Darling Downs youth crime police statistics

Statistics released by the Queensland Government have revealed the shocking extent of youth crime within the Darling Downs.

Several cars have been stolen from a Mackay business.

The state government has released the latest data showing the shocking extent of youth crime throughout the Darling Downs and Queensland.

New statistics from the Queensland Government was released on Tuesday which pinpoints the regions most affected by youth crime, in particular stolen vehicles and robbery.

From January to November 2024, Darling Downs police reported more than 390 stolen cars, ranking it as the sixth highest region for car thefts in the state.

The number of cars stolen within the Darling Downs region exceeded other south east Queensland regional areas such as Logan (229) Ipswich (129) and Sunshine Coast (275).

State totals show 6727 cars were stolen by offenders under 18, with more than 13,000 breaches of bail.

The Far North recorded the highest number of stolen car offences at 1017, and South Brisbane the second highest at 956 reported stolen car offences.

In the Darling Downs, a total of 932 charges were laid by police for unlawful use of a vehicle, down from the last two years, which peaked in 2022, but still remains higher than the first two decades between 2001-2020.

The data was released days after the state government passed the Making Queensland Safer Laws, which would ensure young offenders found guilty of certain offences face the same punishments adults do.

The state’s minister of police Dan Purdie said the laws, which were a pillar of the LNP’s election campaign, would create a strong deterrent for the youth offenders.

Premier David Crisafulli, Minister for Police Dan Purdie and Minister for Youth Justice Laura Gerber at Ipswich Police and Courts Precinct, Sunday, December 8, 2024 – Picture: Richard Walker

“Young people who have a blatant disregard for the law by committing serious offences in our communities will now have to face the consequences for their actions,” Mr Purdie said.

“We have made it very clear to Queenslanders the Government will drive down victim numbers and put a stop to the spiralling youth crime crisis.”

Since February 2022, Darling Downs police have responded with a multiple strategies to address youth crime throughout the region, which has seen tragically fatal accidents as a result of stolen vehicles.

While the tough new sentencing regime of Adult Time, Adult Crime may satisfy the public’s thirst for punitive justice, experts have warned it will only create a ticking time bomb for society.

Associate Professor Andrew Hemming from the University of Southern Queensland’s School of Law was in favour of the new harsher laws, and said the existing Youth Justice Act was a ‘get out of jail free’ card.

“The bill redresses the soft policing of teenagers and a dearth of serious consequences after committing serious offences that has created ‘a generation of untouchables’,” he said.

Fellow UniSQ Criminologist Suzanne Reich said that despite having one of the lowest rates in Australia, Queensland is set to have the harshest sentencing regimes that will only serve to create more hardened criminals.

“If a young person is given a maximum sentence of 10 years for stealing a car, by the time they are released they will have served most of the prison sentence in the adult system,” she said.