Youth Criminal Justice Act

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA, in French Loi sur le système de justice pénale pour les adolescents) is a Canadian statute, which came into effect on April 1, 2003. It covers the prosecution of youths for criminal offences. The YCJA replaced the Young Offenders Act, which was a replacement for the Juvenile Delinquents Act. The YCJA governs that has the application of criminal and correctional law to those 12 and older but younger than 18 at the time of committing the offence (Section 2 of the YCJA). The Criminal Code of Canada, section 13, states "No person shall be convicted of an offence in respect of an act or omission on his or her part while that person was under the age of twelve years." The preamble of the YCJA recognizes that youth have rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Canadian Bill of Rights and the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child.