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JustSpeak Reveals Highly Variable Youth Prosecution Decision
JustSpeak Reveals Highly Variable Youth Prosecution Decisions Across New Zealand
Today JustSpeak releases a report showing considerable variation in youth prosecution decisions among Police districts around the country. In 2012, Waikato had the lowest rate of youth prosecution, at 15%, while Canterbury had double this rate, at 30%. The national rate was 23%.
“We think most New Zealanders would be surprised at just how variable prosecution decisions are for young people. Locally tailored approaches are a valuable part of our justice system. However, it is not fair if a young person in Auckland may be denied alternative action because he or she is living in an area more likely to prosecute,” JustSpeak spokesperson Danielle Kelly says.
Why we want to move away from prosecution of young people
When a young person is apprehended for an offence they committed, Police can decide on a range of resolutions for the offender, including an official warning, Youth Aid, a Family Group Conference, or prosecution.
“There is growing acknowledgement that diverting young people away from the courts and prison system is important to reducing crime,” Danielle Kelly says. The Police’s Policing Excellence programme has the goal of a 19% (31,000) decrease in apprehensions resolved by prosecution. The Minister of Justice, Judith Collins has said,”We know that a key to reducing crime is to stop young people entering the court and justice system in the first place.” Our question is: is enough being done in all Police districts to effect this?
JustSpeak calls for action
“JustSpeak calls on the Police in areas of high prosecution to investigate why their rates are higher than other Districts, and work out how to bring these rates down. Different types of criminal acts, number of repeat offences and offender characteristics can explain some of the variance. However, given the large and persistent differences, JustSpeak would like to know how much these rates are affected by the policing and judicial culture of the different Districts,” Danielle Kelly says.
Over the past 19 years Auckland and Southern have persistently had youth prosecution rates tending above the national average. Waikato, Tasman, Central and Wellington have prosecution rates persistently tending below the national average.
“It is also important that the Government ensures that the alternatives to prosecution are effective and adequately supported, so that Police have effective tools to help keep young people out of the formal system. If the Government is serious about reducing the number of young people channeled through the formal youth justice system, we need to deal with this disparity in prosecution rates and the different challenges faced by different Policing Districts.”
Prosecution of young people also has considerable variation by ethnicity for some offences, as highlighted by JustSpeak earlier this year.
The report on regional youth prosecution is available here from JustSpeak’s website: justspeak.org.nz.
About
JustSpeak
JustSpeak is a non-partisan network of
young people speaking to, and speaking up for a new
generation of thinkers who want change in our criminal
justice system. We empower young people to have a voice in
the criminal justice conversation. We advocate for positive
and visionary reform in the criminal justice system informed
by evidence and experience.
The numbers in
2012
Police District 10- to 16-year-olds
apprehended for resolved crimes 10- to 16-year-olds
prosecuted Proportions of apprehensions of 10- to
16-year-olds leading to prosecution Rank (highest to
lowest) Northland 1571 365 23.23% 6 Waitemata 1649 361 21.89% 7 Auckland 1503 394 26.21% 3 Counties
Manukau 3463 879 25.38% 4 Waikato 2455 380 15.48% 12 Bay
of
Plenty 3630 787 21.68% 8 Eastern 2123 511 24.07% 5 Central 2609 520 19.93% 10 Wellington 2382 475 19.94% 9 Tasman 1707 276 16.17% 11 Canterbury 3669 1083 29.52% 1 Southern 2392 673 28.14% 2 National 29153 6704 23.00% -
Auckland,
Wellington, Canterbury and Waikato youth prosecution rates
compared with the national rate over
time
| Auckland | Wellington | Canterbury | Waikato | National | |
| 1994 | 14.7% | 6.7% | 12.3% | 7.5% | 8.9% |
| 1995 | 14.9% | 8.7% | 16.4% | 7.1% | 9.9% |
| 1996 | 13.0% | 9.7% | 16.3% | 6.6% | 10.3% |
| 1997 | 15.2% | 11.7% | 14.5% | 6.4% | 10.6% |
| 1998 | 22.6% | 10.4% | 16.8% | 8.3% | 12.1% |
| 1999 | 21.3% | 8.3% | 17.4% | 7.5% | 11.8% |
| 2000 | 25.0% | 8.3% | 17.1% | 7.4% | 11.9% |
| 2001 | 23.3% | 8.3% | 18.9% | 7.4% | 12.7% |
| 2002 | 19.6% | 11.7% | 14.9% | 8.3% | 12.1% |
| 2003 | 18.8% | 10.8% | 17.4% | 11.0% | 12.6% |
| 2004 | 13.3% | 11.2% | 20.9% | 10.7% | 13.2% |
| 2005 | 25.1% | 18.0% | 23.0% | 14.9% | 18.2% |
| 2006 | 32.1% | 23.3% | 20.4% | 15.4% | 23.2% |
| 2007 | 32.6% | 22.5% | 23.8% | 16.2% | 22.5% |
| 2008 | 33.2% | 21.4% | 19.8% | 20.0% | 23.0% |
| 2009 | 23.7% | 17.8% | 21.6% | 22.0% | 21.7% |
| 2010 | 21.4% | 15.6% | 20.8% | 18.8% | 22.4% |
| 2011 | 25.2% | 19.4% | 21.9% | 18.6% | 23.7% |
| 2012 | 26.2% | 19.9% | 29.5% | 15.5% | 23.0% |
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