JustSpeak Congratulates Wellington’s Low Youth Prosecution Rates

Today JustSpeak releases a report showing Wellington has low rates of youth prosecution decisions, persistently tending lower than the national rate for the past 19 years. In 2012, 20% of 10- 16-year-olds apprehended for a resolved crime were prosecuted in Wellington. This compares with a national rate of 23%. In the 19 years studied, Wellington had a rate lower than the national average in all but one year. JustSpeak considers this a testament to the success of higher rates of alternative action such as Youth Aid and official warnings in Wellington.

Youth prosecution decisions were highly variable by region: in 2012 Canterbury had the highest rate of youth prosecution, at 30%. This was double Waikato’s 15% rate.

“We think most New Zealanders would be surprised at just how variable prosecution decisions are for young people. Locally tailored approaches are a valuable part of our justice system. However, it is not fair if a young person in Auckland may be denied alternative action because he or she is living in an area more likely to prosecute,” JustSpeak spokesperson Danielle Kelly says.

Why we want to move away from prosecution of young people

When a young person is apprehended for an offence they committed, Police can decide on a range of resolutions for the offender, including an official warning, Youth Aid, a Family Group Conference, or prosecution.

“There is growing acknowledgement that diverting young people away from the courts and prison system is important to reducing crime,” Danielle Kelly says. The Police’s Policing Excellence programme has the goal of a 19% (31,000) decrease in apprehensions resolved by prosecution. The Minister of Justice, Judith Collins has said,”We know that a key to reducing crime is to stop young people entering the court and justice system in the first place.” Our question is: is enough being done in all Police districts to effect this?

JustSpeak calls for action elsewhere around the country

“JustSpeak calls on the Police in areas of high prosecution to investigate why their rates are higher than other Districts, and work out how to bring these rates down. Different types of criminal acts, number of repeat offences and offender characteristics can explain some of the variance. However, given the large and persistent differences, JustSpeak would like to know how much these rates are affected by the policing and judicial culture of the different Districts,” Danielle Kelly says.

Over the past 20 years Auckland and Southern have persistently had prosecution rates tending above the national average. Waikato, Tasman, Central and Wellington have consistently had prosecution rates persistently tending below the national average.
“It is also important that the Government ensures that the alternatives to prosecution are effective and adequately supported, so that Police have effective tools to help keep young people out of the formal system. If the Government is serious about reducing the number of young people channeled through the formal youth justice system, we need to deal with this disparity in prosecution rates and the different challenges faced by different Policing Districts.”

Prosecution of young people also has considerable variation by ethnicity for some offences, as highlighted by JustSpeak earlier this year.

The report on regional variance is here on JustSpeak’s website: justspeak.org.nz.

About JustSpeak
JustSpeak is a non-partisan network of young people speaking to, and speaking up for a new generation of thinkers who want change in our criminal justice system. We empower young people to have a voice in the criminal justice conversation. We advocate for positive and visionary reform in the criminal justice system informed by evidence and experience.

The numbers in 2012

Wellington compared with national rates over time

ENDS

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