Are Youth Cared for in the Canadian Court System?

This is an age when people are cynical and suspicious of governments and their leaders, along with anyone with authority. This paper aims to determine whether or not the people with direct connection to youth justice are beneficial instruments to the welfare of the accused offenders. Crown prosecutors, attorney general, defense lawyers, and judges are the ones with the most involvement in the legal processes that handle young offenders. Do these people have the authority or power to make beneficial decisions concerning the reform of young offenders? What are the perimeters and limitations of their power or authority? Are they prevented from being useful by the system they serve?

For the purposes of this paper, policy and law makers are considered too far removed from the people effected and are, therefore, excluded. Also excluded are the welfare workers and police officers who are closely involved with the young offenders but not in a position to decide their ultimate fates. In terms of methodology, a qualitative approach will be used initially. I will examine the roles of these people and the extent of their power. As the research progresses, a quantitative approach will be employed. I will review their decisions and the statistics concerning the success rate of the reform system. The research method that will be conducted will argue that the people mentioned above are there for the best of the children in the legal process. Whether this is true or not will be uncovered through the research materials, and scholarly sources which have significant importance to the subject being dealt with in this paper.

For the purposes of this essay, the proper definitions will be used. Crown Attorney: “ An agent of the Attorney General; prosecutor in criminal matters on behalf of the crown. ” Attorney General: “ The Principal Law officer of the crown, a Minister of the crown. ” Judge: “ The person authorized to determine any question or cause in a court. ” Finally, defense lawyers are here defined simply as lawyers or “ In the province of Quebec, an advocate, lawyer or notary and, in any other province a barrister or solicitor. ” These definitions will be expanded upon during the course of the research.

One of the issues concerning youth accused in a court of Canada is the amount of time which they spend in courtrooms; obviously the more time spent in the process, the more the youth ‘ s perception of the court system is negatively effected. According to a report by Jennifer Thomas composed for Juristat the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics;