- In short: ABS data shows there has been a slight increase in youth offending in Tasmania — but what has police worried is the amount of repeat offenders.
- What's next? The Police Association wants greater accountability for teenage offenders who continue to do the wrong thing.
In Tasmania, social housing is in short supply and efforts are being made to build new homes as quickly as possible.
But projects are often targeted by teenage vandals.
Centrecare Evolve boss Ben Wilson said in Hobart's north recently, vandals caused $25,000 worth of damage in just over an hour.
"We've seen smashed windows through to attempted arson attacks and damage beyond that," Mr Wilson said.
"It's really unnecessary behaviour that's occurring by a very small number [of people] in a fantastic community."
Every bit of damage delays the project's completion — and it's not the only site that has been repeatedly hit by vandals in recent months.
"This housing complex is being built for people coming off the priority end of the waitlist in Tasmania," Mr Wilson said.
"I'm sure the 4,600 people on that waitlist don't thank the people that are doing the damage."
Across town in Sandy Bay, pharmacist Neda Robustelli has recently banned people from wearing hoodies in her shop.
"It's been pretty awful," Ms Robustelli said.
"The last six months we've just noticed young teenagers, with hoods especially, they just come in here, they scope out the place and then the next day they steal stuff."
She said it has put her staff on edge.
"They don't feel safe in the work environment," she said.
"We're here to fill scripts and help people and I feel like they shouldn't have to feel like that coming to work."
Statistics show slight increase
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows there has been a five per cent increase in youth offending in Tasmania in the past year and more than a quarter (29 per cent) of the offences relate to an 'intent to cause injury'.
The statistics only take into account recorded offences, do not include this financial year, and over the longer term, show a marked decline — 13 years ago youth offending was three times higher.
"Overall we have seen, in Australia, [youth] crime has decreased since the early 2000s and this decrease has also been shown in the United States and the United Kingdom," University of Tasmania criminologist Michael Guerzoni said.
It is possible the latest rise has pandemic links.
"Since COVID-19 there's been concerns about the increase in a number of the stressors that are known to increase the likelihood of crime," Dr Guerzoni said.
"Unemployment, homelessness, being victims of maltreatment, untreated mental disorders, all of these collectively place strain on people and increase the likelihood of them entering into deviant criminal activity."
Police concerned about repeat youth offenders
Assistant Tasmania Police Commissioner Adrian Bodnar said police on the frontline, particularly those in the south, had noticed an increase in youth offending.
And while it was only slight, he said the real concern was the rising recidivism rate and the impact on officers, who were dealing with the same offenders over and over again.
"Our frontline officers are dedicated and they are working very hard on tackling youth crime, however, they're also facing increased [mental] health challenges when dealing with some of those repeat offenders," he said.
"To be clear we don't want to see youths entering the criminal justice system….and putting a youth before the court is the last thing we want to do, but we've got a responsibility to the community more broadly.
"So where it's necessary, it's appropriate and it's authorised by law, we will arrest youths and place them before a magistrate."
The Tasmanian Police Association said it has been hearing similar things from members.
"They're seeing the same faces on a daily basis," acting president Shane Tilley said.
"There are groups of juveniles that travel between Glenorchy CBD and Hobart CBD through North Hobart that are continually committing offences."
He said dealing with young offenders was now a large portion of the daily police workload.
"There is no accountability for some of these young offenders.
"Police are out there keeping their community safe and are dealing with them appropriately and they just seem to be coming back onto the streets.
"Some are held for court, some are bailed, some are given police bail but there doesn't seem to be anything that is stopping them offending."
