Lily Li 9-3
YCJA — an Ineffective Law In August 2007, a 14 years old St. Lazare boy shot and killed his adoptive mother and her four-year-old daughter. He received the maximum seven-year sentence under the Youth Criminal Justice Act(YCJA),and he was out of jail with a clean criminal record after he finished his sentence.The YCJA is a law created in 2003 that applies to youth who are 12-17.The objective of this law is to ensure meaningful consequences for youth and promote their rehabilitation and reintegration into society.The YCJA doesn’t seem to take into account the severity of much of the crime.It sends the wrong message to youth that they don’t have to be accountable for their actions.The YCJA is ineffective because of the following three components:It put public safety at risk,it is too lienent and it provides a high chance for youth to reoffend.Although YCJA is an ineffective law ,some people insist that YCJA is effective. Some may think that the YCJA is effective because the stated objective of this law is for youth to be treated differently than adults recognizing their reduced level of maturity.They think everybody deserves a second chances .And the mistake youth made when they broke the law should not have long lasting repercussions.
But dangerous offenders being released without the people having any knowledge of their identity is a great risk to society, as people have no defences against these criminals and are unprepared and left at risk.This clearly shows that the YCJA should be harsher on youth.
A component of the YCJA that is ineffective is the lenient punishment of offenders. There is no guarantee that a young person will be sentenced as an adult even for murder,and even when a youth is sentenced as an adult for murder, he or she is still sentenced more lenient than adults sentenced for the same crime.Attorney General of Ontario, Charles Harnick also stated ,“Under this new act, a three-time rapist could still be treated as a child. Rape, drug trafficking, guns - these are adult crimes and have to be treated as such”. And as long as they’re considered young offenders,there’s nothing keep them from doing whatever they want given the total lack of accountability they face under the YCJA.
The last component of the YCJA that is ineffective is the high chance for offenders to reoffend.Statistics show that not once has the recidivism rate for young offenders in custody dropped below 75% since 2002.Even in deferred custody cases - where
