YSAS response to the VAGO report Preventing Youth Crime
The Victorian Government should be commended for investing in new approaches to preventing youth crime and making our communities safer.
The Youth Crime Prevention Program funds many different initiatives. Some work early with young people at risk, and others work with young people already involved in the justice system. What they share is a commitment to helping young people whose lives have led towards crime find constructive ways to take part in community life – and consolidate identities that are not tied up with offending.
YSAS welcomes VAGO’s oversight and supports its recommendations, which the Department of Justice and Community Safety has accepted in full. The recommendations call for better participant data, measurable service targets, evidence-based advice to government and a renewed community of practice.
Those recommendations must now be applied carefully across a very diverse set of programs. Investment in innovation needs to be matched by investment in rigorous evaluation into what works for young people to desist from involvement in crime and invest in positive future that is realistic and achievable.
Starting points matter. PIVOT, delivered by YSAS with Jesuit Social Services, Windana and Mission Australia, works with young people with serious, high-volume offending histories who are on Youth Justice or Community Corrections orders or were referred by Victoria Police. This is the case for all clients.
Of our 25 current clients:
- 84% have improved family relationships
- 56% have completed their criminal justice matters without reoffending
- 80% are engaged in education or employment
For this group, every young person who stops offending is a real gain for community safety. It also comes at a small fraction of the cost of youth detention, which VAGO puts at $7,304 per young person per day.
40 additional PIVOT clients that VAGO identified as having no police record came through an innovative offshoot of PIVOT called ePIVOT. This was a separate early intervention pilot, developed with schools and the local Youth Justice office, for young people at clear risk of entering the justice system. That is innovation working as intended, and it deserves proper evaluation, not exclusion.
The government’s new Violence Reduction Unit is an excellent example of drawing on strong international evidence to prevent violence locally. The same commitment to evidence should now be applied to the whole youth crime prevention effort.
Andrew Bruun, CEO, YSAS
Media Contact: (03) 9415 8881 communications@ysas.org.au