The government's so-called strategy to deal with youth crime is more politically-correct, ineffective nonsense, ACT leader Richard Prebble says.

"The Labour government has rejected the proven, effective way to tackle youth crime - a zero tolerance approach. This is the so-called `broken windows' policy which has been so effective in New York.

"Under this approach, instead of ignoring minor crimes such as vandalism, street assaults and graffiti, the police instead enforce the law.

"Instead of just talking to offenders in youth conferences, the young people must be held accountable. This doesn't mean sending 16-year-olds to jail, but it does mean enforcing penalties - rather than the courts losing $80 million in unpaid fines, as occurred last year.

"The 90 percent re-offending rate for criminals under 20 years old, is an indictment of our youth justice system.

"The government's policy will do nothing to change this," Mr Prebble said.

ENDS

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