Qld election 2024: LNP’s crime stats justify ‘adult crime, adult time’
Adults are more than five times more likely to see jail time than youths for certain offences, new figures show, as the Opposition doubles down on its “adult crime, adult time” policy.
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The significant gap between the percentage of young criminals serving jail time for serious offences compared to adults has been exposed for the first time in new figures released by the state government.
Sentencing Advisory Council data reveals a fraction of youths are ending up in detention compared to adults who commit the same offences, prompting the LNP to double down on its plan to sentence them as adults on five serious offences.
The new data reveals – between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2023 – just 25 per cent of the 106 youths sentenced for committing grievous bodily harm received detention time, compared to 84 per cent of the 853 adults.
Incidents of aggravated robbery crime saw 90 per cent of adults jailed, compared to just 14 per cent of youths.
Of the 335 young offenders found to have seriously assaulted a police officer, 9 per cent received jail time, far fewer than the 51 per cent of adults.
Just 5 per cent of youths who broke in to a premises and committed an aggravated offence were jailed compared to 58 per cent of adults.
Opposition youth justice spokeswoman Laura Gerber argued the low rate of detention for young criminals proved change was needed.
“This is why we need adult time, adult crime, if you choose to do the crime – you will do the time, regardless of your age,” she said.
“Labor’s weaker laws left Queensland in crisis; only the LNP will restore safety where you live.
“The LNP’s plan will restore safety where you live with adult crime, adult time, as well as gold-standard early intervention and proper rehabilitation.”
Premier Steven Miles argued the Opposition’s policy was a slogan and the government’s crime plan was working.
“They’re masters of cherry picking data to prove an argument,” he said.
“When you look at the detail in the data you see that since we implemented our community safety plan we’ve seen a reduction in youth offending and a reduction across most crimes across most regions.
“What they’re calling a policy is just a four-word slogan.
“It’s just something they came up with to win votes for the election, their police spokesman has said as much.”
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in July revealed youth committing serious crime including murder, manslaughter, grievous bodily harm and dangerous operation and unlawful use of a motor vehicle would be sentenced as adults if the LNP wins in October.
He argued, coupled with rehabilitation efforts, the policy will “actually drive down the number of kids in detention who shouldn’t be there and drive up the number who should be”.
The adult crime, adult time policy was supported by some stakeholders such as the Queensland Police Union, but slammed by others including University of Southern Queensland criminologist Suzanne Reich.
“Harsh penalties are reactionary and they don’t address the underlying causes, motivations and contributors of crime,” Dr Reich said.
“Tough-on-crime policies appeal to the public’s punitive sentiment, but people need to stop and look at it, and ask, is this working and if not why not?”
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