Parents’ Involvement in the Youth Justice System: A View from the Trenches

Abstract

Although the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) contains more references to parents than did previous youth justice legislation, it contains little discussion of the principles underlying parental involvement. Thus, it is critical to explore the views of those who work in the youth justice system, as their perceptions may shape how they involve parents in the system. In this descriptive study, Ontario police, defence and crown counsel, youth court judges, and probation officers were interviewed regarding their perceptions of parental involvement in youth justice proceedings. Most respondents believed that the YCJA actively encourages parental involvement. In addition to support and advocacy for youth, officials indicated that legislators intend parents to play a role in addressing youths’ offending behaviour. Nevertheless, there were concerns that current legislation encourages parental involvement only in theory and that this does not translate into practice. Different, and at times conflicting, perspectives across respondent groups suggest the need for inter-professional training to enable the system to work more collaboratively to provide youth and parents with consistent information and expectations regarding parents’ roles and to promote more effective parental involvement.

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