Insidious systems: a scoping review of Black youth and the criminal justice system in Canada

TL;DR

This paper reviews how Black youth in Canada face racial injustices in the criminal justice system and its connections to other systems like education and child welfare.

Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive scoping review of Black youth's experiences with the Canadian criminal justice system and its intersecting systems.

Findings

Most studies (60%) on Black youth and the criminal justice system in Canada focus on Ontario.

Black youth's interactions with the criminal justice system are linked to racial injustices in child welfare, education, and health systems.

More research is needed to understand how anti-Black racism affects youth at different levels of criminal justice involvement.

Abstract

A growing concern within and beyond Black communities is the increasing injustices faced by Black children and youth, especially the indelible injustices imposed in their involvement with the Canadian criminal justice system. This study conducts a scoping review of the existing literature on Black youth involvement with the Canadian criminal justice system.

The scoping review followed Arksey and O’Malley’s five step framework and adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. We broadly searched seven databases for studies focusing on Black children and youth (0–30 years) in Canada. This scoping review reports data extracted from 35 criminal-justice related studies.

Research on Black youth and the criminal justice system in Canada has grown since 2000, with most studies (60%) focusing on Ontario. Findings were categorized by systems (child welfare, education, and health) and their interactions with the criminal justice system. Black youth’s contact with the criminal justice system is an extension of their daily interactions and experiences within other systems, where decisions, actions, and culture are underscored by processes of racial injustice.

While there is more attention to research on Black youth involvement with the Canadian criminal justice system, more work is needed to understand their experiences at different levels of involvement with the Canadian criminal justice system, in order to guide and advance the development of relevant policies, strategies, and interventions. Focused efforts should be directed at addressing anti-Black racism within Canadian systems, particularly in child welfare, healthcare, and education, due to their deep and troubling connection to the criminal justice system.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40352-026-00396-2.

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