With youth crime rising and calls for tougher policies growing louder, are we turning our backs on second chances and hope for redemption?
Pakenham resident James, who has witnessed repeated youth thefts in his neighbourhood, believes second chances are important but not unlimited.
“Absolutely there is room for second chances, but should there be a fourth, fifth and sixth? No,” he said.
While he acknowledges that no one grows up aspiring to be a criminal, James says the system is failing to shift outcomes.
“Prevention is not working nor is accountability. To use the carrot and stick analogy, we are using too much carrot and not enough stick,” he said.
“Accountability through the legal system is lax at best and prevention is not being given the powers to be a viable deterrent.
“We cannot do these youth criminals a disservice by not holding them accountable when it has the most chance of changing their outcomes and choices in life.”
Victoria Police spokesperson told the Gazette that child crime in Victoria remains at the highest levels since electronic records commenced in 1993.
Over the past year, police have made more than 3,300 arrests of Victoria’s worst youth offenders as part of Operation Trinity (home burglaries and car thefts) and Operation Alliance (youth gangs).
Among them are 330 hardened young offenders arrested three or more times for committing serious and violent crimes such as breaking into homes, stealing cars, carrying knives, and assaulting and robbing people.
“Given the level of harm being caused, it is imperative that community safety outweighs the rights of a young person who repeatedly commits serious and crime when it comes to bail decisions,” spokesperson said.
However, where appropriate, police continue to use “cautions” when dealing with first time, low-level offenders.
Victoria Police also has a range of initiatives in place to uncover the root of youth offending and link the young person in with relevant support services.
These include the Embedded Youth Outreach Program which pairs a social worker with a police officer on patrol, to ensure support is offered to a young person at their time of crisis.
Victoria Police’s Crime Reduction Teams proactively engage with serious offenders and their families at regular intervals in an attempt to stop their offending and also make clear the repercussions if they fail to do so.
The spokesperson also warned that “the earliest official indication on how the first tranche of bail changes is working will start to emerge in the next CSA data release”.
In a street vox-pop with the Gazette, locals said lasting change requires a balanced mix of rehabilitation, prevention, and accountability. They urged the government to fund research into why youth offend and improve support for victims and families
Meanwhile, the Liberal Party’s “Break Bail, Face Jail” policy has been criticized by locals for lacking compassion and balance.
Opposition Leader Brad Battin defended the approach, arguing the current system has failed to protect communities.
“The system at the moment has continued to see young offenders get out of the system up to 30-40 times and the level of violent crime increases,” Battin said.
“So we need to make sure that the justice system has its priorities right and that community safety is paramount. But our goal would be to ensure we keep them out of the system through diversions in the first place.”
Battin believes the system needs a reset based on evidence.
“The priority here has to be looking at the crime stats. We know what’s been done is not working so it needs to be effectively restated,” he said.
“We need to look not just here locally but around the world at the best practice for crime prevention, the best practice for engaging with young people at risk and then finally looking at what sentencing and punitive measures you can use.
When the kids go into the jail system, we’re making sure they come out better not worse, which is what’s happening here in the state.”
When it comes to second chances, former police officer says the circumstances matter.
“It’s obviously very difficult. If a young offender steals a mars bar, of course they deserve a second chance,” Battin said.
“But if they go into someone’s house with a machete to threaten the family, then I think it needs to be seriously considered and community safety is the priority in those circumstances.”
