Indigenous advocates and criminologists are concerned the Queensland government’s youth crime crackdown is a “knee-jerk” reaction to recent tragedies that could lead to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being disproportionately affected.
While crime experts acknowledge there has been a rise in repeat youth offending, they note the overall number of youth offenders has been decreasing, and say the new measures are unlikely to prevent further youth crime because they don’t address social issues.
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, announced on Tuesday that seven legislative changes to be passed by the government later this month include allowing judges to order recidivist offenders aged 16 and 17 be fitted with GPS trackers as a condition of bail.
Debbie Kilroy, the chief executive of the prisoner advocacy service Sisters Inside, is critical of the changes. She said they “will ensure more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children will be imprisoned”.
“This is a knee-jerk response, and knee-jerk is not the way forward,” Kilroy said. “It must come from consultation with non-government organisations who have the answers and have been working on the ground and getting results.”
Kilroy believes claims of a youth crime wave have been “whipped up” by police and the media and the “hysteria” that’s generated is responsible for vigilantism.
The government’s changes will also introduce a presumption against bail for offenders who commit serious indictable offences such as breaking and entering, sexual assault and armed robbery while on bail. Parents and guardians will have to provide assurances in court that bail conditions will be met before young offenders are released.
Youth justice laws will be amended to note that the community must be protected from recidivist offenders and that offending on bail is an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes.
Anti-hooning laws will make vehicle owners responsible for crimes – unless their vehicle is stolen or if they can identify another driver.
Gold Coast police will be given metal detectors to search youths for knives and a parliamentary inquiry will examine the use of remote engine immobilisers for vehicles.
The state government’s youth crime crackdown comes after a series of road deaths involving young offenders, including the deaths of pedestrians Kate Leadbetter, who was pregnant, and her partner, Matt Field. They were struck by an allegedly stolen car driven by a teenager in Alexandra Hills on 26 January.
Calls for reform increased with the death of 22-year-old motorcyclist Jennifer Board at Thuringowa in Townsville on Friday night. She was hit by a Holden Statesman which had allegedly been following a stolen Hyundai sedan during an alleged vigilante pursuit.
Palaszczuk said the changes target about 400 repeat offenders, many of whom are Indigenous, who are allegedly responsible for almost half of all youth crime.
“They will feel the full force of the law when it comes to our changes on bail,” she said.
Queensland police assistant commissioner Cheryl Scanlon – a former police anti-terrorism commander – has been charged with overseeing the plan. She said: “It’s not the panacea but it is one tool that we don’t have right now.”
Far-north Queensland police Chief Supt Brian Huxley said he still needed to review the changes but he welcomed “anything which is likely to improve community safety” against a “dramatic increase in the number of serious crimes being committed by young people”.
“They’re stealing cars. They’re breaking into people’s homes. They’re robbing people. It’s a bloody disgrace,” he said, while also cautioning against vigilantism in the community.
Molly McCarthy, a research fellow at Griffith University’s Criminology Institute, has been examining Queensland’s crime trends for young offenders over the past 12 years and said there had been a reduction in the number of youth offenders.
“We have fewer young people offending, however within that group of youth offenders, we have had a growth of repeat youth offenders, of about 1,000-1,500 people,” McCarthy said.
She said this group of reoffenders “engage primarily in property crime” and don’t tend to be violent. However, she noted the fatal consequences of incidents over the past two weeks.
“A youth crime wave doesn’t make sense in the context of the decline the data shows, but for some communities the rise in prolific reoffending will be acutely felt,” McCarthy said.
The research fellow is concerned the new changes are “disproportionate” and noted GPS tracking was previously used for sexual offenders. Not providing bail will increase the “offending identity” many young people develop when in custody, she said.
Ross Homel, a criminology professor at Griffith University, said while he understood the government didn’t want to be seen as failing to respond to recent tragic incidents, the new measures were “unlikely to prevent further youth crime”.
He agreed with Kilroy that the changes could disproportionately affect Indigenous children because currently about 80% of youth offenders in Townsville are Indigenous.
Homel hopes to see scientifically based early intervention strategies to support children as young as four experiencing trauma, as well as children being suspended from school. He believes these strategies would successfully prevent long-term youth crime as they can be done in partnership with disadvantaged families.
“It should be done with people, not to them,” Homel said.
The Queensland opposition leader, David Crisafulli, tentatively welcomed the government’s plan.
- with Australian Associated Press
