Queensland Parliament to Tackle Youth Crime
Thursday 23 January 2014 @ 1.15 p.m. | Crime
The Queensland Newman Government has declared youth crime as its top priority. It has promised that tough criminal law reforms will be introduced to amend the Youth Justice Act and will be pushed through Parliament as a matter of urgency when Parliament resumes in February.
Measures to be voted on when Parliament sits includes:
- Removing the current restriction on Courts to only use detention as a last resort
- Making breach of bail an offence where a young person commits a crime while on bail
- Naming and shaming of repeat offenders
- Making all juvenile criminal histories available in adult courts to give a magistrate or judge a complete understanding of a defendant’s history
- Transferring juvenile offenders to adult correctional centres when they reach 17 years of age
Acting Attorney General David Crisafulli described the changes as “finally making it clear to juvenile offenders that crime…won’t be tolerated in our suburbs.”
He further described the changes as a key plank in the government’s strategy to arrest juvenile crime rates across Queensland.
“Mistakes by kids can be forgiven, but the systematic disrespect for people and property by a proportion of juveniles in our communities must be addressed."
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