The ''Young Offenders Act'' (YOA; french: Loi sur les jeunes contrevenants) (the ''Act'') was an act of the

Parliament of Canada The Parliament of Canada (french: Parlement du Canada) is the federal legislature of Canada, seated at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and is composed of three parts: the King, the Senate, and the House of Commons. By constitutional convention, ...

, granted

Royal Assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

in 1982 and proclaimed in force on April 2, 1984, that regulated the

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in C ...

prosecution of Canadian

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. Yo ...

s. The act was repealed in 2003 with the passing of the ''

Youth Criminal Justice Act The ''Youth Criminal Justice Act'' (YCJA; french: Loi sur le système de justice pénale pour les adolescents) (the ''Act'') is a Canadian statute, which came into effect on April 1, 2003. It covers the prosecution of youths for criminal offenc ...

''. The ''Act'' established the national

age of criminal responsibility The age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence. In legal terms, it is referred to as a defence/defense of infancy, which is a form of defense known as an excuse so tha ...

at 12 years old, and said that youths can be prosecuted only if they break a law of the ''Criminal Code'' (previously, youths could be prosecuted or punished solely on the grounds that it was in the youth's best interests). The ''Act'' also indicated that the rights established in the ''

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms The ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' (french: Charte canadienne des droits et libertés), often simply referred to as the ''Charter'' in Canada, is a bill of rights entrenched in the Constitution of Canada, forming the first part ...

'' apply to youths as well. Controversy dogged the act for many years. Many felt that the ''Acts limit on a three-year detention sentence for youths was overly lax, and allowed youths to get unreasonably light sentences for

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

. This maximum was repeatedly increased until in 1996 it was extended to a maximum of ten years. That same year, a provision was also made to allow 16-year-olds to be tried as adults in certain cases. Critics contended that this was too harsh, as it made youths possible victims of

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes ...

s. The ''Act'' also drew much criticism from the public for not charging young offenders under the age of 12 years, and for banning publication of the identities of youths who commit criminal acts, contending that the number of violent crimes committed by youths has dramatically increased, as has the number of repeat young offenders, since the act was passed. The demands by the Canadian public for changes for the better in dealing with youth crime, particularly in the wake of the beating and attempted murder in 1999 of then-15-year-old Jonathan Wambach in Newmarket, Ontario by a gang of teenagers, led to the introduction of the ''Youth Criminal Justice Act'' to replace the ''Young Offenders Act''. The ''Act'' replaced the earlier '' Juvenile Delinquents Act'' enacted in 1908.

References

{{Reflist Canadian federal legislation 1984 in Canadian law Repealed Canadian legislation Youth in Canada

See also

References