Public Commons

• Youth in conflict with the law - police discretion

Part of Community Engagement Police Youth

We wondered about what powers the police and Crown have to deal with young people who get into trouble with the law in parks and public spaces.

In the course of our research, we came across the website for the Legal Resource Centre, based in the University of Alberta in Edmonton. The Legal Resource Centre publishes Canadian Legal FAQ's about federal laws and laws in Alberta. It has an excellent section on the law that pertains to young people who get into legal trouble. http://www.law-faqs.org/wiki/index.php/Youth_and_the_Law/Introduction.

It summarizes the rights of young people stopped by the police and the powers and, in certain circumstances, the duties of the police and the Crown to divert matters from the court system. http://www.law-faqs.org/wiki/index.php/Youth_and_the_Law/Arrest_and_Police#If_I_get_into_trouble.2C_do_the_police_have_to_charge_me.3F

It's section on the alteratives to the court route - called extrajudicial measures and extrajudicial sanctions - is a helpful guide http://www.law-faqs.org/wiki/index.php/Youth_and_the_Law/Extrajudicial_Measures_and_Sanctions

The Legal Resource Centre has an interesting mission: "to enhance the accessibility and quality of justice realized in Canada.... by creating learning opportunities and building learning communities that facilitate the creation, management, exchange, and integration of knowledge among people within the justice system and between them and the general public." http://www.law-faqs.org/wiki/index.php/Canadian_Legal_FAQS:About