Youth Crime Increases in Australian State, Greens Push to Increase Age of Criminal Responsibility

Victoria police logo photographed in Melbourne, Australia on March 24, 2016.Scott Barbour/Getty Images

New statistics show an increase in youth crime across the state of Victoria, but the overall crime rate has dropped to an eight-year low.

On Dec. 15, the Victorian state government’s Crime Statistic Agency (CSA) released their annual crime statistics, showing the number of criminal offences in Victoria in the last 12 months to Sept. 30 fell to 474,446—a decrease of 4.3 percent when compared to the same time last year.

However, an increase of 8.6 percent in youth crimes was committed by people aged between 10- and 17-years-old and were responsible for the additional 1,343 offences in the last 12 months.

The rise in the statistics comes just after two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, were charged with affray and violent disorder in relation to the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Hashim Mohammed in St Kilda, Melbourne.

In October, two teenagers, aged 15 and 17, were charged with aggravated carjacking, theft of motor vehicle, and assault with a weapon.

Victorian Police points a significant proportion of the serious offences to organised youth crime gangs.

Family incidents also decreased by 1.1 percent in the last 12 months, with 91,500 incidents recorded across the state. However, Victorian police said that offences can go unreported for long periods of time, and to treat the figures with caution.

Even though aggravated burglaries—when a victim is at home at the time of the crime—has risen to its highest rate at 4,214 since 2016, Victoria’s crime rate has fallen to its lowest in eight years, with 19 of the 28 subcategories recording decreases within this 12-month period.

“While we anticipate overall crime will increase gradually as we move further away from the pandemic, Victoria Police will be doing everything we can to keep crime as low as possible,” said Deputy Commissioner Rick Nugent, reported The Age.

“Unfortunately, all offending cannot be prevented, and when serious crimes occur, we will respond and ensure those responsible are arrested as soon as possible.”

Police Operation Tackle Youth Crime Groups

Victorian Police launched Operation Alliance back in September 2020, as a dedicated state-wide operation to target youth gangs and youth groups.

The long-term strategy is embedded across four regions and 21 divisions in Victoria. Operation Alliance is designed to detect, disrupt, and dismantle youth gangs before they can cause significant harm to the community, according to Victoria Police.

On Dec. 20, detectives from Melbourne’s South-East Dandenong arrested and charged two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, with affray and assault of a 16-year-old victim.

Since the start of the state-wide operation, the overall number of youth gang members reduced by 103 people, the Victoria Police reported on Dec. 20. More than 1,350 arrests, resulting in nearly 3,000 charges being laid have been made in the year leading up to December 2022.

Members of the Victoria Police patrol through Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne, Australia, on Sept. 20, 2020. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Australian Youth Detention Population

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released a report on Dec. 13, covering the youth detention population in Australia from June 2018 to June 2022.

It stated that an average of 818 youth were in detention on an average night in the June 2022 quarter.

Most (81 percent) youth in detention were aged between 14 and 17, with the remaining 5 percent aged 10 to 13, and over 18-year-olds totalled 13 percent. In the quarter reviewed, 90 percent were male and nearly 60 percent were of Indigenous heritage.

Even though during the four-year period the number of youth in detention centres fluctuated, it had decreased down to 818 in the June 2022 quarter, from 969 in the same quarter in 2018.

Victorian Greens Push to Raise Criminal Age

The Victorian Greens Party reintroduced a bill to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10- to 14-years-old at the first sitting of the state’s 60th Parliament on Dec. 20.

The bill would also prohibit the use of solitary confinement on children held in youth detention.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam introduced the same bill to the upper house in 2021, which lapsed due to the November state election.

Federal, state, and territory attorneys general met earlier this month and agreed to release the 2020 draft report that recommended raising the age to 14.

Northern Territory’s age of criminal responsibility will increase to 12 from 2023, while in the ACT, it will increase to 14 in 2027.

The Tasmanian government plans on increasing the minimum age of youth in detention to 14, but keep the age of criminal responsibility at 10.

“We need to treat children as children, not as criminals. Criminalising children creates a vicious cycle of disadvantage and only deepens the racial injustice in this country,” said Ratnam.

“As a community we have a duty to listen to First Nations people who are crying out for justice reform including raising the age of criminal responsibility.

“Children need to be kept out of the justice system for as long as possible. Locking them up at such a young age makes them more likely to reoffend.”

Premier Daniel Andrews gave his support to raise the age of criminal responsibility if there are no moves to do so by the federal government.

“It is not just our right but our responsibility to make sure that this is the most progressive state of the nation, and the laws we have reflect the values and hope and aspiration of our Victorian community to lead the nation,” he said, reported The Age.

Brad Battin, Shadow Minister for Criminal Justice Reform, also gave support for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised, with the condition that governments strengthen services to support at-risk youth.

“You can’t just raise the age and think these kids will walk home and be fine. No, we need the systems. But if we can do that successfully, we will save a fortune in the long term for not putting these kids in jail,” Battin told The Age.

“And almost without fail, if you looked at their history, you could identify them as high risk at a very young age because they had a parent in jail or with addiction problems, a lack of family support, had been in and out of care–a whole range of things.”

Meanwhile, Law Council of Australia strongly advocated for all jurisdictions to increase the age of criminal responsibility to 14.

The group wrote in the Council of Attorneys-General–Age of Criminal Responsibility Working Group Review (pdf) that a “low minimum age of 10 years old does not make our communities safer.”

“Instead, it is likely to entrench criminality and creates cycles of disadvantage that heighten reoffending rates. Contact with the criminal justice system is criminogenic for children,” the report said.

“Raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility is an issue of acute national importance. Across Australia, children as young as 10 years old are currently at risk of being incarcerated.”