Youth offender rates rise for first time in more than a decade, with recidivism rates also up, data shows
Groups of teenagers share videos of stolen and torched cars on social media platforms such as TikTok. (ABC Kimberley: Hinako Shiraishi)
The latest youth crime data shows the number of juvenile offenders is increasing for the first time in more than a decade, as ideological tensions grow over how to deal with children committing crimes.
While the number of children and teenagers committing crimes had been tracking steadily downwards, the rate increased by 6 per cent in the last financial year.
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Criminologists say it is too early to say whether it is an aberration or a trend that will continue.
A more detailed breakdown of the Australian Bureau of Statistics data, obtained exclusively by the ABC, reveals recidivism is also increasing, suggesting diversion programs are failing to turn around the behaviour of the small cohort of repeat offenders.
WA Children’s Commissioner Jacqueline McGowan-Jones says she’s not surprised by the data.
“What we’ve got now is small numbers of kids who are becoming entrenched in this behaviour,” she said.
“The stakes are incredibly high that we start addressing the root causes of this behaviour, as we’re losing a generation of kids.”
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The data backs up anecdotal evidence of a recent increase in more regular and aggressive youth offending, which some have regarded as exaggerated by sensationalist media coverage and social media group-think.
The tensions are most keenly felt in regional centres, where some residents are pooling funds to hire security guards, and where racial tensions are being stirred by alleged vigilante behaviour.
‘Extreme anxiety and extreme anger’
The trend doesn’t come as a surprise to criminologist Terry Goldsworthy.
“The volume of offending by hardcore youth offenders is increasing, and that’s the problem,” he explains.
“I think politicians can make the mistake of going, well, the number of unique offenders is less than what it was a decade ago, so there’s really not a youth crime problem.
“But a person who’s been victim of a crime doesn’t care whether or not it’s the same person who’s broken into their house three times or a different person — they just care that they’re being broken into.
“It’s the volume of the crime that matters to them, and that’s what we’re seeing.
“So I think there is extreme anxiety and extreme anger in the community.”
Under pressure
The tension over whether to take a child welfare or law and order approach is proving to be an increasingly complex moral and policy dilemma for governments across Australia.
And it’s an ideological debate playing out in real time in towns racked by rampant crime.
For policy-makers, the pressure is growing on two fronts.
On the one hand, communities are demanding the government rein in the surging youth crime that’s making long-term residents feel unsafe and prompting some to leave town.
At the same time, there’s a growing concern about a punitive punishment approach being taken in regards to children who have been “set up to fail” via familial neglect, community indifference and flawed welfare systems long before their first arrest.
Many have undiagnosed neurological impairments, and have been exposed to the type of violence, poverty and substance abuse that would make most Australians shudder.
“There is some tension between the two realities — the child is a victim at the same time as they’re an offender,” Dr Goldsworthy explained.
“And I think that sometimes confuses the system as to how we respond to them.
“We know that if you address issues around family violence, access to food and so on, you reduce offending, but those kinds of programs don’t necessarily sell well at election time.
“So in that sense, I think our systems are failing, and these kinds of statistics are not surprising.
“I think it’s going to be an ongoing debate, and it’s going to become even more politicised.”
Impact on community
What is clear in some towns in northern Western Australia is that Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents are frustrated by ongoing break-ins and vandalism, and concerned about the welfare of the children involved.
Philomena Lewis is a Nyul Nyul woman who lives in Broome.
“Some of us elderly Indigenous people, we are very angry about it and we are very surprised, because the kids making problems in the community, they’re mainly all our Indigenous children,” she said.
“It’s been going on for a while now — children doing breaking and enters, stealing vehicles, burning vehicles.”
Ms Lewis believes parenting is at the crux of the issue, as well as government systems that lack compassion for the children involved.
“Often the parents aren’t even there, they will get the older kids to babysit so they can go down the pub or play cards, and that’s when the kids will just take off,” she said.
“And when they’re out on the street they will start drinking and doing marijuana and stealing vehicles and housebreaking.
“Some parents are struggling, and there are a lot of good parents out there, but some are being selfish and not thinking about their children.
“It makes me very angry because you are meant to be protective of your children.”
‘I had tears in my eyes’
Like many Aboriginal elders, Ms Lewis believes a return to mild physical punishment would help restore discipline.
But she is also concerned that policing is further victimising children who have been set up to fail by a lack of supervision and underfunded child protection services.
“I’ve witnessed a young boy, maybe only aged 11 or 12, being grabbed by three big strong policemen, and the way he was pushed and shoved was not nice,” she said.
“This boy may have done the wrong thing but a child never deserves to be dragged, treated like that, like he was a little toy.
“His mother was terrified and I felt bloody terrible. I had tears in my eyes.”
What’s causing the increase?
To some, the trend towards a smaller cohort of youth committing more crimes is a symptom of growing economic inequity in Australia.
And the fact that almost 60 per cent of children in youth detention are Aboriginal suggests a spiralling disconnect defying efforts to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage more broadly.
Jacqueline McGowan-Jones has spent a lot of time with children in detention, during escalating concerns about conditions within facilities such as Banksia Hill.
She says it’s clear the current juvenile justice model — which she characterises as an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff — is not working.
“These young people are often lonely and seeking attention, and sometimes negative attention is better than no attention at all,” she said.
“It is absolutely heartbreaking to see children who, whilst their numerical age may be older, their intellectual age is around 10 or 12, and they don’t understand things like cause and effect.”
‘We must intervene early’
Ms McGowan-Jones, who has Arrente and Warumungu heritage believes the focus on reactive punishment rather than preventative investment is driving recidivism.
“Our current approach is making these young people more likely to become lifelong criminals, rather than focusing on a really comprehensive approach to early intervention, prevention, diversion and support,” she said.
“We must be making sure that where there’s a child at risk of significant contact with the criminal justice system, that we’re intervening early and providing wraparound supports to divert them.
“We have to get to that point, or we will continue to bury children who have taken their own lives, and we will continue to have to build prisons for adult offenders who were children when they started offending.”
Both state and federal governments have increased funding for division programs in recent years, including an $81 million Commonwealth spend on justice reinvestment initiatives which started in 2022.
Raising the age
The increase in youth crime comes as states and territories wrestle with whether to lower the age of criminal responsibility, which has historically been set at 10 years of age.
The debate goes to the crux of the dilemma over whether to treat child offenders with a welfare or law and order approach.
So far the Northern Territory is the only jurisdiction to raise the age to 12, with Victoria set to follow suit later this year.
Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT have all committed to raising the age to 14 within the next few years.
The changes mean younger children will no longer face criminal charges if caught offending, and instead will be case managed or directed to diversionary programs.