Military-style boot camps for youth offenders "have very limited success or no success", a crime expert says.
"And in rare occasions, (they) actually make the problems worse," sociologist and gangs researcher Jarrod Gilbert told Breakfast.
It comes after National proposed year-long "military academies" for young offenders yesterday. The party's proposals have been welcomed by ACT but described by the Green's as "embarrassing".
"There are often differences in how these programmes run, hence why I would think the chances of us bringing in a programme like this and making the situation worse...are very, very low," Gilbert said.
"But similarly data shows, quite clearly, that if we think this is a panacea, that this is going to fix the problem, then the chances of that are about as close to zero as you could imagine."
When asked if National's proposal was simply politicking, Gilbert acknowledged "the public are desperate for answers".
"And who can blame them? The ram-raids are an issue, and so they're looking for answers and this sounds like an answer."
He said the preventative policies in National's Combat Youth Offending Plan were more likely to make a difference.
"How we go about that might be argued...but over the long-term, this is where we will find success, not in these boot camp ideas."
'I completely reject that'
National's police spokesperson said the policy would keep young people out of the adult criminal justice system. (Source: Breakfast)
National's police spokesperson Mark Mitchell said the camps could turn around the lives of "our young people that are failing to launch".
When pressed on Gilbert's assertion they wouldn't work, Mitchell told Breakfast: "I completely reject that."
"We want to make our streets safer because at the moment there's a huge human cost to the level of offending that's going on.
"I think we've got a huge opportunity as a country to turn their [young offenders'] lives around, and I think we can keep them out of our adult criminal justice system," Mitchell added.
"I think that if we invest in them and we put the best possible mentors around them with the best possible programmes, then we're going to make a substantive difference in their lives rather than leaving them out there in environments where they're not supported."
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