By AIDAN KNIGHT
TO say youth crime is on the rise is hardly news to anyone.
A Traralgon resident (who wished remain anonymous), has come forward to the Express after experiencing targeted acts of crime by young boys for the past three years, which has led to her being relocated temporarily out of the region into safe community housing.
She speaks of the urgency of the epidemic as a “crisis situation”.
An Aboriginal woman herself, she speaks on the intricacies these issues have on her communities, as the appeal of crime to boys aged as young as 13 doesn’t discriminate.
“There are kids in the Valley stealing cars and vandalising every day, both Aboriginal and mainstream. Too many communities are seeing their sons and nephews out doing these things because they think it’s fun and know they can get away with it as minors,” she said.
Victoria’s Sentencing Advisory Council (2022) found that young people who offend are more likely to reoffend than any other age group. The data shows more than 60 per cent of young offenders reoffend within two years, particularly those with a history of serious or violent crime.
According to the council “Youth who begin offending early often become entrenched in the justice system. Without strong intervention, patterns of reoffending escalate as they age.”
The overall offence rate in Victoria has risen by 15 per cent, as reflected in the data collected by the Crime Statistics Agency.
This is the third quarter in a row, according to Victoria Police, that has trumped the previous in having “the most arrests since electronic records began”, which date back to 1993.
Almost equal to this statistic is the rise of youth within that percentage, with offenders aged 10 to 17 increasing by 17.9 per cent.
Member for Morwell, Martin Cameron has written letters on behalf of the Traralgon woman to the state housing board of housing and the Minister for Police, Anthony Carbines.
“This is a multi-faceted issue and I acknowledge there are many other contributing societal factors at play when it comes to youth crime,” Mr Cameron said.
“Aggravated burglaries in particular have skyrocketed, and the rise in young people carrying weapons is alarming.
“A recent amendment to the Control of Weapons Act means police can carry out searches, but it doesn’t go far enough, and these searches can only be conducted in designated areas.
“Our police do a terrific job keeping our community safe, but they are critically under resourced, with some 1000 vacancies for frontline Victoria Police officers. It’s also important to remember that police are not just law enforcement officers – they conduct youth outreach programs, link with local services to provide referrals, and work tirelessly to support disengaged youth – all these things go a long way to curbing crime in the first instance.”
Anglicare Victoria, who work directly with at-risk youth, described this reality in their 2023 Missing Pieces report.
“We see too many young people cycling in and out of the justice system, with no consistent adult support. Once caught up in that cycle, getting out becomes increasingly hard,” an extract from the report said.
Police have been regularly canvassing the Traralgon Centre Plaza since early July, after extraordinary community support was put into a petition by Traralgon local, Bailey Miles.
This was prompted after he found himself scrolling Facebook, “through the Traralgon community page, and the amount of crime and posts about crime in the plaza I have been seeing is just sickening.”
“Personally, I was threatened/intimidated by an individual, which has also motivated me to create this petition for an attempt at us being heard.”
The petition accumulated upwards of 700 signatures on its first day alone.
Traralgon Police have been present at the plaza daily.
“We are sick and tired of the crime in the plaza, youths thinking they run the place intimidating the shoppers and also the workers in stores,” Mr Miles said.
“One of my family member had a group of teens arrested against their store window a few months ago and that’s not acceptable, with more police or security presence they wouldn’t of even gotten into the plaza.”
Shopping centres seem to be a particular hotspot of youth crime, and have been for some time.
Last October saw local police execute Operation OMNI, which saw the seizure of four knives in the patrolling and searching of persons at Mid Valley Shopping Centre.
Mid Valley was identified as a local epicentre of youth crime, and experienced a particularly alarming incident earlier in 2024 involving an assault on an elderly man by five young boys.
