victimization, which are the prevalence of victimization while at school and the prevalence of victimization outside of school. The questionnaires used, for the students who were at school, revealed eleven types of victimization. These incidents range from assault or physical violence, to implied violence (such as threats), to property-related events.
The writers include in their article a table in which they show the data of different types of offenses, in percentage. They found that the three highest types in and out of schools are: slapped/punched/kicked (22%); something stolen (22%); and threaten (21.5%).
The survey used by these writers has also shown that the “family compition was related to whether the respondent reported being threatened or hurt, and whether the respondent was threatened with a weapon.” (Gomes 29) Depending on the composition, the students who go through different threatens. First, if a student were living with both parents, he or she were the least likely individual to report being victimized, whithin the prior year. In contrast, the students who living in a reconstructed family, a parent and step-parent, were the most likely to have gone through at least one threat of bodily harm and report such threat.
This aspect of youth has gained importance, in society. It could be said that we need to take more time and dealing with these issues, especially when they are young. The earlier we being dealing with these issues and young offenders, the less likely we may end up having incidents, such a young 15-year old gets killed for being gay or another incident such as the September 2006 Dawson Shooting.
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