WA cracks down on young reoffenders

Photographs of young recidivist offenders of petty crime will be splashed across
train stations and shopping centres under new laws passed in Western Australia.
The Prohibited Behaviour Order bill scraped through WA's upper house by just three
votes on Thursday night, with Nationals MP Colin Holt crossing the floor to side
with Labor and the Greens.
Under the law, any person over the age of 16 who has been convicted of two or more
anti-social offences within three years can be issued with a prohibited behaviour
order by the courts.
Unless ordered otherwise, the offender will then have their name, photograph, suburb
of residence and the details of the order published both online and in the
community.
WA Attorney-General Christian Porter said the information could also be published at
train stations, and in local and statewide newspapers in a bid to deter repeat
offenders.
"Whether you are an owner of a shop that's been vandalised at Morley Galleria
(shopping centre) or whether you are an individual resident, you will be able to
display those details," Mr Porter said.
"That, I think, is going to involve the community in a real sense in policing their
own safety."
While some of the states and territories vary in their definition of a child,
currently most, including WA, ban any publication of the identity of an offender
under 18 without the court's consent.
Northern Territory is the exception, allowing the publication of the identity of an
offender under 18 subject to court suppression orders.
Mr Porter defended the move to "name and shame" 16-year-old offenders of low-level
crime, saying child offenders of serious crimes such as murder were not a threat to
the community as they were either in jail or detained.
"The kids we're looking at here ... are a continuing threat to the community's
safety because they may have graffitied or vandalised 10 or 15 times and yet they
are still out in the community," he said.
People under a prohibited behaviour order could be banned from entering or being
near certain premises or areas, engaging in specified behaviour or communicating
with specific people.
The attorney-general said police would enforce the orders with the help of the
public or public transport officers who may see offenders breaching the orders.
He said it was expected the prohibited behaviour orders would start "falling off the
criminal justice production line" early next year.
President of the WA Law Society Hylton Quail has been a staunch opponent of the
laws, calling them "repugnant" and saying they would not prevent an offender from
engaging in a particular behaviour.
Mr Quail warned that now that the laws had passed, the state's magistrates and
children's court needed to be properly resourced to deal with the increase in
prohibited behaviour order applications.
"If they aren't, what's going to happen is backlogs are going to blow out
dramatically and it's going to delay judgments across the board, not just in
relation to prohibited behaviour orders," he told AAP.
Mr Porter said there would not be any added burden placed on the courts as they
would be dealing with these offences anyway.



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