OPINION Giving priority to youth mental health

2000 to 2021, there has been a constant downward trend in youth crime from the age of 12 to 17.

“From the '90s, it's been fairly flat with maybe a slight decline,” said Tyler Frederick, a criminology professor at Ontario Tech University.

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The lack of mental health support and care for youth in Toronto may be a contributing factor to the recent rise in young offenders.

News headlines in Toronto show that people involved in criminal activity are getting younger. Multiple incidents were caused by perpetrators as young as 13 years old.

The youth crime severity index for Canada indicates that from

“But it does bounce around. So what I think that tells us is there are these periods where we might see some spikes or high-profile events. We might be in one of those moments right now,” he said.

Frederick received his PhD from the University of Toronto in sociology with a focus on crime and deviance. His research focuses on youth crime and mental health.

Statistics Canada indicates that while youth-related crime overall dropped three per cent in 2021, the violent youth crime category increased by six per cent in the same time period.

The sudden increase in youth offenders sparked the question of why this is even occurring.

According to the Canadian

Mental Health Association (CAMH), only one in five youths who need mental health services receive them. Greater emphasis on providing resources to youth from an early age could deter them from getting involved with the wrong crowd and engaging in violence. There is a group of young people considered at risk of engaging in violence and can be defined by early risk factors, Frederick said. He said they were people who started having trouble in school at a pretty young age, and already showing signs of potentially dangerous behaviour.

“Those folks, if they kind of don't get the supports they need, they're the ones that are going to become young offenders, potentially," Frederick said. "Then they're likely to be, if certain pathways sort of get set in motion, likely to become adult offenders as well."

Mental health care in Ontario is very underfunded, receiving only seven per cent of healthcare dollars, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) found.

Barriers such as underfunding and mental health not being a priority can make it difficult for youth to address their issues early on.

This could potentially prevent possible bad decisions and outcomes later in life.

“We need to get better at that early intervention. If I was thinking about what I would like to see change in society, I think it would be to really improve our school-based supports, even starting in primary education,” Frederick said