Inspector Ross Lienert,  Manager: Youth at Police’s National Prevention Centre, spoke recently to the Police and Education Partnership about the new Youth Action Plan his team are developing.

Ross told the meeting that Police have a Prevention First model, which expects that all staff will take every opportunity to prevent harm. 

“Prevention First identifies Youth as one our main areas of focus,” Ross said. “Whilst youth offending as a whole has dropped over the last few years, serious offences have fallen less substantially. The reduction has also been less for Māori and Pasifika youth.”

Police are therefore developing a Youth Action Plan to change the way their staff think about young people who offend, and to understand the wider context around their offending. 

“Less than 1% of the total under-16 population become offenders,” said Ross. “We know there are four dynamic underlying risk factors that can influence whether or not these young people offend: whanau, peers, alcohol and other drugs, and education. For the last, getting or keeping young people in some form of education usually results in that individual forming friendships with pro-social peers, resulting in significant reductions in re-offending.”  

The focus of Police’s new Youth Action Plan is on two key cohorts of youth, namely ‘high-risk, high-needs’ (the here and now) and ‘early intervention’. 

Intervening early to prevent children and young people entering the youth justice system improves their outcomes and reduces harm and victimisation in the community.

“For example, 80% of children and young people who offend have evidence of family violence occurring in their homes,” said Ross. “So identifying child witnesses when Police attend family violence incidents will provide an early opportunity to intervene to prevent them offending later.” 

A key way of dealing with the higher risk youth offenders is through Family Group Conferences.  Out of a total youth offending population of 10,000 (14,000 once the youth justice age rises from 16 to 17 next year), only 1,800 go to Youth Court for more serious offences.

“Considerable work is going into alternatives to remanding these young people in Youth Justice residences, but to still ensure public safety,” said Ross.  “This will involve more community options, with shared responsibility through effective partnerships to change the trajectory of their young lives and prevent them from entering the adult justice system.”

To address the over-representation of Māori in youth offending, the plan will encourage a kaupapa Māori approach to youth offenders, supporting upcoming legislation changes where the Treaty of Waitangi will become a principle of the Oranga Tamariki Act.”

“We’ll work in partnership with iwi, the community, government and non-government agencies to effect positive change. For example, recent evaluations of Iwi Community Panels show that they have a positive impact on reducing re-offending, particularly for Māori aged 17 to 24 years, so the plan will look at developing similar panels for youth under 17.”

Ross finished by saying that Police look forward to working with members of the Partnership (which includes the New Zealand School Trustees Association). “Together we can meet the challenge of reducing youth offending, thus contributing to making New Zealand the safest country.”