The Youth Justice Strategy Action Plan 2019–21 is one of the most significant policies that the Queensland Goverment implemented in recent years. According to CDC (n.d.), a government or other institution’s policy may be legislation, rule, process, administrative decision, inducement, or voluntary practice. Resource allocations typically reflect policy decisions. Policies in many different industries can affect the well-being of the citizens and their living environment. For instance, neighborhood designs that are suitable for walking and bicycling can promote physical activity. Policies in schools can enhance the nutritional value of school meals (CDC, n.d.).
The Youth Justice Strategy Action Plan 2019–21 marks a crucial turning point in our effort to improve the juvenile justice system and lower the number of juvenile offenders and repeat offenders in Queensland. The Action Plan outlines the measures to put the Working Together Changing the World initiative into practice. The Youth Justice Strategy, which is for the period 2019 to 2023, builds on reforms that the Queensland government introduced. For example, with this policy, the government aims to restore judicially mandated restorative justice conferences. Next, they plan on implementing the recommendations from the Townsville Community Champion’s report, Townsville’s Voice: Local Solutions to Address Youth Crime, responding to Mr. Bob Atkinson’s Report on Youth Justice, ending the treatment of 17-year-olds as adults in Queensland’s criminal justice system, and implementing the Independent Review of Youth Detention’s findings and recommendations (The State of Queensland, 2019).
The Department of Youth Justice and its partner organizations will hold children and young people responsible for their illegal behavior via the implementation of this Action Plan (The State of Queensland, 2019). In addition to addressing the root causes of crime, these organizations will work with communities, families, and individuals to create effective, long-lasting, and culturally sensitive solutions. Reducing the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people in the juvenile justice system will be a significant focus of our efforts. This action plan consists of a variety of measures that will assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youngsters in achieving better results.
Any policy has an underlying rationale that guides policy development and implementation. In this case, the goal is to address the youth crime rates and ensure that communities are safer. As the Queensland government (n.d.) explains the rationale for the actions, there are several key areas that will be addressed through this policy. Addressing the disproportionate participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities’ children in the criminal justice system, attending to the various needs of girls and young women, developing infrastructure, and providing secure prison and watchhouse settings is the main underlying cause of this action plan.
According to the document outlining this policy, the author is “this document is licensed by the State of Queensland (Department of Youth Justice)” (p. 12). Thus, this policy was developed by the government’s leadership and, more specifically, by the Department of Youth Justice. This is a positive factor since this department is directly involved in issues of juvenile crimes and has the insights and statistics that can serve as the basis for the decision-making. There are three widely accepted ideas on youth crime. The anomie theory, the subculture theory, and the differential opportunity theory are the three hypotheses.
Robert Merton initially presented the anomie hypothesis in the 1940s (“What is juvenile delinquency?,” n.d.). According to Merton’s view, juvenile misbehavior arises because young people lack the resources to satisfy their own desires. The subculture hypothesis is an additional idea about juvenile criminality. The subculture hypothesis, which Albert Cohen created in 1955, is the culmination of a number of his hypotheses. According to the subculture idea, young people who don’t fit in with society want validation from a certain subculture. Thus, the inclusion of the government agency that is directly responsible for juvenile crimes is beneficial for the policy’s outcomes.
The main goal of this policy is to make the world a better place by addressing youth crime. Moreover, this policy has a specific focus on such populations as young women and Aboriginal populations, which shows the government’s recognition of the need to focus on the well-being of these populations. The most potential target population for initiatives to reduce crime is still young people who are at risk and who commit crimes. Many of the issues that these young people experienced in the 1960s still exist or have gotten worse, and the approaches taken to solve them have changed (Lane, 2018). However, research on the causes, effects, and optimal solutions to juvenile criminality has made significant progress and now offers valuable lessons for policymakers and practitioners. The differential opportunity theory does not entirely refute Cohen’s hypothesis that young people turn to crime because they do not live up to social expectations. According to the differential opportunity theory, which Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin established in 1960, opportunity is a factor in adolescent criminality.
The main limitation of this policy is that the current state of laws and strategies directed at youth crime rate reduction is not highly effective. According to Javdani (2019), modern juvenile justice has completely lost its way. A review of juvenile justice systems across the world reveals a jumble of tactics, frameworks, viewpoints, and treatments that are frequently devoid of direction and guiding principles (Kavdani, 2019). For juvenile justice, neither Occam’s Razor nor the keep it simple and straightforward (KISS) principle applies. Instead, we have a bulimic system that is continually seeking improvement (sometimes in the shape of enhanced efficiency) by addition rather than contemplation. It is a jumble of disparate goals and approaches that is amorphous and sorely lacking in agreement, continuity, and identity.
According to Silk (2022), since Queensland’s state government began a contentious crackdown on juvenile offenders, youth-dominated crimes have risen to their greatest level. According to Queensland police statistics, in March, there were more break-ins, burglaries, vehicle and shop thefts, joy rides, arson, and property damage than at any time since the contentious campaign started in April 2021 (Vujkovic, 2022). Thus, although this plan was implemented in 2019, its effectiveness has not been proven yet, and on the contrary, the youth crime rates began to rise in 2022. Despite these limitations, there are multiple benefits of this policy. Mainly, it focuses on the collaboration with local communities and acknowledges the need to recognize the unique factors that affect female juvenile offenders and Aboriginal youth that prompts them to commit a crime.
A new Department of Youth Justice was established in May 2019. New programs were implemented to lower the high number of children remanded in custody and ensure the safety and well-being of children currently held in police watchhouses. Proposed amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 were made in order to remove legal barriers to child custody. $332.5 million in investment to combat youth crime was announced in April 2019; actions associated with this investment are prioritized in the Action Plan. Thus, this strategy outlined the specific partnerships and budgets that the government allocated to implement the policy. Moreover, this strategy should be renewed once the first timeframe of implementation is over. According to the policy, every year, the Action Plan will be evaluated to make sure we are actually moving forward, and additional activities may be added (“Youth justice in Queensland,” n.d.). Monitoring and evaluation will help the policymakers make excellent progress in putting actions and initiatives into effect while ensuring that genuine change is being accomplished.
As was discussed in the limitations section of this paper, currently, the policy does not show a significant reduction in youth crimes, which is a matter of concern. Currently, the funds that were allocated to child services should help build a stronger network of support that will monitor the juveniles’ behaviors and focus on the prevention of the crimes. Additionally, the plan has initiated the development of positive family and community environments where children will not be prone to committing crimes and, instead, will learn positive behavior models.
However, this policy has established a good precedent for the collaboration of the government and the communities. Still, more work needs to be done to ensure that the policy’s objectives are reached and that the crime rates within Queensland have actually reduced. However, this is a long-term endeavor, and it may take several years to see the actual effect of the Youth Justice Strategy Action Plan 2019–21.
In summary, the policy on youth crime that was developed by the government of Queensland targets the rates of crime rates that were committed by juveniles. One of the most important pieces of legislation the Queensland Government put into place was the Youth Justice Strategy Action Plan 2019–21. The Working Together Changing the World Action Plan details the steps to put the project into effect. It seeks to reinstate restorative justice hearings and put a stop to Queensland’s criminal court system’s treatment of 17-year-olds as adults.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC]. (n.d.). Definition of policy. Web.
Javdani, S. (2019). Critical issues for youth involved in the juvenile justice system: Innovations in prevention, intervention, and policy. Journal of Prevention &Amp; Intervention in The Community, 47(2), 67-75. doi: 10.1080/10852352.2019.1575564
Lane, J. (2018), Addressing juvenile crime. Criminology & Public Policy, 17, 283-307.
Silk, M. (2022). Youth-dominated crimes rise again in Qld. 7 News.
The State of Queensland (Department of Youth Justice). (2019). Youth action strategy action plan 2019-21. Queensland Government.
Youth justice in Queensland. (n.d.).
Vujkovic, M. (2022). Youth crime increases post-COVID in south-east Queensland, police statistics reveal. News.
What is juvenile delinquency? – Definition, theories & facts. (n.d.).