Tories to extend life sentences to juveniles

[Lucy Goosey]

Tories to extend life sentences to juveniles

Sigh. Is this really something that Canadians have been clamoring for? Harper must have reason to believe that this will be very popular. Is this really going to help him pick up seats east of Manitoba? Are juvenile crime rates on the rise or something?

I feel so out of touch with much of the country, it this is the way things are really going.

[iverglas]

1. Youth crime is not rising in any meaningful sense

The Conservatives depend on perception ... and their ability to manipulate it.

http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/080516/d080516a.htm

Even so, property crime rates were down and the overall rate of youth crime was 6% lower than a decade earlier and 25% below the peak in 1991, according to a new Juristat based on police-reported statistics.

In 2006, nearly 180,000 young people were implicated in some violation of the Criminal Code, excluding traffic offences. This translates to a youth crime rate of 6,885 youth accused for every 100,000 young people in this age group.

This study showed that the rate of violent crime among young people increased 12% in 10 years, and 30% since 1991. While property crime rates have declined over the course of the previous decade, these types of offences still accounted for about 4 in 10 youth crimes in 2006.

Drug-related crimes among youth have also climbed dramatically. The rate of drug offences among youth in 2006 was nearly twice what it was 10 years earlier.

Both the number and rate of young people accused of homicide in 2006 reached their highest point since data were first collected in 1961. However, given the relatively small number of youth committing homicide, rates can fluctuate substantially from year to year. Just five years earlier, the youth homicide rate was at a 30-year low.

Need to add this:

By 2006, youth accused of violent offences accounted for nearly one-quarter of all apprehended youth. Much of this increase in the rate of youth violent crime has been driven by an increase in youth involvement in assaults. Youth accused of assault represented nearly 80% of those apprehended for a violent crime in 2006. Most youth apprehended for assault were accused of common assault, the least serious form of this offence.

This is also the biggest reason why "violent crime" rates are not comparable between, e.g., Canada and the US. The overwhelming majority of "violent crimes" in Canada are level 1 assault (formerly called common assault) -- an assault where no injuries occurred and no weapons were involved.

This is the case for young offenders -- of 20,500 "violent crimes" in 2006, 14,160 were assaults, of which 8,964 were level 1 assaults.

[LiberadorHugo]

2. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

He's going after the youth and non-violent drug criminals as well as Nazifying our copyright laws to make his American masters happy; anyone with any common sense knows that all we have to do is liberalize our policies with regards to non-violent cannabis crimes within our borders and we will have plenty of resources to police our southern border (I don't believe we should allow marijuana to cross the border; that would violate your country's sovereignty in much the same way your government routinely violates ours. We have every right to make our voices heard when your government is being unjust to your people, but that kind of imperialism goes to far.) and prison space to go after the gangsters, the frauds, the murderers, and the sex criminals. Back in the 1980s, a hash importer with no history of violent crime was given a longer sentence than a serial rapist. Harper wants this shit to become the norm and will get it if we don't fight back against the far-right, against American capital, and against the prison-military-industrial complex. Why the fuck should we relax our food inspection laws and allow people to die of listeriosis and other diseases so that we can have more potheads in jail and more Canadian soldiers helping one group of Muslim wackos overthrow another group of Muslim wackos in Afghanistan.

[iverglas]

3. I'm a little confused here

You're new to me, and you don't have a profile. Are you Canadian / in Canada?

Lucy Goosey is. She's previously reported what riding she's in. But you seem to be addressing her as if she's in the US, and I think this is the second time you've spoken as if the Canadian you're addressing is in the US:

... (I don't believe we should allow marijuana to cross the border; that would violate your country's sovereignty in much the same way your government routinely violates ours. We have every right to make our voices heard when your government is being unjust to your people, but that kind of imperialism goes to far.)

Pretty much everybody in this subforum is in Canada, just fyi. Unless you notice someone who's wandered in specifically to seek info or opinion from Canadians.