Mapped: Where Qld hardcore youth offenders live and the crime rates

Queensland’s most prolific young offenders have been mapped, as police grapple with a staggering volume of crime in 2024. SEE THE MAP

The LNP is going hard on youth crime.

• Qld youth crime explained

Queensland’s most prolific young offenders are concentrated in the state’s north new data has revealed, with police grappling with a staggering volume of crime in 2024.

New police and youth justice data released by the state government shows there were 400 serious repeat youth offenders scattered across Queensland as of last month.

A staggering 40 per cent, or 159, of those serious repeat offenders were based in the Far North, Townsville and Mount Isa police districts.

Across Queensland between January and November this year there were 50,315 offences committed by young people, as recorded by Queensland Police.

The largest workload was in the South Brisbane police region, with 7592 offences allegedly committed by young people.

A whopping 12,751 offences by young people were recorded in the Far North, Townsville and Mount Isa police regions combined.

Premier David Crisafulli used the new data to again slam the former government’s record on youth crime.

“Under Labor our suburbs became youth crime war zones, under siege from a generation of repeat offenders running riot and robbing our safety,” he said.

Premier David Crisafulli used new data to attack Labor. Picture: Josh Woning

Police Minister Dan Purdie said the data painted the “clearest picture of the desperate need for tougher laws to fight youth crime in Queensland”.

“The residents living in these areas have been let down for too long under the former government who allowed serious repeat youth offenders to avoid adequate punishment and let them continue to terrorise these communities,” he said.

The tough new laws mean children face life imprisonment for murder, manslaughter, acts intended to cause grievous bodily harm and unlawful striking causing death.

Repeat offenders committing the most serious of car-related crimes must also be sent to jail as a minimum.

Under the changes a child’s criminal history will also be carried into adulthood when they are sentenced for a crime.

It will also become easier for children on the cusp of turning 18 or reach adulthood in a youth prison or watch-house to be quickly transferred to an adult facility.

But legal and child safety stakeholders have warned the laws could cause delays across the justice system and fail to make Queenslanders safer.

Youth crime in Queensland remains a big issue.

The laws outline it will be “likely at least in the short term” that the increase in jail terms for children will “further strain capacity in youth detention centres in Queensland, and may result in children being held in watch houses for extended periods of time”.

These changes are also in “conflict with international standards regarding the best interests of the child with respect to children in the justice system, and are therefore incompatible with human rights”.