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Adult Crime, Adult Time policy ‘will not fix the problem’, lawyers argue
Under the Liberal National Party’s proposed Adult Crime, Adult Time policy, young offenders found guilty of serious offences in Queensland could be tried as adults. Here’s what lawyers and advocates in the Sunshine State have to say about the floated policy.
Grace Robbie
Last week, Queensland’s Opposition Leader, David Crisafulli, revealed his Adult Crime, Adult Time policy, which he intends to implement if elected as the state’s premier.
The announcement was made during the launch of the “Making Our Community Safer” plan by the Liberal National Party (LNP), as part of its campaign for the upcoming Queensland elections scheduled to take place towards the end of October.
Crisafulli suggested that implementing this policy could deter juvenile offenders from committing serious crimes by subjecting them to the same sentences as adults for the same crimes.
“Adult Crime, Adult Time is not only about keeping dangerous criminals off our streets, it’s also about sending a strong message to deter youth from committing the crime,” Crisafulli said.
“We know when adult sentences kick in, the rate of offenders committing crimes like robbery and breaking into homes with intent dramatically drop-off, which suggests sentences are a major deterrent for crime.”
As per the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ crime report published at the beginning of the year, the issue of young offender rates in Queensland has garnered recent attention. The report revealed an increase of 6 per cent from the previous year, with almost 11,000 offenders aged 10 to 17 in the state during 2022–23.
The most common offences that individuals in this demographic committed included acts intended to cause injury (23 per cent of the total) and theft (17 per cent of the total).
When announcing this policy last week, the LNP leader said the Adult Crime, Adult Time initiative aims to reinstate accountability for actions and convey a strong message to young offenders that they will face substantial consequences for their criminal behaviour.
“Youth criminals have been running riot through our communities, knowing there are no consequences and little punishment for serious crime, but this will end under the LNP’s Adult Crime, Adult Time plan,” Crisafulli said.
“The LNP will restore consequences for actions to our youth crime laws and send a strong message that if you commit a serious crime, you will pay with adult time.”
Several individuals have spoken out, asserting that the implementation of the Adult Crime, Adult Time policy is not an effective approach to addressing youth offending rates.
Queensland Law Society’s (QLS) president, Rebecca Fogerty, stressed how the proposed LNP policy runs the risk of leading to more harm than good and, in the end, may not enhance safety for Queenslanders.
“Calling for longer sentences in a struggling detention system will not fix the problem of youth crime. It will lead to more overcrowding, more violence, more lockdowns, less education and less rehabilitation. This will compound the issues we know give rise to serious repeat offending,” Fogerty said.
“Increased penalties do not deter criminal behaviour. Research shows that punishment and imprisonment fails to deter and, in fact, increases crime. It is evident [that] tough-on-crime policies have created a growing cohort of serious repeat youth offenders, who are getting more disengaged with the community. Rehabilitation in and outside of detention is the only way to get their lives back on track.”
In response to this, Fogerty said QLS is urging all political parties to refrain from using children and young people for political advantage in the upcoming election, but rather follow the QAO’s recommendations.
“QLS is calling on all parties in the upcoming election to not treat children and young people as a political football, but as the QAO recommended, focusing on a whole-of-system approach to address this complex problem,” Fogerty said.
The Youth Advocacy Centre CEO Katherine Hayes stressed that the LNP’s Adult Crime, Adult Time policy is “just the latest in a deliberately ignorant string of political campaigns from major parties in Queensland”.
Hayes asserted that “hasher tough-of-crime laws” won’t deter young offenders, emphasising that legislative changes don’t factor into a child’s decision making when they offend.
She further said: “Whilst this may result in more children in detention (and extended periods in police watch houses), we know this is not a rehabilitative path and will most likely lead to further offending down the track. The cycle continues.”
Hayes advocated for an evidence-based approach to youth justice in Queensland: “Queenslanders deserve an approach to youth justice that is evidence-based and considers crucial factors: a better-resourced child safety system, intensive support for families, disability assessments and support, and modern approaches to detention, to name a few.”
She said: “As long as major parties compete on having the toughest laws, instead of the most effective, we will not see significant improvements in the youth justice system.”
As reported by the ABC, Queensland Human Rights commissioner Scott McDougall also underscored that treating children the same way as we would sentence an adult goes against all evidence about how to combat crime successfully.
“The proposal to treat children as young as 10 years old – the majority of which are First Nations – in the same way as we would sentence an adult, flies in the face of all evidence about how to successfully combat crime and puts our international reputation as a modern democracy at stake,” McDougall said.
