Our main point of comparison here is the United States. In a number of their jurisdictions they allow for wide-ranging publicity about young people.
Again, it satisfies certain public instincts to say that these young people, if we knew who they were, would be more likely to be accountable and less likely to offend, and we could take measures to protect ourselves if we knew they were back in the community.
The experience in the United States and I think elsewhere is very clearly that young people are not deterred by publicity. In fact, one of the things that happen is that if they get in the newspaper, a 15-year-old kid will hold up the newspaper to all his buddies and say, “See? I'm the tough guy.” They're not deterred by that.
I mean, a politician might be embarrassed if their name is in the newspaper in conjunction with a crime. A young person, unfortunately, is not. But once they're identified, their rehabilitation, and particularly their reintegration into society, will become much more difficult. It also, by the way, is difficult for their family, their siblings, and so on if they're identified.
So identifying them doesn't deter their conduct. It just makes their rehabilitation more difficult.
Also, if one thinks about, “Well, if it's a serious offence, if people knew who they were, then they could take steps to protect themselves”, the unfortunate reality....
There are, by the way, provisions right now that in the most serious cases, with the order of a youth court judge, it is possible to have identifying publicity if the judge is satisfied that there's a serious risk to the community. That's a very different kind of standard, though, from what's being proposed in this legislation.