Crimes surge among hardcore youth offenders despite more time spent in jail

New data has revealed Queensland’s most hard serious youth offenders are committing more crimes, with the government’s tough new laws landing more kids in jail without making the community safer.

Queensland’s cohort of hardcore young offenders and the number of crimes they commit are surging, with the government’s tough new laws landing more children in jail without making the community safer new data has revealed.

The share of hardened recidivists is growing according to the latest Childrens Court of Queensland data, with 20 per cent of all young offenders now considered a “Serious Repeat Offender” under the official index.

It means there are now 652 children in this cohort — up from 568 the year before. And they are committing more crime, with the data revealing hardened youths committed 54.5 per cent of proven offences dealt with by the courts up from 48 per cent in 2021/22.

The sheer number of offences has also surged by 15 per cent, with all three levels of the courts dealing with 43,031 charges in 2022/23 up from 37,156 the year before.

It is driven largely by an increase in assaults, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, vehicle theft and related offences and robbery.

Childrens Court of Queensland President Judge Deborah Richards. Picture: Tara Croser

Childrens Court of Queensland President Judge Deborah Richards noted laws, introduced nine months ago in March, to remove bail as a last resort and increase maximum sentences on crimes like car theft had “not as yet resulted in a decrease in offending”.

But it has led to a surge in the number of children held behind bars on remand — and those youths are staying in for longer before they are sentenced for a crime.

On average day in 2022 there were 283 children behind bars, up from 200 in 2019 — with nearly nine out of ten of them in detention unsentenced.

In 2022/23 the average number of days a child spent behind bars on remand was 51 days (about 7 weeks), an increase of eight days compared to the year before.

And this is impacting the courts’ ability to impose “what otherwise might be seen as an appropriate sentence on a child” Judge Richards noted, as time spent in custody needed to be taken into account when dishing out probation or other sentences.

PeakCare Queensland chief executive Tom Allsop said it was unsurprising tough new laws had led to more children behind bars without reducing the amount of crime.

“Being tough on youth crime won’t make communities safer unless the Government is also going to be tough on the causes of youth crime,” he said.

The state Opposition is expected to seize on the court’s latest report as further proof of a “spiralling” youth crime crisis.

“These numbers show a failure to deal with the current offenders through stronger laws and to stop the pipeline of young crims through early intervention,” Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.