“Commanding” Order and Respect?: Exploring Process and Precipitating Change in a Canadian Youth Court

• In Event: Adolescents' Perspectives on Crime, Justice, and Programming

Abstract

This research is based on a larger on-going project examining youths’ views of their experiences at one large urban youth court in the province of Ontario, Canada. The first phase of this larger project found that independent of how fairly youths felt they themselves had been treated, the atmosphere of the courtroom was significantly related to their overall assessments of the legitimacy of the criminal justice system. The present paper focuses on observational data collected over approximately 280 days, documenting the workings of the courtroom, including case flow, courtroom order, and the professionalism of court actors. Based on these observations, this research documents and explores the means by which court personnel attempted to instill a sense of order and respect in the court and the impact that these efforts had on the treatment of young people and their families. Finally, this paper also discusses the changes that have been implemented at this courthouse in response to some of these observations.

Author

• Maria Jung, University of Toronto