Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for being here today and sharing your views with us.
On the point my honourable friend was just raising, I think we also heard—if my memory serves me correctly—from a number of witnesses, especially police officers but also from others, that a number of organized crime organizations such as gangs actively recruit young people. They do this specifically because they know there's a different regime for young offenders and that they will get lighter sentences. There have been many cases of young offenders who have said they wanted to experience this type of offence, and they knew if they did it before they turned a certain age, they'd get a lighter sentence. So I think there's a range of views on that.
Specifically, Professor Croisdale, I wanted to refer to the paper you co-authored entitled "Persistent Criminality and Career Lengths”, which I believe was published in January 2007 in a publication known as Crime & Delinquency. You mentioned in that that some of the data you reviewed, and other studies that have been done to which you referred, showed that criminal behaviour as measured by arrests was found to increase dramatically prior to sanctions and was found to be considerably lower after incarceration than before incarceration.
I wonder if you could explain that a little more fully for us and tell us what your view is on the impact of longer incarceration terms on persistent offenders.