cover image: Bringing Information to Prosecutors and Courts on the Impact of

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Bringing Information to Prosecutors and Courts on the Impact of

22 Jul 2023

2 Bringing Child Impact Information to the Court of the Canadian jurisprudential evidence demonstrates that where a court has received information on the offender’s parental status, only some of the short-term effects on the children have been specifically mentioned in the reasons for sentence, and in some instances, were deemed by the judge as insufficient to warrant special conditions that might. [...] 33 For victim impact statements, see subsection 722(1) of the Criminal Code, stating: “When determining the sentence to be imposed on an offender or determining whether the offender should be discharged… the court shall consider a statement of a victim prepared in accordance with this section and filed with the court describing… the impact of the offence on the victim.” Likewise, for community imp. [...] Sarah Beresford, on the development of a child impact assessment framework to identify how children of mothers involved in the criminal justice system are feeling and how to best support them at all stages of the process.39 For the remand and sentencing phase, the assessment contains a short set of child- friendly questions to understand the child’s needs, as well as some accompanying notes on how. [...] 48 In particular, such circumstances include: (a) that the parent is breastfeeding the child; (b) the age of the child, with strong consideration given to avoid disruption of the caregiving of an infant, pre-school, or school-age child by a parent; (c) the role of the parent in the day-to-day educational and medical needs of the child; (d) the relationship of the parent and the child; (e) any spec. [...] The Act further states: “[u]nless the court finds that the parent poses a significant risk to the community that outweighs the risk of harm from the parent’s removal from the family, the court shall impost a sentence… that allows that parent to continue to care for the child or children.” 49 An Act Concerning Family Impact Statements, 2014.

Authors

Jessica Jahn

Pages
25
Published in
Canada