Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Aaron Hendry: Youth Development Worker says the economic climate is to blame for the rise in youth crime

Transcript

Aaron Hendry: Youth Development Worker says the economic climate is to blame for the rise in youth crime · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The number of criminal charges against children and teenagers has
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: spiked in the last year, Theft, robbery, burglary all seeing
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the biggest increases. According to data from the Ministry of Justice,
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  Speaker 1: there were more than five thousand theft charges against those
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  Speaker 1: aged ten to seventeen, which is a forty one percent
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  Speaker 1: increase compared to the previous year. However, the number of
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  Speaker 1: young people charged hasn't gone up nearly as steeply, meaning
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  Speaker 1: that young offenders are on average committing more crimes per person.
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Hendry is a youth development worker, is with us
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Hey Aaron heanyk good, Don Matte good, thank you,
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  Speaker 1: thanks for being with me this morning. Does this mean
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  Speaker 1: that we've got more hardcore young criminals, young offenders?
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  Speaker 2: I think what's really important to look at there is
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  Speaker 2: one of those increase in the data is theft. Right,
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  Speaker 2: one of the key drivers of youth crime is poverty
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  Speaker 2: and in equality. A lot of the policies that we've
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  Speaker 2: seen go out just recently accreting the environment where these
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  Speaker 2: sort of crimes would increase. You know, we're seeing more
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  Speaker 2: young people push and the hardshet pushed into poverty, pushed
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  Speaker 2: and the homelessness and so it's not really surprising to
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  Speaker 2: see this data.
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  Speaker 1: Are they stealing bread or are they stealing jewelry, vapes
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  Speaker 1: and booze.
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  Speaker 2: It's often a matter of survival, right, So the product
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  Speaker 2: isn't necessarily what we focus on. It's actually the reason
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  Speaker 2: why they're doing it, right, So that theft is often
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  Speaker 2: very much connected to needing to get by, about being
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  Speaker 2: pushed into environments where they're desperate and they see this
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  Speaker 2: is the only way out.
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  Speaker 1: But if you're stealing vapes, I mean, you don't need
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  Speaker 1: that for survival.
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  Speaker 2: Do you. Yeah, Look, I mean in terms of vapes
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  Speaker 2: specific products. You know, at times it's und sulling. It's
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  Speaker 2: times it's because you're working. You know, for every gang
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  Speaker 2: or a community, the bigger issue is the reason why
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  Speaker 2: those young people and those children are in their environment
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  Speaker 2: in the first place. And what we know is the
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  Speaker 2: context for a lot of these young people is they're
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  Speaker 2: coming from homes where there's a lot of poverty, where
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  Speaker 2: this housing is security. Some of these young people are
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  Speaker 2: experiencing homelessness, and that is the key driving factor is
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  Speaker 2: why they're involved in this behavior in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: The cops did a big common Chero's announcement yesterday going
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  Speaker 1: after that gang that we've somewhat imported from Australia. Do
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  Speaker 1: you think that that will solve our problems? You know,
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  Speaker 1: because obviously there's young people out there who are at
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  Speaker 1: a loose end. We don't want them joining gangs. Do
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  Speaker 1: you think this is going to make a difference.
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  Speaker 2: I think if we are really serious about seeing some
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  Speaker 2: change in this area, then we need to really grasp
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  Speaker 2: with what evidence is right and what we know about
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  Speaker 2: how we reduce you crime is we focus very much
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  Speaker 2: on what is going on in the environment of those
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  Speaker 2: young people, and so a lot of the young people
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  Speaker 2: that we know that are coming through the justice system,
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  Speaker 2: they're coming from homes where there's extreme poverty, there's inequality,
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  Speaker 2: there's homelessness, there's a lot of mental health trauma, addiction disabilities,
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  Speaker 2: and there's a real lack in our services in our
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  Speaker 2: community to respond to that. What we've seen over the
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  Speaker 2: last six eight months as services being shut down across
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  Speaker 2: the country, those early intervention services we really need in
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  Speaker 2: our communities. We have to respond to this stuff. They
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  Speaker 2: were already under pressure before the government's decisions, they're under
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  Speaker 2: more pressure now. What we've seen in the justices and
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  Speaker 2: making it harder to get benefits, to be able to
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  Speaker 2: get shelter through emergency accommodation that increases their environment where
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  Speaker 2: people are more desperate, and we would see these sort
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  Speaker 2: of things occur.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Aaron, thank you very much for your time
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  Speaker 1: this morning. Really appreciate you coming on the show. That's
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Hendry, a youth development workout.
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