Consider, for a moment just how many young people experiencing adolescence might have this profile.

Rather than adopt a "zero violence" approach, zero-tolerance policies have resulted in ever increasing numbers of disenfranchised youth being jettisoned out of schools and communities, usually through, rather than into, a thinning social safety net. Rather than nurturing our youth, we are increasingly scapegoating and disposing of them as though they are expendable human refuse. Statistics reveal that there has been an overall reduction in youth crime generally, as well as a relatively low incidence of violent and repeat youth crime more specifically.

These figures notwithstanding, police, reporters, and communities continue to blame the youth justice system, especially the YOA, for crime, quickly and too easily criminalize the behaviour of young people, and throw them to the wide, expensive, and ineffective net of the juvenile justice system.

Young people are best served by supportive and proactive interventions, as opposed to the punitive and reactive approaches characterized by, and endemic to, criminal justice responses. Indeed, there is more than sufficient evidence that preventative approaches to crime are far more cost-effective than current criminal justice approaches. Accordingly, we should focus on developing and enhancing high quality supportive services for children, youth, and adults alike-from universal and enriched health care, child care, and educational opportunities to effective gender, anti-poverty, anti-racism, and conflict-resolution programs. Recognizing the current stresses of fiscal restraint and downsizing, schools might redirect efforts to consolidating creative energies and encouraging an empowered student body to provide peer and mentoring support, for example.

Professional training on the developmental, educational, as well as psycho-social attributes of young people should be a prerequisite for those working in the youth justice system. In addition, the high number of young offenders who have been abused must be recognized and reflected in the professional training of those who come in contact with young offenders. It has been reported that at least 50 per cent of the youth serving time in British Columbia had previously been sexually abused. In addition, even higher percentages have been reported in Alberta and Manitoba studies. Similarly, a 1994 Ontario study conducted by Margaret Shaw revealed that of the young women in custody, 63 per cent had been physically abused and 58 per cent had been sexually abused. Given these statistics, it seems obvious that specialized training for dealing with abuse victims is crucial.

In order to ensure significant short- and longterm change, proactive education and training programs are required for judges, lawyers, probation officers, police officers, and all other youth justice personnel. The reorientation of those involved with young people is a prerequisite component to the development of positive and effective change within the youth justice and all other youth-serving systems. And young people themselves, as well as front-line workers, should be involved in the development of professional training, as well as in services and programs designed to address the needs of youth.

Providing supportive and empowering services to young people at the time of their first contact with the youth justice system generally reduces the likelihood of future "criminal" involvement. Nevertheless, these services should not exist only within the youth justice system because that would result in criminalizing youth who are simply in need of some supportive services. Preventative and proactive approaches must be emphasized within the child welfare, educational, medical, and mental health systems as well.