Victoria Police crackdown after Melbourne youth summit 2016
YOUNG criminals are facing tougher bail conditions and police will be told immediately after they are released on parole following last year’s landmark youth crime summit.
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YOUNG criminals are facing tougher bail conditions and police will soon be told when they are released on parole, thanks to last year’s landmark youth summit.
Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said the meeting of youth workers, experts and academics led to victories in the war on youth crime.
The Youth Parole Board will soon notify police when young offenders are released on parole — so officers know to keep an eye on them.
“The Youth Parole Board will now be required to notify Victoria Police when specific youth offenders, such as violent and repeat offenders, are released on parole,” Mr Ashton told the Herald Sun.
POLICE CHIEF LAUNCHES PUSH TO GET YOUNG CRIMINALS WORK
“This is extremely advantageous for us as it means we can better manage high-risk youth and provide appropriate intervention measures if there’s a risk of reoffending.”
Special police teams led by experienced detectives monitor young offenders once they are released.
“We have implemented recidivist policing models, special teams to work on the actual offenders, sitting right on them, knowing their patterns, how they offend, who they mix with, how they interact,” Mr Ashton said.
Family and community figures are also involved at the bail stage to help ensure youngsters don’t commit offences while they wait for their cases to progress through the congested court system.
“Youth Control Orders also give the Children’s Court the power to order more intensive targeted supervision,” Mr Ashton said.
“It ensures high-risk youth are held accountable for their whereabouts and actions in the period immediately following their appearance in court.
“That was something I have been trying to push pretty hard. This is about getting families involved in bail and youth control issues.
“The absent parent situation is not present in all cases but there is a heavy element of that.”
Following last year’s meeting, the state government also introduced laws targeting adults involved in luring young people into crime.
The so-called “Fagin’s Law” created a new offence of “procuring young people to commit offences” with a maximum penalty of 10 years, regardless of the crime committed by the youth.
“We know that some adult criminals use young people to commit crime as the sentences are seen as less serious,” Mr Ashton said.
“The long-term impacts on young people can be significant, so we need to ensure that we remove the adult influencers from the picture completely.”
Mr Ashton said police have had to adapt to the changing nature of youth crime. Once youngsters would offend as part of a gang but now they commit crimes with a range of different people.
“What we have found is it has morphed from gangs, which we were talking about a year or so ago,” Mr Ashton said.
“It has morphed into networked offending. Using social media and online messaging to hook up with different people for different crimes.
“So rather than being in this tight group, one person from one group might commit offences with someone from another group one week then another from somewhere else the next week.”