National Youth Policing Model in Australia: A Criminological Perspective

Running head: POLICING: SYSTEM AND PRACTICE
Policing: System and Practice
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1POLICING: SYSTEM AND PRACTICE
Part I
Australian Government's National Youth Policing Model
This crime prevention programs have been designed to ensure improved security and
safety of the Australian community by way of reducing such unsafe, anti-social behavior and
violent crimes that are mostly committed by the youth of Australia. The youth of the nation is
alleged to have been engaged in crime statistics at a high rate as both offenders and victims. The
young offenders are inclined to commit offences in group, especially those, that draws more
attention. The offences committed are mostly unplanned, opportunistic offences, which are
mostly committed in public areas or in the neighborhood of the offenders.
The National Youth Policing Model [the Model] has been developed in 2009 with the
objective to address several problems that have a significant adverse impact on both young adults
and juveniles aged 12 to 24 years. Such issues include risky driving behavior, alcohol related
violence and other anti-social behaviors (Crime prevention, 2018). This Model has been
developed in association with the initiative under the National Strategy for Young Australians.
Every state jurisdiction may apply the program as per their respective arrangements. The Model
comprises nationally coordinated strategic framework by incorporating six high-priority
national strategies that are guided by nine evidence-based principles, which ensures a balanced
and holistic approach to policing offending committed by youths. The essential principles
include “Right time- Right place, trust, Sooner than later, prevention is better than cure, respect,
boundaries, Working together, Right person- right response and responding to substance abuse”.

2POLICING: SYSTEM AND PRACTICE
Part II
The scientific study of the causes of delinquency and crime has been guided by
criminology theories. A good theory enables to comprehend and construe the symptom of a
particular behavior. In the criminological context, theories have been developed based on the
concept associated with biology, sociology, psychology and the behavior that it explains is the
behavior that infringes the codified laws of the society. The criminology theories enable to
understand and explain the workings of the criminal justice system as well as the actors within
the system (Akers, 2017). The criminology theories include breaking and making of the law,
deviant and criminal behavior along with the several patterns of criminal activity. The
incorporation of criminal theories within criminology is beneficial as it facilitates understanding
of behavior in a more potentially, intricate and complete manner. Several crime prevention
programs or community programs are initiated which are based on either one or more type of
criminology theories such as Rational and Deterrence theory, Psychological theories of crime,
Self-control theories, social structure theories, Social construction theories, etc.
In regards to the establishment of the National Youth Policing Model Program in
Australia, the crime prevention program is based on two essential criminology theories, the
social structure theory and the social control theory. The social structure theory states that
people learn criminal behavior from the people around them. This theory emphasizes on factors
like lack of education, poverty, absence of distinguished skills and sub-cultural values, which are
considered as fundamental causes of crime (Gottfredson, 2017). There are three subtypes of
social structure theories such as culture conflict theory, social disorganization theory and
strain theory.

3POLICING: SYSTEM AND PRACTICE
According to the social disorganization theory, it relates crime rates to neighborhood
ecological characteristics that is, place is an influencing factor, which leads a person to become
an offender. The residential location of any person is a fundamental factor in determining the
possibilities that a person is likely to be engaged in criminal or illegal activities (Hirschi, 2017).
The residential location is more significant than the characteristics of an individual such as
gender, age, etc. For instance, this theory suggests that people especially, youths belonging to
disadvantaged neighborhoods take part in subculture that supports delinquency or illegal
activities. Under such a cultural and social setting, the youth learn criminality and become
offenders. The disorganization theory states that there are certain ecological factors that attribute
to the incline in the crime rate within a community such as deteriorating infrastructures, single-
parenting, unemployment, school-drop-outs, etc.
Now, given the National Youth Policing Model, it has been established to alleviate the
involvement of young people in violent, unsafe and anti-social behaviors by applying the
practical best practice approaches, which are supported by the nationally coordinated policing
strategies. The national strategies aim at reducing the street violence, anti-social behavior and
road trauma (Tittle, 2018). The national strategic framework incorporated in this Model along
with the key principles enables the police to obtain best practice while policing the young people.
The engagement of police is fundamental, as they will ensure reduction in involvement of young
people in criminal activities.
The social structure theory may be applied describing the purpose of this Model Program
in Australia. As stated earlier that people tend to learn criminal behavior from the people around
them. This is evident from the fact that the sub-type of this theory includes the disorganization
theory, which considers location as the prime factor that leads to involvement in criminal