How Have Youth Crime Laws Created In Canada

In the 1600’s at the age of 7 for stealing you would most likely be hanged. Now if a child of 7 stole something, they wouldn’t even be considered an offender by law. Canada has acknowledged youth criminal acts from an early age and the ways of dealing with it has varied greatly throughout the years. The YCJA is the most balanced act of all, since it is not as lenient as the one before it but not as strict as the first one. The three main acts that have structured Canada’s youth crime department are The Juvenile Delinquents act, The Young Offender’s act, and The Youth Criminal Justice Act. In 1908 the first big act was established, known as the Juvenile Delinquents Act. This Act helped give more proper punishments to youth. Before most youth offenders were given adult punishments, usually hanging, flocking, or being sent to a prison house which would tend to be in horrible condition. They treated criminal youth like youth that had been “misguided and mistreated”. The biggest problem with this act was the debate the age limits brought. For example, in Manitoba the age limit was 18 while in Nova Scotia it was 16, so an offender of 17 would have a harsher punishment in Nova Scotia than in Manitoba.

During this time the minimum age was brought up to 12, from the previous set limit of 7. In the YOA it was believed that children deserved their rights and freedoms like any other adult, and that the best way to deal with these offenders was focused on social/community solutions. It also deterred away from charging young juvenile with strong adult sentences. Unlike the YCJA where the limit for serious cases be treated like adult cases is at the age of fourteen, the YOA had the limit at sixteen/seventeen. In my opinion this was the most lenient act of