Judge Frances Eivers says child welfare and criminality are social issues and increasing poverty cannot go ignored.

Her comments come on the day of new ram raids - including one in which a digger was used to smash through the front of a petrol station in Wainuiomata and another in which three teenagers and a 20-year-old were arrested after fleeing the scene of a burglary north of Auckland, ramming police cars and driving on the wrong side of the road on the motorway.

"We'd be very surprised to find that any of these young people came from one of the leafy suburbs in Auckland where they've got plenty of food in the cupboard, where their disposable income is good, where they've got money not just to pay the rent or mortgage but to buy extras," Eivers said. Read more