from YAPRap November 2005
by Garner Clancey, CHD Partners*
Youth Crime Series
A series of 6 YAPRap articles deal with multiple aspects of youth crime in NSW. These articles will draw together data and research findings to provide a comprehensive overview of youth crime in NSW. By providing current information and data, hopefully you can directly challenge inaccurate news stories and moral panic about youth crimes.
Youth crime - the perception
The front page of the Daily Telegraph on 31 January 2005 stated:
UNTOUCHABLE - even though he's broken the law 30 times.
The story begins:
A nine-year-old tearaway caught breaking the law more than 30 times cannot be arrested - because he is too young.
A follow-up story on February 7 announces:
The untouchables: suburb lives in fear.
The story suggests that "residents and businesses are being terrorized by gangs of young criminals".
These headlines and stories are but a small selection of the steady flow of stories that dissect youth crime in NSW. But how accurate are these stories? Do they convey the realities of youth crime in NSW? What is the 'real picture'?
I will present some key facts to shed light on current youth crime trends. The exact level of youth crime will never truly be known, as available crime data will always be affected by reporting and recording procedures. Fear of recrimination, the triviality of offences, policing practices and the perceived honesty of the person reporting the crime are just some of the factors that result in artificial fluctuations in reported crime statistics and inaccuracies in reported crime data. Despite these limitations, we know enough about youth crime to challenge the sensationalised images often conveyed by parts of the media.
Young people in NSW - Context for discussions
Before considering levels of youth crime, it is necessary to gain an understanding of the actual number of young people in NSW. Establishing what percentage of the youth population come to the attention of the police, are put before court and are sentenced to custody requires an understanding of the total number of young people.
In NSW, as with other states and territories, the juvenile justice system operates for those persons aged above 10 years and below 18 years at the time of their offending. Some Australian states and territories set a lower upper level of juvenile criminal responsibility (ie. 16 or 17 years of age), but many overseas countries have higher (and in some cases much higher) minimum age of criminal responsibility (ie. 14 or even 16 years of age).
Table 1: Population of 10-17 Year-Olds in NSW
Age |
Aboriginal |
Non-Aboriginal |
TOTAL |
10 |
3,334 |
83,725 |
90,863 |
11 |
3,086 |
83,078 |
89,954 |
12 |
3,112 |
82,730 |
89,550 |
13 |
2,913 |
80,983 |
87,488 |
14 |
2,892 |
80,790 |
87,171 |
15 |
2,787 |
82,051 |
88,649 |
16 |
2,612 |
82,625 |
88,820 |
17 |
2,471 |
81,574 |
84,464 |
TOTAL |
23,207 |
657,556 |
706,959 |
Source: ABS 2001 Census Profile
Based on data shown in Table 1, there are little over 700,000 young people aged 10-18 years in NSW. Any consideration of the total number of offenders must be placed in this context.
Youth crime - what we 'know'
There are a number of different sources to help us build an understanding of youth crime in NSW. As has been explained, none are perfect in their ability to paint the entire picture. Rather, different sources combined help to identify trends and key findings. Some of the key sources (including formal interventions and self-reported offending) will be canvassed.
Formal interventions
One measure of youth crime in NSW is the total number of interventions applied against young people. Formal interventions (in this article) only include warnings, cautions, youth justice conferences and court appearances by persons aged above 10 and below 18 years of age at the time of the offence.
Warnings are issues by police 'on the run' for summary offences (i.e. offensive language and behaviour).
Cautions are issued (mostly) by police at the police station in the presence of parents / guardians and are given for more serious offences (including what the lawyers call "indictable offences than can be dealt with summarily", ie. break, enter and steal; steal motor vehicle; malicious damage and assault). Three cautions is the maximum that a young person can receive.
Youth justice conferences involve the victim and young offender coming together to repair the harm caused by the offence (which will mostly be similar to those offences for which cautions can be issued).
Court is reserved for the most serious offences (i.e. murder, sexual offences, drug supply and trafficking) or when the young person does not admit guilt to an offence. (see reference 1 below)
Infringement notices (fines) have not been included here, largely because of the trivial nature of many infringement notices (eg. riding bicycle without helmet, riding train without ticket, etc.). It could be argued that an attempt to quantify the number of young offenders and level of youth crime would be grossly distorted by including the many thousands of infringement notices issued to young people annually. It is unlikely that most people would regard the recipient of an infringement notice for riding without a helmet as an offender, for example. Hence they have not been included in this discussion.
Table 2: Formal Interventions against Young People in NSW
Year |
Warnings |
Cautions |
Youth Justice Conferences |
Year |
Court |
1998 |
2,537 |
5,616 |
508 |
96-97 |
16,113 |
1999 |
8,272 |
8,542 |
1,339 |
97-98 |
15,672 |
2000 |
13,393 |
9,097 |
1,248 |
98-99 |
13,672 |
2001 |
20,265 |
9,465 |
1,148 |
99-00 |
11,436 |
2002 |
33,952 |
9,268 |
1,103 |
00-01 |
9,960 |
2003 |
46,591 |
8,981 |
969 |
01-02 |
10,303 |
2004 |
48,151 |
8,555 |
865 |
02-03 |
9,364 |
Source for Warnings, Cautions and YJCs: NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research Published Crime Statistics Recorded Crime Statistics 2000 and 2004
Source for Court Data: NSW Department of Juvenile Justice Annual Report 2002-2003
From the data presented in Table 2, it is clear that there have been some dramatic changes in the nature of formal interventions in NSW in the past 7-8 years. Perhaps of greatest interest is the dramatic fall in court appearances. The decline from 16,113 in 1996/96 to less than 10,000 in 2002/03, represents a reduction of slightly greater than 40%. This is largely as a consequence of the introduction of the Young Offenders Act , which is also responsible for the increase in diversionary interventions (warnings, cautions and youth justice conferences).
Furthermore, it is clear that the actual number of young people who are formally dealt with in NSW for their involvement in offending is quite small. Leaving warnings aside (for the same reasons infringement notices were excluded), less than 20,000 young people received a caution, participated in a youth justice conference or attended court annually in the most recent years in NSW. In comparison to the 700,000 young people aged between 10 and 18 years of age, this represents quite a small percentage.
Figures from the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice (ref 2) reveal the relatively low level of formal interventions for young people involved in offending:
"In 2003/04, for every 1000 people aged 10-17 residents in NSW:
- 9.3 had a criminal matter in the Children's Court
- 5.6 were convicted and / or sentenced in these finalised matters
- 2.86 were given sentences requiring the Department of Juvenile Justice to supervise them in the community
- 0.6 were sentenced to detention"
With, on average, less than 320 young people in detention in NSW on any one day, a greater than 40% reduction in court appearances for young people in recent years and steady numbers of diversionary interventions, it would be hard to suggest that NSW is in the grip of a youth crime wave.
Self-reported involvement in crime
Official statistics and reported incidents of crime can distort the 'real picture' of crime. Data of this nature provide an insight into some aspects of youth crime. A further source of information is self-reported involvement in criminal activity. The most significant study of this nature undertaken in NSW involved surveying 5,178 secondary school students in 1996. Via these surveys, Baker was able to reveal that "in the 12 months prior to the survey we estimated that 29% of students assaulted someone; 27% maliciously damaged property; 15% received stolen goods; 9% shoplifted; 5% committed break and enter and 5% committed motor vehicle theft" (ref 3)
Further findings from this research suggested that while many young people engaged in criminal activity, very few persisted with such activity. The median number of offences was 1-2 and the average age of those young people involved in crime was 14-16 years of age.
Despite the majority of young people desisting from criminal activity, Baker did reveal that a small group of young people were responsible for a disproportionately large number of offences. Among those students who had committed break and enter, "16 per cent had committed 10 or more in the 12 months prior to the survey. These frequent offenders, however, formed only 1 per cent of all NSW secondary students" (ref 3).
Taken together, self-report data and official intervention statistics suggest that most young people in NSW will have little or no involvement in crime. Those that do, will have fleeting involvement and generally grow out of it by 16 years of age. However, a small percentage of young people will become heavily involved in offending.
Entrenched offenders
Recent research from BOCSAR (ref 4) confirms that a small proportion of young people will become chronic or persistent offenders. BOCSAR tracked 5476 young people who first appeared in Children's Court in 1995 over the proceeding eight years.
Through this tracking, it was revealed that 68 per cent of these young people re-appeared in court (either adult or children's) and 13 per cent were sentenced during this period to adult custody (although approximately 36% of Indigenous young people appearing in a Children's Court in 1995 were subsequently sentenced to adult prison).
Of particular interest (but perhaps intuitive) was the finding that those young people who appeared in Children's Court at a younger age (i.e. between 10 and 12 years of age) were more likely to re-appear in court than those young people who first appeared at a later stage in their life. This suggests the need for considerable attention to early intervention to prevent the transition from juvenile to adult criminal careers.
Summary
We now have considerable information about youth crime. Self-report studies reveal that a significant minority of young people participate in some form of criminal activity, but desist with little or no involvement with police or the courts. Official police and court statistics support this finding, as they confirm that a small proportion of the total 700,000 10-18 year olds in NSW have formal police intervention in any one year. The NSW Department of Juvenile Justice report that less than 1% of young people in NSW appeared in a Children's Court in 2003/04. Of those young people who do appear in Children's Court, however, recent research revealed that 68% had a further court appearance (Children's or adult court) in the following eight years.
These are just some 'facts' about youth crime that can be used to challenge simple assumptions and news stories that exaggerate and sensationalise the involvement of young people in criminal activity.
Young people as victims of crime - the untold story
Popular fiction, television dramas and news and current affairs programs have a tendency to highlight certain features of the youth crime debate - namely, young people as offenders. Little attention is given to young people as victims of crime. Sadly, the lack of attention paid to young people's experiences as victims of crime renders the general public ignorant to the realities of crime in NSW and Australia.
The following statistics have been taken from the Australian Year Book 2003 and reflect selected statistics on victims of crime for 2001.
The highest rate of victims of:
-
assault: 20-24 year olds (1,579 per 100,000) and 15-19 year olds (1,564)
-
kidnapping: 15-19 year olds (13 per 100,000)
-
robbery: 15-19 year olds (399 per 100,000)
-
blackmail / extortion: 15 - 19 year olds (2.8 per 100,000)
-
sexual assault: 15-19 year olds (270 per 100,000) and 0-14 year olds (173 per 100,000). For sexual assault, the highest rate of victimization for males occurs between 0-14 years (80.8 per 100,000), whereas for young women the highest rate of victimization occurs between 15 and 19 years (498 per 100,000).
References
-
See the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW) for a more detailed explanation of warning, cautions and youth justice conferences. A good publication which provides a comprehensive overview of the juvenile justice system is Sanders, J & Grainger, R (2003) Youth Justice: Youth Guide to Cops and Court in NSW, 3rd Edition, Macquarie Legal Centre and Federation Press, Annandale.
-
Page 5, NSW Department of Juvenile Justice (2004) Annual report 2003/2004 , NSW Department of Juvenile Justice, Sydney
-
Page vii, Baker, J (1998) Juveniles in Crime - Part 1: Participation Rates and Risk Factors, Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Sydney.
-
Chen, S, Matruglio, T, Weatherburn, D & Hua, J (2005) 'The transition from juvenile to adult criminal careers', Crime and Justice Bulletin: Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, No. 86, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Sydney
Notes
*CHD Partners www.chdpartners.com.au is a company committed to preventing crime and promoting community safety. Formed by Garner Clancey garner@chdpartners.com.au, Michael Huggett and Sally Doran, CHD Partners provides: research, training, consultancy.
