Troubled Teens Resources

While Americans struggle with the notion of charging violent troubled teens as adults, New Zealand is considering lowering the juvenile prosecutorial age to 12 due to youth crime so pervasive that some say ignoring it “could blight the future for generations to come.”

“NZ First MP Ron Mark has what he believes is one significant answer - a bill before a parliamentary select committee that would lower the age of prosecution from 14 to 12 and introduce tougher penalties for young, serious criminals.”

I hope they establish some teen boot camps and schools for troubled teens also. From these statistics, it appears as if they need them.

“In New Zealand 14 to 16-year-olds commit about 45,500 crimes each year, with children too young to be prosecuted involved in more than 8500 in one year.

Justice Ministry statistics show police picked up 700 children under 10 and 7900 children 10 to 13 last year for crimes including violence, drugs and burglary.

All too often police are powerless to intervene.

They say there is little they can do in cases like a 10-year-old who attacked classmates with a piece of timber, two 12-year-olds with 33 burglary charges, and a 13-year-old who attacked police with a baseball bat.
[…]
Under 14 they can only be prosecuted for murder or manslaughter.

After that, when police can deal with them, they are already career crooks.

One Lower Hutt 13-year-old in social welfare care for sexual offences abused two-year-olds four more times while in care, with police unable to act.”

(source)