Delinquency, Deviance and Youth Crime
Introduction
It is an undeniable fact that youth crime has been on the rise in recent times, going by what statistics show and depict to be the crime rate in most cities of Canada. To be specific, gun violence has been the adversaries’ favorite mode of escalating the statistics. This comes at a time when many opine that some of the laws that govern the youth and, in particular, the Youth Criminal Justice Act are obsolete if what has been said by many experts is anything to go by. Prime Minister David Lametti has been very critical of the document, questioning whether it has ever been effective since its inception (Agger & Luke 2015). The Prime Minister has since then rooted for an evidence-based-research on criminology that could best be a lasting solution to the current issue of delinquency among the youth. Perhaps what the Prime Minister says is right, perhaps the best way to deal with this is to walk down his path of thought.
First things first, it would be a good idea to appreciate the statistics as they have been laid bare for public consumption. Security departments in Canada admit that crime could be much lower today than they were decades ago, but for the third consecutive year, firearm-arm related homicides have spiraled up. The numbers rose to 223 in 2019, registering a rise by 44 from the previous year 2018. As a matter of fact, shooting has become the most prescribed form of violence, surpassing beating, stabbing, and harassment. Gang-related murders, too, have seen a rise in their numbers in 2019 to 191, 45 more than those reported in 2018. The majority of these were reported in Ontario and British Columbia. Rural areas seem to be also having a share in the statistics, because three out of every ten gun-related crimes happen in the rural areas, going by the statistics of the Federal Ministry of Public Safety. What is more is that even though most victims of crime know their adversaries, these of gun violence do not know who attacks them because they expedite their missions literally on anyone.
Gun Laws
The new proposed Bill, in the form of the Youth Justice Act, should come in with more strict laws on owning and handling of guns. As of now and according to the Firearms Commissioner, there are over 2.1 million Canadians that are licensed gun holders in a country with a population high to the tune of 36 million people. Perhaps the first step of dealing with the rise counts of gun violence in Canada would be to revoke all licenses and issue them afresh on new, strict, and clearer grounds (Agger & Luke 2015). All licensed gun holders should be given a 90-day ultimatum to surrender all their guns to the Firearms Commissioner and new qualifications set for licensing in line with this Youth Justice Act. There ought to be strict measures at the handgun registry where a person seeking to be a licensed gun holder under the new law should remit all information about him or her up to and including fingerprint records and photographs of the gun holder to be put on record. Record keeping and occasional background checks should be done to ensure guns are in the right hands.
The Youth Justice Act should see to it that people with bad histories of violence are not allowed to hold guns under the new law. Background checks should be in a position to tell the history of someone, and any slight indication towards the delinquency of any degree should be a sufficient ground for disqualification (Ross, 2017). In addition to that, sellers of guns and other weaponry should comply with the new law that requires them to verify the validity of their firearms and should keep records of whichever persons they sell the firearms to. This would help police to trace guns used in crimes back to the seller and be in a position to identify the criminals for prosecution (Agger & Luke 2015).
Youth Training
Away from issues about guns, perhaps it would be equally important to get to the root cause of delinquency among the youth. Many experts have pointed towards, among others the lack of jobs, poverty, and drug abuse as some of the major reasons why the youth indulge in crime (Ross, 2017). The youth are said to be engaging in crimes because they lack means of sustaining their livelihoods and would thus rob people of their belongings in order to survive. Looking at this issue from this perspective, it would be a wise idea to counter the idleness and poverty of the youth by enriching them and providing them with alternatives to crime (Giebel, 2018). The Youth Justice Act will, therefore, come up with legislation for mandatory free training of the youth once they complete college and as they wait to enter the employment phase in their lives, they ought to undergo mandatory service in something akin to military training as is done in the United States o America.
These youth training programs would serve to keep the youth busy and occupied, drifting their thoughts away from temptations to indulge in crime. The training would be mandatory and free of charge, so no youth has the liberty to abscond, and this means that there should be a clause that would dictate what happens in the event that anyone is found to have evaded the mandatory youth training (Agger & Luke 2015). This would be an ideal way to nip gun violence among the youth in the bud and put a lasting end to its growth.
Intensity of Punishment
Section 38 (2) of the Youth Criminal Justice Act provides that a youth sentence should not result in a punishment of greater magnitude than if it were to be imposed on an adult. This is one of the legislations that, in the opinion of many experts, give the youth the moral to engage in gun violence knowing they would be subjected to less serious punishment as the adults would if they committed the crime. I, and in my capacity as a Junior minister for Justice, am very aware that any youth that engages in gun violence is old enough to be considered an adult, someone who can discern between good and bad (Giebel, 2018). The Prime Minister has, on many occasions, questioned the validity and effectiveness of this act, probably because of such things.
The new Youth Justice Act will come up with a new system in which the youth shall be considered to be people above the age of majority. This country cannot keep losing victims to gun violence and imposing lesser punishment on the youth on the pretext that they are not adults and should, therefore, be treated as more of minors (Giebel, 2018). For someone to hold a gun and brandish it before any victim, this amounts to robbery with violence, which in my opinion, should be punished by a life sentence to the very least if not a death sentence. The Youth Justice Act shall make gun violence an offense punishable by a life sentence, with the possibility of parole after twenty years (Agger & Luke 2015). The first few individuals that will face the long arm of the law shall act as a lesson to many out there. I believe this will come in handy in reducing gun violence in many parts of Canada.
Other Legislations
The Youth Justice Act shall create a clause that will compel the Canadian government to allocate a considerable portion of its budget towards combating these gun-toting young criminals who should be in tertiary education institutions charting paths leading to a fruitful future of useful members of the society (Giebel, 2018). These funds would then be channeled to community-level prevention and enforcement efforts that would see the gun violence episodes decline not only in Ontario and Toronto but the rural parts of the country as well.
Conclusion
With all that being said, making laws to prevent the youth from engaging in these gun crimes is not enough. There should be a demonstration by the government of its willingness to bring gun violence under control in the entirety of the nation. The youth ought to be sensitized on the importance of being law-abiding and the advantages of the fruits of hard work over robbing innocent people of their belongings. Until this is done, the Prime Minister and other like-minded citizens shall continue to poke holes in the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
References
Agger, B., & Luke, T. W. (2015). Gun Violence and Public Life. Routledge.
Giebel, B. (2018). Combating Gun Violence in Canada: How to Help the Boys.
Ross, J. (2017). Violence in Canada: sociopolitical perspectives. Routledge.