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JustResearch no. 12
WELCOME
In this issue of JustResearch, we are pleased to focus on the theme: Justice and the Canadian Family . Family is an important but sometimes difficult construct to incorporate into analysis. Families are evolving, their very nature is one that changes as children mature and leave home to take on independent lives. The importance of family in society is less based on the structure of that family than the role it plays in the lives of children and adults, in transferring generational information, nurturing the young, caring for the elderly, supporting each other in emotional, economic and pragmatic ways. Families continue to be important, but they do not continue to be the same.
Families typically encounter the justice system during moments of crisis, such as divorce, changes in parental responsibilities (e.g., child support, custody and access), or the arrest of a young person for criminal behaviour. While preventative measures are laudable and realistic, the truth is that such crises will nonetheless occur in many Canadian families. The justice system, therefore, needs to be fair, accessible and efficient in order to reduce the strain, as much as possible, on families.
In this issue of JustResearch, some of the major policy research questions in the area of 'Justice and the Canadian Family' are explored. Kelly Morton-Bourgon and Dr. Guy Bourgon examine the question of whether involving the family in the treatment of adolescent sexual offenders has an impact on treatment effectiveness. Dr. Cherami Wichmann presents a statistical profile of today's Canadian family using the most recent available data. Catherine Thomson provides an overview of recent research sponsored by the Department of Justice Canada on family transitions using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. Jeff Latimer takes a critical look at Multisystemic Therapy a response to serious youth delinquency that broadens the focus beyond the young person to the family as a whole. Marie Gannon and Karen Mihorean provide one of the first direct comparisons of sentencing outcomes between family violence convictions and other violent convictions in Canadian adult courts. Finally, Rick Gill and Dr. Cherami Wichman provide a brief summary of their recent work into shared parenting arrangements.
As always, we are pleased to include information on current and upcoming research from the Research and Statistics Division.
If you are interested in submitting an article for a future issue of JustResearch, please refer to our Submission Guidelines for Prospective Authors, which also contains information on upcoming Themes.
Enjoy!
