The Young Offenders Act (YOA; French: Loi sur les jeunes contrevenants) was an act of the Parliament of Canada, granted Royal Assent in 1982 and proclaimed in force on April 2, 1984, that regulated the criminal prosecution of Canadian youths.
Many felt that the Act's limit on a three-year detention sentence for youths was overly lax, and allowed youths to get unreasonably light sentences for murder or sexual assault.
Critics contended that this was too harsh, as it made youths possible victims of life sentences.
The Act also drew much criticism from the public for not charging young offenders under the age of 12 years, and for banning publication of the identities of youths who commit criminal acts, contending that the number of violent crimes committed by youths has dramatically increased, as has the number of repeat young offenders, since the act was passed.
[1] The demands by the Canadian public for changes for the better in dealing with youth crime, particularly in the wake of the beating and attempted murder in 1999 of then-15-year-old Jonathan Wambach in Newmarket, Ontario, by a gang of teenagers,[2] led to the introduction of the Youth Criminal Justice Act to replace the Young Offenders Act in 2003.