Level Of Criminal Assaults By Children In NZ “No Surprise”

Lost among the hype of New Zealand's recently released 2010 crime figures were some shocking data about child violence. The stats make for grim reading as they come at a time when schoolyard bullying and violent  assaults are frequently in the New Zealand news.

Police crime statistics showed the number of children under 9 apprehended for assaults in 2010 was 64, almost double the 33 recorded in 2009.

Assaults in the 10-13 age group also rose, with 827 apprehensions in 2010, compared to 770 in 2009. The majority of offenders were boys. Read Crime shock: NZ’s little thugs on the NZ Herald’s site.

Family First NZ says that the level of criminal assaults being committed by primary school students is no surprise - and will worsen, especially when schools are pressured to accept and accommodate increasingly defiant and unacceptable behaviour by children.

"In 2008, Family First caught out the Ministry of Education when the ministry's student engagement report buried the primary school figures in a graph with no raw numbers and no commentary. In fact, the number of primary school children stood down and suspended had grown from 4800 in 2000 to 6595 in 2007. That year, 945 primary school students were suspended and 5650 stood down - 28 per cent of the total number of students at all levels stood down in that year," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

"We have tried to bury our heads in the sand on this growing problem - but the problem hasn't gone away and is only worsening."
"And it's not just in schools. Ministry of Justice statistics released last year showed that from 1998-2008, the number of police apprehensions for grievous/serious assaults by 10-13 year olds increased by more than 70%. For each of the most recent two years, there had been almost 1,000 apprehensions for 10-13 year olds for all violent offences, which include aggravated robbery, sexual violation, indecent assault, and serious assaults - an increase of a third since 1998," says Mr McCoskrie.

"Alarm bells should be ringing when there has been a 70% increase in the number of children committing a serious enough act of violence to warrant police involvement, and almost 1000 children are being chucked out of primary schools for behaviour that is just so bad that schools have got to the point where they can't even work with it - even when the Ministry of Education is pressuring schools not to suspend or expel students."

"There are many factors that may be contributing to these statistics including the levels of violence in the media and games, the undermining of parental and school authority, the 'rights' culture being fed to young people, and family breakdown and fatherlessness," says Mr McCoskrie.

"But firstly, we must be honest enough to admit that there is a disturbing trend which needs urgent action and a change of policies as to how we deal with these children and their families. Forcing schools to accommodate the problem is not the solution and is harming the school community." source

Emigrating to New Zealand because you think it is a great place to raise kids? Read Rotorua Stabbing “Indicative” Of Youth Issues In City and NZ A Great Place to Raise Kids? Porirua’s Midnight Express (blog written about an alarming increase in Children committing violent crime and robberies around New Zealand)


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New Zealand A Great Place To Raise Kids? Porirua's Midnight Express

 Porirua

New Zealand is a great place to raise kids.

That's the reason that many people cite for wanting to relocate their families to New Zealand, or they'll say that NZ is a place where 'kids can be kids for longer' but how realistic are those aspirations and what's life really like for young people?

Children in New Zealand get a pretty raw deal - the country is ranked joint third in the world by UNICEF for the highest number of child maltreatment deaths (1.2 per 100,000 children) only the US and Mexico have more. Young young people also feature highly in crime statistics, both as perpetrators and victims.

Kiwi youth suffer some of the worst health outcomes in the developed world. New Zealand youth have higher rates of mental illness, suicide, teen pregnancy and suffered more injuries than young people in other OECD countries. (source)

In addition to an alarming teen suicide rate kids also have a problem with alcohol. So much so that the Chief Coroner says he is shocked and frustrated by the high number of very young teens (some as young as 13) who drink themselves to death in New Zealand. It’s another symptom of the country’s hard drinking/binge drinking culture and a bored, disaffected youth.

One thing we've noticed over the last year or so are the increasing numbers of children involved in violent crimes such as armed robberies and muggings. The latest of which was the gang of teenagers that held up the Ranui Food Bar and Takeaway with hammers and a gun in West Auckland last night, just as the shop was closing at 9pm. Their ill gotten gains included of all things a fresh stock of ice creams from a freezer. (source)

"...A girl wearing a cap and hoodie pulled over her face pointed a gun at owner Yunan Zheng, who was vacuuming the front of the shop.

"The girl with the gun said, 'Hurry up, give us some money'," Zheng said.

Two others brandished hammers as they rushed into the shop and filled backpacks with icecreams from a freezer.

One tried to take cash from the till but was unable to open the drawer.

The group were caught on security camera, but wore hoods pulled over their head, and scarves or T-shirts wrapped around their faces.

Zheng said at least three of the robbers were girls, and suspected two were the same pair who robbed the shop on New Year's Eve, when they made off with cash from the till.

The two robberies were the first incidents in five years at the Swanson Rd business..." more

The Herald went on to remind its readers that shops had been robbed by sweet toothed gangs of armed kids before in Auckland:

"It's not the first time young offenders have held up Auckland shopowners for lollies (ed. sweets) and icecreams.

In March last year three boys robbed the Edendale Superette in central Auckland at gunpoint, filling a bag with icecreams and chocolate and taking cigarettes and about $400 in cash.

Shopkeeper Shazia Hussain was alone in the shop with her two-month-old baby at the time.

The boys had been captured on security camera in the shop earlier that day with their faces uncovered."

But sometimes these gangs of kids become excessively violent and injure their victims, and they're not all looking for lollies and icecreams either as other recent robberies have demonstrated:

Asian businessman Richard Tang was stabbed eight times by a gang of bandana wearing youths who stormed into his dairy in Papakura, they escaped with just $200.

In Papkura a gang of five kids (two aged 17 and three aged 14) held a pistol to the head of Ben Sun as they robbed his dairy in New Plymouth.

Pregnant woman, Mrs Sarah Fergusson, was robbed by a 16 year old youth wielding a knife at her fruit and vegetable shop, also in New Plymouth.

The rise in youth offending has been attributed to the breakdown of family life in certain areas of New Zealand, the effects of the recession, grinding poverty and kids being treated far too leniently by the justice system.

There's an excellent feature article written by Matt Calman in the Dominion Post, in which he talks about The Midnight Express that patrols the streets of Porirua (an area popular with western immigrants) their mission is to keep youth - mainly between 11 and 18 - safe in the "unsociable" hours of the night and early morning.

It's worth reading the entire article, if you dare. We'd consider it to be mandataory if you have children and are thinking of moving them to NZ for a 'better life'.

If you're already living there, what are your kids doing this evening?

"It's a Safe Ride on the Midnight Express"

...Ms Barnden says every time the team heads out, there is the potential for danger but it is not the youth they fear. "It's not actually the kids that are dangerous. It's the environment. We don't know who does carry a knife. It's purely because there's no structure at night."

It ticks past 11pm as the van drives past the three teenage girls huddling beside the Hill 16 bar. One yells out: "Get lost Midnight!"

"...When they reach Calliope Park the youth workers leave the van for about an hour and chat to a 20member group aged mainly 15 and 16. As they arrive, two drunken teenage girls stumble, arm-in-arm, towards their friends gathered in the dark near the play equipment. The park is one of the most popular meeting points for youth in Porirua East...

...Ms Barnden says the main threat to youth late at night is from adults, particularly a small number of suspected sexual predators they have seen approaching teens.

The youth workers carry suspect- description forms, provided by a security firm, and take details of potential offenders to pass on to police.

When they see these men talking to the teens they will enter the conversation so the men know they have been noticed.

One man in his late 40s or early 50s carries a motorcycle helmet and tells teens he is a tramper from Titahi Bay. He offers them cigarettes and his jacket and carries $200 cash with him...

"He plays cat and mouse with intoxicated girls," Ms Barnden says. "Apparently he has been seen in Johnsonville now."

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Porirua On Tenterhooks As Criminal Released Back Into The Community

A potentially dangerous criminal has been released into the Porirua community after the parole board failed in its efforts to keep him imprisoned.

According to the Domion Post "The Parole Board exhausted all legal avenues to keep him in prison after deeming him likely to reoffend upon release. He is not considered sick enough to be held under the Mental Health Act."

The unnamed man was imprisoned for 10 years for kidnapping, indecent assault, aggravated robbery and arson.

Armed with a knife, he invaded a family home, tied up a couple and robbed their house while their two young children slept upstairs. He then severed a gas line and set fire to their home.

"The man had written to a judge threatening to kill a child for every year he was in prison, but said yesterday he had been sick when he wrote it."

Porirua's Deputy Mayor Litea Ah Hoi said

"He has a very violent criminal history but he has done his time. After 10 years everybody needs to be given a second chance."

Yes, but who wants to take the risk when even a parole board tried their best to keep him under lock and key. Now a whole community is to be imprisoned behind locked doors.

Should the rights of one individual outweigh the right of the many to feel safe in their own homes?

And what if Mr X were to forget to take his medication but remember his threat to kill 10 children. Who is going to take responsibility for keeping him under proper medical surveillance for the next 50 years?

Time for a change in the law.