Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: Youth Crime and Youth Justice -- 2. Why Have a Separate Youth Justice System? -- 3. The Youth Justice System and Very Young Children -- 4. The Nature of Youth Crime -- 5. Youth Crime, Special Issues: Gangs, Schools, and Recidivists -- 6. Trends in Youth Crime: Has Youth Crime Increased in the Past Few Years? -- 7. Getting the Case to Court -- 8. Transfers to Adult Court: Treating Children as Adults -- 9. Sentencing of Youths -- 10. The Impact of Custody -- 11. Conclusion: How Do We Best Approach the Problem of Youth Crime? -- References -- Index

Abstract
Nineteen-year-old Ashley Smith died by her own hand in 2007 in a women's correctional facility in Ontario, Canada. The subject of the coroner's inquest into her death was her carceral experience and the failure of the system (leading to her death) during her time in adult federal corrections. The general focus of the inquest was on the state of federal women's corrections in Canada and the mental health issues experienced by many incarcerated women. We produced a report and provided expert testimony at the inquest regarding the need for a developmentally informed correctional framework. In this article, which is based on our inquest report and testimony, we argue that a developmental perspective is a vital lens for understanding the incarceration experience of young women.

This article explores one key aspect of staff/prisoner relations—the role of fairness—as a predictor of young people's adjustment to pre-trial detention. Participants were one hundred thirty-seven 13- to 19-year-old youth held in one of five secure youth detention centers in southern Ontario, Canada. Findings from this study suggest that youth with high levels of pre-existing vulnerability and prison stress who were more fearful and felt that staff did not treat them fairly were more likely to experience poorer adjustment. Fairness would, therefore, appear to be an important component of staff/prisoner relationships and of adjustment while incarcerated.

This article addresses the question of why Canada still has mandatory minimum sentences despite inquiries by a number of commissions that suggest abolition. It suggests that politicians and judges alike not only promote mandatory minimum policies, but also speak about them in much the same way - as a way of fighting crime. Though the evidence is clear that mandatory minimum sentences are not an effective crime-control strategy, and actually disrupt the sensible operation of the justice system, it is apparent that the deterrence message they deliver is still functional for politicians and is rarely challenged by judges.

The current article is part of a unique comparative study of the experiences and adjustment of 190 incarcerated young men in both Scotland and Canada. In collecting data on the participants' lives, the authors learned of the multiple traumas and losses many of them had suffered. Many participants however seemed to adhere to a prison masculinity that may constrain help-seeking behavior. Ultimately, this article analyses the levels of trauma that exists in a population of incarcerated young men within the context and alongside of the masculine ideals they appeared to adhere to. This article advocates for gender-responsive trauma-informed care for incarcerated young men that incorporates an exploration and understanding of masculine identity and how it interacts with help-seeking and trauma recovery.