| Canadian youth justice legislation identifies an offender's age and state of maturity to be important factors in determining how to deal with a young person who has violated the law. This study explores whether varying constructions of the age or maturity of a young offender affects sentencing preferences and ratings of the youth's character. 506 respondents on Ontario, Canada were provided with a hypothetical case scenario about a young offender involved in a minor offence. Randomly assigned groups were provided extra pieces of information which constructed the youth on a continuum of more 'youthful' to more 'adult-like'. Results indicate that the construction of apparent maturity did not affect public ratings but rather, the most significant relationship was the effect of more information about the youth's context on ratings by the public. |
Updated 05/20/2006