'Youth Crime' and its Prevention in New Zealand

Abstract

This thesis critically examines the expansion of youth 'at risk' community crime prevention in the neo-liberal New Zealand state. In doing so, it traces the establishment and entrenchment of the association between 'youth' and 'crime' - the youth crime link - and outlines historical efforts at preventing youth crime in New Zealand. It deconstructs and rethinks the core concepts of 'youth', 'youth crime', youth 'at risk', 'community', 'crime prevention' and 'crime reduction', in terms of how they construct and affect young people. The thesis then examines the genesis, development and operation of youth 'at risk' community crime prevention strategies in New Zealand. It critically examines how neo-liberal discourses on risk and managerialism, the hyperpoliticisation of youth crime and the attendant growth and increasing dominance of mainstream youth crime and youth 'at risk' discourses, have given rise to new modes of governance in community crime prevention. Finally, the thesis explores young New Zealanders' views and experiences of crime, victimisation, crime prevention, policing and related social issues. Together, this analysis is informed by a survey of Safer Community Council Coordinators, interviews with government officials and a survey of 1,139 state secondary school students. In conclusion, this thesis argues that youth 'at risk' community crime prevention strategies have effected the increasingly youth-focused nature of crime prevention theory, policy and practice and the criminalisation of social policy. It contends that rather than identifying and managing youth 'at risk' and their families, youth crime and its prevention must be reconceptualised as a social and economic phenomena that is integrally related to social policy. This more inclusive approach depoliticises 'youth crime' shifting the emphasis away from young people as a 'problem', and repoliticising offending by young people in terms of social and structural disadvantage. Furthermore, it is argued that the social inclusion of young people must be fostered by including young people in decision-making processes affecting them. Finally, the thesis argues that the depoliticisation 'youth crime' and its prevention would allow criminologists, policy makers and practitioners to focus more on young people's victimisation and on more serious crimes committed by the powerful.