Law and Order: Youth Crime

   /   
Fear about rising crime has hit a record high in recent political surveys and polling, with law and order now featuring as a major concern for New Zealand voters, next to the cost-of-living crisis and inflation. Concern regarding law and order has crept up in response to alarm regarding increasing ram-raids on shops, dairies and restaurants.

The issue is that there are no 'consequences' for youth crime committed by adolescents under the age of 14 and the reason why many ram raids are committed by children between the ages of 10 and 13. Youth aged between 14 and 17 can be formally charged and prosecuted for any offence. Serious offences like murder, manslaughter, arson, and in the case of 17 years olds “more serious” offences, are dealt with through the adult criminal courts. With the coming election voters will be seriously considering party policies that address youth offending and deter crime.

Youth justice in New Zealand

The Youth Court is governed by the Oranga Tamariki Act (OTA) 1989. However, recognition of ‘children’s rights’, and the roots of youth offending being addressed in a separate manner to adults have been around for significantly longer.

The Juvenile Offenders Act 1906 adapted the existing criminal law for the purposes of young offenders. This was closely aligned with the legislation in England at the time. In 1925, the Child Welfare Act had different objectives, notably to recognise that offending youth were youth in need of State assistance, and it established a separate ‘Children’s Court’.

A new paradigm was initiated in 1974, with the Children and Young Persons Act 1974. This was a hybrid of ‘welfare’ and ‘justice’-based approaches to offending by children and young people. Merely a decade after its enactment, further plans for reform of the law commenced.

The result was the Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 (CYPF Act). The characteristics of the ‘New Zealand model’, acclaimed internationally at the time, are diversion, community-based sanctions, family decision-making and cultural flexibility.

On 13 July 2017, the Children Young Persons, and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Act came into force. This renamed the governing act to the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989, as it is now known.

The OTA 1989 has several important changes, including the extension of Youth Court Jurisdiction to include most 17-year-olds up until their 18th birthday. This change has applied since 01 July 2019.

Youth Justice Principles

The object of the OTA 1989 is to promote the wellbeing of children, young persons and their families, whānau, hapū, iwi and family groups.

There are four primary considerations for matters relating to the Youth Court:

  • the wellbeing and best interests of the child or young person
  • the public interest (which includes public safety)
  • the interests of any victim
  • the accountability of the child or young person for their behaviour.

General principles under section 5 OTA provide that wherever possible family and whānau should be involved in decisions affecting the child or young person, and that those relationships should be maintained and strengthened, and that timeliness is important.

Youth justice principles under section 208 OTA guide decision-making.

International Obligations and Treaties

New Zealand is a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. New Zealand ratified this in 1993. Section 5(1)(b)(i) says that the child or young person's rights under this Convention must be respected and upheld. This convention protects the rights of the child and young persons. Unless this convention is eradicated, the rights of the child remain.

There is a lack of consequences. Labour came to office promising to scrap longer sentences for repeat violent and sexual offenders, reduce prison numbers by 30 per cent, and not build any more prisons. The results are playing out in the communities with tragic consequences.

Youth offenders know there are no consequences, and the adults who encourage them to commit crimes know this. That’s why the most brazen and risky crimes are increasingly performed by people too young for the police to be able to charge. Unless there are tougher consequences for crime, innocent people will continue to suffer and pay the consequences.