The information on offences presented in this section has been provided by the Department of Juvenile Justice. Any other information referred to was gathered from the participant interviews.
Offending before entering the YDC program
As was outlined in Section 3 above, many of the participants had long offending histories prior to their participation in the YDC program. This section is concerned only with offending that led directly to participants’ referral to the program.
The most serious current offence for which nine of the 33 first round interviewees (27 per cent) were charged with was robbery, aggravated robbery, or robbery extortion and other related offences, while for a further six participants (18 per cent) break and enter was the most serious offence (Table 5.36). Five (15 per cent) were charged with common or aggravated assault when they came onto the program, while three (nine per cent) were charged with motor vehicle theft and related offences. Two had theft and related offences as the most serious offence, while another two were charged with illicit drug offences. One participant was facing weapons and explosives charges.
Five of the young men and four of the young women in the group had been charged with robbery offences, while four men and two women had been charged with break and enter. Only one woman had been charged with assault, compared to four of the young men, with the remainder of the group on which there were data being made up of young men charged with motor vehicle or other theft, illicit drug or weapons offences.
Nine out of the 15 people charged with robbery/extortion or break and enter listed heroin as the drug they used most, with a further two out of the four people charged with assault also saying heroin was their drug of choice. Other offence types were spread fairly evenly across the other drugs of choice – cocaine, amphetamines, cannabis and alcohol.
Table 5.36: Most serious current offence
Offence Number Per cent
Robbery, extortion etc 9 27.3
Break and enter 6 18.2
Assault 5 15.1
Motor vehicle theft 3 9.1
Other theft 2 6.1
Illicit drug offences 2 6.1
Weapons offences 1 3.0
No information 5 15.1
Total 33 100
Offending while on the program
According to information provided by the Department of Juvenile Justice, 22 participants out of the 32 interviewees who took part in the YDC program committed one or more offences while on the program (69 per cent). Five participants were not recorded as having committed any offences while on the program (16 per cent), and no information was available on the remaining five (Table 5.37).15
Table 5.37: Number of offences committed while on the program
Number of offences Number of participants Per cent
None 5 15.6
One 4 12.5
Two 3 9.4
Three 4 12.5
Four 3 9.4
Five 2 6.2
Six 2 6.2
Seven 3 9.4
Eight 1 3.1
No information 5 15.6
Total 32 99.9
Of the two participants who committed six offences, both of whom were young Aboriginal women, one breached bail twice and had fresh charges brought against them four times, while the other failed to appear as a first offence, was arrested on warrant twice, breached bail once and had fresh charges brought against them twice.
Three people committed seven offences while on the program. One was arrested on warrant four times and had fresh charges brought against them twice (the nature of the other offence is not known). A second person breached bail five times, was arrested on warrant once and had fresh charges brought against them once. The third failed to
15 It should be noted, as mentioned earlier, that there are discrepancies between the different sources of information available on offending by the YDC clientele. For example, information on offences recorded while on the program provided by the YDC Registry suggests a lower level of offending than that supplied by DJJ. This is only partly accounted for by different definition of offences between the two data sources.
appear in court three times, was arrested on warrant three times and had fresh charges brought against them once.
The person who committed eight offences while on the program breached their bail conditions three times, failed to appear in court twice, and was arrested on warrant twice (the nature of the other offence is not known).
It is worth noting that three of the participants who committed five or more offences while on the program were young women who identified as Aboriginal. All three of these chose to terminate their participation in the program. This is a further argument for special attention to the circumstances of young Indigenous female offenders to maximise their chances of getting through the program successfully without additional offending.
When the young people were asked if the punishment or sanction they received from the YDC for breaking their bail conditions or offending while on the program made it less likely they would re-offend, thirteen of them (10 young men and three young woman) agreed that it would, while five (four men and one woman) said it would not.
A further eleven people (10 men and one woman) chose not to answer the question.
Several commented that the punishments or sanctions given by the YDC were fair in the light of what they had done.
Post-program offending
According to information provided by the Department of Juvenile Justice, a little over one-quarter of the 32 YDC participants (nine or 28 per cent) were not recorded as having re-offended after leaving the program, up to the end of 2002. Twelve (37 per cent) did re-offend, in some instances having multiple charges brought against them after leaving the program. However, as discussed earlier, it is difficult always to distinguish matters that were before the Court before the participant joined the YDC program from offences committed later. These matters may be recorded as offences committed after exit from the program if the participant left the program before completing it. There was also no information available for 11 participants (34 per cent) after they left the program (Table 5.38).
Table 5.38: Number of offences after leaving the program (up to end of 2002)
Number of offences Number of participants Per cent
None 9 28.1
One 1 3.1
Two 2 6.2
Three 1 3.1
Four 1 3.1
Eight 2 6.2
Nine 2 6.2
Ten 1 3.1
Fifteen 1 3.1
Eighteen 1 3.1
No information 11 34.4
Total 32 99.7
Severity of offences recorded ranged from relatively minor (such as the use of offensive language in or near a public place or school, and driving an unregistered vehicle) through medium level offences (such as receiving stolen goods and failing to appear in court or comply with bail conditions) to very serious (such as armed or aggravated robbery, and assault with intent to rob armed with an offensive weapon).
The participants who had 15 and 18 offences recorded against them both committed seven offences while on the program. Both of these also chose to terminate their participation in the program. The person who committed eight offences while on the program graduated and did not commit any further offences after finishing the YDC program. Of the other thirteen people who graduated from the program, there is no offence information available for three of them, six did not offend and four did offend after leaving the program. It is not possible to give an accurate account of re-offending for those who left the program before completing it, as some charges may relate to offences committed earlier, as previously explained.
It should also be noted that adult offences are not covered by the DJJ data base and a number of the participants became adults in the period following their involvement in the program. Data on adult offences committed by YDC participants up to the end of 2002 has recently been obtained from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research.
According to these data (and including those participants located in adult prisons) 17 YDC participants had been convicted of adult offences since completing or leaving the program. Nine of these had been convicted of one or two adult offences, three participants had been convicted of four adult offences, and one person – one of the young Aboriginal women mentioned previously who had great difficulty adjusting to the program – had been convicted of 11 offences. Information on number of offences was not available for a further four people.
Offences the participants were convicted of ranged from driving offences, receiving stolen goods and theft to resisting arrest, trespass, break and enter, assault, aggravated assault, and possession of illicit drugs. Three people received fines for the relatively minor offences they had committed: resisting arrest/trespass, driving an unregistered vehicle and exceeding the prescribed content of alcohol limit. Two people received periodic detention for a period of nine months for receiving stolen goods and possessing an illicit drug and break and enter respectively. The remainder of the group were imprisoned for periods of four to 12 months, in most cases for more serious offences, while two participants received sentences of over two years.
Of this group of adult offenders, six had graduated from the YDC program, nine had chosen to terminate their participation and a further two people had their participation in the program terminated by the YDC court. Four of these adult offenders were young women and 13 were young men.
The overall picture on re-offending is therefore mixed. While some participants have managed to get through a period following their program involvement without major re-offending, many others, including some program graduates, have fallen back into patterns of criminal behaviour. However, in the absence of complete information about offending and longer time span since program completion it is difficult to determine how far offending behaviour has been reduced overall compared to that prior to entering the program.
5.13 Overall Satisfaction with the Program