Youth crime: Hard core group rack up 9400 crimes in Victoria, new figures show
UPDATE: THE earlier a child enters the judicial system the more likely they are to reoffend and commit violent crimes, an alarming report has found.
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AN alarming reoffending trend of Victoria’s young criminals has been confirmed in a report today released by the Sentencing Advisory Council for Victoria.
The study, Reoffending by Children and Young People in Victoria, found the earlier a child entered the judicial system the more likely they were to reoffend and commit violent crimes.
A child sentenced between 10-12 years of age reoffended in 86 per cent of cases.
Of the 5385 cases reviewed, dating back to 2008, more than 60 per cent of children reoffended within six years, 44 per cent reoffended more than once.
A substantial number of children had been sentenced to an adult term of imprisonment before their 22nd birthday with more than half of Victoria’s youth offenders progressing to the adult correctional system.
Victoria has one of the lowest incarceration rates in Australia for youth detention and is committed to keeping children out of the system for longer.
It comes as the Herald Sun revealed the worst 200 youth offenders in Victoria racked up 9400 crimes in the past year.
The group makes up just 2.7 per cent of offenders aged 10 to 17 but is behind the surge in carjackings, home invasions and armed robberies.
The youths are responsible for 25.6 per cent of offences committed by their age group, averaging 47 crimes each.
The total number of crimes committed by the age group in the past financial year came in at more than 36,000.
Although the overall rate of youth offending has decreased in recent years, the extreme nature of the offending has not.
The rate of aggravated burglary, carjackings and police pursuits is likely to have escalated in 2016-17.
Among the most hardcore teens are a number from the northern suburbs outfits committing what police have described as “organised and very calculating” armed cigarette robberies.
Police Minister Lisa Neville said a “small but serious” group of young offenders was responsible for an increasing rate of crimes.
Teenagers, instructed and sometimes equipped by older criminals, have been travelling increasing distances across Melbourne and into the country looking for targets.
In a technique repeatedly used, one gang member uses a hammer to threaten a shop or service station attendant, another shovels cartons of cigarettes into a doona cover and a third waits with a getaway car.
Ms Neville said the State Government was trying to reduce the harm from crime through reforms to the youth justice system.
“Following discussions with Victoria Police, a new intensive bail supervision scheme and youth control order will be introduced to ensure these young people are supervised in the community, and are locked into education, training or employment,” Ms Neville said.
Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said Victoria Police was committed to dealing with the young recidivists.
Victims of Crime Commissioner Greg Davies said it was fine to say youth crime rates were stable but children committing carjackings, home invasions and ramming police cars were non-existent a few years ago.
