The impact of the Youth criminal justice act on case flow in Alberta and system response in Calgary

The objectives of this report are to: (1) Examine the flow of cases through the youth criminal justice system to understand the impact of the YCJA; and (2) Understand changes in the occupational practices and workload of police officers and probation officers working with offending youth as a result of the new legislation. [...] Discussion and Conclusions The objective of this report was to determine the impact of the YCJA by examining the flow of cases through the youth criminal justice system in Alberta and to understand changes in the occupational practices and workload of police and probation officers working with offending youth as a result of the new legislation. [...] On the other hand, many of the suggestions that they made spoke to the interpretation of the Act and the shortage of resources to support it. [...] In addition, this study also seeks to examine how the changes in legislation affected the work of police and probation officers in Calgary and if the officers feel that the principles of the YCJA are being achieved. [...] While the data obtained from the UCR, Youth Court Survey and Correctional Services provide the most accurate data available for an aggregate examination of the changes that have occurred in youth charges, cases heard in court, decisions and sentences from 2001 to 2006, the fact that the data were collected from different sources limits the validity of the conclusions generated.