Reducing Judicial Reliance on Incarceration: Lessons from the creation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act

This paper argues that many of the problems in the youth criminal justice system that culminated in new legislation being created, the Youth Criminal Justice Act, remain pervasive in the adult criminal context. As such, a similar legislative change to the Criminal Code is needed. The first part of the paper examines the historical shift that led to the creation of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The focus of the paper is on the availability of custodial sentences for youth, and how the Youth Criminal Justice Act reduced the number of young people incarcerated in Canada. The second part of the paper establishes that similar change is needed in the adult criminal justice system. Particular attention is paid to the comparative roles of deterrence and denunciation as sentencing principles in the youth and adult context. Highlighting the ineffectiveness of these principles, it is argued that they should be omitted from the Criminal Code, or re-defined in a manner that addresses the root causes of crime