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Have your say > Bills and new laws > Young Offenders Bill
Young Offenders Bill
The Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill
Not quite sure what a bill is or what an MP stands for? Check out Dr. Glossie’s Glossary of Political Terms
What’s the bill about?
The bill seeks some changes to the current way we deal with serious
crimes committed by young people. This bill wants to make young
offenders who commit serious crimes responsible for their crimes more
or less in the same way as adult offenders. This means "adult
punishment for adult crimes".
The bill increases the number of offences for which young people aged
10 to 14 will be dealt with by the adult courts and extends the Court's
ability to jail children. The bill wants the criminal system to be able
to imprison children and young people who are convicted with “serious
offences”. It would allow children 10 to 14 years old to be able to be
charged for “serious offences”.
Serious offences are:
- any offence for which the maximum penalty is imprisonment for three months or a fine of not less than $2,000
- offences that have been committed before by that person
- committed by someone who has more than three previous criminal convictions.
At the moment, young people, especially those under 17 years of age,
have some limits on what they can be charged with and how they are
dealt with under the criminal system. The bill seeks changes to
the three different pieces of law that contain these limits; the Crimes
Act, the Sentencing Act 2002 and Children, Young Persons, and Their
Families Act 1989. They are as follows:
The Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989
This is the main law which deals with youth court, youth justice
stuff like family group conferences and all that. This law has a
section that stops criminal proceedings being brought against children
under the age of 14 years, unless they have been charged with murder or
manslaughter.
The Young Offenders Bill seeks to change this so other serious offences
committed by children of or over the age of 10 years are in the same
category as murder and manslaughter.
The Crimes Act 1961
This is the main law on crime and criminal behaviour. This law puts
some limits on criminal responsibility for children between 10 and 14
years old. It has a bit that says no child (between 10 and 14 years of
age) who commits an offence can be convicted of the offence unless the
child knew that what they were doing was wrong or against the law.
The Young Offenders Bill seeks to change this so that when children
commit a serious offence they become ‘criminally responsible’ and can
be convicted. The bill would not change the law for children under the
age of 10 so they would continue to not be able to be convicted.
The Sentencing Act 2002
This is the law that outlines criminal sentences and what they can be.
It has a section that limits giving sentences of imprisonment to young
offenders under 17 years of age.
The Young Offenders Bill seeks to change this so that a sentence of
imprisonment can be used with young offenders (under 17 years) if they
have been convicted of a serious offence.
What are people who like the bill saying?
The people who are for the bill say that the youth justice system is
too easy and does not really work on young offenders who commit serious
crimes and who do serious crimes more than once.
They think that young people under 17 years who commit serious crimes
do not get the punishment they should get because they have protection
under the law as young people. They also say that this results in the
youth justice system not working and young offenders ending up
committing more crimes down the line.
What about those people who are against the bill?
There are lots of different views from people against the bill, some
have looked at research and some are against the bill because it goes
against their values.
Some say that the current system is working well, that the majority of
young people who offend do not return to the justice system. Others say
that the bill goes against protecting child’s rights and against the
international treaty (UNCROC)
on child rights which New Zealand has signed up to. Some people have
looked into research and say that there is lots of evidence to show
that harsh approaches to offending do not work. Some people concentrate
on child development issues and say that children need special legal
protections because they are only kids.
Youth Voices to the government!
Activate, a youth advisory group for the Ministry of Youth Development,
gave a presentation to the Law and Order select committee on this bill.
They gave the committee feedback from members of the Ministry of Youth
Development’s Specialist Youth Service Corps aged 14-17. These
young people were referred to the programme as a result of their
involvement with minor offending.
Activate did not support the proposed
Bill. They feel that broadening the range of offences for which a child
or young person can be imprisoned will not help that child or young
person to change their behaviour.
See related documents below to check out Activate’s powerpoint presentation to the
select committee on the bill and the reasons why they don’t support the
bill.
What did young people say?
Here are some of the things young people from the Youth Specialist
Service Corps aged 14-17 said about the bill. These young people
were referred to the programme as a result of their involvement with
minor offending.
“No chances is bad for kids, we all make mistakes”
“We need time to grow up, doing dumb stuff is part of growing up”
“They will re-offend more because they will think no one cares and they’re gonna get locked up anyway”
“It’s dumb to fill up prisons with kids, it will cost the government
more cos they will have to build heaps of new ones and it won’t help
the young people because they will be locked away from all the people
that can help them”
“You don’t understand when you are 10-13 what being a criminal is and you could end up in jail just cos you make mistakes”
“It’s good that we get chances till we are 17 in youth court”
“If kids are in trouble you need to ask them what their home is like cos they might be trying to get taken away”
The following is a summary of the feedback we received on the Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill.
“Being punished like an adult doesn't fix the problem for society or
that individual. The law is supposed to protect us, not oppress
us.”
“This bill is too harsh and should be looked at thoroughly before passing it”
“Severe punishment should only be for severe offences such as murder.”
“Children are still learning and can learn not to offend again. Their upbringing can be the only thing wrong.”
“Remember they're only children and prison will scar them. Stop the problem not punishment.”
“Young people make mistakes and often parents don't know how to handle us.”
How will politicians decide?
At the end of the day, the whole of Parliament and all the MPs vote on
bills and it comes down to counting the votes for and against.
Some political parties have a 'caucus decision' that means when it
comes to voting on the bill, they will vote all the same even if they
personally don't agree with the 'party decision'. Sometimes parties let
their people do a 'conscience vote' which means that they can vote the
way they personally want to.
Where’s the bill at now?
The bill got examined carefully by the select committee which has reps
for all the different biggish political parties and lots of people (for
and against) rocked up to the committee to give their thoughts on the
bill. The bill has had one reading in Parliament which means it has two
more to go. Watch this space for updates!
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