Fewer children and young people commit crime
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Young people who commit offences should be held to account, but they also need the right support and interventions to address their behaviour and turn their lives around. We help young offenders get back on track towards productive adult lives.
Youth Crime Action Plan
The Youth Crime Action Plan, introduced in 2013, is a 10-year cross-agency plan that builds on existing initiatives and takes a practical approach to supporting youth justice services, frontline workers, service providers and volunteers.
The Plan aims to improve the way government agencies engage with and support communities, reduce escalation and offer the right intervention at the right time to reduce youth reoffending.
During the year, we continued to progress the actions under the Youth Crime Action Plan.
Youth crime rate
The youth crime rate is now at a 35-year low. It has dropped by 36 per cent between 2010 and 2014, with significant decreases in the apprehension of young people by the Police and cases reaching the Youth Court.
Fresh Start
We provide youth justice services and purchase youth justice intervention programmes such as Fresh Start for Young Offenders, which provides a range of intensive interventions over a sustained period of time to help young people turn their lives around.
In 2013/2014, the number of young offenders participating in Fresh Start programmes21 included:
- 286 low-level offenders in community youth development programmes to develop positive social attitudes, values and behaviours
- 595 in individual and intensive mentoring programmes
- 181 in parenting education programmes
- 277 in community day programmes and 50 in residential programmes focused on alcohol or drug addiction
- 221 on Supported Bail with intensive community- based support and services to reduce the likelihood of offending on bail and a subsequent remand to a youth justice residence.
Military-style Activity Camps
Military-style Activity Camps (MACs) are a component of Fresh Start. MACs provide the Youth Court with an option for dealing with the most serious young offenders, who would otherwise be sent on to the adult justice system. In March 2014, an evaluation report was released on 47 young people who completed the MAC programme between July 2011 and December 2012. The evaluation shows that of the 47 young people:
- 19 per cent did not offend in the 12 months after the MAC programme
- 81 per cent reduced the frequency of their offending
- 77 per cent reduced the severity of their most serious offence
- 89 per cent reduced the seriousness of their total offending
- 17 per cent received a custodial sentence within 12 months of the MAC programme.
Youth justice family group conferences
A youth justice family group conference is a meeting between a young offender, their family, victims and others such as the Police, a social worker or a youth advocate. Their purpose is to discuss ways to address a young person’s offending before it escalates.
In 2013/2014, we held 5,633 youth justice family group conferences, resulting in plans22 for 2,967 children and young people to address their offending, and 95.2 per cent of children and young people meeting the objectives of their plans.
We continued to progress work around reinvigorating family group conferences to better meet the needs of children, young people and their families involved in family group conferences. During the year, we:
- developed a set of family group conference practice standards
- appointed 12 kaiwhakatara to support the implementation of the standards and improve the quality of practice
- strengthened interagency collaboration to increase their participation.
Over the next year, we will pilot new models of convening and facilitating family group conferences with iwi so that we can improve Māori mokopuna and whānau participation in the family group conference process.
How we demonstrate our success
|
Intermediate outcome | Indicator |
Intended trend |
Result |
Trend |
Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
More young offenders are in education, training or employment |
The proportion of young offenders who are in education, training or employment following our intervention |
Up |
2013/14: 59.0% 2012/13: 56.3% |
Up |
1,396 young offenders received a youth justice intervention during 2013/14. Of these, 823 were in education, training or employment following our intervention. |
|
Fewer child offenders enter the youth justice system |
The proportion of child offenders who enter into the youth justice system |
Down |
2013/14: 58.7% 2012/13: 61.0% |
Down |
Of the 201 child offenders aged 12 or 13 years in 2010/11, 118 subsequently had a youth justice referral as 14 to 16- year olds in 2013/14. |
|
Fewer young people re-enter the youth justice system |
The proportion of young offenders who reoffended23 within one year of a previous offence |
Down |
2013/14: 38.5% 2012/13: 37.9% |
Up |
1,933 young people were referred to Child, Youth and Family during 2013/14 for offending. Of these, 745 were young people who had reoffended within 12 months of a previous offence. |
|
The proportion of young offenders whose reoffending24 within one year has reduced in severity |
Up |
2013/14: 17.0% 2012/13: 16.2% |
Up |
Of the 745 young offenders who reoffended within one year, 17% (127) reduced the severity of their offending. |
|
|
More young offenders are aware of the impact of their offending |
The proportion of victims participating and engaging in family group conferences improves |
Up |
2013/14: 59.3% 2012/13: 58.5% |
Up |
95% of the 9,347 victims were contacted before a Family Group Conference and 5,539 attended, provided a submission or had a representative at the conference. |
Note: Result changes below 1 per cent between 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 are considered not statistically significant.
Footnotes
21: The reduction in uptake of Fresh Start programmes from last year corresponds with the reduction in Police apprehensions and referrals to Child, Youth and Family.
22: A Youth Justice Family Group Conference does not necessarily result in a Family Group Conference plan being agreed.
23: This relates to offending that resulted in a Youth Justice Family Group Conference.
24: This relates to offending which meets the threshold of a Youth Justice Family Group Conference.
