Editorial: The Qld government has lost control of juvenile crime

The idea of protecting vulnerable children from being funnelled into the adult criminal justice system has gained tremendous popularity, but the incontestable fact is that failing to detain and restrain youthful criminals is leading to tragic outcomes.

If the Queensland public need evidence that youth crime has become unmanageable, that is readily available in the form of one 15-year-old boy.

Beyond the urban myths surrounding youth crime, beyond the anecdotal evidence and the exaggeration and hyperbole that can artificially inflate the seriousness of this matter, the case of one 15-year-old, outlined in a story in today’s Courier-Mail, provides stark and irrefutable evidence that the state government has lost control of juvenile crime.

The leaked intelligence report which forms the basis of the story reveals the boy has faced an almost incomprehensible 80 charges yet has never received one recorded conviction.

The boy continues to pursue his criminal career including burglaries and car thefts with his criminal activity spanning the entire southeast region.

Each time he faces a court he is set free. And each time he is set free he offends again, with the authors of the intelligence report making it clear that police can now do little except wait for the inevitable tragedy to occur.

“It has become clear (the offender) and his cohort will not stop for intercepts, committing numerous offences in stolen vehicles, including dangerous driving and hit and run crashes,’’ the report says.
It is all well and good for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to announce harsher penalties for youths stealing cars and major amendments to the Youth Justice Act requiring courts to scrutinise offenders’ bail and criminal records during sentencing. That was announced after public outcry over the horrific death of young North Lakes mother Emma Lovell, allegedly killed during an attempt by youths to burgle her home.

Emma Lovell was stabbed to death after confronting two intruders who had broken into her North Lakes home. Picture: Supplied

But what needs to be taken into account is the bigger issue – which is that police believe young criminals are “gaming the system”, pleading guilty to offences to avoid having convictions recorded.

Her response needs to reflect this. The public expectation is that this loophole will be closed.

Juvenile crime in Australia has been the subject of major reforms since the 1970s.

The idea of protecting vulnerable children from being funnelled into the adult criminal justice system by creating alternative methods of rehabilitation has gained tremendous popularity in the past 50 years. Whether there is value in this approach is still the subject of debate, but what is incontestable is the fact that failing to detain and restrain youthful criminals is leading to tragic outcomes.

Allowing youthful offenders to go free and roam our communities allegedly led to the death of Mrs Lovell on Boxing Day.

Flowers for Kate Leadbetter and Matthew Field at the intersection of Vienna and Finucane Roads at Alexandra Hills. Picture: Richard Walker

In 2021 Matthew Field, 37, and Kate Leadbetter, 31, along with their unborn baby, were killed by an out-of-control teen recklessly driving a stolen vehicle.

We simply cannot, as a civilised community, stand by and allow fashionable ideology inside criminology faculties to allow violent individuals to roam through our communities and threaten lives.

This is far removed from calls for vengeance or retribution. Our criminal justice system must have, as its primary focus, rehabilitation.

But what ordinary Queensland taxpayers who fund the justice system have a right to expect is that young repeat offenders will be taken out of circulation and kept on secure premises well removed from the community while their rehabilitation becomes the priority.

Matthew Field and Kate Leadbetter. Photo Supplied

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli, who has quite rightly seized on this matter as a hot-button issue, is doing his job by increasing the pressure on Ms Palaszczuk to come up with a better plan of attack.

But Crisafulli’s calls for the Premier to cancel her current holiday and recall parliament are part of the political game.

What the LNP Opposition needs to do is begin preparing its own legislative reforms which would guarantee the incarceration of repeat juvenile offenders in facilities which have the powers to detain offenders until they are deemed fit to return to their communities. This protects both the offender and the community.

Those legal reforms, if properly framed and pledged to be implemented on achieving government, will be viewed favourably right across Queensland in the lead-up to the October 2024 election.

Queenslanders are becoming frightened in their own homes, some openly wondering whether it is best to leave the car keys on a kitchen bench rather than hiding them away and risk angry youth rampaging through their house and attacking the occupants in their attempt to steal the family car.

That is no way to live. We need a sensible new approach.