Comparison of Case Processing Under the Young Offenders Act and the First Six Months of the Youth Criminal Justice Act

**Table 16: Factors Affecting Guilty Finding Cases, before and after the YCJA: Regression Coefficients and Significance of Individual Factors, by Court Location (excluding Vancouver/Surrey)(Part 1)**
	Halifax		Toronto & Scarborough		Winnipeg		Edmonton		Total*
	YOA sample	YCJA sample	YOA sample	YCJA sample	YOA sample	YCJA sample	YOA sample	YCJA sample	YOA sample	YCJA sample
	Dependent variable = no finding of guilt on any charge vs. finding of guilt on one or more charge Regression coefficients (standardized betas) and the degree of significance (p values)
Not guilty plea made (defined as trial date scheduled)	-0.20***	-0.22**	-0.02	-0.07	-0.01	-0.08	-0.22***	0.02	-0.09***	-0.09*
1+ prior conviction	0.02	0.09	0.17***	0.17*	0.05	0.15*	0.09	0.17*	0.09***	0.17***
Number of current charges	0.28***	0.20*	0.28***	0.37***	0.37***	0.26***	0.34***	0.50***	0.30***	0.36***
1+ indictable person charge			0.06	0.10	-0.10*	0.05	0.05	-0.06	0.01	0.01
1+ indictable property charge	-0.01	-0.08	-0.02	-0.04	0.02	0.07	-0.02	0.07	-0.01	0.02
1+ indictable drugs/weapons									0.03	-0.02
1+ hybrid person charge	-0.01	-0.16	-0.10	0.08	-0.13*	0.05	0.06	-0.02	-0.03	-0.04
1+ hybrid property charge	0.05	0.05	-0.04	0.00	0.11	-0.07	0.08	-0.09	0.08*	-0.02
1+ hybrid drugs/weapons	0.02	-0.09	0.01	-0.11	0.06	-0.16*	0.01	0.02	0.03	-0.10**
1+ other charge (victimless)									0.01	-0.01
1+ breach of probation charge	0.00	-0.04			0.09	-0.01	-0.01	-0.10	0.04	-0.02
1+ bail charge	0.07	0.04			-0.09	-0.08	-0.10	-0.21*	-0.01	-0.08
Number of adjudicated cases	320	127	384	170	357	194	365	190	1425	680

Notes:

This analysis includes all YCJA data collected by the six months monitoring study; the totals exclude Vancouver/Surrey.
Linear regression was used; similar findings were apparent using logistic regression.
* p<.05; ** p<.01; *** p<.001
blank cell = the factor was not included in the model because preliminary analysis showed that it was not related to guilty finding cases when other factors were controlled.
The minus sign before the beta coefficient means that the relationship between the independent and dependent variables was negative (inverse relationship). For example, in Halifax and elsewhere, if there was no not guilty plea, then the young person had a greater likelihood of being found guilty on at least one charge.

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