By Nadine Connell and Caitlin Davey

It might make you feel safer, but evidence shows Queensland’s newly expanded “adult crime, adult time” laws are unlikely to curb youth crime and instead puts politics ahead of public safety. 

Youth crime is once again on the national agenda as the Federal election looms, with the issue also in the spotlight in Queensland as its State Parliament introduced the new legislation on Tuesday.

The “adult crime, adult time” legislation includes 33 offences where children could be charged as adults.

It means children as young as 10 could face life in prison for nonviolent acts, including arson against property – separate from the offence of use of fire against a person which is covered under other crimes such as homicide. And this legislation comes at a time when youth crime is down 6.7% and at an historic low, with both the number of offenses and number of offenders on a decline in recent years. 

Politics over public safety

Politics, not public safety, is at the core of the “adult crime, adult time” laws.

Human rights groups have labelled the laws as “gobsmacking” and for good reason.

Pitched as a “fresh start for Queensland”, in reality both historic evidence and academic research – in Australia and globally – have shown time and time again that punitive measures don’t make us safer at all. In fact, evidence is clear that such an approach will cause unintended consequences that will cause more harm and come at more cost in the future, not less.

The real question is why does Queensland insist on going down a path that we already know has limited promise for success?

While charging children as adults might create a sense of safety for some, what the evidence shows is that the appropriate response for young people who are caught in the criminal justice system is one of support and rehabilitation, including wrap around services to improve educational outcomes, substance use treatment, and family therapies to support family and community wellbeing. These are the types of investments that will both improve youth behaviour and show long term dividends for communities.

First Nations youth most at risk

The introduction of this new legislation will disproportionately affect Queensland’s First Nation’s children. It will continue to perpetuate harm, exacerbate systemic inequalities, and prove costly for the government and our community.

In Queensland, the state with the highest over-representation, First Nations children are being imprisoned at an average daily rate of 46 per 10,000 compared to just 1.6 per 10,000 for non-Indigenous children.

On an average day, there are 314 children in Queensland’s three youth detention centers, and 70% of these children are First Nations. However, Queensland crime statistics show that offences committed by First Nations children have been slowly declining for almost the last decade.

Additionally, keeping youth locked up comes at a great cost to the community. The latest data shows youth incarceration is costing people over $1 million per child per year in Australia to house one youth offender, or around $2827 per incarcerated youth per day.

Different versions of this method have been tested in various regions, both within Australia and globally, and have repeatedly proven ineffective in lowering criminalisation, protecting victims or improving public safety. Rather, what they actually accomplish is an increase in injustice by funnelling more of our children into the prison system, thereby setting them up for lives characterised by incarceration, discrimination, and systemic disadvantage.

Instead, the focus needs to be on addressing the structural and systemic discrimination against First Nations Australians that comes from introducing legislation such as this, and tackle the root causes of involvement with crime, providing early intervention that is strengths-based centring around child/family wellbeing and culture. 

What works best for kids and the public?

Young people won’t change their behaviour as a result of legislative changes. We know that there are a lot of things that drive youth offending, but strict laws aren’t one of them. 

Young people do not come out of criminal justice system exposure, particularly detention, unscathed. This government has promised more prevention and rehabilitation efforts but has not addressed the simple fact that more young people involved in the criminal justice system will require more long-term rehabilitation strategies. There is no shortage of meaningful intervention and prevention programs available to the Queensland government and we would argue that the government has a moral obligation to ensure it does everything in its power to mitigate the harms to justice involved youth, not exacerbate them. 

These laws are not going to impact the decisions that young people make. Youth crime is already down, which begs the question as to why the government thinks that harsher punishments, instead of continuing support for education, communities and families, is the appropriate response. There is a very real risk that these changes contribute to future community instability, including increased offending.

And while the promised $383 million dollars for new prevention programs in Queensland is welcome, it will not take long before the fact that detaining more youth under the “adult crime, adult time” legislation eats into any potential long-term savings. At the price of $1 million dollars per year per young person, Queenslanders may find themselves paying more for less safety. 

Authors:

Nadine M. Connell is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Griffith University. Her research focuses on juvenile delinquency, specifically in the domain of school safety. Her work examines the aetiology of school based violent victimization and perpetration as well as more extreme forms of youth violence, including drug use, weapon carrying, school shootings, and targeted violence. She works with schools and communities to implement and evaluate prevention and intervention strategies.

Caitlin Davey is a proud First Nations Scholar and Biripi Woman. She is currently a Lecturer at Griffith University’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She is in the final stages of completing her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of New England. Her current research is focused on public perceptions of crime and punishment and its intersection with racial attitudes and geographic location.