CANADIANS FEAR YOUNG CRIMINALS BUT DON'T WANT THEM JAILED, SURVEY SUGGESTS

Canadians view prison as one of the least effective ways of deterring
youth crime, according to a survey done for the Justice Department.

The finding comes from the 2008 National Justice Survey, performed
annually to test public opinion on justice issues. This year's survey,
conducted between March 17 and May 2, focused on the youth criminal
justice system. The results were posted this week to a government website.

How to deal with youth crime has been particularly contentious in
recent months. During the federal election campaign, the Conservatives
promised to overhaul the Youth Criminal Justice Act to impose
automatic, stiffer sentences for those 14 and older convicted of
serious violent crimes. That policy played poorly in Quebec, and some
argued it was a factor in denying the party a majority.

The survey reports that three-quarters of Canadians are concerned
about youth crime and believe it has increased in the past five years,
but their enthusiasm for jail as a solution is decidedly muted.
StatsCan data show the youth crime rate has remained roughly flat in
recent years, but experts say that could be misleading because of how
police deal with offenders under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

While 47 per cent agree that putting youth offenders in jail is an
effective way of correcting their behaviour, just more than half
disagree. Three-quarters think jail should be reserved for violent
youth or repeat offenders.

As well, respondents rank jail as the least effective on a list of
measures aimed at promoting acceptable behaviour. Only one in five
thinks sending youths to prison with other young offenders is highly
effective. Even fewer -- 14.4 per cent -- say imprisoning them with
adult offenders is highly effective.

In contrast, six in 10 think informal programs that encourage youth to
repair the harm caused by their crimes are highly effective. Nearly as
many strongly endorse community supervision with conditions such as
attending school, abstaining from drugs and abiding by a curfew.

More than seven in 10 think providing youth with educational or
employment skills is highly effective, and more than half say the same
about psychological or psychiatric counselling.

Despite the findings, just more than half of Canadians think the
current three-year maximum for most youth sentences should be
increased. Four in 10 say it's about right.

The survey appears to strengthen the case for sanctions requiring
offenders to make restitution to victims, University of Ottawa
criminologist Irvin Waller said.

In France, restitution has been the most common criminal sanction for
more than 40 years. "What you see is that when there's some reparation
paid, people get less angry and the desire for incarceration
diminishes," he said.

Mr. Waller says some of the survey's findings echo other research that
suggested public understanding of the causes of youth crime were quite
sophisticated.

"The public believes much more in education and training as a way to
reduce crime than they do in more police, judges and prisoners."

Mr. Waller was critical of the design of the survey, calling many of
the questions vague or out of date. For instance, the survey didn't
ask about the role of alcohol in youth crime, even though "alcohol is
way more important in terms of creating problems for young people than
drugs."

The survey used telephone and online sampling to access
harder-to-reach populations. By telephone, 4,015 people were surveyed,
with a margin of error of 1.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The online survey received 3,186 responses. Because of the method
used, the margin of error cannot be calculated for the Internet sample.