The YOA the Young Offenders Act, which replaced the 75 years old Juvenile Delinquents Act in 1984, came into effect because since the courts where acting in the best interest of the children, little attention was paid to the rights of the children (Dickinson et al, 1996: 403). This had to be changed because of the new Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom which was passed in 1982 stated that in section 15 that "equality before the law without discrimination based on age "(Dickinson and others, 1996:744). Th

A change is the provincial government's new Violence-free School Policy that came in effect in June of 1994. It is that when a child behaves poorly in school his record will follow him/her if we move from one school to another telling the principals about past behaviour of new students. The record will be kept in the office for at least three years. The reason for all this is that "Students must realise their actions will have consequences " said the Former education and training minister David Cooke and he went on to say "This is what we mean by zero tolerance". Another change is that if a report of a violent incident involving a student that is 12 or older, it must be reported to the police. The board is also required to keep track of all incidents and send the results to the education ministry on a yearly basis. This example of what the province of Ontario is doing to crack down on Young Offenders in the school system (Daly, 1994:A13).

Since 1995, a year after the YOA came into effect; all areas of offences have increased. This would included all persons ages 17 and under or less charged with an offence that was dealt with informally by the police. The total of all offence in 1985 was at 188,958 and by the year 1989 it had jumped to 225, 766 so an increase of 36,808 in just 4 years. A big suprise was in the rise in numbers of the Drug offence. In 1985, it was at 4,290 and in 1986 it jumped up to 4,767, but by the year 1989 it was at 4,253. In that 5 year period it decreased by 43 but at least it is a start in one area (Ruffo, 4,1994). But it is not really young people committing the crimes because a Canadian centre for judicial statistics stated that 16 and 17 year olds commit most of the crimes. For example in 1992-1994 there were 42 murders and 25 of them or 60 percent were committed by 16 and 17 years old. Another good example is aggravated assault, which in the same year 311 were committed but 16 and 17 year olds committed 212, which was 68% of them. Another fact was that 50% of youths, 16 and 17 year olds that were charged, had pervious criminal histories, compared with the 14 and 15 yeas old with 42%, and the 12 and 13 years old with 25%. These states show that children as they grow could be repeat offenders. In 1992, 12 to 17 year olds who represent 7.5% of the population (< biblio >) committed 30 % of the crimes. Just to add to all this in a survey in the Ottawa area, showed that 21 percent of students carried weapons in school (Wilson-Smtih, 15: 1994).

Why do kids commit crime, they are many answers but are there any correct answers

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Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)