What leads a young person to commit a violent crime?

Several crimes involving young delinquents have been highly publicized in recent weeks. We can think of the 14-year-old teenager who went to the hideout of a Hells Angels school club in Frampton armed with a machine gun, or of the accused in the fire in Old Montreal. The head of the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) and the Minister of Public Security were quick to decry the situation. But what leads a young person to commit a violent crime?

Tiago Murias is a criminal lawyer who has represented young offenders since 2012. He has also already represented the 14-year-old who died in Frampton in a previous case. He is therefore at the forefront of the changes that have been taking place in the underworld in recent years.

We often have the image that there are more juvenile delinquents, but when we look at the figures, we realize that there are not more delinquents. However, the crimes are more seriousnotes the lawyer.

According to him, the criminal trajectorythat is to say the progression of the type of crimes committed by young offenders, used to be gradual. Their first crimes may have been crimes of opportunity against property – think shoplifting or vandalism – before progressing to more violent crimes.

However, today, it is much more common to see young people who are in their first encounters with the law appearing for violent crimes, including discharge of firearms, he explains.

What’s more, Tiago Murias says that since he has been practicing law, six of his minor clients have died.

The lure of gain

Questioned by host Geneviève Garon on the show First the weekend info To understand what explains this phenomenon, Tiago Murias first cites the lure of profit. For an adult, 3000 dollars is a lot of money, imagine for a 14 year old child. And I say a child because for me, 14 years old, he’s a “kid”.

However, young people who want to obtain these sums do not always do so out of pure greed. The lawyer cites the case of one of his clients who was offered a small contract on Telegram for help your motherwho works two jobs to make ends meet.

These are young people who don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of what they are going to do.he continues, while adding that the young people he represents are also looking for a sense of belonging and success.

Earlier this week, the head of SPVM, Fady Dagher, implored the families of young delinquents to collaborate with the police. But in practice, Tiago Murias explains that it is not always easy for these parents.

Some of them defend their offspring at all costs, others simply do not have the resources to help them. Some parents are just overwhelmed, they just want help and unfortunately that help isn’t necessarily available when it’s needed.

Young people from immigrant backgrounds

Fady Dagher, born in Ivory Coast to Lebanese parents, and Tiago Murias, son of immigrants, say they are well aware of the dangers of racial or social profiling.

At Alain Gravel’s microphone, the two men explain that criminal groups target young people from disadvantaged neighborhoods which have a large proportion of immigrants to do their dirty work. Both speak of predation against vulnerable young people.

In the case of the young person recruited on Telegram to help his mother financially, this teenager had just arrived in Canada. According to statistics cited by Tiago Murias, taken from a study published in 2023 in the journal Criminologyno less than 93% of young criminals detained have an immigrant background.

It’s true that there is a danger of stigmatizing, but we must find a solutionhe says. We cannot abandon entire neighborhoods of Montreal because we say that its young people deserve less than others.

Tiago Murias also expresses the hypothesis that parents who have just arrived in Canada do not always know the social codes here. Some people have the habit of let young people play in the street in their country.

The criminal lawyer is of the opinion that certain parents could be met to explain to them more prosocial to occupy their children. But in these neighborhoods with often failing infrastructure, this can be a challenge, according to him.

Prevention

Unlike many police officers, the head of SPVM does not speak exclusively of repression. It also promotes prevention. This is also why he asked parents earlier this week to collaborate with the police. When someone knocks at your door, it’s not by chancehe specifies.

The police had also tried to arrest people around the young man who died in Frampton in mid-September.

Tiago Murias agrees. He is not opposed to the addition of police officers, but deplores that prevention has been neglected. At the same time as we are talking about adding police officers and toughening sentences, could we also put money in and reestablish programs that were repealed in the depths of crime?

He cites two programs that worked Alrightbut which were repealed in the Montreal region during a low point in the delinquency cycle in the 2010s.

The lawyer also believes that rehabilitating parks and other infrastructure in the neighborhoods inhabited by the young people he represents would have a positive effect, since his clients often complain that they have not nothing to do.

Toughen the sentences?

When the Minister of Public Security of Quebec, François Bonnardel, raises the possibility of lengthening prison sentences, Tiago Murias disagrees.

We have to stop with that, it’s a myth that has no scientific basis. All criminology studies show that the severity of sentences has absolutely no impact on the recidivism rate.

As for Fady Dagher, he is more nuanced. One of the accused in the fire in Old Montreal had just served a nine-month prison sentence for another story of arson and possession of a firearm. Fady Dagher therefore believes that the sentence was perhaps not dissuasive enough.

However, he is also aware that the imprisonment of certain members of organized crime don’t discourage them at all. These offenders would prepare even in prison for their next missions, he explains.

I think that all young people deserve our help shares Tiago Murias. I think the state has a moral obligation to help these young people, especially when they leave with less in life.

With information from D’abord l’info weekend, Les faits d’abord and Gabrielle Proulx