Two solitudes or just one? - Provincial differences in youth court judges and the operation of youth courts

It has often been recognized that Quebec has a different approach to youth justice from that which exists in the rest of Canada. The largest difference, however, appears to be in the rate of bringing cases into youth court. Once a case arrives in youth court, inter-provincial variation in the manner in which the case is handled diminishes. When asked, judges in Quebec are more likely than judges in other provinces to report that youths benefit from the youth court experience and that few cases could be dealt with adequately outside of the youth justice system. However, these differences appear to be accounted for by the perceived adequacy of the administration of the Young Offenders Act and not by more basic differences in the penal philosophies of the two sets of judges.