The exceptional work undertaken by special schools ought to be closely examined if Australia is serious about tackling youth crime and school disengagement at scale, The University of Queensland’s Tamara Walsh says.

Speaking to EducationHQ following the Victorian Government’s move to deploy 20 social workers to select schools from next year in what is a bid to prevent at-risk children from spiralling into violence and crime, Walsh says it’s ‘troubling’ that the knowledge and approaches used within special schools remains overlooked.

“I think of all the institutions that exist in our society, special schools provide us with the best model on how to assist children who have these special needs.

“So, if we really want to learn how to do this properly, that's where we should look, because special schools manage children with high needs every day of the week and they do so exceptionally well,” the Professor of Law and Director of the UQ Pro Bono Centre says.

Teachers and principals in specialist settings could offer a wealth of wisdom on how to engage at-risk children and keep them in school, including those with complex behavioural needs, the expert added.

“I think we have an awful lot to learn from them because they deal with exactly the same cohort of children that we tend to sadly find in detention sometimes, and they do it so well, and with compassion, and so effectively.”

Walsh believes young people who have become caught up in crime have been unfairly vilified by society.

“I do think that there is a little bit of fear mongering about the children who commit offences being kept in schools.

“I think you'll find that anyone who works with these young people will tell you that they are just the same as every other young person. They have just the same dreams, goals and ambitions, they just lack the means to achieve them.

“So, what we really need to be doing is supporting them to achieve their goals, supporting them to find a pathway out of crime. There's no reason why we can't do that.”

According to the expert, if we don’t want children committing crimes then we have to accept that where they should be is in schools – and with proper resourcing and in-house expertise, this is entirely possible, she contends.

“There's no reason why we should be demonising this cohort of young people who may have committed an offence, but who have a lot going on behind the scenes that had we addressed that in a timely way, perhaps wouldn't have led to the offending behaviour…”

As for the Allan Government’s plan to put so-called Violence Prevention Officers in targeted schools, Walsh is not familiar with any research that has looked specifically at the effectiveness of such an initiative, but says “there is no doubt that providing more social supports is a positive thing”.

However, there are some concerns here, she flags.

“Of course, the risk is just by increasing surveillance over young people, you are going to detect more crime.

“So any of us, if we were watched all day, every day, people are going to see things we don't want them to see. That's just a fact.

“That's certainly the case for children who are engaging in risk-taking behaviour, who are bored … and what the research is very firm on is that the way you prevent future crime is to keep children as far away from the criminal law system as you can.”

We actually ought to be trying to detect less youth crime rather than pick up more, the expert asserts.

“The more you entangle them within the criminal law net, the more likely they are to commit offences later. So, anything we do to increase the surveillance over young people is risky.

“Instead, what we need to do is to focus on meeting their welfare needs and keeping them out of the criminal law system as far as possible.”

The small cohort of children who are repeat offenders within the criminal law system are “the most vulnerable and the most needy”, Walsh adds.

“What the research suggests is to ignore as far as possible the offending behaviour of every other child and focus our resources on helping in a welfare, social and health sense the children who are most at risk.”

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 seen 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 Walsh says news of the impending ‘adult crime, adult time’ laws was ‘devastating’ for those who work in this space.

“In the world of research, reasonable minds often differ. This is one area where they do not differ,” she warns.

“My feeling is that the more we punish these children, the more we are going down the wrong path.

“What we need to be doing is finding these children a pathway out of crime – and putting them in detention for longer periods is not the way to do it, because those children are going to be released…

“We need to make sure that they are more able to function in society, not less.”