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Speaker 1: The number of criminal charges against children and teenagers has

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Speaker 1: spiked in the last year, Theft, robbery, burglary all seeing

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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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