By Holly smith

The justice system

The youth Criminal justice act (YCJA) is was passed by parliament in 2003.

They had laws like the YCJA that treat young offenders differently from adult offenders.

It deals with 12-17- year olds in trouble with the law.

Lets young offenders face consequences such as counseling and community service.

Allows most young offenders to avoid a criminal record.

Shocking News

>A jury of six men and six women will decide the fate of a man accused of helping a 12-year-old girl slaughter her parents and little brother. The girl's parents and eight-year-old brother were stabbed to death. The case made history: She is Canada's youngest multiple murderer. The girl, now 15, was described as "seriously disturbed" during sentencing arguments last year. She was given the maximum sentence allowed under the Youth Criminal Justice Act: six years in custody followed by four years of supervision. She is serving her youth sentence in an Edmonton psychiatric hospital.

>This is an example of the toughest punishment in Canada, for a homicide this horrible how could you not think that the justice system should be tougher on youths.

My own opinionIn my own opinion I think that the justice

system should be tougher on the more serious crimes. I'm not saying that if a youth steals a bike that they should go away to jail. Just the more serious crimes like the one on the previous slide. But I also don’t support capital punishment. If a youth commits a homicide or is a offender of abuse, then they should have to have adult charges.

This was a hard decision for me to make because you have to think of the defendant. There lives would be changed because of one mistake. That’s why I think that only the harsher crimes should have a harsher punishment. I don’t think that the defendant should have to deal with all the unwanted attention from people who don’t know him/her. If they just committed a small crime then they should have to pay it off with community service or counseling.

One of the things that the justice system should do is that they should have a 3 strike rule for young offenders who commit less serious crimes. Each strike should have a more serious punishment then the last one. For example; the first strike would be apologizing to the victim and fixing the damage. The second would be to have community service. And the third would be both combined and counseling. Depending on the seriousness of the crime the punishment would change. For more serious crimes like homicide or abuse, the young offenders should have adult charges applied to them.

HOW EVERYONE IS EFFECTED

Every one is effected when a youth commits any kind of crime. The victim is effected because they might have trust issues and new fears. The offender is effected because they will be judged and not trusted. And the community is effected because they are not allowed to know the name of the offender and people from other places will judge the town and call it dangerous, even if it is not. You need to take all this information to account when your making punishments for the defendant.

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