Damien Atkinson, KC, a barrister and Youth Advocacy Centre chair, says no Queenslander should be a victim of crime, but harsher penalties also won’t solve the situation.
“If you just respond by being tougher on crime you fill the detention centres but when those young people are eventually let out, they’ll just be angrier than when they went in,” he said.
Does anyone have the stats to back up one way or the other as to whether youth crime has increased or not?
Locking what are essentially children up in detention constantly isn’t the answer, but at the same time I’m getting a bit sick of people’s shit getting stolen and there appearing to be no consequences for the offender. No real idea on age, but they look young in security camera footage that gets posted. Younger than me anyway. Get off my lawn, etc etc.
Be mindful that the ‘footage that gets posted’ is an easy way to get a skewed view of things, particularly if browsing local community groups. ‘Concerned citizens’ are often those well-to-do enough to afford security cameras and valuable items in the first place lol.
wayward kids are a result of wayward parents are a result of decades of paternalistic and xenophobic domestic policy.
The issue isn’t the kids, it’s the situations they’re brought up in as a result of being marginalized their entire lives.Does anyone have the stats to back up one way or the other as to whether youth crime has increased or not?
There is no age breakup in the search-able stats here: https://mypolice.qld.gov.au/queensland-crime-statistics/
If you download this report: https://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/issues/7856/crime-report-qld-2021-22.pdf
On page 70 of the pdf (section 6.5.2) it shows a large drop in youth offences than a decade ago
From the report: “There were 10,620 unique child offenders in 2021–22, a 20.5% decrease from 13,352 in 2012–13. The rate of unique child offenders also continued its steady decline to 1,926.4 per 100,000 persons aged 10–17 years, the lowest level recorded over the time series”
So, no the rate of youth crime has dropped dramatically.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
That brought Queensland into line with other states, but the youth detention centres began to struggle with overcrowding, so children were held in police watch houses, some for weeks.
But two years later, in the face of growing community concerns and a number of high-profile deaths, including Matthew Field, Kate Leadbetter and their unborn baby, who were hit and killed by a 17-year-old driver, there was a major youth crime crackdown.
The issues culminated in a case in the Supreme Court earlier this month, which saw a judge order the urgent transfer of three children to youth detention centres after the state couldn’t establish the lawfulness of their stay in police watch houses.
Among them, Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall, who condemned the changes as “rash,” and “alarming,” and warned they would not reduce youth crime or make the community safer.
Damien Atkinson, KC, a barrister and Youth Advocacy Centre chair, says no Queenslander should be a victim of crime, but harsher penalties also won’t solve the situation.
Criticised by crime victims and youth justice advocates alike, while also being accused by the LNP of “trashing” the parliamentary process by rushing through the amendments, avoiding public consultation.
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