A senior citizen has been stabbed in a random street attack while on a morning walk, hours after a woman was knifed by an unknown assailant at a shopping centre in the same city.
The 71-year-old male victim was walking near Crighton Reserve in Port Melbourne about 5.20am on Friday when an unknown man stabbed him three times, police said.
He was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries and investigators were unable to locate the attacker.
It comes as two boys were charged over separate stabbings, one of which was another random early morning attack on a woman in a shopping centre.
Police allege the 16-year-old boy stabbed the woman walking to work inside the M-City Shopping Centre in Melbourne's southeast about 7.50am on Thursday.
The boy was out on bail and has since been charged with theft, intentionally and recklessly cause injury, and assault with a weapon.
He has been remanded in custody and will appear at a children's court at a later date.
Separately, police on Friday charged a 15-year-old from the Hume area in Melbourne's north over a stabbing in February.
He has been charged with intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, conduct endangering life, common law assault, and possessing, use and assault with a weapon.
The boy was remanded to appear before a children's court at a later date.
In a bid to curb rising youth crime, social workers will be deployed to dozens of schools across Victoria, where young offenders are driving record arrest rates.
At least 23 schools will receive early intervention officers who will identify vulnerable students at risk of offending under a $5.6 million commitment from the state government.
Deputy Premier Ben Carroll said youth crime programs were an important way to address the issue.
Social workers in schools would help foster positive peer relationships and improve outcomes for at-risk children, he said.
"The message is there will be empathy. We want to work with you, we want to help you and support you. But equally there will be accountability," Mr Carroll told reporters on Friday.
"You've got two pathways here, a life of purpose and a life of crime.
"We prefer you to be the lawyer in the courtroom, not the defendant."
Children committed 57.6 per cent of carjackings, 52.6 per cent of home invasions, 47.8 per cent of aggravated burglaries and 62.4 per cent of robberies.
Police arrested 1223 children a combined 6997 times, with an average of four youth gang members arrested each day in 2025.
A record number of machetes and knives were also seized across that period.
Despite the increase in overall youth crime, Police Minister Anthony Carbines said there were signs targeted reforms are working.
Bail refusals and revocations increased at the Magistrates Court and Children's Court in 2025, which he said was evidence the laws were having an effect.
While overall crime is still trending upwards, police say growth is beginning to stabilise following years of sharp increases but believe a major reduction is unlikely in the near future.
