Youth Homelessness and Offending

From September 2004-January 2005, ICPC was extremely happy to host Mr John Minkes, a visiting scholar in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Wales Swansea . John has experience as a probation officer and social worker and as a lecturer for the Open University and for the University of Wales Cardiff .  His research interests include youth justice, corporate crime and probation history.  During his term with ICPC, he conducted research on youth homelessness and offending, and included below is an article submitted by John detailing this experience, and highlighting his work in this area.

From September last year until the first week of January, I took advantage of study leave from teaching criminology at the University of Wales, Swansea, UK, to spend four months as Scholar in Residence at the ICPC. The main focus of my research was on the links between youth homelessness and offending and more specifically, the responses of youth justice agencies to homelessness amongst their clients. I also took the opportunity to make comparisons between the youth justice systems in Canada and England and Wales in a time of major change for both, and to learn more about the work of ICPC. I completed a wide-ranging literature review and interviewed practitioners and policy officers in Montreal and across Canada (the latter mainly by e-mail and telephone) and back home in Wales.

Youth homelessness is recognised as a social problem in many countries but relatively few criminologists have studied the links between offending and accommodation problems; nor, generally, has the development of accommodation strategies for homeless young offenders been seen as a policy priority.

Introducing a New Toolkit: The Key to Safer Municipalities

This new toolkit produced by the Fondation Philipe Pinel, with the technical assistance of the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime, and funded by the National Crime Prevention Strategy, Canada has been developed to assist municipalities in the development of public safety. It draws on over twenty years of expertise and experience in the field of crime prevention in Canada and in other countries.

The toolkit highlights the growing recognition by various levels of government of the importance of local action on public safety and crime prevention. It also highlights the growing expertise of municipalities and their partners in the development and implementation of targeted strategies and measures to reduce and prevent crime, violence, and insecurity. A number of examples are included throughout which illustrate the diversity and potential of initiatives undertaken by municipalities.