Mapped: The worst youth crime hotspots in Australia revealed

How safe is your neighbourhood? These new police figures reveal the suburbs being targeted by youth criminals. Search the list now.

Beautiful beaches, urban hearts, blue-ribbon suburbs and the country’s tropical tip – these are some of the hottest crime spots for young offenders in Australia since Covid hit in 2020.

Using the latest available police data, News Corp has mapped the states of Queensland, Victoria, NSW and South Australia to reveal the areas with the highest youth crime rates in the wake of the pandemic.

The official figures show the level of youth crime in some country towns and urban areas jumped as much as 1600 per cent as states opened up from Covid lockdowns.

The rise in youth crime – and a surge in the trend of “posting and boasting”, where young offenders share videos of their crimes to gain notoriety on social media – is explored in Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation, a four-part docu-series that delves into the long-term impacts of placing the nation’s children into lockdown during the pandemic.

Episode four shines a light on the rise of youth crime for likes on social media.

Carjacking victim Angelo Justus appears in Lockdown Kids: How To Break a Generation. Picture: Supplied

In it, Queensland doctor Angelo Justus tells how he was forced to cut back his work commitments to protect his family after they were targeted by teen criminals for the first time in June 2023.

Two young thieves armed with an axe and a shovel hijacked him as he reversed his Audi sedan out of his home and a car full of teenagers pulled up across his driveway in another car, blocking his escape.

“They were just very joyful. It felt like it was a triumph getting a car,” says Dr Justus, an ICU specialist at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital who used to also work away several nights a week but stopped after the armed robbery.

“There is no doubt to become social media famous or getting that notoriety is a huge part of all of this.”

CCTV footage captures an offender trying to steal Angelo Justus’s car. Picture: Supplied

The thieves dumped Dr Justus’s car not long after they had stolen it. A 17-year-old boy was later arrested by police but released on bail and then gloated about that on social media.

“It was shocking, it was absolutely shocking,” says Dr Justus. “I was absolutely shocked to see how brazen … saying ‘I can’t be touched’, that tells a huge story.

“I think this these group of kids, they’ve been escalating the crime because they are getting that boost, dopamine-released adrenaline rush. And they are just upping their game every time every time knowing that there is no consequences.”

A masked thief targets Angelo Justus’s house for a third time. Picture: Supplied

Since that first incident, Dr Justus has had thieves try to steal his car from his locked driveway in the middle of the night on two more occasions, including late last year.

“We are seeing the crime since the Covid, there is no doubt,” he says.

Australian governments are now taking action, with legislation to outlaw posting and boasting crimes either introduced or being planned in all states except Victoria. In SA, the new law – which is before parliament – would carry a jail term of up to two years for sharing violent or illegal acts on social media. The WA government says it will introduce legislation if it is re-elected this month.

NSW, Queensland and the Northern Territory have already passed laws over the past two years.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

In postcode areas of Adelaide’s blue-chip eastern suburbs, including Unley and Hyde Park, where the incidence of juvenile crime has jumped nearly 700 per cent – from six to 47 – between 2018-19 and 2023-24. Vast tracts of the city, including Virginia in the north and O’Sullivan Beach in the south, and country regions of southern Eyre Peninsula, Port Augusta in the Far North, Mount Gambier in the South East and the area west of Ceduna have also seen significant increases.

The total number of offences committed by juvenile offenders jumped from 7331 in 2019 to 8725 in 2023 in the wake of the pandemic. By the beginning of December 2024, it had reached 7905.

NSW

In NSW, the luxurious waterfront addresses of Rose Bay, Vaucluse and Watson’s Bay saw a 221 per cent increase in juvenile offenders post-Covid, jumping from 52 in the two years before the pandemic to 167 in the two years after restrictions were relaxed. Regional zones taking in Piney Range west of Cowra – where offenders jumped 800 per cent from two to 18 – and the western end of the Murray River, including Tooleybuc, rose 785 per cent from seven to 62.

In the wake of Covid restrictions being eased, the number of young assault offenders rose steeply, from just under 4000 in 2019 to nearly 5000 in 2023.

VICTORIA

The number of alleged incidents committed by Victorian teenagers has hit new records for every demographic since Covid. Boys have the highest rates in both age groups, with males aged 15 to 17 on an unrelenting upwards trajectory since the height of the pandemic, jumping more than 50 per cent between 2021 and 2024. The number of boys aged 10 to 14 has risen 65 per cent, from a more modest 2822 to 4650, for the same period. For girls, the number of incidents involving 10 to 14-year-olds has increased from 1280 to 2263 while those committed by 15 to 17-year-olds hit 3762, up from 2724.

The state’s crime hot spots include Melbourne’s city centre, the suburbs around Tarneit and Truganina to the west and Frankston in the south and the towns of Traralgon in the east, Bendigo in the west and Mildura on the River Murray.

QUEENSLAND

The state’s Far North – from Cardwell past Cairns to the tip of Cape York – and the southern suburbs of Brisbane are the two police districts with the most juvenile reported offences since 2019, with more than 48,000 and nearly 45,000. They were followed closely by the Gold Coast region (nearly 32,000) and the Townsville region (31,000).

The annual number of juvenile reported offences committed across the state hit a high in Queensland post-Covid, nearing 65,000 in 2023. The following year, when youth crime became a hot-button topic in the state election, it had dropped to just under 60,000.

Originally published as Mapped: The worst youth crime hotspots in Australia revealed