Toowoomba Childrens Court listed as one of the busiest per capita court in Queensland

New data released by the Childrens Court of Queensland shows just 16 per cent of youth crime cases involving high-level offenders resulted in the offender being sentenced to detention.

Fresh data released by the Childrens Court of Queensland shows Toowoomba is one of the busiest per capita jurisdictions in the state for youth crime prosecutions.

In the 2022-23 financial year, 1945 charges were finalised in the Toowoomba Childrens Court.

This compares to 1066 at the Sunshine Coast, 1903 at Logan, 2078 at Ipswich and 2027 at the Gold Coast – each of which have greater populations than Toowoomba.

It is also just under a third of the number of charges dealt with in the Brisbane Childrens Court, which covers a population of about 2.28 million.

Townsville and Cairns stand out as the busiest jurisdictions in Queensland with 4230 and 6467 offences finalised in 2022-23.

The Childrens Court of Queensland report outlines changes on trends present in the Youth Justice sector.

They include a steady decline in the total number of offences, with a core group of recidivist teens committing the majority of offences.

The report shows that lower court magistrates are favouring a warning or reprimand in about 34 per cent of cases, followed by probation for about 28 per cent of cases.

Just 6.4 per cent of Childrens Court matters were finalised with the offender serving time in detention.

These penalty outcomes change for matters before the Childrens Court of Queensland, which are overseen by a judge and typically decide on charges that carry a maximum penalty greater than two years in detention.

Just over 16 per cent of teen offenders were sentenced to actual detention after coming before a judge in 2022-23 while about 10 per cent received conditional release and 59 per cent were placed on a probation order.

Young boys made up about 70 per cent of cases before the court and, like with the adult justice system, children of Indigenous backgrounds were equally over-represented, making up about 53 per cent of young people convicted in 2022-23.

Overall the number of young people in trouble with the law was declining, with 3334 appearing before the courts 2021-22 and 3260 in 2022-23.

In a recent submission to the Queensland government’s Youth Justice Reform Select Committee, Monash University criminologist Dr Molly McCarthy said technology and changing social patterns have combined to reduce the crime rate among young people.

“International research suggests young people are spending more time under parental supervision, less time in unstructured social engagement with peers, more time in digitised contact with peers, are showing a reduced frequency of binge drinking, engage in fewer ‘nights out’, display greater engagement with education, and have more negative views of risk-taking behaviour,” she said.

“These changes are argued to have dramatically reduced young peoples’ exposure to settings associated with higher risks of offending and victimisation.”

Unfortunately, there is a cohort of young people to which this trend does not apply and they are children who do not feel safe at home, whose parents do not engage in high levels of supervision, and children who may be living in state care.

“These young people are likely to still be spending substantial time in unstructured social engagement with peers, and in these settings they may be exposed to a smaller group of peers who have a higher risk of engagement in delinquent or anti-social behaviour,” Dr McCarthy said.

“This may be concentrating the intensity of offending behaviour among certain groups of young people.”