Help them earlier to beat crime

Report says timely intervention is cheaper and more effective than jails or harsh measures like boot camps

It is never too early to start intervening in a child’s life to steer them away from a life of crime, a new report on youth offending in New Zealand says. Targeting children young with social and mental health services — in some cases before they are even born — is more effective and less costly than prison or harsh punishments when it comes to reducing youth crime, it says.

“It’s a lot cheaper, there are fewer victims, and it gives them better outcomes in terms of their own lives,” said justice sector adviser Dr Ian Lambie, the lead author.

His findings were based on the latest science on youth justice, and were published yesterday by the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman.

It comes as the coalition Government considers an overhaul of the criminal justice system, including a focus on finding alternatives to prison and punitive measures.

Lambie said many of the conclusions were in a similar report 20 years ago, but the recommendations had simply not been acted on.

The number of young offenders in New Zealand’s justice system was falling, and some of the programmes targeting them had proven successful. But more needed to be done to prevent them from getting into the criminal justice system in the first place, the report said.

Once they were in the system, they already had mental health or addiction problems, learning difficulties, or a record of abuse.

Young people who were sent to jail were more likely to reoffend quickly, partly because their brains were still ● ● ● ● developing into their 20s. For that reason, measures like diversion, restorative justice and specialist Ma¯ori and Pacific courts were more effective than jail or punishments like boot camps, which the report said actually increased crime.

Lambie, from the University of Auckland’s psychology department, said the evidence showed that the Government should place greater emphasis on stopping criminal behaviour before it started.

“You’re talking about pre-birth. It’s never too early to make a difference.”

Many of the programmes and ideas for this approach already existed, and simply needed to be expanded or properly funded, or to be run by people with better training.

They included positive parenting programmes, home visits, training for teachers in dealing with problematic children and programmes designed to improve self-control.

Where children had been abused or neglected, it was crucial they received treatment before they turned to crime, Lambie said. Trauma could be treated as early as infancy.

Mental health treatment and other early interventions could be implemented at a fraction of the cost of imprisonment, his report said.

Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft said the report was “deeply illuminating” and should be compulsory reading for all New Zealanders.

“It shows that for the serious incidents of young offending, the causes are common, deep-seated and start early in a child’s life.”

Becroft said the solutions to youth offending would not be found in tougher prison sentences.

“The real solutions are early and concentrated intervention in families and encouraging school attendance.”