Rocky has high youth crime rate

Paul Elliot, boss of the CPIU.

ROCKHAMPTON has one of the highest rates of children facing court in Queensland.

For the past three years, more than one in 10 people facing charges in the Rockhampton Magistrates Court were children, annual reports by the Magistrates Courts of Queensland show.

For the year ending June 30, 2009, criminal lodgements in Rockhampton showed 10.67% of defendants (611 total) were children.

This percentage is higher than other Queensland cities of a similar size – with 4.27% in Mackay (204 defendants), 3.95% in Townsville (599), 8.72% in Ipswich (768) and 5.19% in Toowoomba (304).

Across Central Queensland, the figures are: 6.26% for Yeppoon, 13.27% in Woorabinda, 2.83% in Emerald, 6.17% in Biloela and 6.46% in Bundaberg.

Cunnamulla had the highest rate with 33.17%, Murgon 17.81% and Bowen 14.4%.

Rockhampton’s rate has remained relatively constant for the past three years, with 10.71% in 2006/ 2007 (626 defendants) and 10.34% in 2007/2008 (632).

Paul Elliot, officer in charge of the Rockhampton Child Protection and Investigation Unit, was asked if there had been an increase in juvenile crime recently.

He said he was restricted to differentiate between juvenile and adult crime.

“Within every society there is a criminal element, and these can be both adults and juveniles,” he said.

“There has been more reporting of instances of crime by media, and some of these instances relate to offending juveniles.”

Rockhampton police officers were yesterday directed by police media not to comment.

Other figures showed Rockhampton more child defendants than Townsville, despite a smaller population and less overall crime.

There were 611 children facing 1418 charges in Rockhampton in the year ending June 30, 2009, compared to 599 children facing 1166 charges in Townsville.

Townsville had a total of 24,223 charges before the Magistrates Court (juvenile and adult), compared to 9771 in Rockhampton in 2008/09.