By Aaron Cordy
IMAGES and videos splashed across social media of young people carrying knives, primary school kids being attacked on the street and children being a menace in suburban streets, added to an article on a disreputable online news source on African gangs roaming the streets of Shepparton, it is understandable why locals are concerned.
While there is clearly an issue with youth crime in the region, like the rest of the country, it is not defined to one group, nor is it as rampant as the doom-sayers would have you believe.
Understand that youth crime is complex, but not unsolvable; members of Shepparton Police, the education department and stakeholders from community organisations met to tackle the issue on Tuesday, July 21.
“The violence that some of our young people in this community have exhibited more recently. There’s been some high-profile events, and so we just wanted to come together to look at ways we could use our resources in community to circumvent a pathway into violence,” said the Department of Education’s Sharon Hensgen-Smith.
“In the main, our young people don’t exhibit violence out in the community. But what we’re seeing with violence is becoming a lot more intense for our young people, and it’s really facilitated by social media, and that’s a real concern for us as a community.”
The approach in the room was not another outdated tough-on-crime approach that hasn’t worked. They looked at key factors that have kept young people out of positive environments like community groups and sporting clubs, and how to bring them back.
“We have a real opportunity because there’s a lot of willingness of the people in this room to make a big difference. And it’s really pleasing that we’re all tracking in the same direction. And by and large, that’s to divert young people away from the criminal justice system. We’re all on the same page in that respect,” said Greater Shepparton Police Superintendent Brett Kahan.
“I think a lot of the youth violence that has been exhibited in Greater Shepparton recently has been unfortunately portrayed negatively through social media, and those kids aren’t necessarily bad. So, what can we do as community leaders to actually get them to make better decisions, to assist them in their decision-making, and get back to school?
“I’m really positive that we can make a big difference, and if we miss this opportunity, it’s sort of us, because we’ve got a really stable group of community leaders at the moment in Greater Shepparton, which we haven’t always had. So, we’ve got a real good opportunity to make a difference.”
Looking at a wraparound approach for young people and their families to help prevent them from committing crime or bring them back on a straight path if they have committed a crime is the solution. Whether it is keeping children engaged in education, helping them find a job, a sporting organisation and community group they can be a part of, instead of running them through the justice system, which has been proven to almost guarantee repeat offending.
“This is not about sending kids who commit violence to jail. It’s far from it. It’s actually committing kids who are on a bad pathway away from that path. That’s what it’s about. And I’ll never be sold on that a kid can’t be helped. And if we give up on the kids, then we’re in a world of trouble,” said Superintendent Brett Kahan.
