Alarming new figures show the extent of the juvenile crime problem across the Gold Coast with minors making up more than half of all offenders responsible for house break-ins and stolen car offences.
The latest crime figures for 2020-21 have been released by the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office, showing an overall reduction in reported crime on the Gold Coast of 13.4 per cent.
The rate of unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences is down 4.9 per cent while there has been a 5.8 per cent drop in the rate of robberies and a 10 per cent drop in weapons offences.
The figures also show a significant fall in the rate of drug offences, down 29.5 per cent, and traffic-related offences including drink-driving, which are down 34.9 per cent.
However, there has been a 15.4 per cent jump in the rate of assaults in the last year and a 10.3 per cent increase in sexual offences, including a 21 per cent rise in rapes and attempted rapes.
The rate of domestic violence order breaches is up 17.3 per cent with 3,621 offences reported last year.
The number of house break-ins is up 4.1 per cent while break-ins targeting shops are up 11.2 per cent.
A breakdown of the ages of offenders shows the huge number of juveniles committing some crimes.
In 2020-21 there were more than 2,100 people responsible for all unlawful use of a motor vehicle offences across the South Eastern Police region which covers the Gold Coast and Logan.
Of those, 1,143 were aged 10 to 17 making up 54 per cent of all offenders.
That number is up from 914 the previous year.
For house break-ins, there were 1,235 offenders with 638 of those aged 10 to 17 or almost 52 per cent.
That’s an increase of 121 from the previous year.
Senior Police and the State Government insist that changes to Youth Justice Laws are having an effect with a statewide decrease of 5.8 per cent in the number of unique juvenile offenders.
“In the past two years, an extraordinary amount of work has been targeted towards youth crime, and we can see that reflected in the decrease in unique offenders,” Commissioner Katarina Carroll said.
“However, we know there is more work to be done, and the QPS remains committed to keeping communities safe.”
The State Opposition has argued the changes have done little to reduce youth crime, especially when it comes to repeat offenders.
Opposition Leader David Crisafulli is demanding that breach of bail be reinstated as a crime.
“Without breach of bail these aren’t going to go anywhere and lo and behold what’s happened in the last 12 months, offences have skyrocketed, it’s worse than it was a year ago,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“So the government can dance around the issues but unless breach of bail is an offence in the Youth Justice Act, it’s going to be more tinsel.”
His call comes after a 13-year-old boy, who was well known to Police, was charged over a stolen car crash in Ashmore on Thursday morning.
It’s also claimed a 17-year-old boy was released on bail after a stolen car crash on the Gold Coast just six days after being given bail for an earlier incident in a stolen car.
