National MP sounds alarm about youthful offenders

National MP Anne Tolley is concerned about a jump in the number of family group conferences for young offenders and the number of new cases in the Youth Court.

She has released figures showing there were 9190 family group conferences in the 2005-06 year, compared with 7654 the previous year and 7500 the year before that.

At the same time, the number of new cases in the Youth Court was 7952, a 19 per cent rise on the 6688 last year.

She said the Government had given assurances youth crime was not growing, but the numbers showed it was becoming more of a problem for the justice system.

When releasing the information about family group conferences, Child, Youth and Family Minister Ruth Dyson said this was the number of conferences in a year, not the number of clients. There was often a follow-up conference to review the plan made in the first.

Ms Dyson said yesterday that the CYF youth justice capability review meant CYF, with other Government agencies, would have an increased focus on youth offending.

Specialist social workers were being recruited to co-ordinate family group conferences and follow up results.

They would also be putting strategies in place to reduce the number of repeat family group conferences.

Statistics show youth offending has not increased more than adult offending, with under-17s remaining at about 22 per cent of the total.

- NZPA