Treatment of NZ Youth Criminals is a Joke

As reported recently, and on numerous occasions, burglaries and crime are at unacceptable levels. Sadly, many youth and young people are becoming more and more actively involved in committing criminal offences, and the Conservative Party is concerned that lack of consequences for actions is only feeding the problem.

"There is no real incentive for youth to not commit crimes," says Party Spokesman Leighton Baker. Recently, the Conservative Party was notified about the concerns over a youth who was charged for stabbing a police officer in Kaitaia last December, and were advised to look up his public Facebook page which is viewable to the public. This youth has not only shown no remorse for what he has done, but continues to post gangster related disturbing posts. "If people were to search through the publicly available pages of youth, I think they would be shocked at just how much open criminal activity and support to do so is really going on in NZ," says Leighton.

"The youth system for dealing with offenders is a joke," continues Leighton. "One of our Board Members cares for high at risk youth. She has expressed concern over the number of youth who are adamant they will reoffend, simply because they can, and they view the consequences as a joke. She deals more with a 'why wouldn't I commit more crime' attitude as opposed to a 'why would I ever want to commit another crime' attitude."

The Conservative Party understands that at present, youth are automatically granted name suppression, and can have various pathetic consequences such as having to go to a CYFs Caregiver home, or Youth Justice facility. Often youth offenders are required to do a letter of apology to the victims of their crimes. There is even a detailed letter given to the youth which explains a step by step process of what to write, and how to write it! A youth can be sentenced to a Youth Justice residence for 3 - 6 months. During this time they accumulate an allowance (funded by the tax payer), which can end up being hundreds of dollars that they are given when leaving the residence, to do with as they please. The fact that there are youth who return to crime after leaving a YJ residence shows that they are simply not the deterrent they should be.

The Conservative Party believes that there is an absolute need for hard and deterring consequences for first time youth offenders. There must be focus on early intervention, with a view to deter youth from any future criminal activity. Being overprotective with weak consequences for actions regarding youth, is in fact causing more harm than good. It is time to get real and give youth the consequences needed to help ensure they do not want to ever reoffend. We need to stop empowering our youth and disempowering good parents.

"The Conservative Party has said all along that when reasonable force is not available to parents to correct their children in some cases, then Police and Corrections will end up with the job. But they too seem unable or unwilling to take the actions necessary," says Leighton Baker.

ENDS

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