Youths allegedly punched, choked and threatened by police, report reveals

Commission for Children and Young People tables report on young offenders in parliament Thu 30 Jul 2026 at 2:25pm In short: Several children have detailed claims of being punched, choked and threatened by police in a report tabled in parliament. The report looked at the types of support that 10 to 14 year old offenders needed and called for a re-think of the government's tough on crime approach. The new premier, Ben Carroll, says he intends to continue Labor's hardline approach. Child offenders have reported being punched, choked and threatened by police in a new report calling for the Victorian government to overhaul its hardline approach to youth crime in Victoria. The report by the Commission for Children and Young People into offenders aged between 10 and 14 years old tabled in state parliament this morning found most children supervised by Youth Justice over the past three years went on to re-offend as they got older. Several children told the commission that they had been physically and verbally assaulted by police while in custody, including one instance in which a teenage boy alleged an officer slammed him against a brick wall and choked him, and another who reported an officer holding a gun to his head when he was 13 years old. Many of the young people said their experiences with authorities made them more violent and less open to receiving help and re-engaging with their schools or communities. "A wealth of literature and expert opinion indicates that early contact with the criminal justice system does not reduce subsequent offending, but rather escalates offending, and can be associated with poorer long-term outcomes for children and young people," the report stated. Calls to re-think tough on crime approach Ahead of the November state election, Commissioner for Children and Young people, Tracy Beaton, called for the Victorian government to wind back its "criminal justice" response to the state's soaring crime rate and instead adopt a preventative approach for the youngest offenders. "Tough on crime is not necessarily the commentary that we think will change or create community safety," Ms Beaton told the ABC. "What we want with this inquiry is for community and government to look at the evidence and actually implement programs that we know will improve community safety and also reduce recidivism and create a much better opportunity for these kids. "In essence, somebody needs to talk to the kids, and it has to happen way before offending behaviours start." Referring to the criminal and developmental histories of 26 young people who had their first brush with the law before they turned 14, the report showed the most common type of contact young people had with the criminal system was being placed on a supervised bail order. Nine of those children were remanded on their first time, while 12 were remanded at some point before they turned 14 years old. Recent data from the Productivity Commission showed more than half of 10 to 16 year olds who were released from youth justice supervision between 2022 and 2023 went on to re-offend less than a year later. Under the leadership of former premier Jacinta Allan, the government introduced legislation that would allow children to receive a maximum sentence of life behind bars if they were convicted of serious crimes such as murder, armed robbery and carjackings. The government also backflipped on previously relaxed bail laws and a pledge to eventually raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, instead capping that age at 12 and making it more difficult for repeat and serious offenders to be bailed. The report called for the government to revert back to its plan to raise the age to 14, which it had set out to do by 2027 before that was wound back amid rising community concerns about crime in Victoria. "Children don't necessarily consider the consequences when they act. We also know that a lot of children are getting groomed into criminal activity," Ms Beaton said. "It is important to understand development and not hold children to account in the way that we would expect to hold adults to account." Former youth offender takes the lead Stepping into the top job after Ms Allan was ousted this week, Premier Ben Carroll vowed to continue the same hardline approach to tackling crime. When asked if Mr Carroll's leadership presented an opportunity to overhaul the state's approach to driving down crime, particularly offending by young people, Ms Beaton said: "It's absolutely an opportunity to do something different. When you are between the ages of 10 and 14 the response you need isn't a criminal justice one". "The other really important thing to understand about 10 to 14 year olds is that it's actually a really important time developmentally where there is actually quite a lot of hope that you can shift offending behaviours and actually help kids and reduce recidivism," she said. "You can't do that if you're incarcerating kids." In its report submission, Victoria Police said children who were cautioned instead of charged were less likely to re-offend, and suggested an alternative, support services-driven incident response system for children under 14 to minimise young people's contact with police. CCYP youth engagement project officer Lueth Akue had his own troubles with the law as a teenager growing up in Melbourne's western suburbs. He said his contact with the justice system at such a young age did little to set him on the right path. "It's almost like building a network of criminals," he said. "It didn't actually help me divert. If anything, it reinforced that lifestyle, meeting other young people that are living that lifestyle as well." Now 26 years old, Mr Akue said he is uniquely placed to understand young offenders. "I get them, I've experienced what they've experienced," he said. "When young people are acting out, it's really just a cry for help. "We need to humanise young people and not necessarily look at them as a number or a statistic or something like that but actually as humans." [Image text:] not against us With us learn from hildren criminal justice to OT exp the A the entered 14 before