Victorian Labor government set to crack down on youth crime, announce new laws

Teens who recruit children to commit crimes will face up to a decade in jail under a youth justice shake-up. And that’s not all young offenders can expect under a looming crackdown.

Teens who recruit children to commit their crimes will face up to 10 years in jail under new youth crime laws.

The tough new law is part of a major shake up of youth justice to be unveiled by the Allan government.

In a bid to stop children being used to commit crimes, anyone aged 18 or over who solicits kids to commit a crime will be hit with a new criminal charge — that previously only hit those aged 21 or over.

Under other the changes to go before Cabinet on Monday judges will also be given greater powers to crackdown on kids who breach bail conditions by placing them on an intensive supervision order.

A major shake up of youth justice is set to be unveiled.

Youth justice workers will be required to monitor young offenders more closely and in extreme cases make offenders wear an ankle bracelet.

The laws five years in the making will see troublemaking adult prisoners aged 18-21 transferred from youth justice centres to the adult system.

The Allan government will forge ahead with its controversial plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 with consideration still being given to eventually raising it to 14.

Police would still retain power to intervene with younger offenders, including having the power to transport 10 and 11-year-olds that find themselves in trouble with the law.

Senior government sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the proposed legislation, said this would ensure the state’s youngest offenders aren’t given free reign to offend.

The reforms will be a mix of tougher rules on crime and more early intervention to target youths at risk of becoming serial offenders.

It will include a more individualised focus on young criminals rather than a one size fits all approach but will see a crackdown on a ‘small group of repeat offenders.

The reforms will be a mix of tougher rules on crime and early intervention.

The youth justice overhaul, once signed off by Cabinet will be introduced to parliament this week.

It comes as Victoria endures a youth crime crisis and follows a Herald Sun special investigation revealing the full extent of the epidemic, with a child breaching their bail every three hours, how one of our worst child offenders has had 388 charges struck out because of their age and youth crime reaches a nine-year high.

It’s understood the Bill itself is nearly 1000 pages long. Last week Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes described the Bill as a “massive piece of work”.

“We want to respond early. We want to pick up the naughty kids, we want to make sure they are not turning into a serious offender that, frankly, the community is afraid of,” she said.

“We want to make sure that we have the right approach, tailor made for each child, rather than a one size fits all.”

After the Herald Sun’s spotlight on the state’s youth crime crisis, Ms Symes conceded the government was concerned about a group of repeat young offenders who were committing violent crimes including home invasions.