Youth Justice

Youth Offending Strategy (Te Haonga)

The Government’s plan to respond to youth crime is set out in its Youth Offending Strategy (YOS). The YOS was released in April 2002 and contains 73 separate recommendations grouped into seven key focus areas.

The YOS forms part of the Government’s wider Crime Reduction Strategy, and is the Government’s response to the Ministerial Taskforce on Youth Offending.

The Youth Offending Strategy can be downloaded through the following link: Youth Offending Strategy

The Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Youth Offending can be downloaded through the following link: Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Youth Offending

Risk factors for offending by young people

The Youth Offending Strategy responds to known risk factors for youth offending. Risk factors are aspects of an individual’s characteristics, family and social circumstances that correlate with a greater probability of the individual offending, in particular in a serious or persistent way. Protective factors contribute to the lessening of the risk.

Risk factors for offending include:

• Family/whānau problems, particularly negative parent-child relationships, harsh discipline and poor parental supervision

• High levels of aggression and anti-social behaviour in children

• Poor school attendance and performance

• Few social ties with friends, community groups etc

• Mixing with anti-social peers

• Substance abuse

Youth Offending Strategy Key Focus Areas

Co-ordination and Leadership

The aim of the ‘coordination and leadership’ key focus area is to establish a delivery mechanism (reflected and supported at the centre) to co-ordinate the prevention of, and response to, offending and reoffending by children and young people.

Three bodies have been established to improve the co-ordination and leadership of agencies working with young offenders at the central level, as per the YOS: the Ministers' Group, the Youth Justice Leadership Group, and the Youth Justice Independent Advisory Group.

The core Ministers of the Ministers' Group are the Minister of Justice and Minister for Social Development and Employment. The Ministers of Police, Courts, Education, Health, Māori Affairs, Pacific Island Affairs and Youth Affairs are included as appropriate.

The Youth Justice Leadership Group (YJLG) oversees the implementation of the YOS and other youth offending initiatives. The Youth Justice Leadership Group is supported by the Youth Justice Team.

The Youth Justice Independent Advisory Group (YJIAG) provides expert, non-governmental advice to the Ministers’ Group and the Youth Justice Leadership Group on youth offending issues. It is a small specialist group drawn from youth justice practitioners and community representatives, including the Principal Youth Court Judge (chair). The YJIAG is supported by the Youth Justice Team.

Thirty Two Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) operate throughout New Zealand to co-ordinate and improve youth justice services at the local level. YOTs include representatives from Police, Child, Youth & Family Services, Education and Health and often have links with local youth justice organisations.  The Youth Justice Team provides policy support and direction to the YOTs.

The diagram below depicts the relationship between the Ministers’ Group, the YJLG, the YJIAG and YOTs:

Information

Access to reliable information on youth crime is essential for monitoring and improving the effectiveness of the youth justice system. A lack of good quality information on offending and re-offending by children and young people has, however, been of concern to the New Zealand justice sector for several years. The ‘information’ key focus area aims to develop consistent and comprehensive information about offending by children and young people to support effective interventions, policy and practice.

The YOS recommends:

1. the establishment of a youth justice dataset, to collate youth justice statistics for problem analysis and trend analysis – work is progressing on the exploration of a Youth Justice Dataset;
2. the development of a screening and assessment mechanism for use at key intervention points in the youth justice sector – Police and Child, Youth and Family have developed such mechanisms;
3. support for continued research and evaluation into interventions with children and young people who offend – a Youth Offending Services Effectiveness Checklist, aimed at assisting programme providers, practitioners and other youth justice professionals to assess programme effectiveness, will be released during 2007.

Early Intervention

Families with children at risk of becoming offenders need significant support if youth crime is to be reduced. This focus area aims to pro-actively create well-being in children and young people through the timely provision and support of appropriate interventions. The Health and Education sectors fund and/or deliver many services focused on intervening early in a child’s life that address many of the key risk factors for offending. The Ministry of Social Development is leading the development of an early intervention system designed to maximise opportunities for all New Zealand children - Children and Young people.

Children and Young People at Risk

This focus area aims to pro-actively create well-being in children and young people through interventions targeting children and young people at risk of offending. Agencies such as Police and Child, Youth and Family have developed tools to help them identify which young people they come into contact with have a high risk of offending or re-offending. These young people can then be provided with more intensive services. Research shows that this is the group to target to effect the biggest reduction in offending & re-offending. Government agencies also fund many community programmes for ‘at risk’ youth, covering such factors as health, education and social environment. The Government is also committed to developing the capability of the non-government sector to deliver programmes to ‘at risk’ children and young people.

First Contact with Police

The majority of young offenders are dealt with by the Police through warning or diversionary action, without ever entering the formal youth justice system (for example, being charged and being dealt with by the courts). It is a principle of our youth justice system that diversion away from the formal youth justice system should happen wherever possible. The National Youth Policing Plan sets out the Police strategy for responding to youth offending. The National Youth Policing Plan and the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 provide Police with clear guidelines for interaction with young offenders.

Family Group Conferences

Family Group Conferences (FGCs) are an important part of New Zealand’s youth justice system. A FGC is a formal meeting for members of the family/whānau/hapū/iwi, the young offender, victim and the Police to decide how the young offender can be held accountable and encouraged to take responsibility for his or her behaviour. Other people, such as a social worker, and/or a youth advocate may also attend the conference. Youth Justice Co-ordinators from Child, Youth and Family are responsible for convening FGCs and managing them.

Research has shown that FGCs can be an effective way of holding young people accountable for their actions, meeting victims’ needs and addressing the causes of offending. Work is being undertaken to improve the information available in an FGC on the young offender’s health and education needs, so that these can be addressed in the FGC plan.

Child, Youth and Family is also changing the way it manages youth justice services to increase capacity. These changes are designed to contribute to the goal of reducing the rate and severity of re-offending, by building more responsive services that deliver better outcomes for young offenders.

Serious Young Offenders

The aim of the ‘serious young offenders’ key focus area is to provide comprehensive and intensive interventions for serious young offenders in order to reduce the likelihood of re-offending.

Serious offences are dealt with in the Youth Court or in the adult court system. The Youth Court has a wide range of powers to hold offenders accountable and address the causes of their offending, from admonishment to reparation or costs to supervision to a period of secure detention. There is evidence that many serious young offenders can be rehabilitated and diverted from the adult criminal justice system. Two important programmes for serious young offenders have been developed under the YOS: the Reducing Youth Offending Programme and the Te Hurihanga programme.

Legislative provisions are also regularly reviewed. The Children, Young Persons and Their Families Act 1989 is currently being updated. One area being considered in the update is the options available to respond to youth offending, particularly serious and/or persistent youth offending. To view the update discussion document see: CYPF Act update. Please note that the feedback period on the discussion document has closed.