‘An absolute step forward’: expert praises anti-crime plan for intervention officers in schools

The $5.6 million early intervention plan comes spurred on by new data from Victoria’s Council on Bail, Rehabilitation and Accountability (COBRA), which found 70 per cent of the state’s worst alleged youth offenders were chronically absent from school before they descended into crime.

RMIT’s Dr Marietta Martinovic, Associate Professor in Criminology and Justice, told EducationHQ the announcement was a “breath of fresh air” when compared with the Government’s “horrific” ‘adult time for adult crime’ laws last week.

Martinovic said early intervention is ‘absolutely critical’ and really the key to addressing violent youth offending.

And there’s no reason this shouldn’t happen in schools, she added.

“At least this is something evidence-based, and I can see that they’re using the model from the UK, which seems to attract really good results.

“[I think this is] fantastic,” the expert said.

The UK’s original Violence Reduction Unit was set up in Glasgow in 2005 to tackle the city’s “deeply rooted knife culture”, The Guardian reports.

The approach gained international recognition for treating violence as a public health crisis, and has been credited with significantly reducing deaths in Scotland.

The community-based approach has seen a 60 per cent reduction in violent crime, with the greatest reduction taking place among younger age groups, the Allan Government flagged.

The social workers will be deployed to schools from next year, working as dedicated case managers with children most at risk.

“What I’ve been saying, and what most of the people involved in this space have been saying, is you’ve got to engage young people in pro-social activities,” Martinovic said. 

“And I feel like attending school is an absolute glue which keeps kids conforming … which keeps kids engaged and in some kind of structure.

If scaffolding – like attending school – is removed from young people’s lives, things can easily deteriorate, the expert suggested.

“Young people need structure, being bored and having nothing to do is not good for [them].

“It actually disengages them, and the more you push them out, like put them into custody, that further disengages them.

“That definitely does not engage them in anything good or positive. So, I feel like [this initiative] is an absolute step forward.”

Professor Tamara Walsh, director at The University of Queensland’s Pro Bono Centre, said a question remains over how best we can address youth crime from a welfare perspective.  

“There’s absolutely no doubt that there is a strong association between children being disadvantaged and vulnerable and committing crime.

“So anything we can do to address children’s welfare needs, in particular making sure they’re safe, making sure they’re housed, making sure they are fed, and making sure they stay engaged in school is positive.

“The question is how we do it, and I’m not familiar with any research that has looked specifically at the effectiveness of putting social workers in schools, but there is no doubt that providing more social supports is a positive thing,” Walsh told EducationHQ. 

Minister for Education Ben Carroll said education is “everything for young people”.

“The data says that staying involved in school and having positive peer relationships is a boundary for at-risk children that prevents them from crossing over into crime.

“Schools already do an incredible job, but we now need Early Intervention Officers to provide dedicated case management for troubled kids – using proven strategies to keep them at school and on the right track.”

COBRA has studied a small cohort of children aged 12 to 17 who were alleged to have repeatedly committed serious violent crimes, such as aggravated home invasion.

For children with troubled lives, the drift towards crime starts early – with disengagement from education a significant trigger, the Council found.

Data shows that 67 per cent of the offenders missed more than 30 days in the school year, and 52 per cent missed more than 60 days.

More than half were suspended and three were expelled at some point in their time in the public school system, with the cohort also achieving below average results.

In a separate announcement, last week Victoria unveiled new ”adult time for violent crime” laws, mirroring Queensland, which implemented the tough approach in 2024.

Children as young as 14 could be tried in adult courts, and possibly face life sentences under the changes. 

The state has been in the grip of surging crime rates, with criminal offences spiking by 15.7 per cent in the year to mid-2025, fuelled by thefts, home invasions and repeat youth offenders.

The latest crime statistics show around 1100 youths aged 10-17 were arrested a combined 7000 times, with Victoria Police declaring children were quickly turning to extreme violence.

But according to Martinovic, the new laws are “shocking and short-sighted”.

“I’m enormously disappointed,” she said.

“I think that punitive approaches such as ‘adult time for adult crime’ is just completely against all of the evidence base.

“I do understand that what they’re wanting to do is impose responsibility on young people – but young people are not responsible because their brains aren’t developed to think responsibly.”

The announcement from the Allan Government marked a “sad way forward” for the state, with the prospect of lengthy jail time a weak deterrent for young offenders, Martinovic said.

“We’re wanting them to think like adults, but they are not adults.

“I mean, it’s just so clear in my mind that it’s so wrong.”

The Government will reportedly use data and intelligence to select the schools involved.

“Just like lived-experience mentoring where at-risk children are paired with trusted former youth offenders who have turned their lives around, having Early Intervention Officers in schools is exactly the type of disruptive, community-based program that the VRU is designed to support – with more to come,” it asserted.