The government has announced a new criminal offence targeting ram-raiding, carrying a maximum 10-year sentence.
Speaking to media, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said there had been an increase in retail crime, including ram-raid offending and smash and grabs, over the past few years.
"This has been of significant concern to the community and it's been of significant concern to the government. We acknowledge that many of the people involved in this type of offending are young people, including children as young as 12 and 13," Hipkins said.
"We have been failing as a country to deal with the youth offending that we are now seeing and we need to do more. We have also been failing the victims of these offences and we need to do more."
Hipkins said there were too many people now afraid to go to work or afraid to live in their homes - if the homes were attached to their work - because of this type of offending.
"As I said on Monday, we acknowledge that concern and we acknowledge that there is more that we need to do. The government has been taking serious action over the last year to address this type of offending, recognising that many of the people in the offending are children and young people," Hipkins said.
"We've been conscious to take a different approach, one that seeks to break the cycle of offending and set up opportunities for a life outside of crime for these kids."
Programmes put in place last year aiming to better re-engage these children with educational training or employment, and better connect them to their local communities, have produced "some significant successes", Hipkins said.
"They are working for around three quarters of the young people who have been referred to them. However, that does leave around a quarter of repeat offenders who are creating and perpetuating the problem.
"On Monday I announced a range of measures to add to our toolkit, such as requiring young offenders to attend educational programmes or community activities, adding things like posting ram-raid offending online as a aggravating factor at sentencing. Our work here is designed to create a continuum in interventions so we can escalate our response proportionate to the level of reoffending. This isn't about unnecessarily locking up young people or escalating them prematurely when a lower level intervention does get them back on the straight and narrow.
"We clearly need to do more for the quarter who are going on to reoffend."
The announcement today was the "final piece of the puzzle", he said.
Offence sentence reflects 'serious nature' of crime
A maximum 10-year sentence for the new offence was the same for burglary, he said, reflecting "the serious nature of the offence".
"But importantly for this offence, we will also be amending the Oranga Tamariki Act so that a 12 or 13 year old who commits a ram-raid and is charged with a ram-raid offence, can be escalated to the Youth Court. That will unlock a range of additional interventions that are not currently available for those 12 and 13 year olds. That recognises that for a small group of young offenders, we need to do more to break the cycle.
"The change that we are making recognises the magnitude and the impact that ram-raids are having in our communities, especially the impact that those repeat offenders are having. It also sends a clear message to young offenders there is consequences for their actions."
This was not about sending children to prison, Hipkins said.
"The new offence will not be the first port of call for first-time ram-raiders. This is for the worst repeat offenders, recognising that those early interventions simply haven't been working for that group."
Hipkins said more needed to be done.
"We can't just sit back and wait until these kids are old enough to actually escalate the response."
Justice Minister Kiri Allan said children and young people did not always receive responses with the right level of immediacy, intensity or duration to address their needs and underlying issues that contribute to offending.
The offence would also apply to passengers in vehicle, not just a driver, as long as those passengers enter the building with an intention to commit the offence, Allan said.
"If a younger sibling has tagged along and didn't know what was occurring, this offence would not apply. A passenger who actively participates in that ram-raid will be captured."
The new offence will apply to everyone regardless of their age. The maximum period of imprisonment will only be imposed on those aged 15 and older, Allan said.
Hipkins and Children's Minister Kelvin Davis on Tuesday revealed a law and order policy concerning young offenders, announcing the government would build two new youth justice units.
The units would cater for to up to 30 higher-needs youth, Hipkins said.
"These units will aim to provide more intensive support for the most serious offenders, and will predominantly cater for older teenagers. There is a big difference between a 14-year-old and a 17-year-old and the support and guidance that they need.
"We need a continuum of care that recognises that."
