female young offenders
Dressed in a baggy T-shirt, cotton pants and runners with long wavy hair falling around her shoulders, she looks like an ordinary teenager. Yet because of her crime she spent her "sweet sixteen" birthday locked up in one of British Columbia's closed custody units for youth. 'Janice" which is not her real name because the Young Offenders Act prohibits publication of a youths identity is incarcerated for her part in the brutal murder of 14 year-old Reena Virk in November 1997, an event that shocked the country and prompted "Bad Girl" headlines coast to coast. What made this case so unbelievable was that seven out of eight of the teens who participated in butting out a cigarette on Virk's forehead, and punching and kicking her until she was dazed and bleeding, were girls. (Chislom, 1997) Many people believe that because of incidents like this, there must be a major problem with our female youth and crime today. Although this was an extremely heinous crime - are female youths really becoming more violent and more capable of murder? Are crimes committed by young females catching up to the number of crimes committed by young males? These are questions sought and researched by many individuals and groups in Canadian s
Before the YOA was introduced, one female received a custody sentence for every five to seven males; by 1990, that ratio had changed to one female for every eight to twelve male young offenders. It is difficult to understand why twice as many young females are in custody for breaking administrative rules than for either serious or minor assaults (p. Meloff and Silverman (1992, p. This is one area of female youth crime where the number of offences is not that unnoticeable. For instance, between 1961 and 1983 only 3 percent of girl killings were committed during another crime compared to 25 percent of the young male homicides. Although female crime may be slightly on the rise, the number of crimes they commit are dragged in the dust behind the number of crimes committed by young males. A major gender difference is shown in the number of youth charged with homicide. Dealing with young female's Dell and Boe (1997, p. Male and female repeat offenders who were found guilty of three or more convictions were both more apt to receive secure custody. In contrast, males represented 18% of those convicted of theft under $5,000 and 10% of those convicted of minor assault. Of male repeat offenders with three or more convictions, 42 percent received secure custody compared to 25 percent who were given open custody.
Common topics in this essay:
Offenders Act,
Doob Sprott,
Kowalski Caputo,
Carrington Moyer,
Charges Dispositions,
Bad Girl,
Statistics Canada,
Meloff Silverman,
Dell Boe,
Act JDA,
crimes committed,
et al,
youth crime,
males females,
offenders act,
female offenders,
status offences,
reitsma-street 1993,
property crimes,
female youth crime,
female youth,
et al 2000,
corrado et al,
crimes committed males,
stevenson et al,
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Acceptance Essays
