CRIME WAVE

• Published date: 12 August 2023
• Publication title: Whanganui Chronicle

Both major parties have set out plans to tackle youth crime, while the Act Party wants to reverse a change it supported in 2017, which moved 17-year-olds into the Youth Court unless for very serious offending

These announcements follow the swell of public opinion: 87 per cent of New Zealanders believe levels of youth crime have increased in the past five years.

But just because youth crime is more visible doesn’t mean it’s on the rise, even if a huge majority of people think it is.

So what do the statistics say, what downstream impacts can be seen from rising or falling youth offending, and has the change for 17-year-olds made any difference?

A drastic fall and

recent spike Recorded youth crime has been in freefall since 2007, a year when just over 5000 people aged between 10 and 16 faced charges. Last year it was fewer than 1000 people for that age group, and overall it was 1416 people including 17-year-olds, who have been in the Youth Court’s jurisdiction since July 2019.

The greatest decreases over the last decade have been in traffic and vehicle offences (a 71 per cent drop), property damage and environmental pollution (69 per cent) and, despite the recent jump in ram raids, unlawful entry/burglary (66 per cent).

The number of charges has also fallen, though not as sharply as the number of those facing charges. There were 10,701 charges across those aged 10 to 16 in 2013, but this dropped by 43 per cent to 6060 charges by 2022, and is still a decent drop (22 per cent) if charges against 17-year-olds are included.

Despite these declining trends, there was an uptick in 2022 — a 6 per cent increase in the number of young people charged compared to 2021, and a 14 per cent rise in the number of charges, mainly due to 500 more thefts, though sexual assault charges jumped by more than 50 per cent.

Part of the increase has been attributed to higher court traffic last year due to the clearing of the Covid backlog.

But Chief Children’s Commissioner Judge Frances Eivers has also said there’s been an increase in youth crime, mainly impacting Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch.

Theft was more than three times as prevalent as any other charge in 2022, but the number of young offenders charged with theft didn’t increase nearly as sharply. This follows a general trend in the sector, offenders are on average facing more charges.

There’s also been a much greater focus on non-punitive responses.

Almost three-quarters of those charged in 2021/22 had their charges proved, but in most cases they were still discharged without conviction.

Half of all those charged (up from 20 per cent 30 years ago) received what is known as a section 282 absolute discharge, where they accept responsibility and complete an intervention programme — this might include community work, or alcohol and drug counselling — following a Youth Court-ordered family group conference. After completion, the charges are tossed out as if never brought.

Sixteen per cent were given a Youth Court order, which can range in severity from an admonishment and discharge to an adult sentence in the district court. A further 6 per cent were convicted and sentenced in an adult court (very serious offending is automatically transferred to the adult system).

The remaining 26 per cent had their charge dismissed or withdrawn.

The first contact in the system is often with police, and most offending is dealt with via a warning or a referral to police youth aid.

There’s also been a massive drop in police proceedings (including warnings, alternative action, family group conferences and prosecutions) against young people, which have more than halved in the last decade:

●Between 2011/12 and 2021/22, the number of proceedings per 10,000 people aged 14-16 fell from 1091 proceedings to 407 (which included 17-year-olds).

●For those aged 10-13 over the same period, the number of proceedings fell from 263 to 109 per 10,000 children.

A justice sector long-term insights report into imprisonment found a similar trend, though for the 15 to 19 age group: “In the last five years until June 2022, the number of Police proceedings against young people had dropped by 58 per cent, the number of court actions had dropped by 64 per cent, and the number of warnings (largely Police pre-charge warnings) dropped by 72 per cent.”

Reductions in the

justice pipeline An academic paper published last month, A Sharp Decline in Youth Crime, looked at the downstream impacts of falling youth crime between 1998 and 2019, focusing on the rate of emerging adults (those aged 17 to 24) coming into...