1. Introduction

In Canada, the youth criminal justice system (CJS) is governed by the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA), a federal legislation that applies to youth aged 12 to 17 years old who come in contact with the CJS. The YCJA came into force on April 1, 2003, replacing a more punitive legislation, the Young Offenders Act (YOA).Footnote 8 The YCJA recognizes that youth are still in a stage of development given their lack of maturity, greater level of dependency and unique needs. The Act was implemented in an effort to reduce the overreliance on courts and incarceration by having a greater focus on out-of-court responses. The Act promotes early and effective community-based interventions, rehabilitation and reintegration, all while holding youth accountable for their offending behaviour. One of the ways the Act enables the achievement of these principles is through the use of extrajudicial measures (EJMs).Footnote 9

Under Part I of the YCJA, there are a number of provisions encouraging police officers to exercise their discretion to use EJMs, where appropriate, as an alternate means to charging youth with a criminal offence. According to the YCJA, EJMs are presumed to be adequate to hold a young person accountable when the youth committed a non-violent offence and has no prior convictions. That said, nothing precludes their use when dealing with a young person who has previously been dealt with by the use of EJMs or has been previously found guilty of a crime.Footnote 10

EJMs include a number of actions such as: taking no further action (i.e., police officer decides no further response to an incident is required); verbal warnings; written cautions; referrals to community programs; and extrajudicial sanctions. Extrajudicial sanctions, which can be used pre- or post-charge, are the most formal type of EJM due to their potential legal consequences,Footnote 11 and are used when other forms of EJMs are not deemed adequate to hold a young person accountable.

Under section 5 of the YCJA, the use of EJMs aims to: provide an effective and timely response to criminal offending behaviour outside the bounds of judicial measures; acknowledge and address the harm caused to the victim and the community; encourage the involvement of families, victims and other members of the community; provide an opportunity for the victim to participate in decisions; respect the rights and freedoms of young persons; and, be proportionate to the seriousness of the offence.

April 2023 marked the 20-year anniversary of the YCJA, providing an opportunity to look back at the implementation of key components of the legislation such as the use of EJMs. This study examines the trends in the use of EJMs at the policing stage, over a 10-year period, from 2010 to 2021. To better contextualize trends in the use of EJMs, this report first examines the broader trends in youth crime and police charging practices (i.e., youth charged vs. not charged) pre- and post-YCJA (1998 to 2021). The report further explores incidents resulting in a decision to not charge youth by examining more recent trends in EJM usage (2010 to 2021) to answer five key questions: 1) To what extent were youth who come in contact with the police diverted by an EJM?; 2) Which types of EJMs are the most and least frequently used?; 3) How does the use of EJMs vary according to offence type?; 4) How does the use of EJM vary between urban and rural regions?; and 5) Are there jurisdictional differences in the use of EJMs?