London police Insp. Dave Lucio said the findings on youth crime over the past decade reflect life in London. Statistics Canada says two-thirds of the youths charged with crimes are convicted, but only 16 per cent go to detention centres. Two-thirds of convicted youths are put on probation. One-fifth of all youth violence occurs in schools, often in public areas such as parking lots or schoolyards, the report says.
Most victims are other youths, usually boys.
That's pretty consistent with what we've seen over the past few years,'' said Lucio. He, too, says zero tolerance to crime in schools is a big factor. London police have charged 213 youths this year. Rady and two other defence lawyers who often represent youths said they don't read much into the statistics. Dobson said interpretation of the crime statistics is difficult.