The National Party says police are wrong to say there's no evidence gangs are driving youth crime like ram-raids.
The comments came as National leader Christopher Luxon and other senior MPs visited an Auckland superette which had been hit by thieves three times in recent months.
"Victims like this shop owner shouldn't be living in fear and stress and anxiety," Luxon said.
He said social factors were clearly behind youth crime, but so were gangs.
"Gangs are looking incredibly attractive to vulnerable people, young people in particular," he said.
Police say there’s no evidence gangs are driving youth offending like ram-raids, the Nats disagree. (Source: 1News)
Luxon referred to a police briefing to Police Minister Chris Hipkins, made public in recent days. On youth crime, the briefing noted the number of ram-raids had increased from ten a month in 2018, to 40 a month earlier this year.
The briefing said while some youngsters were connected to gangs, there was no current evidence the offending was driven by youth gang affiliation or membership.
"I totally reject that premise, that is complete nonsense," said National's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell. "These youth offenders are online. And the gangs are using social media to entice and attract our young people that aren't at school, that haven't got strong parental support around them, haven't got positive adult role models in their lives, and they're attracting them into crime," he said.
READ MORE: What leads youngsters to commit smash-and-grab robberies?
In their briefing, police said the likely drivers of youth crime were bad home environments, disengagement from school, and youngsters using social media to gain notoriety.
In a statement to 1News, Police Minister Chris Hipkins said "Mark Mitchell might have an anecdote or two to support his claims .. but this government prefers to follow the evidence."
Luxon called for greater parental responsibility in tackling youth crime, but also said the Government had the balance wrong by not focussing enough on victims and not being tough enough on repeat offenders.
Auckland businesses were again targeted by smash and grab burglars this week. (Source: 1News)
He said first time offenders shouldn't be incarcerated, but that option should be used more for repeat offenders.
"Tougher sentencing around community service, around home detention, and frankly one quarter of all the ram-raids are being done by repeat offenders and for them we need to be able to use the youth offending facilities that we've actually got."
Hipkins responded: "If National wants more youth in prison, then that is guaranteed to turbo charge gang membership."
The Government says it's putting the finishing touches to a new programme on tackling the causes of youth crime. It's due to be released in the coming weeks.
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