Child offending is a 'solvable, manageable problem' - expert

Child offending is a "solvable, manageable" problem, a clinical psychologist says in the face of a recent spike in child and youth crime.

Early on Saturday morning, a group of youths stole about $50,000 worth of clothing from the Icebreaker outlet near Auckland Airport.

The five youths ram-raided the store's front door before fleeing in a second vehicle, which later crashed through a school's fence.

One of the alleged offenders was caught and clothing stolen from the store was found in the crashed car.

The early morning ram-raid came after a spate of similar incidents in Auckland and across the North Island.

Most of the children and youths involved in the spate of ram-raids and robberies nationwide are known to Oranga Tamariki, the organisation has said.

"It's really important to highlight the fact that actually those children who do this are also victims themselves," Professor Ian Lambie told Q+A's Jack Tame. He reckoned about 200 children were involved in child and youth crime.

A report Lambie was a part of, which was published last month, noted child offending - those aged under 14 - is preceded by significant welfare concerns such as abuse, issues at school and social deprivation.

"I think we really need a compassionate and I think a holistic response to this that really looks at as a community what can we do and how we do keep these children engaged in education to live productive and good lives," Lambie remarked.

Lambie feels New Zealand has a "very good youth justice system" for those aged 14-18, but a gap exists for those aged under 14.

He said the focus needs to be on early intervention. "How do we keep these young people at school and actually out of the youth justice system? We haven't done that."

"My message to policy makers is I think how do we fund early intervention, say in the Ministry of Education, how do we put more funds and support for intensive, wraparound service in the ministry … we need to say how we really focus on a cohort of children. The problem's solvable. We're not talking about thousands of children. We're talking about a solvable, manageable problem and how do we do this better."

The report - which looked at data from Integrated Data Infrastructure on 48,989 children from birth in 2000 to June 2019, along with some Oranga Tamariki case files and included interviews with those working in the system - noted children who were stood down or suspended from school before the age of 10 were significantly more likely to offend at all age groups.

The report also noted how nearly half of those expelled from school before 14 offended as a child and as a young person.

Repeatedly changing schools was also an issue in relation to offending, along with attending a lower decile school.

The report made a number of recommendations and mainly concluded the child welfare system is reactive not proactive.

Asked what early intervention would look like, Lambie responded: "In practice it would mean working with community groups, iwi … It's about getting into the family and providing support, giving them skills to actually parent better, it's providing them with housing, food, those sort of things, and actually showing them how to get education for their kids and keep them at school. That's what it’s really about.

"What I do know about this report is it's a call for action, the right people know about this report."