The Youth Criminal Justice Act — a law Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised to scrap during the election campaign — is successfully meeting its goals in Alberta, according to a recently released report.

The report, put out by the University of Calgary’s Canadian Research Institute for Law and the Family (CRILF), says the reported rate of youth crime in Alberta has gone down since the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) came into effect in 2003, replacing the Young Offenders Act. According to the report, the number of Albertans aged 12 to 17 charged with offences declined by 27 per cent between 2001 and 2006. “The research indicates that to a great extent, the act’s accomplishing what it was supposed to,” says CRILF executive director Joseph Hornick.

Hornick says that while violent crimes committed by youth have increased nationally during the same period, that rate has gone down seven per cent in Alberta. “It certainly suggests that in Alberta, at least the diversion part of the act — which moves kids out of the criminal justice system — is working quite well,” he says, adding that many young offenders who participate in community programs in Calgary are being successfully rehabilitated.

However, Alberta police and probation officers surveyed for the study said there’s a resource shortage in the youth criminal justice system — including a staff shortage on the police, court and probation levels. Those surveyed also expressed concern about chronic and serious offenders. “They’re difficult to deal with,” says Hornick. “They’re raised in dysfunctional families, often in and out of foster care. Most of them have some sort of addiction — alcohol and/or drugs — and about 75 per cent of that group also have mental health diagnoses.” Many of these teenagers have upwards of 30 convictions by the time they’re 16.

Hornick says this small group is responsible for a disproportionate number of crimes. “We think probably the best long-term solution is identifying their issues earlier and having them attend programs and counselling and so on,” he says.

On the whole, the report paints an optimistic picture of youth justice in Alberta. The City of Calgary is the only municipality in the country that delivers youth probation services, and partly because of this, the city “appears to be positioned to successfully accomplish the objectives of the YCJA,” according to the report.

During the federal election campaign, Harper promised to eliminate the YCJA and replace it with a new law that would deal out harsher sentences and allow violent young offenders to be named publicly.