Victoria’s youth crime crisis is impacting community safety with the latest Crime Statistics Agency confirming youth offending has increased by 32% in Baw Baw and by 20% across Gippsland.
In the Baw Baw Shire, a majority of offences took place in Warragul with the most common offences being criminal damage and breaches in family violence orders. Increases in cost of living have also seen rises in theft across the state.
From April 2022 to March 2023 there were 1695 alleged offender incidents for youths aged between 10 – 17 years in Gippsland; by March 2024 this surged to 2043 in the past 12 months. In Baw Baw Shire, there were approximately 400 offences committed by those 17 and under.
After bail reforms were passed through Parliament last October, new legislation came into place in March of this year.
The reforms have been criticised by Liberal, Nationals and Greens MPs who point to Labor’s budget cuts on crime diversion and prevention programs and the increasing vacancies on police rosters.
The Nationals are demanding the Allan Labor Government introduce reforms within the youth justice system and bolster police powers through legislative amendments.
This call to curb youth crime comes after Dr Ashley Gordon was fatally injured during a home invasion in January.
Dr Gordon’s Latrobe Valley family are demanding the state government crackdown on youth crime through their parliamentary petition that seeks greater ‘stop and search’ powers for police; a reinstatement of section 30B of the Bail Act; and a cancellation of plans to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.
The Nationals’ Member for Eastern Victoria, Melina Bath said her experience sitting with and listening to Natalie, Dr Ashley Gordon’s sister and his extended family, with Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron was harrowing.
“No one should have to experience what the Gordon family has,” she said.
New data shows that over 2700 youths breached bail over the past year, the equivalent of one breach every three hours.
“It is beyond frustrating for police who work hard to get youth offenders off the street, only for bail granted through the court,” she said.
The bail laws were not introduced without reason though.
Under previous legislation, bail laws disproportionately impacted women, children and young people, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as well as people living with a disability.
These stricter bail laws led to increases in those in remand and pre-trial detention and ingenious people are more likely to be remanded in custody than given bail. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, approximately 34% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are incarcerated are unsentenced.
Last year, a Coronial Inquest found that previous bail laws discriminate against Aboriginal people, are incompatible with Victoria’s Human Rights Charter and should be changed urgently.
While the new data published by the Crime Statistics Agency looks worrying, there are alternative elements to be considered.
While there has been an increase in youth offender incidents, when accounting for population growth, figures seem more consistent. In 2024 there were 3,365 offenders per 100,000 persons aged between 10 and 17 – not dissimilar from 3,358 in 2017.
While youth crime incidents (as well as crime rates across all ages) have increased from 2023 to 2024, they are still lower than the reported number of offences in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Many youth offenders are also victims of unsafe, abusive or neglectful households, meaning the solution may not be incarceration, stricter bail laws or more severe punishment, but increased opportunities for support and education.
