How Victoria’s new crime-reduction unit can help tackle its youth crime problem

For months, Victoria and its capital Melbourne have been dealing with issues of violence, especially among young people.

This has caused significant community concern and, unsurprisingly, Victorians are turning to the state government for answers.

The Allan Labor government has announced several tough-on-crime policies, including bail reforms, tougher knife laws and “adult time for violent crime”.

Read more: Victoria's 'adult time for violent crime' reforms will not solve the youth crime problem

However, the most recent announcement represents a strategic shift in how to address this problem.

Premier Jacinta Allan has announced she wants a specialist team focused on early intervention and mentorship to tackle violent crime, especially among young people.

This would closely resemble the successful Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, which takes a public health approach to violence reduction. So what is the Scottish program and has it worked?

The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit

This unit was first established in 2005 by Strathclyde Police at a time when Glasgow was facing a serious surge in violent crime.

Its early results caught the attention of policymakers, and in 2006 the Scottish government expanded the unit into a national program.

In many ways, Glasgow then looked similar to Melbourne now. It was a city grappling with a spike in high-profile violent incidents, intense media scrutiny and political pressure for quick solutions.

In 2005, Scotland recorded 137 homicides, with Glasgow alone accounting for 41 deaths. In fact, it has been widely reported Glasgow was once the “murder capital of Europe”.

However, rather than relying solely on traditional policing, Strathclyde Police created the Violence Reduction Unit to treat violence as a public health issue. That is, addressing some of the reasons young people turn to violent crime, including poverty, drug use, abuse and mental illness.

They hoped treating violence as a public health issue would address the root causes rather than the symptoms, which we often see from tough-on-crime approaches.

Do public health approaches work?

Tough-on-crime policies don’t work in the long term: the Law Council of Australia suggests punishment that is applied after offences have occurred rarely works.

It has little effect on preventing crime. Rather it signals the justice system, and the community, are focused on punishment rather than addressing the factors that lead to young people committing crimes and preventing these from happening in the future.

The Scottish unit worked: it reported Scotland’s homicide rate fell by 35% between 2010 and 2020. Glasgow city accounted for 41% of that reduction.

The Scottish example shows reductions in violent crimes come not just from tough-on-crime policies but rather from a strategy of long-term investment that prioritises prevention and community engagement.

How would this work in Victoria?

The suggestion of a similar unit in Victoria is a promising shift by Allan that fixing Victoria’s “youth crime problem” requires long-term investment, not just short-term solutions.

The exact details of how this unit would operate are unclear. For it to work, as it did in Scotland, it would require significant investment. The Scottish unit has an annual budget of around £1 million (A$2.027 million).

The model is part of Police Scotland but directly funded by the Scottish government.

Specific to young people, the Scottish unit invests in prevention by supporting social and emotional learning in early childhood, strengthening protective factors across schools and communities, providing targeted training for teachers, youth workers and other practitioners to recognise and respond to risk, and partnering with peer-mentor programs.

It involves police officers, non-police employees and people who work alongside experts in health, education, social work, housing and other sectors.

Including those with direct insight into violence, offending, trauma or marginalisation signals the unit values expertise grounded in real life, not just formal qualifications.

A multi-agency, multi-program approach like this addresses the social conditions that shape violence, not just its outcomes.

Importantly, models such as the Scottish unit are driven by a simple but powerful principle: violence is preventable.

What strategies will be used?

A simple thread that runs through the Scottish approach is the value placed on strong, stable relationships.

Mentoring is a key aspect. Many of the projects supported by the Scottish unit use mentors who have experienced violence, addiction or the criminal justice system.

Our research with volunteer mentors found building rapport and genuine connection with at-risk youth was consistently described as the most important part of supporting young people.

As one at-risk youth reported in a 2018 research project analysing mentoring programs:

What I like about my mentor is he always comes to visit me when he says he’s going to […] that’s a big thing when a lot of people have let you down before.

If Victoria wants lasting reductions in violence, building these kinds of trusted relationships should be one of the centrepieces of the new model.

As the Scottish experience shows, long-term change happens when young people feel supported, valued and hopeful.