Youth crime down 6.7 per cent, offences against people up
Youth crime has decreased in the last year however there’s been a worrying trend in the type of offences.
Police & Courts
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Youth crime has decreased by 6.7 per cent in the last year however offences against people have increased, according to new figures.
Queensland Police Service statistics show total offences for adults and juveniles decreased by 0.1 per cent comparing 2023-24 to 2022-23 financial years.
The rate of offences against the person, which includes assaults, increased by 4.8 per cent while property offences decreased by 1.8 per cent and other offences increased by 0.2 per cent, according to figures provided by the government.
The rate of all offences, without including domestic violence offences, by youths and adults deceased by 1.9 per cent.
In 2019-2020 domestic violence accounted for 24.4 per cent of total assault offences while in 2023-24 it accounted for 56.9 per cent of the assault offences.
While juvenile offences decreased overall by 6.7 per cent in 2023-24, offences against the person increased by 4.8 per cent, property offences decreased by 7.8 per cent and other offences decreased by 9.6 per cent.
The police service over the last year has launched operation Whiskey Legion in which groups of police are deployed across Queensland to “surge capacity”, as well as other operations and taskforces targeting youth crime.
As part of the deployments 2072 adult offenders and 441 juvenile offenders have been charged with 6225 offences, up to June 30 this year.
Premier Steven Miles said that since he took the job, community safety had been a top priority for his government.
“I have always said we will invest in what we know works, which is why I have delivered more resources, more police on the beat and more early intervention across Queensland.
“Community safety matters to Queenslanders and it matters to me.”
Police Minister Mark Ryan said the upwards trend was positive but there was “always more work to do.”
“Statistics show a reduction in criminal offending. Fewer crimes mean fewer victims, but one victim is one to many,” he said.
“Even one crime is one too many but I know that the Queensland Police Service has been working very hard with partner agencies as well as the community and they’ve been using the strong laws that we brought in last year particularly about youth offending to the maximum extent.”
The Opposition has argued that despite the reduction in youth offending, victim numbers continued to increase.
According to QPS data, the number of victims increased 7.7 per cent between 2022-23 and 2023-24, rising from 77,000 to 83,000.
This includes a 6.5 per cent rise in reported assault victims, a 0.7 per cent rise in robbery victims and 7 per cent rise in sexual assault victims.
LNP spokesman for the department of Attorney-General Tim Nicholls said given the rise in reported victims, the slight reduction in youth offending was not going to make a great deal of difference.
“Really the best measure is the members of the community who are victims of crime because that’s the number one job of government,” he said.
“The number one job of government is to make sure that people, law abiding citizens are safe in their homes, safer businesses and their cars aren’t being stolen.”
“Any instance of crime is totally unacceptable because for every crime there is a victim and the impact can be traumatising.”
He commended police for their “relentless efforts” to target high-harm offenders.
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