Criminologist questions Queensland government’s use of crime data

A criminologist has questioned the Queensland government's use of crime data to show its 'adult crime, adult time' laws are working.

Transcript

00:00well the reaction to this has been a fairly mixed bag now it is important to

00:07note that these making Queenslander safe laws were first passed through Parliament

00:10last December and what they mean is that for juveniles they can be sentenced for

00:15adult crimes such as murder manslaughter as well as burglary now

00:21these data figures that have come out have come directly from the crucifix

00:25government and what they show is that there has been a 32 percent drop in cases relating to a lot

00:31of these crimes that have been presented before the courts but it is important to note that that's

00:36been measured within a three-month period so it's just for the first quarter of this year it's

00:41something that a Queensland criminologist has said that while the trend is certainly good news it is

00:47too early to tell whether or not these are directly linked to the new laws it's sentiments that have

00:52also been echoed by the state's opposition who have said that the government is simply cherry-picking

00:57a lot of these statistics and they've questioned whether or not this particular data set measuring

01:03within a three-month period is something that hasn't really been done before now the premier

01:07David Christopher fully has defended these actions and he said that while there is good news that we

01:13are seeing sort of a reduction in youth crime numbers there is still a mammoth task ahead of the

01:18state government in terms of continuing that trend now when asked about the victim target numbers

01:23that was a key pre-election promise that was made last year the premier has remained fairly tight-lipped

01:30now we are expecting the second tranche of these making Queenslanders safe laws to be introduced to

01:36parliament next month where they'll be debated an additional 20 charges will also be added to that

01:41legislation but as for this week the focus is going to be on DNA sample safeguards that is

01:47expected to be debated in state parliament today