Reaching out to reduce youth crime

Editorial: Sarah Larsen

Photography: Jesse Wray-McCann

Sixteen-year-old Sam* is an unlikely poster child for Victoria Police.

The teenager had disengaged from school and was struggling with substance use and poor mental health.

Sam’s first encounter with police was when members visited her home after reports of family violence. Sam had been violent towards her father and younger sibling and had damaged family property.

Senior Sergeant Robbie Adams, from Werribee’s Proactive Policing Unit, has seen it all before: a teenager with the potential to repeatedly offend, appear in the courts and be processed in the system.

“We’re very much aware of the patterns that vulnerable young people can find themselves in,” Sen Sgt Adams said.

“A lot of these young people have horrific backstories and are then confronted by members in uniform. There’s a lot of fear, even if they don’t show it.”

In Sam’s case, Sen Sgt Adams’ unit was in a unique position to offer on-the-spot support from Youth Support and Advocacy Service (YSAS), as part of the Embedded Youth Outreach Project (EYOP).

EYOP aims to reduce youth offending through early intervention by partnering youth workers with police.

The program brings youth workers to police jobs that involve at-risk young people aged 10-24, bringing real-time support to vulnerable youths.

Sen Sgt Adams believes the program is vital to preventing youth crime.

“It's progressive, innovative, but at the same time, it just makes common sense,” he said.

“The police member and the youth worker have very different approaches, but they complement each other and both aim for early intervention.”

Attending Sam’s home that night was YSAS youth worker Luke McConnell, who knows the importance of making a good impression on a young person.

“You have to be very good at building rapport with them within 15-30 seconds, because that small window will determine whether or not they’ll accept your support,” Mr McConnell said.

“When we arrived, Sam was out the front in a heightened state, pacing back and forth. There was still a lot of commotion inside the house, which the police were dealing with.

“I let her know that I understood she’d been going through a lot of stuff and that I was there to support her.

“She then raised her head and her body language changed, which told me she was open to engaging. She felt like someone was genuinely asking her about her circumstances.”

Mr McConnell was able to offer support services on the spot that he hoped would set Sam on a different path and keep her out of the judicial system.

Short-term accommodation was immediately arranged to place her in a more suitable environment away from dysfunctional family relationships.

Ongoing support included a referral to a specialist legal service for adolescent violence in the home, youth drug and alcohol counselling and housing support services.

EYOP has been running in Wyndham, Hobsons Bay, Maribyrnong, Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia local government areas for nearly five years and has worked with more than 1200 young people like Sam in the past year.

At EYOP’s inception, Victoria Police commissioned the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (CFBS) at Swinburne University to conduct an evaluation of the project.

After two years of data collection, CFBS released a report in 2020 that looked at the journeys of all 784 young people engaged in EYOP.

The evaluation found a 9 per cent reduction in the annual offending rate in EYOP clients with a history of offending.

In comparison, a matched control group of young people not engaged in EYOP displayed an increase in annual offending.

In May this year, the Victorian Government committed a further $7.3 million in funding to expand EYOP to Shepparton, Brimbank and Melton.

Sen Sgt Adams believes the expansion highlights the importance of preventative policing.

“I have seen EYOP in action and am so pleased that other communities will benefit from it,” he said.

“If it wasn’t for EYOP arriving at these jobs, where would the intervention be for that young person?

“What hope would they have that their behaviour will change? With the opportunity to engage young people, there is hope.”

As for Sam, who is working full-time and saving to buy a car, the future is looking brighter.

*Name has been changed to protect identity