Crimes committed by children aged 10 to 17 hit highest level since 2010, new stats reveal
Crimes committed by children aged between 10 and 17 have hit their highest point since 2010, while close to 10 youth gang members and child criminals are arrested in Victoria every day.
Police & Courts
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Almost 10 youth gang members and child criminals are arrested every day across Victoria while crimes committed by children have soared to alarming new highs.
The latest crime data, released on Thursday, shows robberies committed by kids aged between 14 and 17 spiked 45 per cent over the past year.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s most serious offenders, including known youth gang members, burglars and car thieves, were arrested more than 3,150 times.
Car thefts by children aged 14 to 17 surged 30 per cent for the year to June compared to the prior year, while burglaries were up 28 per cent.
Crimes committed by children aged between 10 and 17 rose to their highest level since 2010, the data from the Crime Statistics Agency shows.
Police say “opportunistic young burglars” in that age group are a key driver behind an all-time high number of aggravated burglaries across the state.
The number of aggravated residential burglaries rose by another 18 per cent, hitting 6,445 for the year to June compared to 5,461 in the prior year.
Acting Deputy Commissioner Regional Operations Chris Gilbert urged residents to lock their homes and cars at night to stop opportunistic thieves from stealing from them.
“Police continue to see far too many properties burgled and cars stolen due to unlocked doors and windows, so we urge the community to take simple measures such as checking your home and car is locked before heading to bed,” he said.
Mr Gilbert said police had ramped up measures to drive down burglaries and thefts.
“Your home should be your castle and this is why 70 additional frontline police, Dog Squad members, Highway Patrol officers and the Public Order Response Team continue to swarm Melbourne’s suburbs every single night, specifically targeting burglars and car thieves as the Air Wing watches from above,” he said.
Trinity, a nightly operation which includes dozens of officers patrolling youth offenders across suburban Melbourne, arrested an average of four thieves each day in a total of 1550 arrests in the past year.
Police Minister Anthony Carbines says the government’s approach to crime is “absolutely working” despite alarming new statistics revealing a spike in violent offences.
Mr Carbines, who labelled the new statistics “disappointing”, said the huge number of arrests meant the government’s response was “working”.
“What we’re ... seeing is that there is a particular cohort of young offenders, repeat offenders, who continue to disregard the law,” he said.
“What we’re doing is demonstrating the statistics that 70,000 people have been arrested and held to account for breaking the law, so they’re absolutely working.”
Mr Carbines also claimed that the government’s changes to youth justice laws were “also working”.
“We’ve called out aggravated burglary, carjacking and the like that needs to be considered by bail decision makers to revoke bail where those are the repeat offenders or those who commit serious offenses that are brought before the courts,” he said.
“We will be seeing that take effect in the coming months.”
Despite the concerning figures, road policing assistant commissioner Glenn Weir said Melbourne is a “safe city”.
He, however, said the statistics were a “matter of concern”.
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