Opinion: You can’t fight youth crime if you won’t acknowledge it

Where you have a denial of the obvious, then there is little hope of eliciting an appropriate response, writes Terry Goldsworthy.

Youth offenders need to be held accountable.

Data recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics paints Queensland as the crime capital of Australia with the number of victims of crime hitting 289,657, an increase of 14 per cent.

Public QPS crime data tells us that in 2023 there an increase of 8 per cent in report offences in Queensland. In 2023 the Queensland crime rate was the highest it has been for 20 years.

The Queensland Crime Report released earlier this year shows that in 2022-23 the rate of crime against the person and property offences increased by 15 per cent each. Looking at any of the available sets of data the outcome is terrible for crime in Queensland.

Youth offenders make up 18 per cent of all offenders in Queensland but account for more than 50 per cent of robbery, stolen vehicle and break-and-enter offenders. The Auditor General found that in 2018-19 there were 442 serious repeat offenders, in 2022-23 there were 728 and that they accounted for 55 per cent of all youth crime.

Last month a report from the Queensland Auditor General was tabled in parliament examining the government’s response to youth crime. The same day the Miles government announced its new youth justice strategy, no doubt in an effort to take the light of the scathing criticisms contained in the Auditor-General’s report.

The report noted that serious repeat offenders were failing to be monitored or rehabilitated. Since May 2021, electronic devices have been fitted to only 48 serious repeat offenders.

The report found that constant government restructures, legislative changes and instability in leadership positions had contributed to the youth crime problems. For instance, the QPS has seen fit to have at least four people fill the position of Assistant Commissioner for youth justice. It seems holding that position for too long could be terminal for long term career prospects.

Despite these facts the new Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski last month, during an interview on the ABC, insisted that there is no youth crime crisis in Queensland. Where you have a denial of the obvious, then there is little hope of eliciting an appropriate response.

New Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski. Picture: Richard Walker

But the whole approach of the current Queensland government on crime issues seems problematic. Government data for 2024 tells us that 81 per cent of young offenders had used at least one substance and 38 per cent had used Ice or other methamphetamines.

Yet under the current Labor government, we have seen the decriminalisation of heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine. We have seen the establishment of pill-testing facilities. These moves send an underlying message to young people that taking drugs is a low-risk enterprise.

Australia remains an enticing market for organised crime groups who exploit our drug markets to derive large profits.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission reported that the estimated consumption of drugs in Queensland in 2022-23 had risen. Methamphetamine consumption was up 18 per cent, cocaine 25 per cent and MDMA up 4 per cent. There are clear linkages between crime and drug use.

Besides cost of living, crime is the other big-ticket items at the upcoming election. The LNP announced on the weekend “adult crime, adult time” court sentencing policy. This may some impact with sentences that would reach above the current 10-year limitation for sentencing youth offenders.

For instance, data from the Queensland Sentencing Council showed that of 10 youth offenders sentenced for murder between 2005-15, four offenders were sentenced as adults and got life, two sentenced as children got life, the remainder were sentenced to eight to 14 years’ imprisonment. The LNP proposal may capture some of these lesser sentences.

It would make little differences to youth offenders stealing cars. Data for youth offenders stealing vehicles showed that from 2005-20 only 6 per cent of youth offenders received a custodial sentence and of those that did the longest term of imprisonment was three years and the average imprisonment terms was 3 months.

Rather than looking at maximum sentences, perhaps the Opposition and government should consider minimum mandatory sentencing for declared serious repeat youth offenders. Such a regime could be based on evidence, highly nuanced, and aimed at the small cohort of offenders doing the most harm to society.

Many of us have been, or know, a victim of crime and we have had enough. The current Queensland government has failed miserably in dealing with crime, it may well pay the price at the ballot box.

Dr Terry Goldsworthy is an associate professor of criminal justice and criminology at Bond University