A regional perspective on serious and persistent offending
Published: December 8, 2025
This report uses the views of those who work with children and youth with serious and persistent offending to explore what influences trends of these behaviours. It aims to support an understanding to improve ways to engage with them and reduce reoffending.
Background
In 2023, the Government set a target to reduce children and young people with serious and persistent offending behaviour by 15 %. It was named Target 3.
As of March 2025, the number of serious and persistent child and youth offenders had decreased by 11.7 %. This was from a baseline figure of 1,081 as of June 2023. This is well below the estimated trajectory to achieve the 2030 target of 919 (i.e. a good result).
This report provides insights on the regional work to reduce offending. It also reviews how effective our responses have been.
The report gathers insights from regional frontline. It highlights what they believe is driving current trends. Then it identifies challenges and opportunities to improve them.
Regional workers included:
- Youth Justice Teams
- Youth Justice Social Workers
- Rangatahi Prevention Team at NZ Police
Key findings
The report found that:
- Good practice is happening across the Youth Justice space. Staff are more committed to reducing youth offending and putting good support around rangatahi.
- Fast Track, Intensive Case Management Teams and Military Style Academy seem to be having a positive impact.
- Amongst the current cohort of serious and persistent youth offenders is a group who is “aging out”.
- Communities have shown resilience. They have innovated to use advanced security measures. Various groups have also partnered to have a drastic impact on Ram Raids.
- Police are using targeted and innovative practices in their approach to Target 3.
Several challenges remain. It has been found there are limitations regarding the reduction of serious and persistent youth offending. These need a unified and coordinated approach to address them.