Melbourne crime: Surge in kids aged 13 and under committing violent crime

A new analysis has laid bare the extent of the state’s youth crime crisis with violent robberies and assaults by children aged 13 and under more than doubling over the past decade.

Aggravated robberies and common assaults by children aged 13 and under have surged in the past decade.

While the level of property crime committed by those in the 10-13 age group has slid by half, there has been a sharp jump in those violent crime categories, according to new research by the Crime Statistics Agency.

The numbers – based on Victoria Police data – show common assaults rose from 95 in 2012-2013 to 230 in 2021-22 and aggravated robberies moved from 21 to 51.

Both represent 142 per cent increases.

There has been a long-term surge in violent offending by young children.

The analysis follows a string of high profile crimes involving teenagers including:

• THREE teenagers, including a 13-year-old on bail, have been charged over a five-hour police pursuit which ended at a suburban soccer match in Melbourne’s southeast at the weekend

• A 12-YEAR-old boy out on bail for previous offences being among nine youths charged in February over a slew of brazen car thefts across Melbourne’s south east.

• A 13-YEAR-OLD boy charged last year after allegedly stabbing a man in the chest outside a fast food restaurant in Pakenham.

The CSA study says offences in the “crimes against the person” category had risen steadily in the period surveyed.

But the overall number of alleged offenders dropped by 28 per cent, from 1760 to 1267.

Shop-stealing, once the most common offence, declined by 51 per cent, though police starting to issue infringement notices rather than laying criminal charges in that period was a factor.

The figures have come to light as Victoria prepares to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

Victoria is preparing to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

The CSA report also reveals the correlation between children’s exposure to domestic violence and their offending.

It found that half of offenders aged 10 to 13 had been recorded as a child witness to family violence and that a third had previous contact with police as a victim of crime.

In total, 57 per cent had been a witness to family violence, a primary affected family member or the victim of a crime.

“Criminal victimisation experienced by this group is likely underreported,” the paper noted.

Anecdotal evidence from frontline police appears to partly back the CSA findings.

Those sources say a high proportion of the young offenders are in state care, often because of their exposure to violence in the home.

Those welfare workers who supervised them had little capacity to stop them leaving in the way a parent might.

One officer said those who could not be turned around risked becoming entrenched on the wrong side of the law.

“These are the criminals of the future. The challenge for us is to stop them being criminals,” the source said.