As concerns about youth crime grow across the Northern Rivers, community meetings continue to hear of the need for more measures to prevent it.
A gathering about crime in Lennox Head last Saturday expressed strong interest in boosting investment in youth programs which prevent young people entering the criminal justice system.
A senior police representative spoke about how police had identified a relatively small number of key offenders engaged in crime locally, from as young as 14 years old, often coming from Goonellabah, Coraki, and Casino areas.
Apart from home security, the Lennox Head gathering also expressed strong interest in boosting investment in youth programs which prevent young people entering the criminal justice system.
Human Nature targets 14- to 18-year-olds who are struggling in the Northern Rivers and have not found office-based services helpful. They offer counselling, activities with peers, and physical challenges in the natural environment, such as hiking and surfing, with the aim of helping young people to engage with the therapeutic support they need.
‘There are a lot of known risk factors for offending,’ says Sharyn White, the CEO of Human Nature, one of the local youth programs discussed at the Lennox meeting.
‘Intergenerational trauma, disability, homelessness, mental illness, families displaced by flood – in the Northern Rivers post flood – it’s the perfect storm that puts some young people at high risk of becoming offenders.’
‘We help young people to address risk factors and build protective factors so they can re-engage with school or work and culture or have help to access safer housing,’ says Ms White, ‘and we have strong evidence that what we do makes a difference with positive impacts that will reduce the chances of offending.’
Human Nature’s ambassador is Mandy Nolan, who is the local Greens candidate for the upcoming federal election. She has been attending local crime meetings in recent months, and says she is listening to concerns of residents.
‘I’ve recently been to two community meetings and hosted one on crime over the summer, where people are coming together to share concerns and look for solutions’, she says. ‘We need to fully fund diversionary and preventative programs for young people.’
Another youth program repeatedly championed by police and others at local community meetings of crime is Back Track, based in Armidale, which helps keep young people out of jail by offering skills training and employment opportunities.
‘It now costs over $1 million a year to incarcerate a child in NSW. For a fraction of that cost we are breaking the cycle,’ says Back Track CEO, Marcus Watson.
Former magistrate and current Dean of Law at Southern Cross University (SCU), professor David Helipern, argues increased funding needs to be accompanied by a more evidence-based approach to prevention.
Professor Helipern says, ‘Ultimately, we need a sea-change in early intervention, support for families in crisis, more domestic violence programs, innovative health and education inclusion and First Nations-led programs within community.’
‘Police have noted at the Lennox meeting that break and enters were just four per cent of their call outs in December. With DV and mental health dominating the police workload, it’s clear that prevention is key when it comes to community safety’, says Ms Nolan.
How about asking the kids what they want/need. Ideas from them.
So true…they need to be heard, maybe difficult to reach the traumatised kids, though, no trust left, the system has already let them down…Much Love to all the kids out there and thanks Sue for your comment.❤❤❤
First ask the parents : some kids come from deep poverty . Help the parents with better housing, jobs ,mental health, drug preventionprograms: wrap around policies . Those policies were introduced in Aotearoa NZ by Dame Jacinda Ardern government as youth crime, breaks in dairies to steal vapes mostly as they got addicted to them, and was starting to get results with youth crime going down in 2023 September. Of course with a change of government, new PM propaganda heavily based on AI scaremongering adds , they repealed all progressive policies reverting to “boot camps”! Failed as the kids were returning to same environment and with huge unemployment increase poverty has increased creating again the environment for crime. 33% increased in fact last year in Aotearoa. As a society we need to invest in causes, prevention first.
Ask the kids whats goiung on without the police presence at a meeting. Better still, let them make a coup[le of videos telling their story. Kids like making movies like a lot of adults. The community and parents could watch a couple of kids having a rave and listen to them basically ASKING TO BE INCLUDED IN THE COIMMUNITY.
its ok for your rich green boomers to sit around and put forward some idealistic long-term program to ‘change the system’, meanwhile when will an innocent child or person be killed in an accident or a deliberate act of violence ?
sure have a longer term thinking but also we need immediate action to stop this from happening, this means long-term jail sentences for serious crimes, no matter what the age.
Damn Right!!
Capital punishment? Especially if they return to school without notes.
They are kids struggling to cope with life! We all went through it, but for many oldies that was in a simpler world. Still break and entries were a problem then too.
Wonderful people are trying to help get the kids on the right track in a world being made useless by adults chasing money and votes.
(Domestic violence kills a lot more kids than teenagers ever did.)
Good to see we’re all falling into line for the noalition’s law and order push on local crime just in time for the next federal election. Fear mongering on the level of dutton’s victorian african gang quote. Sure there has been crimes in this area but are people really unsafe or is it been driven as a political agenda( team cadwallader in Ballina shire for example and her trusty NATs sidekicks protesting outside Lismore courthouse).
What a disgraceful copout that the source of the crime are Casino, Coraki and Goonellabah kids! It surely couldn’t be any of the clean living, holier than though coastal folk.
And that is working in Quewhy is it higher i n those areas? And less in coastal areas? Lets find out first .
Adult Crime adult time!!
For adults!
Growing up in Germany we had in a radius of 30 km access to 4 youth centres, self-governed by an elected committee of us young people. Then a 5th one was newly built (now 50 years ago). Check it out on Google Earth, it is a Dome structure – ‘Jugendhaus Fellbach e.V. – Youth Centre”. It is quite impressive. These youth centres are places where the young and adolescence can entertain themselves, hang out, theatre groups, learn an instrument, bring in bands on weekends, organise famous bands and musicians from overseas. The different councils gave these buildings/houses to the young people. I remember it was all so much fun.
Imagine ‘It now costs over $1 million a year to incarcerate a child in NSW.’ How many of these places can we build and create a difference and certainly a positive effect on people? I recently heard that in some prisons these young adults and/or teenagers are in their cells for 23 hours and there is nothing in those cells, just necessities. How can anyone reform under such inhumane conditions? Some kids/young people are very disadvantaged in their young lives, a little bit of compassion goes a long way.
The offenders are sending a powerful message. Sometimes breaking the law its seeking attention, sometimes its boredom, sometimes frustration. Its good to hear the message direct from those involved and find some solutions before offences move up to major crime or insurrection. To many young people jail is not a feared threat until it involves isolation from friends and family. Youth hang outs are great as long as there is some ownership felt by them and some activities they like. Its not easy at all but youths need a place / space to hang or some will play games with the unconcerned, disinterested local adult community like stealing your car.
Adults then take notice – lots of people notice. Seems there are better ways to communicate.