Prior Police Contacts and Police Discretion with Apprehended Youth

By Peter J. Carrington, University of Waterloo and
Jennifer L. Schulenberg, University of Toronto

This research was a component of a larger study of police decision-making with youth, whose purpose was to understand the ways in which police use their discretion when dealing with young persons who are believed to have violated the law, and to identify the factors which affect this exercise of discretion (Carrington and Schulenberg, 2003). There are many areas of police work in which discretion is exercised. This report is concerned with the police decision concerning the clearance of an incident: whether to lay a charge, or deal informally with the alleged offender.