Youth crime crisis: Qld has nation’s highest kid crim rates
Thousands more youth offenders are being sentenced in Queensland courts than in any other state, underlining the challenge facing Premier David Crisafulli. SEE THE NUMBERS
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Thousands more youth offenders are being sentenced in Queensland courts than in any other state, new data shows.
Almost 2000 more young crims were dealt with by the state’s courts than by those in NSW, with 7770 youths aged 10-17 sentenced in Queensland in the last financial year.
That was up from 7523 youths aged 10-17 in 2022-23.
The crime plague is even more stark compared with Western Australia, where 3775 children were sentenced.
Queensland led the nation with the number of 10-11 year-olds sentenced having risen by 88 in the past financial year.
It underlines the challenge facing the state government after Premier David Crisafulli staked his career on driving down overall crime numbers.
The most common age for a youth offender in Queensland was 16.
Veteran criminal lawyer Bill Potts said police had been trying to concentrate their efforts on youth offenders over the past few years.
“When you’re talking about sentencing, it’s actually not so much that the actual crime rates has increased, though it may have, it’s also as a result of better policing, which has brought more people, more children before the courts,” he said.
The statistics also showed the most common offences youth were sentenced for in Queensland were theft, unlawful entry with intent and acts intending to cause injury.
Mr Potts said there was an increase of acts intending to cause injury.
“Not only is there an increase in crime, but there’s an increase in violent crime, or crime where there is an intention to commit injury,” he said.
“So we’re talking about people with weapons.”
A spokesman for Youth Justice Minister Laura Gerber said statistics showed youth crime had exploded under the previous government.
“The Crisafulli government is committed to turning the tide on crime and has already delivered tough new laws to restore consequences for actions and will implement effective early intervention and meaningful rehabilitation programs to restore safety to our communities,” she said.
The figures revealed there were 19,493 male defendants finalised for domestic violence related offences in the past financial year compared with 10,804 in 2019-20, an almost 100 per cent increase.
The most common principal offence was breach of a domestic violence order.
Mr Potts said the data indicated targeted policing.
“What we are seeing here is again, better policing a broader definition of domestic violence, but we’re also seeing an almost 100 per cent increase in the number of male defendants over a five-year period, which is remarkable,” he said.
Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Amanda Camm said she was committed to ensuring the government’s reforms established effective prevention.
“Just last week I announced, alongside the Police Minister, the start of major domestic and family violence reform to bolster protections for more victims and hold perpetrators to account,” she said.
Originally published as Youth crime crisis: Qld has nation’s highest kid crim rates
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