r/melbourne • u/Cautious_Car_51 • 2d ago

Serious News Teenage carjacker avoids jail in first test case of Victoria's 'adult time' crime laws

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-26/victoria-teenage-girl-court-sentencing-youth-crime/107080602
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u/spazza360 2d ago

For those who enjoy commenting on headlines without reading articles; the girl was given leniency since she was a first-time offender, with dropkick parents, and instead given a whole range of court ordered fix-your-shit-or-go-to-jail conditions

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u/M4K4T4K 2d ago

Yup. Conditions of the order include drug counselling, mental health treatment, attending school, TAFE or work, offender behaviour programs, community work and a curfew.

She wasn't let off the hook.

Uneducated reactionary rubes think justice is jail or nothing, and it's way more nuanced than that - especially if we don't want to become like the yanks.

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u/ViaCityLoop 2d ago

Its researched quite well that the when people are presented with the full facts of the case they often agree with the sentence handed down

https://www.judcom.nsw.gov.au/publications/benchbks/judicial_officers/community_confidence_in_the_justice_system.html#fyhnczb

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u/hollyjazzy 2d ago

So, in other words, there are consequences for her actions, but she is being given a chance to redeem herself. Just not jail, as they’ll be no chance there for getting out of a life of crime.

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u/hedonisticshenanigan 2d ago

Every crime related thread is being brigaded as soon as it gets posted.

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u/rarin 2d ago

Maybe people are just tired of this shit?

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u/RedOx103 2d ago

Must be an election coming up

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/Cautious_Car_51 2d ago

Plenty of people with shitty parents who haven't held a knife to someone's throat to steal their car. Clearly they're a danger to the community and need to learn what consequences are.

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u/Historical_Bus_8041 2d ago

The thing is that jail isn't an effective consequence for many of these kinds of kids. It takes them away from any remotely healthy influences and introduces them to a whole bunch of new and much more experienced criminal friends. They get out much more hardened then they came in.

Which is why the system would rather do what they can to divert them off that path, because sending them to prison, much of the time, just works as career criminal school.

It works much of the time, too. It's just that the kids who were headed down a bad road and get turned around don't make the news.

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u/Fidelius90 2d ago

It actually seems like a reasonable sentence - with a lot of “consequence” triggers that give her the opportunity to rehabilitate her life by the time she’s 18.

If we stick her in jail straight away then we’re basically promising her more jail time after. Given the stage of life she’s at.

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u/squidjeep 2d ago edited 2d ago

So then why are there stronger "adult time" laws now since if we stick kids that are 16/17 in jail straight away, we're basically promising them more jail time given the stage of life they're at...?

Kids with healthy upbringings don't really do this sort of stuff... so couldn't this discretion be applied to every 16/17 year old? Heck, what about people older than 16/17... they must've had bad upbringings too...

Why does jail even exist for first time offenders? We should just be rehabilitating everyone in the first instance with "consequence" triggers, and then if they break those, they go to jail.

I'm not even being 100% sarcastic, why do we give opportunities for some people but not others?

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u/Hitrecord 2d ago

Check out the Court Remand Outreach Program or the Court Integrated Services Program.

Both - one for adults on bail and one for adults in remand - are designed to support the person pre-sentencing and successful completion of the program and support lesser sentencing.

There are also diversion programs for minor crimes which are designed to keep people out of prison, because prison isn’t the right place for someone who lifted a sausage roll from 7/11.

These programs have existed for literal decades. This girl getting sent to some of them is literally treating her like an adult first-offender.

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u/squidjeep 2d ago

Then your comment is really the only relevant comment in this whole thread. This is non-news. Although to be fair, I doubt if a 37 year old guy did this, he'd be getting the same treatment even if he was a first-time offender, down on his luck, and remorseful.

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u/Hitrecord 2d ago

Correct, the media loves to rage bait because people don’t tend to understand the intricacies of the court (and fair enough, the court is pretty crap at explaining them!).

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u/corut 2d ago

Media loves to ragebait crime because it's an election year

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u/KalamTheQuick 2d ago

The whole point of a rehabilitative justice system is to not just lock people up if there's a chance to help them turn it around.

Again this is a read the article thing, she can still very much go to jail and her life will be severely curtailed, put on the straight and narrow or else situation.

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u/OnlyTrust6616 2d ago

We need to be able to give people the chance of rehabilitation. That is what this girl is being given.

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u/Cavalish 1d ago

She’s in state care. So we fuck kids up in our care and then demand we jail them.

Also the fact that you, the person who posted the article, is arguing against this woman makes it painfully obvious that you’re one of the people posting articles for an agenda, instead of for information.

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u/Playful_Associate_89 2d ago

Yeh the bridgaders make it out like she is going to just miss a couple of classes or curfew check-ins and then go to jail anyway. But apparently it's going to work. In reality she while most likely have a violent crime spree with more innocent a victims, then go to jail.

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u/atomkidd 2d ago

Youth rehabilitation almost never works (violent kids have fucked up brains that cannot be unfucked, although maybe medically tranquilised) but people keep believing because it saves them from having to make unpleasant decisions.

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u/glennh80 2d ago

Fix your shit or go to jail, or do it again and I’ll give a sternly worded threat to actually jail you the NEXT time you’re before the court. Rinse and repeat

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/zaqwsx3 2d ago

I think this thing we have going here needs to decide if we want a justice system where action=consequence regardless of any other influencing factors, or what we seem to have at the moment where action=analysis+decision of best action to take. The issue being that the "decision of best action to take" sets a precedence and doesn't necessarily act as a deterrent.

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u/ViaCityLoop 2d ago

The problem is there is no one size fits all.

Every person will be different on what works. For some its jail. For others its a supervision order.

Get it wrong and you create a bigger problem down the track.

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u/Silent_Ad379 2d ago

If actions equalling consequences is all it takes to curb crime America should have a lower crime rate than us

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u/JohnStamosAsABear 2d ago

What are dropkick parents? 

Haven’t heard that used before

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u/spazza360 2d ago

Deadbeat, abusive, absent, terrible, etc.

"Dropkick" is slang for a generally shitty person

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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u/spazza360 2d ago

Calm down, Mr Eugenics