Fighting fire with fire: Why harsher punishments for young female offenders are not the answer

Douglas College and the New Westminster Museum collaborated to host the Tick-Talk: Crime and Consequences Student Conference, which featured criminology students' presentations on a variety of crime, justice, and social issues.
Adopting a fast-paced presentation format, students raised key issues and challenges, described personal experiences, and disseminated unique ideas in a public forum. Presentation topics included the right to legal representation, the over representation of Indigenous peoples in Canada’s criminal justice system, youth justice policy, and connections between mental health and criminal justice. The conference also included several discussion sessions that generated valuable dialogue among students, academics, practitioners, and members of the public.

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Crime committed by young women has been increasing over the past several decades and researchers have few answers as to why. What is known about female offenders is that the vast majority of young women entering the criminal justice system have experienced sexual, physical and drug abuse, and mental illness. Rachelle Younie discussed the use of non-profit after-school programs, including their role in decreasing crime rates and their cost-effectiveness, as well as the harms of prison environments, including worsening mental health, increasing gang involvement and removing youth from prosocial connections. Criminal behaviour is a product of a number of sociological, psychological and economic disadvantages. Young women need positive resources to repair the underlying issues that led to their criminality, not to be punished for their upbringings.