Police Practice and Research

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From knowledge to action? The Youth Criminal

Justice Act and use of extrajudicial measures in
youth policing

Rose Ricciardelli, Hayley Crichton, Liam Swiss, Dale C. Spencer & Micheal
Adorjan

To cite this article: Rose Ricciardelli, Hayley Crichton, Liam Swiss, Dale C. Spencer &
Micheal Adorjan (2017) From knowledge to action? The Youth Criminal Justice Act and use of
extrajudicial measures in youth policing, Police Practice and Research, 18:6, 599-611, DOI:
10.1080/15614263.2017.1363971

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Police Practice and Research, 2017
VOL. 18, NO. 6, 599–611
https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2017.1363971

From knowledge to action? The Youth Criminal Justice Act and use
of extrajudicial measures in youth policing
Rose Ricciardellia, Hayley Crichtona, Liam Swissa, Dale C. Spencerb and Micheal Adorjanc
a
Department of Sociology, Memorial University, St. John’s, Canada; bDepartment of Law and Legal Studies, Carleton
University, Ottawa, Canada; cDepartment of Sociology, University of Calgary, Canada

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Since its implementation, several studies have asserted that the Youth Policing; youth; rural; Youth
Criminal Justice Act [YCJA] (2003) has been successful in lessening the Criminal Justice Act
number of Canadian youth sent to court and later incarcerated. However,
earlier work has not addressed the limitations of the YCJA in provinces where
its provisions have only been partially implemented due to limited resources.
Analyses of quantitative data derived from a survey of police officers in an
Atlantic province reveals that knowledge of the YCJA and YCJA procedures
is a poor predictor of officers’ likelihood to use extrajudicial (diversion)
measures. Analysis of the open-ended portion of our survey, however,
provides an explanation: the Act has not been fully implemented here
because of resource limitations, which affect an officer’s ability to adhere
to the YCJA.

Introduction
When Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) came into effect in 2003 it was intended to remedy
a number of deficits in earlier youth justice legislation. Among these deficits was a lack of guidelines
for criminal justice professionals in the handling of youth cases (Anderson, 2007; Doob & Cesaroni,
2004; Endres, 2004; Sprott & Doob, 2005). As an example, police would frequently lay or recommend
charges in cases that could be dealt with without resorting to formal sanctions (Barnhorst, 2004).
The result was that Canada’s youth incarceration rate was among the highest within Western nations
(Hogeveen, 2005). To counteract this problem, the goal of the YCJA is to provide clear guidance on
justice policy and practice through the coupling of guiding principles with a series of new formal
and informal sanctions and community-based measures. As the professional group typically tasked
with responding to youth crime – and thus the ‘gatekeepers’ of the youth justice system – the police
are expected to know the provisions of the Act and to exercise their discretion in accordance with
its principles. To support the police in this work, provincial governments are to create a variety of
pre-charge programs within communities to be used to divert young people toward rehabilitation
and away from the criminal justice system. However, policy and legislation rarely directly account
for differentiations between provinces. Thus, the implementation and support for such pre-charge
programs, or lack thereof, within communities are unique to each province.

CONTACT Rose Ricciardelli rricciardell@mun.ca

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
600  R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

The YCJA’s (2002: preamble) goals include to ‘ensure accountability through meaningful conse-
quences and effective rehabilitation and reintegration’ and the use of diversion practices or initiatives
is one way in which this goal may be met. Previous studies have argued that, in relation to the goal of
decreasing levels of youth court involvement and incarceration, the YCJA, has been successful (Bala,
Peter, & Roberts, 2009; Carrington & Schulenberg, 2008; Sprott & Doob, 2011). This success suggests
that police know and apply the principles of the YCJA by making use of various forms of diversion
that are available to them within the community. However, few researchers have examined this issue in
detail or within a specific province. Thus, we lack knowledge about the extent to which police know the
provisions of the Act and routinely apply them. We begin from the premise that crime prevention and
crime control are all affected by numerous differentiations in environment that subsequently must be
reflected in the implementation of policy and legislation (Brantingham & Brantingham, 1991; Emig,
Heck, & Kravitz, 1980; Wartell & Gallagher, 2012). One location is not interchangeable for another in
studies of crime and crime control (Kim, LaGrange, & Willis, 2012). For example, using the community
hierarchy of needs theory, Guzman and Kim (2016) assert that unique environments and locations
directly affect the methods of policing developed and implemented in these areas. Specifically, the
authors suggest that communities with lower levels of need often revert to the more traditional forms
of policing characterized by strict law enforcement (Guzman & Kim, 2016). Alternatively, communities
with higher levels of need are more likely to develop and implement policing methods more closely
associated with practices of community policing (Guzman & Kim, 2016). Although the YCJA is the
overarching federal legislation, successful provincial implementation requires significant attention
to be paid to location-specific characteristics. Previous researchers have shown that location-specific
characteristics will likely affect the policing practices used in these areas and thus it follows that the
characteristics present in specific provinces will affect the ways the YCJA is applied.
The present study sought to determine whether knowledge of the YCJA was a predictor of police
action when dealing with young people in the context of an Atlantic province. To understand whether
and to what extent YCJA knowledge guides police practice, we analyzed data from a survey we con-
ducted with two hundred and one (n = 201) members of a law enforcement agency. At its foundation,
the present study looks to understand the implementation of the YCJA in a specific province and
further how this affects knowledge of the legislation itself. This study was guided by three hypotheses:
H1: Officers with greater reported knowledge of the YCJA are more likely to use extrajudicial measures, even
beyond those available in the province.

H2: Officers who report applying the YCJA principles in their daily practice are more likely to report using
extrajudicial measures, despite their general unavailability.

H3: Knowledge of the YCJA decreases the likelihood of an officer laying a formal charge.
To round out the study, we also used thematic analysis (Guest, 2012) to qualitatively explore answers
to an open-ended question that invited respondents to provide additional comments on their knowl-
edge and use of the YCJA.

Literature review
Policing and the YCJA
A key policy change in the YCJA was the use of ‘extrajudicial measures’. Extrajudicial measures
refer to any action taken by a police officer that does not involve legal proceedings. Among such
actions, police officers can take ‘no further action’ in relation to an incident, issue verbal or written
warnings or cautions, or provide young people with a referral to a rehabilitation-oriented program
(Carrington & Schulenberg, 2008; Endres, 2004). Although the Act allows for police discretion by
outlining several options for criminal justice officials, it also structures discretion by providing spe-
cific guidelines about how officers must make decisions (Doob & Cesaroni, 2004). Except for serious
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH  601

crimes, police are expected to exhaust all available extrajudicial measures, before considering laying
a criminal charge (Endres, 2004). When deciding among available choices, police are required to
evaluate whether the selected option is appropriate for the goal of holding the young person account-
able, while also fostering the potential for rehabilitation and using the most non-intrusive measure
possible (Barnhorst, 2004).
As is the case with all federal criminal legislation, the administration of the YCJA is a provincial/
territorial matter. Thus, there are variations among the provinces and territories in terms of how
each implemented the extrajudicial measures portion of the Act and thus the types of programs
and services available to police officers as diversionary referrals. The YCJA was not only opposed
in Quebec (Trépanier, 2004), but the province maintained its own previous child welfare and youth
justice system. As such, YCJA implementation in Quebec was very different from that in other prov-
inces (Carrington & Schulenberg, 2008). For example, British Columbia was, until 2009, the only
province to provide adequate resources to establish successful intensive supervision and support
programs in the community for youth in conflict with the law (Bala et al., 2009), a prime intervention
prescription of the YCJA.
Even though the implementation and administration of the YCJA has varied widely across prov-
inces and territories, most studies have not accounted for this when evaluating the relative success
of the YCJA. Instead, using federal statistics based on the Uniform Crime Reports, scholars have
looked at youth charge and diversion rates in the aggregate – that is, as a Canada-wide phenomenon
(e.g., Sprott & Doob, 2008). What these reports tell us is that there was a decrease in the number of
charges laid by police and an increase in the use of extrajudicial measures across Canada in the three
years following the Act’s implementation (Carrington & Schulenberg, 2008). Similarly, another study
found an overall drop in the number of youth charged in Canada and an increase in the use of the
various diversion methods (Bala et al., 2009). Taken together, these findings suggest the YCJA has
been successful in decreasing Canada’s historical over-reliance on formal court processing and cus-
todial sentencing. However, as later work by Schulenberg (2010) demonstrates, understanding youth
policing trends through aggregate data alone may present a distorted picture. Schulenberg’s research
shows that policing action can be heavily dependent on community-type and other geographically
rooted considerations – key considerations in the current study (see also Lithopolous & Ruddell,
2011). Thus, there is a clear need for more focused, contextually informed empirical research that
examines policing practices within provinces and specific locations. The present study is one attempt
at developing a more detailed picture.

Research context
In the rural and northern (Walls, 2012) Atlantic province in which our study is situated, the popula-
tion is heavily centralized in the capital city and surrounding area. The geographic vastness hinders
the use of more modern policing practices tied to technology and, as such, the rural and expansive
population arguably poses barriers to the implementation of federal legislation such as the YCJA.
Indeed, detachments are often responsible for large stretches of land that thwart the ability of those
members on duty to respond to calls in a timely manner. In rural areas, the lack of wireless internet
and sufficient cellular towers means that members are often left without the technological tools avail-
able in other provinces, especially when on patrol in a car. Many smaller northern communities are
only accessible by plane or ferry and have limited community facilities or resources if any exist at all.
The way in which federal legislation relating to crime control is implemented at the provincial level is
directly related to the situational variables present in each location or implementation site. The YCJA
is an example of such legislation that has had variable success or levels of implementation depending
on the province and its geography.
602  R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

Research methods
Survey design and procedures
The present paper draws on data collected from a mixed methodological study. Data was collected
from an online survey (n = 201) conducted in 2014 of members of a law enforcement agency. Our
sampling frame consisted of all active, sworn, regular police members (n = 529) presently working in
the agency1 and each police officer had an opportunity to complete the online survey. Surveys were first
distributed 5 April 2014 and responses accepted until 7 July 2014. Respondents were asked a series of
closed-ended questions, grouped according to the following topics: (1) demographic information; (2)
police perceptions of youth; (3) knowledge of the current youth justice legislation; and (4) attitudes
toward the use of discretion when interacting with youth.
The concluding portion of the survey consisted of one open-ended question soliciting additional
respondent views on any of the topics contained in the preceding questions. Survey construction
included participation and input from researchers and officers to ensure the survey language was
consistent with that used in the field. Members could complete the survey online at their convenience,
which took, on average, 30 min to complete.
The hypotheses tested in this article are formed based on the existing literature on the relationship
between police knowledge of the law and police behaviour (see Gould & Mastrofski, 2004; Logan,
2011; Sherman, 1980). Our hypotheses, which hinge on the assumption that the degree of police
knowledge of the law makes a difference in police behaviour, assess how degrees of knowledge of the
YCJA will affect police dispositions, daily practices, and behaviour toward youth. In addition, because
of the orientation of the YCJA towards the use of extrajudicial sanctions over laying formal charges,
hypotheses 1 and 2 seek to gauge whether the degree of knowledge of the YCJA affects the use of one
approach over another.

Data analysis
Demographic and scaled survey questions were analyzed quantitatively using ordered logistic regres-
sion. For understanding the relationship between knowledge of the YCJA (independent variable) and
police decision-making regarding processing youth (dependent variable), regression analysis is a
suitable statistical technique (Freedman, 2009). Specifically, ordered logistic regression is the best-
suited regression model for ordinal dependent variables (Winship & Mare, 1984). In relation to the
qualitative data, responses to an open-ended question appended to the end of the survey were analyzed
qualitatively using a constructed thematic analysis (n = 52) (see Charmaz, 2006). Thematic analysis
in this case is the most appropriate as it allows us to move beyond counting responses to identifying
implicit and explicit meanings and ideas within the data.

Quantitative analysis
Dependent variables
Four dependent variables were used to measure how the YCJA is practiced in the province, each
drawing on the willingness of officers to use specific extrajudicial measures rather than lay a formal
charge – always in a province where the only measures available are take no action, give a warning, or
charge the youth (send him or her to the Crown where he or she can be referred to measure among
other possible outcomes). These variables are the frequency that an officer reports either:
(D1) taking no further Action with youth;
(D2) administering a warning;
(D3) using a referral process to an outside resource, or;
(D4) bringing in the youth to be formally processed.
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH  603

The first item, (D1), was based on responses to Likert-like scaled questions such as: ‘When I come
in contact with a youth engaging in unlawful Acts I take no further action’. Similarly, D2, D3 and
D4 were captured in questions that specifically asked officers whether, they administer warnings,
refer young people or charge them with criminal offences. Responses were coded: 1 for ‘never’, 2 for
‘occasionally’, 3 for ‘sometimes’, 4 for ‘often’, 5 for ‘always’, and 6 and 7 for ‘not applicable’ and ‘missing’
respectively. In the current analyses, the coding for both 6 and 7 (‘not applicable’ and ‘missing’) are
removed from the set of responses and treated as missing data. Each of the dependent variables was
analyzed using separate ordinal logistic regression models (see Table 1 for the frequency distribution
of the dependent variables).

Independent variables
After controlling for officer gender, the dependent variables were regressed on four independent
variables representing officers’ knowledge and application of the YCJA. These variables are used to
provide insight into the effects of officers’ use of specific extrajudicial measures (dependent variables)
and their reported knowledge and application of the principles of the YCJA. The four independent
variables are grouped into two categories for analysis: knowledge and application of the YCJA.
Officer knowledge of the YCJA included two categorical items reflective of their awareness and
understanding – their knowledge – about the YCJA: (I1) ‘I am knowledgeable about the YCJA’ and
(I2) ‘I am familiar with youth diversion procedures’. Participants’ responses were coded 1 for ‘strongly
disagree’, 2 ‘disagree’, 3 ‘neutral’, ‘agree’, 5 ‘strongly agree’, and 6 and 7 for ‘not applicable’ and ‘missing’
respectively (again 6 or 7 are treated as missing data and omitted from the final analysis).
Practical application of knowledge of the YCJA was tested by two items representing whether an
officer’s decision to act is based on the YCJA or RCMP policies: (I3) ‘My decision to act is based on

Table 1. Frequency distributions of the dependent variables.

Variable Response Frequency Percent

Dependent variables
When I come in contact with youth engaging in unlawful acts I take Never 177 69.65
no further action Occasionally 37 18.41
Sometimes 20 9.95
Often 2 1
Always 2 1
Total 201 100
When I come in contact with youth engaging in unlawful acts I Never 2 1
administer a warning Occasionally 65 32.34
Sometimes 94 46.77
Often 35 17.41
Always 5 2.49
Total 201 100
When I come into contact with youth engaging in unlawful acts I Never 20 9.95
refer them to a program Occasionally 40 19.9
Sometimes 101 50.25
Often 31 15.42
Always 9 4.48
Total 201 100
When I come into contact with youth engaging in unlawful acts I Never 3 1.49
contact parent/guardian Occasionally 9 4.48
Sometimes 26 12.94
Often 62 30.85
Always 101 50.25
Total 201 100
When I come into contact with youth engaging in unlawful acts I Never 1 .5
bring them in to be formally processed Occasionally 32 25.87
Sometimes 114 56.72
Often 27 13.43
Always 7 3.48
Total 201 100
604  R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

the policies of the RCMP’ and (I4) ‘My decision to act is based on the YCJA’. The items measure the
exercise of YCJA principles vs. provincial policies in daily practice and decision-making when dealing
with youth. Responses were also coded 1 for ‘never’, 2 for ‘occasionally’, 3 for ‘sometimes’, 4 for ‘often’,
5 for ‘always’, and 6 and 7 for ‘not applicable’ and ‘missing’ (missing data was again removed).

Recoding of independent variables

Given the small number of responses in each independent variable’s ‘never’ or ‘strongly disagree’
category, we chose to recode each independent variable from five into three categories, grouping the
negative response and positive responses together while maintaining the neutral response category. The
responses ‘never’ and ‘occasionally’ were collapsed into a single category as were ‘often’ and ‘always’;
‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’; and ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ (see Table 2 for the frequency distri-
bution of independent variables).

Analysis
Ordinal logistic regression was used to predict the likelihood of an officer reporting to use specific
extrajudicial measures based on their knowledge of the YCJA and the influence of this knowledge
on their decision to act. The independent variables, knowledgeability of the YCJA (I1), knowledge
of diversion procedures (I2), impact of RCMP policies on decision to act (I3) and impact of YCJA
principles on decision to act (I4), in this order were included in models of the likelihood of an officer
using specific measures.

Qualitative analysis
For the qualitative portion of this study, we drew on participant comments collected in response to
an open-ended question that invited respondents to ‘feel free to add any information you think is
important with regards to [the topic of youth policing].’ Responses (n = 52) were thematically analyzed
for emergent themes. We began with open coding from which a series of themes and sub-themes
emerged (see Guest, 2012). Among these themes was ‘lack of resources.’ Using this and other themes
identified, a second, focused coding was conducted and these results independently verified. This
second coding solidified our earlier results: a dominant theme in officers’ comments was an inability
to utilize a full range of extrajudicial measures because of a lack of diversionary programs available
to police within their community.

Table 2. Frequency of independent variables.

Variable Response Frequency Percent

Independent variables
I am knowledgeable about the YCJA Disagree 7 3.48
Neutral 37 18.41
Agree 157 78.11
Total 201 100
I am familiar with youth diversion procedure Disagree 12 5.97
Neutral 21 10.45
Agree 168 83.58
Total 201 100
My decision to act is based on the policies of the RCMP Never 6 2.98
Sometimes 28 13.93
Always 167 83.09
Total 201 100
My decision to act is based on the YCJA Never 9 4.48
Sometimes 27 13.43
Always 165 82.09
Total 201 100
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH  605

Results
Of the 332 responses received, only the surveys that were fully complete were used for the study
(n = 201). This sample represents just less than 40% of the 529 active members of the police service
agency. Of the 201 individual responses to the survey; 14.4% self-identified as female (n = 29), 84.5%
as male (n = 170) and 1.1% chose not to disclose (n = 2). Further 13.5% were between the ages of 20
and 30 (n = 27), 37.4% between 31 and 40 (n = 75), 38.5% between the ages of 41 and 50 (n = 77) and
10.6% were 50 years of age or older (n = 21). Each dependent variable was regressed on the control
variable, gender, which revealed that gender did not significantly predict officer use of specific extra-
judicial measures. Thus, we can put forth that there is no discernable difference in knowledge and
practice by officer gender.2

Knowledge and application of the YCJA

For each dependent variable, we conducted a series of nested models introducing the control and
each independent variable into subsequent regressions. Table 3 shows the results of our full model
for each dependent variable and includes coefficients and predicted likelihoods for each predictor
variable. To test our first hypothesis (H1), that officers with greater reported knowledge of the YCJA
are more likely to use extrajudicial measures (despite their lack of a formalized existence), the vari-
able representing officer knowledge of the YCJA (I1) was used to predict the likelihood of members
using specific extrajudicial measures (D1–4). Analyses reveal that knowledge of the YCJA (I1) poorly
predicts officer decision-making: knowledge of the YCJA did not predict an officer’s likelihood of
taking no further action, administering a warning, or using a referral process (H1) at a statistically
significant level (see Table 3). Our findings indicate we cannot reject the null hypothesis, suggesting
that knowledge is unrelated to action.
To test if officers who report applying the YCJA principles in their daily practice are more likely
to use extrajudicial measures (H2), we measured if an officer’s decision to act based on YCJA policy
predicted police decision-making surrounding interactions with youth. Specifically, we regressed
officers’ likelihood of using specific measures of diversion upon reported knowledge of said meas-
ures. Knowledge of diversion processes (I2) are also a poor predictor of officer decision-making. We
failed to reject the null hypothesis of differences between reported categories of knowledge, except
in the case of use of referral programs. There, officers who avowed little familiarity with diversion
processes had approximately 89% lower odds of higher frequency use of a referral program than the
reference category. This needs to be contextualized, however, in the fact that despite a large number
of officers who reported knowing about diversion processes and procedures (n = 168, 83.58%), many
still reported not using them. Further analysis did reveal patterns in officer decision-making: those
who report being knowledgeable about diversion processes have a 7.48% predicted likelihood of never
using a referral process when dealing with youth, which counters the policy and mandate of the YCJA.
Alternatively, those who report not being knowledgeable about diversion processes have a 40.11%
predicted likelihood of never using a referral program at a statistically significant level.3 Thus, knowl-
edge of diversion processes account for a 32.68% differential in the predicted likelihood of never using
a referral process, thus, given referrals to community-based programs are a central process toward
fulfilling the objectives of the YCJA, knowledge appears to positively impact police decision-making.

Practice
Application of the YCJA, including applied knowledge, are also poor predictors of officers’ likelihood
of laying a formal charge, failing to support our third hypothesis (knowledge of the YCJA decreases
the likelihood of an officer laying a formal charge), which contradicts many previous studies (Bala
et al., 2009). Specifically, regressing our dependent variables on measures of whether officers’ decisions
to act are influenced by agency policy (I3) and YCJA policy (I4) provided null findings in almost all
 606

Table 3. Ordinal logistic regression of knowledge and application of YCJA on officer decision-making.

Take no further action Administer a warning Use a referral program Formally processed
% likelihood of % likelihood of % likelihood of % likelihood of
B ‘Never’† B ‘Never’† B ‘Never’† B ‘Never’†
Gender
(Ref = Male) 69.64*** 1.15 9.81*** .55
 R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

Female −.24 74.13*** .06 1.08 .15 8.6** .07 .51

I am knowledgeable about
the YCJA
(Ref = Agree) 70.89*** .94 11.13*** .49
 Neutral .27 65.51*** −.61 1.71 .19 9.5*** −.37 .71
 Disagree −.83 84.91*** −.63 1.75 1.63 2.72 −.14 .57
I am familiar with the youth
diversion processes
(Ref = Agree) 69.6*** 1.13 7.48*** .55
 Neutral .31 62.99*** .94 .45 −.71 13.99** −.22 .68
 Disagree −1.57 91.11*** −.62 2.08 −2.16** 40.11** .75 .26
My decision to act is based
on the policies of the
RCMP
(Ref = Always) 74.87*** 1.02 9.27*** .47
 Sometimes 1.36* 44.52*** .27 .78 −.06 9.78** .05 .44
 Never 1.73 36.3 −1.77 5.66 −.78 17.65** −1.38 1.83
My decision to act is based
on the policies of the YCJA
(Ref = Always) 69.51*** 1.14 9.24*** .43
 Sometimes −.25 74.09*** .23 .91 .17 7.96* −.44 .67
 Never −.27 74.49*** −.22 1.42 −1.14 23.23 −1.26 1.51
Observations 183 183 183 183
Chi-squared statistic 14.34 12.78 14.85 8.66
Note: B: Coefficient; Ref: reference category.
†
Percent likelihood of responding ‘Never’ to the use of the specified extrajudicial measure.
*
p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH  607

cases. The lone exception was that officers who reported their decisions were ‘sometimes’ based on
agency policy had about four times higher odds of taking no further action than those who reported
always acting on the basis of agency policy. Thus, YCJA legislation, in our study, did not significantly
affect officers’ likelihood of using specific measures and their decision to act based on these policies
has negligible effects on their likelihood of using measures in daily practice.

Qualitative results: why does knowledge not always translate into practice?
To better understand our counterintuitive quantitative findings, we turned to the answers provided
by officers to the open-ended item in the survey, where we sought their general comments about the
survey and policing of youth. Analyses of these comments reveal that police in the province do not
typically use program referrals as an extra-judicial measure because they have little to no ability to
do so without going through the Crown/prosecutor (which is a more aggressive measure that can
result in charges being laid). Indeed, this lack of resources was repeatedly cited by police officers as a
significant issue with which they must contend. ‘Unfortunately resource issues dictate how we police
our youths,’ one officer noted, ‘and in my current posting there is no EJM [extra-judicial measure].’
Another stated, ‘Diverting youth to an alternative measures program is hit and miss depending [on] if
there is a program in your community.’ This officer also suggested that there ‘needs to be more commu-
nity programs in effect for dealing with youth, such as addictions treatment centers’ and that ‘mental
health programs need to be more accessible.’ These officers suggest that without diversion-oriented
programs police can access, many officers have few options beyond doing nothing, laying charges or
seeking resources on their own initiative.
In explaining why the province lacked available programs for police officers to use, several respond-
ents cited the rural nature of much of the province as a key factor. As one individual explained:
I have been involved with the YCJA since its introduction. I believe it to offer great options for police officers
when dealing with youth. The problems encountered have to do with the lack of EJMs and resources in the
various regions of our province. In urban areas, referrals and resources are plenty. Often in isolated areas it is
very difficult to utilize EJM as an option.
This officer provides insight into the difficulties of implementing programming in rural areas in
contrast to more populous spaces, where it can sometimes be easier to fund programs through local
funding. Rural communities, in contrast, are less likely to be able to afford and maintain area pro-
grams. This fact was brought into sharp relief by the following example provided by an officer in a
rural detachment:
There is not enough funding for youth in this province. In our area there is a youth center that keeps kids off
the streets that is struggling to stay open. The town council has asked the [police service provider] if there is any
way they could help (maybe a police/youth fund) but there is not.
Here, the officer reveals that the agency of law enforcement itself lacks the funds to support programs,
despite their need. Moreover, resource issues cited by police officers in relation to youth policing are
not isolated to the problem of program referrals under the YCJA. Police here generally felt they lacked
the ability to either respond effectively to youth crime or to prevent it. ‘Our biggest overall police issue,’
one officer stated, ‘which in turn affects how much we can be involved with youth and other activities,
is the lack of resources, technology, and number of police officers in this province compared to the rest
of the country.’ This individual then added, that the province ‘is considerably behind in its methods and
funds delegated to police and crime prevention.’ Another observed: ‘The biggest obstacle to effective
police-youth relations and providing a service to youth is that the [police agency] in this division are
under resourced.’ One officer put the matter even more succinctly: ‘We are stretched too thin now.’

Discussion
A primary objective of the introduction of the YCJA was to encourage criminal justice actors, includ-
ing police, to use all resources available to promote rehabilitation by addressing external causes of
608  R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

criminality. Yet, our findings suggest that knowledge of these objectives do not affect what officers say
they are doing (i.e., decision-making) at a statistically significant level. Although the impetus for the
study was to assess the influence of the YCJA principles of diversion and community involvement on
police officer decision-making, results indicate that formal national legislation and policy is a poor
determinant of police officer action, at least in the province under study. Despite the fact that our
statistical analyses resulted in null results, such findings are valuable in that they reveal how knowl-
edge of the YCJA, knowledge of diversion procedures, and the YCJA’s application in practice are poor
predictors of officers’ likelihood to use specific extrajudicial measures. Results reveal that each of these
variables poorly predicts officers reported decision-making about using extrajudicial measures and
when to lay a formal charge. Said another way, an officer’s reported knowledge of the YCJA seems not
to be reflected in their actions.
Further, the selective, rather than comprehensive, implementation of the YCJA appears tied to the
strained ability of officers to apply their knowledge of the Act in their decision-making. If the goal of
current Canadian youth policing legislation is to decrease the number of youth formally charged and to
increase the systematic and organized use of alternative diversion methods, then understanding factors
influencing police decision-making is vital to ensure that police make decisions that support legislative
principles and objectives. As such, training recruits may be better served if it directly accounts for the
variation of YCJA implementation in different provinces. Indeed, the principles of the YCJA should
indirectly inform police behaviour by emphasizing the use of specific diversion processes and policing
mechanisms – a fact well coupled if training in provided on what effective practices may entail when
resources and programs do not exist to formally support the overarching policy. Indeed, overarching
legislation and policy may not directly impact the daily duties of front-line officers but can still shape
practice to be informed in the spirit of the legislation. Thus, training resources should be devoted to
practical instruction as related to situational-specific variables that impact police behaviour.
The limited implementation of the YCJA may in part be due to the scarcity of available material
and human resources in some provinces. Officers noted they were ‘stretched too thin,’ and we have
observed that staffing levels in rural detachments are low considering the sizeable territories each
detachment is responsible to patrol (detachment patrol boundaries can range from one to two hours
from point to point). Such resource limitations hinder policing effectiveness in terms of what officers
can do within their time on duty. As such, active involvement in the community becomes incredibly
difficult for officers who are often unable to develop or maintain the professional relationships with
community organizations or members that are required if referral programs (an extrajudicial measure)
are to be created and formalized. Indeed, officers clearly identify a lacuna in youth treatment and pro-
gramming needs that limits their options to simply doing nothing or referring the youth to the Crown
where limited programming is available. Moreover, there are recognized difficulties in implementing
programming in rural areas, where unlike in urban centres where program use can be maximized by
the larger population located in a smaller space, in rural areas more centers and more resources are
needed to implement programs that serve much fewer people. Perhaps this reality also makes such
program expenditures harder to justify for any provincial government when creating a budget, yet this
also makes it difficult for officers to assist in facilitating processes of youth rehabilitation. Addressing
resource limitations, including perhaps redirecting resources toward the implementation of community
referrals, and helping to develop formalized community relationships may then benefit both officers
and youth; reducing officer caseloads and helping youth learn both social accountability and the value
of youth community engagement.
We are not suggesting, as other researchers note, that this province is an anomaly; it too has expe-
rienced a decrease in the numbers of youth processed through the courts and subsequently incarcer-
ated (Bala et al., 2009; Carrington & Schulenberg, 2008; Schulenberg, 2010). It should be recognized,
however, as found by Schulenberg (2010), that police action is heavily dependent on geographical
considerations and type of community (e.g., rural communities vs. urban centres) and, as put forth
by Lithopolous and Ruddell (2011), that policing isolated Aboriginal communities requires police
to take on more social service roles. These factors both have an impact in any province shaped by
 POLICE PRACTICE AND RESEARCH  609

many isolated communities, small detachments with few officers, large geographical jurisdictions
and limited community services, thus supporting any evaluations of the YCJA’s success need to be
provincially specific.
Policy must first be developed that explicitly addresses aspects of the YCJA that are currently lack-
ing. Specifically, community-based programs and formalized referral processes must be put in place
before further evaluations of the YCJA and its success can be done. Furthermore, beyond program
referrals, the nature of the offence and other external factors may better predict an officer’s likelihood
of laying a charge. Future researchers may wish to look to how program referral in the community may
be affected by longer employment tenure perhaps suggesting that experience and possible informal
connections within the community are imperative. Indeed, experience and community relationships
through longer employment may assist with building community connections, as experienced officers
may be optimal candidates to spearhead any movement toward implementing community referrals
programs as measures for police to use – as mandated under the YCJA. The formalization of programs
would likely positively impact newer officers’ abilities to use referral processes. Our assertion here is that
the utilization of diversion methods, like referrals to community-based programs in order to facilitate
rehabilitation, can only be used when they exist formally. Furthermore, the improvement of practice,
in relation to the YCJA, is to an extent contingent on provision of resources for the development of
program infrastructure so that police have the tools for diversion through extrajudicial measures.

Conclusion
The YCJA, again, outlines the intent and application of extrajudicial measures and sanctions across
Canada, the National RCMP Operations Manual states officers must consult with community partners
to determine available community programs for young people as an extrajudicial measure and assess
the appropriateness of the program in light of the youth’s offense. It specifically states that these meas-
ures must be considered first and foremost.4 The problem remains that such extrajudicial measures
require community programs to exist and function in partnerships with the police if they are to serve
as extrajudicial measures. However, this may be hampered when there is ambiguity about the YCJA’s
implementation and such programs and partnerships, which require the support of diverse govern-
ment ministries beyond the RCMP alone to best serve the population. The ability, then, of members
to develop formal community partnerships and the necessary programs to allow for youth referrals
prior to laying formal charges – again a consequence of rural-ness and resources limitations – is
hindered. In this sense, being knowledgeable of the YCJA for officers has a different connotation in
provinces that offer more variation, including program referrals pre-court, in extrajudicial measures
(e.g., British Columbia) vs. more rural provinces with less resources.
Analysis revealed that reported knowledge of the YCJA is not a sufficient predictor of whether or not
an officer will report using the diversion methods outlined by the Act. Given the YCJA is not wholly
implemented in all provinces, our findings support the assertion that officer knowledge of YCJA policies
and procedures does little to influence their decision-making in practice. Although the YCJA is federal
legislation and, thus, applies across the country, not all provinces fully impose referral processes and
the community programs necessary to successfully facilitate youth rehabilitation as mandated under
the Act. The results of the present study provide evidence to suggest that reported knowledge of the
YCJA and its application was found to be insignificant in relation to officers’ decisions about when to
use specific extrajudicial measures. Most tellingly, officers note the lack of resources available to apply
YCJA principles in day-to-day policing practice.

Notes
1. 
All research was conducted in accordance with both University and Tri-Council guidelines, thus all participation
was voluntary and anonymous.
610  R. RICCIARDELLI ET AL.

2. 
Initial nested model series included the variables of education, member rank and years of experience. This
variables consistently yielded no significant results and thus they were removed from the models.
3. 
We predicted the likelihood of a ‘never’ response by level of knowledge about diversion processes while holding
all other variables at their mean.
4. 
Recognizing the limitations of our current study, we suggest researchers employ more specific measures of
officer use (or ‘misuse’) of the YCJA, with a specific rural vs. urban comparison in police practice. Such a study
would help tease out, in rural areas as well as urban, when, why, and with whom police are more likely to use
EJMs with (i.e., male youth or those from higher SES).

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Rose Ricciardelli is an Associate Professor at Memorial University and an Associate Director of the Canadian Institute
of Public Safety Research and Treatment (CIPSRT). Her research interests include evolving conceptualizations of mas-
culinity, and experiences and issues within different facets of the criminal justice system. She studies risk perception,
trauma, vulnerabilities, and lived experiences of prisoners, correctional officers and police officers.
Hayley Crichton, M.A. is in her third year of the PhD program in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University.
Her current area of focus is policing in Canadian, Northern and remote communities of Labrador.
Liam Swiss is Associate Professor of Sociology at Memorial University in St. John’s, Canada. His research examines the
role of foreign aid in international norm diffusion, violence against aid workers, the politics of Canadian aid policy, and
the causes and effects of women’s political representation in the Global South. His research has appeared in journals
such as the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Social Science Research, and World Development.
Dale C. Spencer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies at Carleton University, Ottawa.
His main interests are violence, victimization and the criminalization of marginalized populations, with a specific focus
on the homeless and young people. His current research focuses on police response to sexual victimization.
Michael Adorjan is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Calgary, and fellow with
the Centre for Criminology, University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on youth crime and cyber-risk, fear of
crime, and perceptions of police. He is currently a Principal Investigator on a SSHRC funded project examining youth
and cyber-risk in Canada.

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