‘No evidence’ that $40m youth crime program reduces offending

There is “no evidence” the state government’s multimillion-dollar youth-crime prevention program has meaningfully reduced criminal behaviour, with seven in 10 young people offending after being enrolled in the program, an audit of the program has found.

Released by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) on Wednesday, the report also found that the Department of Justice had overstated the effectiveness of the program when describing it as a “proven, evidence-based” intervention, and that it was reaching just 2 per cent of the state’s young offenders .

“While the department says that the program is proven to help reduce offending, we found no evidence of this,” the report found.

The audit examined a youth-crime prevention program which has handed more than $40 million to community groups since 2016 and is run by the department. The money is allocated to organisations who provide mentoring and case management services to at-risk young people as a form of early intervention and prevention . This includes boosting engagement in education, employment, sport and other activities to tackle the underlying causes of offending.

When matching program participants with Victoria Police records, the audit found 70 per cent of the 258 participants offended in the first six months of entering the program. The total program participation rate represented about 2 per cent of the 26,977 alleged youth offenders recorded by Victoria Police between 2022 and 2025.

“While some alleged offenders among the remaining 98 per cent may be benefiting from other programs, this statistic suggests that there is a high level of unmet need,” the report said.

Frontline workers who spoke with auditors as part of the report said they were seeing increasingly complex cases , including the “glorification of machetes” on social media and organised crime gangs recruiting young offenders online.

VAGO also found the cost of the program varied dramatically between providers, from $400 per participant enrolled via Melton City Council to more than $24,000 per participant through Anglicare Victoria.

“The report found that while organisations with a lower cost per participant may be more cost-efficient, they may be delivering less intensive services.