Burnaby lawyer talks about youth crime

Photo courtesy of Ann Pollak

Ann H. Pollak is a barrister and solicitor in Burnaby. She kindly took a few minutes to share her opinion on the following questions about youth justice.

1. How do Burnaby youth find themselves in court? 

I'm not a sociologist or criminologist, so these comments reflect my

experience, and are not an authoritative opinion. Youth get into

trouble when they make bad decisions.  Their thinking is immature

because they have experienced a lot of personal stress, and because

they don't have much confidence. Some young people are resilient to

stress because they have had opportunities to experience

accomplishment in other ways.  Different things make life hard—

family conflict, poverty, mental illness and addiction in the family.

It's not always easy to see, in what might otherwise look like a good

home. Along comes the classic bad peer group, and a young person is

doing dumb things for the wrong reasons. They drive the family car

while their so-called friends are selling pot from the back seat. Or

they carry a pocket knife, and say stupid things that might have

sounded clever or tough in a screenplay, but in real life they are

frightening and amount to criminal threats.

2. What kinds of things are they in front of a judge for?

Theft, drugs, assaults.  The justice system can be a mill that

generates offences for breaching the court process because a young

person is so badly organised or otherwise ill equipped to comply with

court-imposed conditions or to engage in a helpful way in his or her

own rehabilitation. That becomes another stress that further erodes

the young person's capacity to make good decisions.

3. What is the main misconception about criminal law that you encounter? 

People think a youth record is no big deal and that young people get

away with too much. A youth record doesn't simply disappear when you

hit 18. There are circumstances in which it can be used against you,

and of course the police always know about it, and it affects the way

they treat you when you have a police encounter. That's part of the

purpose of keeping the records.

Young people with criminal convictions didn't get away with anything.

Think about how long summer vacation was when you were a kid. Now

imagine spending three of those vacations back-to-back in jail, while

the rest of your friends stayed in school, went to dances, and sent

zillions of text messages to each other. That's six months of youth

custody —don't forget to add in the fights, the bullying, the lack of

privacy, the absence of nurturing family, and all your new "friends"

behind the walls.

Some people think tough love is what's needed. I understand tough

love, in the same way I understand that sometimes mountaineers need to

cut the rope that sends their climbing partner plummeting into a

crevasse. Sometimes you just have to save yourself. I get that. But

don't delude yourself by thinking you are doing anything therapeutic

or beneficial for a young person in trouble by cutting that rope.

Ann Pollak practices law in Burnaby.


What do you think Burnaby? Do young people have it tough enough in our court system? Let me know your thoughts on this.