It's All in the Denominator: Trends in the Processing of Girls in Canada's Youth Courts.

This paper uses nine years of youth court data to understand two different trends: increases in the proportion of youth court cases (found guilty) involving girls and few changes in the rate of finding girls guilty in youth court. It appears that the increased proportion of cases involving girls (found guilty) is due more to a decrease in the rate of finding boys guilty than to an increase in finding girls guilty. Thus, in understanding trends in the use of youth court, explanations should explore why it is that the rates for girls are relatively stable whereas the rates for boys, for property offences in particular, are decreasing. An explanation that assumes that rates of offending (or apprehension, or imposition of guilty findings) are increasing for girls will not, we suggest, fit the existing data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]