NCJ Number
237348
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: October 2011 Pages: 404-423
Date Published
October 2011
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The present study tracked a random sample of youths who were held for bail hearings and ultimately released from a large Toronto court.
Abstract
Bail conditions are placed on youths in an effort to ensure they return to court and to reduce danger to the public by constraining the behavior of the accused in the community. These conditions, however, may have the unintended consequence of setting youths up to accumulate further criminal charges of failing to comply with a court order. The present study tracked a random sample (N = 225) of youths who were held for bail hearings and ultimately released from a large Toronto court. Although ultimately close to half the sample had all charges related to the bail hearing withdrawn, close to a third of the sample were charged with failing to comply with conditions of release. Those who were subject to a bail order for a relatively long time and had numerous bail conditions were most likely to accumulate new charges of failing to comply. (Published Abstract)