NCJ Number
199975
Date Published
November 2002
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This document assesses the lessons learned in a murder case involving children and young people as offenders in New Zealand.
Abstract
In 2002, one adult, four young people, and one child were convicted of various charges including murder and manslaughter in regard to the death of a man in 2001. This review examines the dealings with the convicted offenders over time by the police, child services, and health and education services in New Zealand. Specifically considered are the changes needed in the future to improve service delivery to young offenders. Three key lessons were focused upon to improve agency practice. The first lesson was in addressing risk factors in the lives of young offenders. This includes addressing the underlying causes of a child’s behavior, understanding and using risk assessment tools and processes, and training frontline staff to assist in understanding research on risk factors. The second lesson was in improving school participation. There is concern of heightened risk of offending by children and young people that are unsupervised and receive little positive stimulation due to non-engagement in school. There is a need to improve the responsiveness of the wider education sector to at-risk young people. The burden of child misbehavior should not be placed solely on the school and requires assistance from other social service agencies. There is a need to increase awareness throughout schools of the support that is available for at-risk young people through non-government organizations. The third lesson is in improving responsiveness to child offenders. Child, Youth, and Family and Police agencies failed to use fully the youth justice provisions of the Children, Young Persons, and Their Families (CYPF) Act in relation to child offenders. Training needs to be undertaken with frontline staff to ensure that all staff understand the child offender provisions in the CYPF Act, how they can be used to hold child offenders accountable for their actions, and to address factors in their lives that are contributing to their offending. Poor file recording was an identified shortcoming in police practice.