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National
Antonia O'Flaherty and state political reporter Rachel Riga

Dozens of juveniles charged with breach of bail in Queensland's youth crime crackdown

Hundreds of young people have been charged with offences amid a crackdown on youth crime (ABC News: Lucas Hill)

Queensland police have charged 600 young people with 1,200 offences amid the state government's crackdown on youth crime, the latest figures show. 

Seventy-three young offenders were charged with breach of bail.

It follows state parliament passing laws in March to make breach of bail a crime for children, with a maximum penalty of one year in detention.

Part of the state government's response to youth crime included police operation Victor Unison, which involved high-visibility police patrols across Queensland.

The operation led to 600 young people being charged with 1,200 offences.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told parliament the government's "blitz on bail" had seen almost 8,500 cases reviewed by police prosecutors.

"I am advised that 81 per cent of reviews have been successful on appeal or resulted in a withdrawal of an application for bail," Ms Palaszczuk said. 

The new youth justice laws passed earlier this year also created a new aggravating factor for alleged car thieves who post footage of their offending on social media and tightened bail laws for more charges.

Other initiatives including the a $10 million trial of engine immobilisers in three regional cities and a fast-track sentencing program were announced as part of sweeping reforms to the youth justice sector after the death of mother Emma Lovell from North Lakes who was stabbed outside her home by alleged intruders late on Boxing Day.

A caller to ABC Radio Brisbane said she supported youth detention for her teenage stepdaughter, who she said was "out of control".

She said they had tried getting the 16-year-old girl to get counselling among other measures to manage her behaviour but it had not worked.

"She hangs out with gang members and stuff," she said. 

"She does drugs, and drinks alcohol.

"She got kicked out [at] the start of the year because she threatened me with a knife."

Current response not addressing cause of offending, advocate says 

Tom Allsop, chief executive of PeakCare said the current response to youth offending was not addressing the reasons young people commit offences.    (Supplied)

PeakCare chief executive Tom Allsop said it needed to be acknowledged that there have been some devastating tragedies in Queensland and "a lot of people are hurting".

"I really think children need to be held accountable for their behaviours, I think communities deserve to be kept safe, but we need to hold children accountable for their behaviours in ways that we know are going to work," he said.

"We need to look at why kids are being suspended and expelled at such an alarming rate.

"Why we have so many young people with undiagnosed disabilities that aren't getting the support that they need, we need to look at why we're waiting until we're putting children into detention centres before we're starting to therapeutically treat the issues that have caused them to offend.

"We need to get there much earlier than we currently are."

Mr Allsop said "really good work" was happening in the early intervention space. 

"A lot of the issues we're seeing as a result of big political grandstanding, and some really kind of wild accusations being thrown around, what we need some really committed and sustained bipartisan political will to actually listen to the evidence that we already have and deliver solutions that are actually going to work," he said. 

Ms Palaszczuk told parliament youth crime was not an area where "we can ever rest".

"We will always look for ways to improve our response and to ensure we are targeting serious repeat offenders, tackling complex causes of youth crime and supporting community safety and victims of crime," she said. 

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