By Lucy Slevison, Jason Lim and Beatrice Tan (RMIT Graduate Journalism)
Google ‘Melbourne western suburbs youth crime’ and you’re confronted with stories of robberies, stabbings, and murder involving teenagers. In recent months, there’s been plenty of discussion around what to do with young people ‘running wild’ through the streets of the West.
In response, the State Government has announced plans to allow children aged 14 and over to be tried in adult courts and face adult sentencing if they commit serious violent crimes.
Within this debate, what is often overlooked is the economic cost of locking up young people.
According to the Justice Reform Initiative (JRI), the daily cost of operating youth detention facilities in Victoria per child is $7,775, the most out of all states and territories.
In New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populated state, the daily operating cost of detention is $2,814.
The Productivity Commission estimates that it costs $5,900 per day to keep a young person in detention in Victoria, compared to $2,759 per day in NSW.
Despite Victoria’s high operating costs, on an average night, the number of children in detention in Victoria is 54, as per data from the Justice Reform Initiative. This is less than Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Local response
Speaking to Werribee residents on Watton Street, it’s clear there is mixed opinion on how to deal with youth crime.
- “Rather than punishment, I think they should be better educated,” says Peter.
- “I don’t believe in jail, but I do believe in some kind of discipline,” according to Carolyn.
- When asked whether children should be punished through jail, Kristie said, “yes, and then some.”
All three residents agree that youth crime is something that concerns them.
But do their feelings match the statistics?
According to the Crime Statistics Agency (CSA), from June 2024 to June 2025, there were 1,011 criminal incidents across Wyndham council area where the alleged offender was aged 10 to 17. This makes teenagers the largest cohort of alleged offenders in Wyndham.
But the levels of youth offending vary between different parts of the West.
In Brimbank there were 387 incidents in the year ending June 2025 where the alleged offender was under 18. Those aged 10 to 17 make up the smallest cohort of alleged offenders while the age group with the most recorded criminal incidents is people over the age of 45.
Government response
To respond to community concerns around both general and youth crime, the Victorian government is allocating budget dollars to address community safety, but some programs and initiatives get more investment than others.
The 2025/26 Victorian budget invests $727 million to fund 1,000 adult prison beds at the newly opened Western Plains Correctional Centre in Lara, north-east of Geelong, as well as 88 beds to open at youth justice facilities Parkville in Melbourne’s inner-north and Cherry Creek, located in Little River, 11km from Werribee train station.
The Greens Spokesperson for Justice Katherine Copsey has criticised the government’s use of budget dollars.
“It’s frustrating to see the government continue to go down this road [in their response], which we know will actually lead to further entrenchment of young people in the criminal justice system,” she says.
“Just imagine what we could be doing if we spent that $727 million on provision of stable public housing for people instead, so they’ve got a foundation to contribute and to feel secure,” says Ms. Copsey.
“Everyone wants to feel safe in their community, and everyone wants to see young people thriving.”
“What will actually make us all safer and support young people is investment in all those fundamental social supports – housing, education, drug and alcohol treatment, mental health support,” Ms. Copsey says.
This year’s budget also allocates $3.8 million to fund the Embedded Youth Outreach Program (EYOP), which operates out of Werribee and Caroline Springs Police Stations. Under this program, police officers and youth workers are paired to provide assessment, support and referral services for vulnerable young people and prevent possible future reoffending.
Also in the budget is $106.4 million to strengthen the youth justice system with “more intensive oversight of high-risk young people, family support workers as well as in-house rehabilitation services that address behaviour using effective, evidence-based approaches.”
Legalise Cannabis MP David Ettershank, who represents the Western Metro Region in Victoria’s Legislative Council, is a strong proponent for engaging young people in education.
“One of the really first points of consideration is keeping kids at school,” he says.
He believes the rapidly-growing West could benefit from greater investment in infrastructure such as transport and schools. “You have governments spending so much money to keep kids locked up when you could be solving other problems,” Mr. Ettershank says.
“If you are a young person you’re in the growth corridors. There are very, very few services where you live. There is no public transport where you live. How do you get to those wraparound services? How do you get to where the jobs are? How do you get to where the schools are?”
Ettershank applauds the work of local community organisations with targeted programs which seek to engage with western suburbs kids such as WEstjustice.
Target Zero
WEstjustice provides free legal help and their program, Target Zero, focuses on eradicating youth criminalisation within the western suburbs. Another program is Project 100, which is all about getting young people to finish Year 12.
These two programs are “really good examples of that wraparound suite of services, an aspirational change to get people going the other way,” says Mr. Ettershank.
Target Zero is funded by various public and private stakeholders, including the Victorian Legal Services Board and charity Paul Ramsay Foundation, which last year announced $7.5 million in funding over the next five years..
WEstjustice also conducts a school lawyer program, where lawyers are placed within public school communities to assist students and parents with a broad range of legal issues including family violence matters and homelessness. This program is funded through the government’s Department of Education.
In 2023, WEstjustice was granted $480,000 over three years by the state government’s Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner.
Over the past year, the state government has introduced a number of laws to try and curb crime.
Last March, the Victorian government passed laws designed to make getting bail tougher with stricter tests for determining whether an alleged offender should receive bail or not.
Under the laws, being remanded in custody is no longer considered a last resort for youth offenders.
Post and boast laws passed in August, make it an offence for criminals to brag online about their involvement in serious crimes. Premier Jacinta Allan says the laws “respond to the dangerous trend among young people chasing clout on TikTok and Snapchat about their heinous crimes.”
However Rocket Bretherton, a coordinator for the Justice Reform Initiative, says the legislation won’t have an effect on crime rates.
“When you’re caught up in a life of crime, you are caught up in a life of crime.
“You’re not thinking about what the government’s doing and what laws they’ve got,” she says.
Owen Virtue is the director of policy, impact and engagement at WEstjustice and he says engaging with the young people of the West is a fundamental part of what his organisation does.
Whether the reasons are financial, family violence, or other negative circumstances “our approach is to identify whatever that particular young person needs in order to divert them away from the criminal justice system, either before they offend or if they offend, then we make sure they don’t do it again,” he says.
Despite the service’s critical work the organisation’s Footscray office has been closed leaving offices in just Werribee and Sunshine.
Mr Virtue says the decision is to focus its services in areas where demand is higher. “In general, the idea about social community services is you try and be where the people are.”
