Chris Cahill told Breakfast: "It's a really significant issue. I just got a briefing from front line cops in Christchurch yesterday, and I've been around police a long time but the stories I'm hearing are really shocking me.

"These are offenders as young as 12 and 13, and they're just showing absolutely no care for the public.

"They're driving around, deliberately trying to knock people off their bikes at high speed in vehicles, they're throwing objects out of stolen vehicles at them, they're ramming police deliberately.

"Police are really struggling to deal with this recidivist group of most serious offenders." Read more

In two years there has been a 465 percent increase in ram raids, and of those caught by police 70 percent were aged under 18.

Data released to RNZ under the Official Information Act showed that in the 2022 calendar year, police recorded 516 ram raids.

There were 708 offenders identified; 495 were under 17 years old, 70 were under 13, and 88 were adults. Read more

Oranga Tamariki says although overall youth crime has fallen 60 percent in the past 10 years, the recent spike in ram-raids is a problem.

The agency's Youth Justice Services director Ben Hannifin says they're dealing with complex teenagers with tough backgrounds.

"Eighty percent of the kids that we manage come from homes where they've experienced violence in the home," he said. "Almost exclusively they're not in school, they're with a peer group that are kind of like-minded."

He says these incidents are driven by excitement and notoriety. Kids often post their crimes on social media.

The community can help provide some of the answers, he believes.

"The solution's not ours alone, nor is it the police's, it's the community's responsibility to identify what the opportunities are to help these young people look for alternatives to the excitement they're currently getting under these ram-raids."

Rugby League legend Sir Graham Lowe and Hamilton city councillor Mark Bunting have also spoken out about the growing problem.

In fact, Bunting says he's thought of little else since he heard a group of children aged seven to twelve broke into a Hamilton mall to steal toys in the early hours of Thursday morning last week.

In his opinion poverty is a key factor in poor parenting and bad environments some young people were growing up in.

Lowe would like to see the problem addressed with better parenting and support for parents.

Both he and Bunting would like to see the community playing a bigger role in taking a big picture look at the problems and how to help.

Community response

Community groups are ready to step up but say they need resources. Ideas are flowing, but nothing's free. Funding's an issue.

"The community have got the answers - they just don't have the money to do it or the staff to do it," says Sharon Wilson-Davis, CEO of youth services agency Strive Community Trust.

She says the COVID lockdown has also had an impact on these youth.

"They've been away from their friends, their families are broke, it's just a cesspit of pain and they're frustrated."

She hopes to engage kids in more structured activities which are less damaging to communities - as she has in the past before funding stopped.

"I've been here 25 years so I've seen amazing results working with the young people. They're not all bad, they just think they're bulletproof. They're bored and these are unprecedented times."

Source

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• RNZ
• Image: Stuff