Youth probation in Canada is a critical yet clearly under-researched area within Criminology. Probation is the most common sentence in youth court yet many youth fail to comply with the conditions laid out by the courts. This thesis represents the results of an in-depth examination of probation cases in the youth criminal justice system with a focus on probation violations and Probation Officer discretion. All closed administrative probation files within an Ontario area Probation Office during the year 2005 were selected (N=299) in order to examine the nature and extent of probation violations. In addition, 7 Probation Officers were interviewed to supplement the file review and answer questions that were outside the scope of the administrative files. The findings reveal that the majority of youth within the probation system have a substantial number of serious psycho-social issues. Youth serving probation sentences are also subject to considerable social control through the imposition of numerous probation conditions covering many aspects of their lives. Yet most youth violate one or more of these conditions, usually by engaging in relatively typical adolescent behaviour such as staying out late, drinking alcohol or skipping school. Only a minority of these youth, however, are actually charged with a violation under s. 137 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The implications of this research for judges, Probation Officers, policy-makers and researchers are discussed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/30151 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Latimer, Jeff |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 168 p. |
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