Crime lessons Sydney could learn from former murder capital of Europe

A justice reform advocate says young people accepting contracts from underworld figures to commit crimes are being "exploited".

Mindy Sotiri says Scotland, Spain, Hawaii and New York have successfully reduced youth crime with a public health approach.

Proposed legislation for some children to face adult penalties if convicted of organised crime violence are set to be debated in NSW parliament.

Young people contracted by gangs to commit crimes "shouldn't be punished" for being "exploited", a justice reform advocate says.

It comes after the Minns government on Monday announced young people could face adult penalties if convicted of organised crime violence.

The raft of proposed measures includes a maximum sentence of life imprisonment under new aggravated offences for conspiracy and attempted murder.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said at the time some children were being contracted by underworld figures on the dark web "for a very small amount of money" and had a disregard for the consequences of their actions.

Last week university student Marco Tapia and 40-year-old Joshua Macdonald were shot in what NSW Police suspect to be "mistaken identity" shootings.

At a press conference last week, NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley described this "new model" as a case of "whack-a-mole".

"Every time somebody is removed from the streets another person is there, a vulnerable person is there, a young person is there," she said.

Within the last 12 months, Taskforce Falcon, which was set up to combat organised crime violence, had arrested more than 800 perpetrators, including young people.

Justice Reform Initiative (JRI) executive director Mindy Sotiri said "we shouldn't be punishing children because adults are exploiting them".

"The way to respond to children's involvement in this sort of activity is not by further criminalising children or further pushing them deeper into a system which is absolutely only going to lead to them engaging in more serious reoffending.

"We cannot hold children to the same standards that we hold [as] adults because they are not able to be criminally responsible in the same ways."