In many cases, society views the young offender and their victim separately, that there is little connection between the two. However, there is connection and we should try to understand this aspect. No matter what the crime is, from the moment the offender commits the crime, there is a relationship between the young offender and his or her victim.
Some of the writers of these articles reveal important findings about the victim-offender relationship. Several writers, in their articles, state that youth violence has been increasing over the last few decades and it has become more important to do some research or write articles about this subject. All the articles for this essay reveal data, showing the increase of youth crime and violence.
All of the writers follow approximately the same definition. In his book “Issues and Perspectives on Young Offenders in Canada,” Winterdyk gives his readers the definition, which is most commonly referred to. He defines a young person as “a person who is or, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, appears to be twelve years old or older, but less than eighteen years old and, if the context requires, includes any person who is charged under this Act with having committed an offense while he or she was a young person or who was found guilty of an offense under this Act.” (Winterdyk 7)
There have been several reports on the issue of youth crime and youth victimization. The writers of these articles, chosen for this essay, base their findings on surveys, statistics, and/or case-control investigation. The researchers themselves for their article use several surveys, which were either done by the writers or the writers found the reports of these surveys, which were under the form of questionnaires. Examples of surveys used are the British Crime Survey, Uniform Crime Report, and National Crime Victimization Survey.
All Canadian statistics that used were taken from and conducted by Statistics Canada, which is the source to most data and statistics in Canada. One of the leading studies used by Statistics Canada is an analytical study. As the name suggests, this type of study “describes or analyses a specific aspect of the social, commercial, financial or economic situation in Canada.” (Statistics Canada) Some of the writers used some self-report studies. Giving a sample of people answer a questionnaire does this type of study, involving the subject of the research. There is only one article, which discusses a self-control investigation. Finally, one article uses data taken by the Social Services of the Province of Saskatchewan.
Despite the fact that all articles are important in shedding light on the subject, the three articles that reveal the most on these subjects are “Victimization and Delinquency among Canadian Youth,” by Dr. Lorne D. Bertrand and Joanne J. Paestch, “The Extent of Youth Victimization, Crime and Delinquency in Alberta, 1999,” by Jeanette T. Gomes et al., and “Canadian kids who kill,” by William Meloff and Robert A. Silverman. Bernard Schissel discusses these topics, briefly, in his book “Still Blaming Children.”
The researches that are discussed look at several different aspects to better understand victimization and youth offenders. Some of the main and common variables that are observed in the articles are: age; gender; types of offenses; and the means of the offenses.
First of all, a look these aspects with regard to the young offenders and/or criminals. One of the articles that looks at this aspect is “Canadian kids who kill,” by William Meloff and Robert A. Silverman. In this article, these two writers look at the variables with regards to youth homicides, in Canada.
The first thing is age. With the research that they used, Meloff and Silverman were able to come to the conclusion that youths of 17 years of age had higher homicide rates in Canada. The rates were higher than the rates for the youths between the ages of 12 and 16. Though with comparison to the youth homicide rates in the United States, the Canadian rates are relatively low.
Then, Meloff and Silverman also discuss gender. From the research used, the writers were able to reveal that approximately 63 percent of homicides were males killing other males. However, 30 percent of the victims of male perpetrators have the tendency to be female youths. The homicides committed by female perpetrators, on the other hand, only represents 11 percent of all homicides, committed by youths. Though, interestingly enough, 57 percent of the time, the victims of female perpetrators are male.
This article doesn't really touch the subject of different types of offenses. The reason being that the writers touch only the subject of homicides or subjects closely related to homicides within youth offenses and crimes in Canada.
