I was asked recently if I thought that juvenile crime was on the increase. Were there more youngsters running wild and creating havoc now than there were in the past? It’s an interesting question. While I don’t have the figures from the Department of Justice, I would be surprised if there wasn’t some increase in incidents given the resource issue that has affected An Garda Siochana over the last number of years.
I think that the majority of young people we have in this country are good kids who progress to adulthood without causing too many problems. Many of them distinguish themselves through sport, volunteerism or academic achievements without causing an ounce of bother. In my experience it has always been a small minority who cause trouble and bring themselves to the notice of the Justice system. I don’t know if this group has grown but I suspect that the lack of resources in An Garda Siochana has led to less interaction with youngsters over the last few years and as a result they could be more boisterous than would have been the case previously.
Do the figures add up?
Figures from the Court Service’s Annual Report suggest that juvenile crimes and public order offences have greatly reduced over the last number of years. In 2013, there were 5,365 juvenile offences, representing a 41% drop on 2010’s figure of 9,162. Public order and assault offences are also on the way down with 40,823 such offences recorded last year, in comparison to 61,652 such offences back in 2011, a 34% drop.
This seems to be at variance with the perception of some members of the general public who feel that those numbers don’t stack up. And they may well be justified in having that opinion.
The Minister for Justice has stated that since the first National Youth Justice Strategy commenced in 2008, the number of children detained by the Courts annually on criminal conviction has consistently dropped; the operational costs of detention have reduced by over 30%; the capital costs and space required in the new national detention facilities being built at Oberstown are approximately 50% of what was estimated in 2008; and youth crime has decreased.
Is there another reason?
It is possible that the reduction in the number of recorded juvenile offences could be attributed to the fact that a shortage of resources in An Garda Siochana may have resulted in fewer juveniles coming to the attention of the gardai in the first place. Another reason could be a claim that fewer incidents are reported because of the anticipated lack of response.
Commenting on the Court Service’s Annual Report a Garda spokesman said, “Preventative and enforcement” measures have been implemented by the force to reduce the number of incidents relating to such crimes. “On the prevention side, this includes our youth diversion programme that seeks to stop young people under 18 from re-offending, our schools education programme, and working with communities on programmes like Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert,” the spokesman said.
I’m not convinced about the “preventative and enforcement” measures and if these measures are being hailed as the reason for the reduction in offences then I’m afraid that the report is flawed. These are the very same measures that have taken a terrible hammering in recent years in An Garda Siochana because of the unavailability of community gardai and because of the new roster. This is the same roster that the Garda Inspectorate decided is not fit for purpose. It is causing huge problems for garda management who still refuse to admit that it doesn’t work.
The schools programme was never easy
It’s infuriating that they continue to suggest that their “schools education programme and community programmes like Neighbourhood Watch and Community Alert” are actually working. To suggest the offences are reduced because of these programmes is pure delusional. The Garda Schools Programme, just to take one example, has significantly reduced in recent years to the point of being practically non-existent in many areas. I would be astonished if the returns for the number of school visits carried out by members of An Garda Siochana in recent years show anything other than a serious reduction when compared with previous years.
Even in the good times, it was a struggle to implement this programme because very few in garda management had any faith in it and when the cutbacks hit the Force, this was one of the first casualties.
The Minister for Justice commented that since the first National Youth Justice Strategy commenced in 2008, the number of children sentenced to detention by the Courts on criminal conviction has consistently dropped. Again, engagement with juveniles has been on the decline since 2008 so that too could have something to do with that drop.
The Youth Diversion Programme is something else that seems to be getting plaudits for reducing the number of young offenders. In plain English, the Diversion Programme provides youngsters who find themselves in trouble with an opportunity to make amends without having to enter into the Criminal Justice System. It allows for young people, under the age of eighteen, who may have done something silly to get a second chance without having the offence recorded against them.
It’s a very positive and practical programme and it is responsible for putting many youngsters on the right path as opposed to the slippery slope of criminality. But it only works as long as the gardai are engaged with it. The down side is that if the gardai are not in the schools and on the street dealing with these kids then the referrals are not going to be made and these young offenders will continue to commit crime until they enter the Criminal Justice System at eighteen years of age and at that stage they are dealt with as adults. And then it’s too late.