OPINION

Last Friday I went walkabout, visiting various businesses in our CBD. While I did acquire some great new Perspex earrings, shopping wasn’t the purpose.

I was there to find out from shop owners how our local response to youth offending is going.

There’s a lot being talked about young offenders right now. Having spent years working in and researching the courts, especially the criminal courts, I know that, overall, statistics show youth crime has been falling steadily over the past decade.

However, there is still offending and, if you’re affected, statistics won’t repair your window or replace your losses.

What statistics can do is identify real solutions. Harsher penalties might seem obvious, but in actual fact, they rarely work. Young people need consequences, but decades of experience here and overseas show that just increasing penalties has little impact.

Most young offenders offend in the heat of the moment, with little thought about possible costs, while prison is often little more than a training ground for criminals.

What does work is getting in early to get kids back on track when they first start to drift, which is why the Government is investing more in programmes proven to do just that.

Covid disruptions have tipped some of our most marginalised young people out of education and training and into some very antisocial alternatives. We need a comprehensive approach to get them back on track.

We’ve already delivered New Zealand’s largest-ever police service and we’re changing the law to give them greater powers to seize gang assets, to ensure crime does not pay. We’re also investing in innovative courts like the Youth Court’s offshoot, the Rangatahi Courts.

Because these courts operate in private, many people don’t realise just how in-depth and tough they are, with months of intensive rehab and retraining – and they work.

Meanwhile, we’re increasing pathways to better opportunities, extending programmes with a proven record of success in supporting more young people into jobs and training, and driving down youth crime.

The programmes we’re scaling up, including He Poutama Rangatahi and the Ākonga Fund, play different roles from helping people into education, training and jobs, to more wrap-around support from skilled social workers. All are shown to help at-risk young people turn their lives around.

There’s no simple solution. But my Friday walkabout shows a co-ordinated response helps. We’ve brought together schools, police, Ministry of Social Development, council and other agencies to mount a joint response to stopping kids’ offending.

I want to thank our local schools who mounted a fantastic, innovative social media campaign to encourage kids back into school, our police and CitySafe who increased their foot patrols, and MSD, which is co-ordinating interventions with whānau.

Schools say attendance is already rising, the police say kids’ offending is reducing, and that’s also the report on the ground from CBD shops.

By taking a wrap-around approach and investing in pathways to better opportunities for more young Kiwis, we’re helping break the cycle of crime and gang activity, making Whangārei safer.