After a long pause, ex-“juvie” and con Luke Uteck exhaled a plume of smoke before blowing off his uncomfortable past.

“I don’t like to talk about it, but I hope that rates going down means less kids will end up like I did.”

By “rates”, he’s referring to Atlantic Canada’s five-year streak for holding the nation’s highest number of incidents and charges under the Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). The Maritime record far outpaced all data to the west. Newfoundland’s 2014 figures alone were double that of all other provinces’ data, combined.

The good news While all this may sound alarming, there is still hope for the Maritime’s. Despite it’s monstrous figures, Atlantic youth crime rates and charges have actually been declining over that same five-year period.  

Fewer young offenders in Nova Scotia were charged under the criminal code between 2010 and 2014, including for violent and property crime-related charges.

The drop – a factor of 69 per cent since 2012 – in the daily average number of juvenile offenders in custody at the province’s youth correctional facilities is what’s most visceral for Uteck.

“It seems pointless to think back on how things could have been different,” he said dismissively. But his voice was tight. Uteck’s time in detention isn’t something he speaks about freely. But he did say he’s convinced the experience directly contributed to the assault that made him an adult offender only a few months later. Ironically as I sat there, it had happened over a bummed cigarette. “I was in a dark place. But I hope things can be different for kids today if they can find some support.” Youth programs Kathryn Khan, the manager of child and youth settlement programs at the YMCA, said “interacting with youth on a daily basis and developing trust” is key to getting young people engaged in their communities and free from crime. There are many different societal factors that can help to depress the youth crime rate:

• Lower daily average numbers of juveniles in detention centres may be influenced by the YCJA’s provisions for “extrajudicial measures”, which advocate for lighter sentencing when appropriate.

• “Our Kids are Worth it”, Nova Scotia’s strategy for children and youth, identifies prevention and reduction as key points to lowering youth crime rates and supporting young people at risk of offending and reoffending.

• Between August 2010 and January 2014, the National Crime Prevention Centre (NCPC) implemented their “Youth Inclusion Program” (YIP) across Atlantic Canada, with Nova Scotia sites in Spryfield and North Sydney.
  
  The NCPC launched YIP with the intention of reducing youth crime through educational and community-based means. Although reported improvement rates – some as high as 95 per cent – were very promising, the NCPC says the data is incomplete.