NCJ Number
70680
Date Published
1978
Length
175 pages
Annotation
Characteristics of juvenile delinquents, the nature of juvenile sentences, and new Canadian laws affecting juveniles are described.
Abstract
Report data on 150 protection cases and 382 delinquency cases are taken from the 1974 records of the social welfare court of Quebec. Findings on juveniles' backgrounds suggest that juveniles who come before the court for protection are from broken families and that their court records provide insufficient information about their occupational, educational, and familial backgrounds. Violent crimes to persons and property are most frequently committed by juveniles who already have criminal records, and girls are usually involved in minor offenses. As a rule, youths under 12 arrested for criminal activities are considered for protective treatment. As the analysis of court procedures indicates, the court attaches greater importance to rehabilitation in protective cases than in delinquent cases and provides for collection of more extensive background materials on protection than on delinquency cases. But court and probation services do not differentiate between protection and delinquency measures, concentrating instead on the behavior of the individual youth. Judges generally regard sentences to be penal rather than rehabilitative. The most common penalties are fines and delayed sentences. Recently revised laws seek to expand the different types of sentences which may be applied to juveniles and to encourage such alternative penalties and forms of juvenile assistance as half-way houses, compensation, probation, community adjustment programs, parental assistance, and various types of centers. Notes and appendixes with descriptions of variables for delinquency and protection, assesment of the sample's value, and data table are supplied. --in French.