Solving Youth Crime Requires More than Scare Tactics

This week, Stephen Harper's Conservative Government tried to solve the problem of youth crime in completely the wrong manner. Rather than addressing the root causes of youth crime, like poverty and a lack of affordable, high-quality youth programs, he has decided instead that the best way to solve the issue is to lock young offenders in prison.

Criminologists have said that jail does not act as a deterrent for young offenders who mostly commit crimes in the 'heat of the moment' spontaneously. Teenagers think differently than adults, and as such, they need to be treated differently than adults. Instead of recognizing this, the Conservative Government has decided to engage in fear-politics and scare voters into supporting their policies without logical regard to the facts of the matter.

Rather than more jail time, we need more alternative sentencing. Rather than locking children away behind bars, we need to engage in more dialogue. Rather than frightening Canadians into believing that youth crimes are lurking behind every corner, we need to increase support to unemployed and working-class Canadians. Unless we look at the reasons why teenagers commit crimes, we will never be able to solve the problem whatsoever.