Victorian youth gang member arrested 33 times in one year
One of Victoria’s worst youth gang members was detained 33 times in just 12 months after committing 135 offences including burglary, car theft and robbery.
Police & Courts
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One of Victoria’s worst youth gang members was arrested every 11 days on average over a full year.
Victoria Police data released to the Herald Sun shows the 15-year-old boy was detained 33 times by police in that period.
The arrests related to a total of 135 offences carried out in the 12 months to November 30, including crimes of aggravated burglary, car theft, robbery and burglary.
That teen has the biggest arrest numbers but he is not alone as a prolific recidivist.
Figures from Operation Alliance, which works on youth gang members across Melbourne, shows an easing in youth gang numbers in the past three years.
Despite this, a hard-core of 416 on a police watchlist were arrested a total of 1511 times and, of those, 82 were arrested more than 10 times in 12 months.
Among the most troublesome were:
• A boy, 13, arrested 24 times over 103 offences.
• Another 13-year-old detained 26 times over 95 matters.
• A boy, 15 who was arrested 16 times over 89 offences.
• A 15-year-old boy arrested 22 times for 84 offences.
All were detained as suspects in aggravated burglaries, car thefts and robberies.
The Alliance data shows there are 46 youth gangs statewide with a total of 608 members who are being actively monitored by police.
Of those, 86 (14 per cent) are locked up in adult prisons and 33 (5.4 per cent) are detained in youth justice centres.
Assistant Commissioner Brett Curran said young offenders were significantly over-represented in crimes including assaults, aggravated burglaries, car thefts and robberies because of a core of repeat offenders.
That was shown by 82 suspects being arrested more than 10 times in one year.
“There isn’t a significant number of serious and violent youth offenders in Victoria. The overwhelming majority of young Victorians are good kids,” Mr Curran said.
“However, a group of about 210 highly recidivist offenders present a real challenge for police. While a relatively small number of people, they have shown that they are more than capable of inflicting serious harm to the community.”
Mr Curran said Alliance had achieved some success by reducing the number of known youth gang members on its watchlist by 140 in the past three years.
“This decrease has come about following sustained enforcement and, where possible, early intervention to turn young people away from a life of crime,” he said
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