Disadvantage most likely crime trigger
A FORENSIC psychologist says young people with a history of blocked opportunities are more likely to commit crimes, but GPS tracking and tightening breach of bail laws aren’t the answers.
Bond University Professor Dr Bruce Watt, who has more than 20 years of experience working in youth detention centres and children’s courts assessing juvenile offenders, said a majority of crimes committed by young people were reactive of an unconventional and unstable upbringing.
“(The public) perceive crimes as being wilful or against society, which it is for a small proportion of juveniles, but then for the majority of juveniles who are involved in crime, it reflects more that disadvantage.”
Dr Watt said these disadvantages can come from family violence, alcohol and drug misuse, and a broader community poverty.
“Children learn from what they see so if a child is in an environment where they see violence, if they have parents who are committing crime or are using drugs, then that’s what they learn as being a normal type of experience.”
Youth Justice Department figures show that between 2018-19 more than 60 per cent of young offenders in Queensland had experienced or been impacted by domestic violence, 33 per cent had at least one parent who had spent time in custody and 21 per cent were in “unstable and unsuitable accommodation”. Almost 40 per cent had used ice or experimented with other methamphetamines.
Dr Watt said offenders who “don’t fit (this) prototype” of a juvenile offender might resort to crime because of a predisposition for risktaking behaviours.
“(They might) start socialising with other individuals who already are involved with drugs and crime and then through that initial involvement, what they inadvertently end up doing is cutting off those avenues to divert away.
“They might end up dropping out of school, moving away from family (and) stopping their involvement with non-offending peers.”
Dr Watt says a majority of young people successfully rehabilitate after a first offence but reoffending can occur when juvenile offenders interact with each other.
“If they continue to interact with offending peers, the more that they will lose contact with family, they lose contact with friends who are not involved in crime, (they might) develop an alcohol or drug problem, (or) if they drop out of school and lose their prospects for work, a combination of those factors make it a lot harder for someone to desist from crime.”
On the introduction of GPS trackers on youths, Dr Watt said if young people were “determined to commit crime then a GPS was not going to stop them”.
In fact, he suspected they would “just cut them off”.
“The juveniles who are quite entrenched in committing offences, they’ll probably cut it off and just disregard it – or worse, it might even be a badge of honour.”
Queensland Opposition leader David Crisafulli last week called to reintroduce breach of bail as a criminal offence for young people.
However, Dr Watt said toughening bail laws alone would not reduce the youth crime rate and may have potential adverse effects for young Aboriginal people.
The Royal Commission investigated Aboriginal deaths in custody that occurred between 1980-89. The report outlined 339 recommendations including that imprisonment be a last resort.
Dr Watt said the breachof-bail laws would “probably increase the rate of young Aboriginal people being locked up” and would therefore be “counter-productive to what the recommendations were over 30 years ago”.
Dr Watt said it was important for “people providing interventions and members of the community to work collaboratively” to develop appropriate solutions to reform youth crime.
He said early intervention by child protection services was not always possible, and often challenging due to lack of resources, but identifying at-risk students could be done in schools.
“Once these children start to gravitate into the school environment, they’re sort of behind because of the family experiences they’ve had and they’re vulnerable to underachievement at school and behavioural problems.”
Youth Justice Department data shows more than half of young offenders were disengaged from education or without employment, and more than half had a mental illness or behavioural disorder, diagnosed and suspected.
“So then we’re looking at identifying these children early when they come to the attention of school authorities to allocate resources to these children and their families to try to prevent that (deviant) trajectory for them so they don’t get involved in crime in their adolescence.”
Children learn from what they see so if a child is in an environment where they see violence ... (and) drugs ... then that’s what they learn as being a normal type of experience Professor Dr Bruce Watt (right)