By establishing regulations concerning penal intervention in the affairs of minors, the Young Offenders Act enables recourse to measures that contain an element of exclusion. That is, they can lead to social stigmatization and retreat from society, though this element appears to be less a factor in the justice system for minors than is the case for adults. Exclusion is due not only to the law and its application; it also stems very much from the reactions of the adolescent's milieu and from the interaction of this milieu with the official institutions of social control. The future offers little reason for optimism: a move toward right wing policies outside of Quebec and pressure to "harden" this federal law. Such a hardening could well result in accentuating the exclusionary potential of the law in Quebec, inasmuch as federal law applies as much here as elsewhere in Canada.