NCJ Number
139217
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 34 Issue: 3-4 Dated: special issue (July-October 1992) Pages: 435-460
Date Published
1992
Length
24 pages
Annotation
A 3-year study of the juvenile court system in northern and rural Manitoba, Canada, communities involved interviews with key actors and community officials involved in the juvenile justice system and visits to 22 court sites.
Abstract
All respondents stressed the need for courts to be knowledgeable of community history, community conditions, and aboriginal and northern culture. For the most part, nonaboriginal respondents were satisfied with circuit court arrangements. Aboriginal respondents, however, were much more critical of the circuit court system. All respondents expressed concern about the availability of legal aid counsel. They favored the development and use of community committees and community-based juvenile dispositions. Aboriginal respondents felt that judges seemed reluctant to remove juveniles who got into serious trouble on northern reserves because of the hardships this would create for the juveniles. All respondents indicated that the court process is too slow and that detention represents an extreme step for only the most serious circumstances. An analysis of 884 cases referred to northern and rural juvenile courts in 1981 provided information on juvenile offender characteristics with regard to sex, living arrangements, prior criminal involvement, offense type, and legal processing. Legal variables were more important than extralegal variables in predicting juvenile court dispositions; the strongest relationships were found for number of current offenses and extent of prior record. The courts handed down the most severe dispositions for youth who reappeared in court many times and who had a record of chronic delinquency. It is significant that both prior record and number of current offenses were more important in dispositional decisionmaking than offense seriousness. 13 references, 5 notes, and 2 tables