YOUR LOCAL MP Why boot camps are not the solution to youth crime

Roffending was 84 per cent when boot camps were last tried

What to do about youth crime has become a concern for many people lately, and is something I’ve been discussing with local businesses and victims of attacks, police, other agencies and the council as we co-ordinate our response, and in community meetings around the district.

After many years in the criminal court as an academic and a lawyer, and now in Parliament’s Justice Select Committee, these are discussions I’ve been having for a while. Youth crime attracts a lot of research. Research won’t mend a broken window, return stolen goods or give a sense of safety, but it does help us figure out how to stop reoffending effectively, which is what the Whangārei people I talk to want.

So, what do we know? First, despite spikes like this latest one, overall, youth crime in NZ has been steadily reducing, by about 60 per cent since 2010.

Second, most young people — about 98 per cent — never offend. Of the 2 per cent who do, most offend only once. Police diversion sorts less serious offenders, while the Youth Court process straightens out the most serious offenders. Only a small percentage reoffend, with about 10 per cent of that original 2 per cent committing about 50 per cent of youth crimes. It’s this tiny group we’re seeing at the moment.

We also know how not to respond. We’ve known for years that lock-‘emup measures, like the Opposition’s recent announcement about reintroducing boot camps, just don’t work. The last time boot camps were tried — under Sir John Key — reoffending was 84 per cent. Key’s own chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, declared them a dud, alongside harsher measures like imprisoning young people.

Gluckman’s point was that these kids don’t respond to a quick-fix “short, sharp shock” approach, because they can’t. Most come from seriously violent families, almost all have been abused from a very young age, they have high levels of learning disabilities, drug and alcohol addictions, mental health disorders and traumatic brain injuries, and almost none are in school.

Boot camps and harsher penalties mean nothing to them. They don’t consider consequences — and you can’t march people out of a brain injury. Several long-serving Whangārei officers have told me the kids they’re arresting today are the grandchildren of people they were arresting as young officers. They say we need to deal with the whole picture — addiction, family violence, education — to create change. We also need to be targeting these kids before they become criminals; the earlier the better.

This is why the Government’s approach is to extend programmes proven to help at-risk youth into education, training and jobs, and provide support from skilled social workers. We’re also supporting Youth Courts to be innovative in their approach. Meanwhile, we’ve increased childcare eligibility and the Best Start benefit for babies aged zero to 3 so at-risk preschoolers get support earlier. We’ve already delivered New Zealand’s largest-ever police service, and we’re increasing their powers to seize gang assets.

There’s no simple solution, but already in South Auckland and in Whangārei, youth offending is reducing under this approach.

Some may call it “soft on crime”, but it’s really just being pragmatic: Do what works. Don’t waste money on knee-jerk nonsense we already know doesn’t work — that’s just polishing the pipeline to prison. 1

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Several long-serving Whangārei officers have told me the kids they’re arresting today are the grandchildren of people they were arresting as young officers.

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