As the number of preteens crashing cars into shops continues to escalate, youth crime is at the front of everyone's minds. How do we prevent ram raids and what consequences actually work? Rachel Maher reports

Over the past three days, there have been over a dozen ram raids or robberies committed around Auckland, many of them carried out by juveniles.

This included a daylight robbery on Queen St in the CBD by offenders as young as 14 and a total of six ram raids on Sunday night across South Auckland, North Shore and central Auckland.

Offenders as young as 13 participated in the recent robbery on Queen Street over the weekend. Photo / supplied

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the crimes as "atrocious" during a press conference on Monday, and recognised that a large number of the offences were committed by young offenders.

Arden insisted that contrary to some claims, there were consequences for young offenders but these depended on the individual and the crime committed.

"If someone is particularly young, efforts are often made to use consequences and punishment that doesn't necessarily lead to that individual being in facilities that for instance result in their continuing [to offend]," she told Newshub's AM show.

Liquorland Stoneridge on Lunn Ave was targeted by ram-raiders last week. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Ardern said often if a young person entered the criminal justice system they stayed on that trajectory.

This morning Police Minister Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking it was concerning to see and hear about the number of ram raids and offending happening in Auckland, in particular, and around the country.

It was especially concerning to find out that people taking part in those ram raids and other offending were children.

"The more that we can do to identify the ring leaders of these groups of young people getting into trouble, the more we can do to dampen that down.

"We've got kids as young as 10 years old stealing cars and going ram-raiding shops," said Hipkins.

"That is very, very concerning. We can't put a police officer outside every shop."

He said in Auckland, police had arrested 38 young people but 27 were yet to be identified.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said that the level of "lawlessness" was really concerning, and he expects the police to focus on it and make it a priority.

There is a suggestion that a number of the people involved in these ram raids have offended in similar ways in the past, Goff said, so he wants to see police give special attention to those with multiple offences.

"It needs to be a multi-agency approach, we need education focusing on how we can keep kids in classes and from justice and social welfare agencies, we need them to ensure they are doing all they can in the home environment of that young person to effectively stop that behaviour."

He also suggested that "there is a strong relationship between kids not attending school and being involved in criminal offending of this nature."

Earlier this year, a report was released on truancy numbers which showed over 40 per cent of students were not attending school regularly.

The decline was apparent across every decile, year level, ethnicity and region, with huge disparities for Māori and Pacific children and lower-income households.

Attendance has been steadily declining since 2015 and has been made worse by Covid.

Complex factors have been blamed, including poverty, family violence and bullying at school.

Youth worker Aaron Hendry said it's not just about keeping kids in school, but how they are supported once they are there.

"Something that shows huge potential at the moment is the way we view schools and if we started viewing them as community hubs."

Hendry suggests that schools are the first place where problems can become apparent, and often lack the resources to provide full, wrap-around care.

"There is a huge opportunity to have a more targeted approach and to layer different support systems within schools. Obviously there is already a massive focus on education in schools, but we need to shift some of the focus on to wellbeing as well."

National's police spokesman Mark Mitchell agreed with fixing the chronic truancy issues, but also suggested that the more violent, older youth offenders should be moved to the district court as a way to deter them from reoffending.

He also believed social media played a crucial role in these crimes and their steep escalation in number and brutality.

"The gangs out there on social media are enticing, they will always try to encourage and recruit, and with the youths themselves goading others to match their offences, you kind of have a perfect storm going on there."

A stronger response was also needed from the youth justice and youth courts, Mitchell proposed.

"They will often be picking up these youth offenders on a Friday night and then they will be back out reoffending Saturday morning, we need stronger support given to Police."

Hendry said that "consequences are not as black and white" as preventative action and that it is important that they are proportional to the crime and the young person.

He believes that restorative justice is the appropriate forward action.

Youth worker Aaron Hendry said that restorative justice and using schools as 'community hubs' are some ways we might be able to help youths stay out of crime. Photo / Dean Purcell

"Restorative justice is often misunderstood; it is actually far more confronting than the current system when they just get sent to court because they actually never get the opportunity to face what they have done and the impact it had on others."

Hendry maintained that when restorative justice is done well and done right, it centres on the voice of the victim and works towards correcting any harm that was caused.

"Restorative justice actually works, young people are allowed to take responsibility for their actions, reflect on why they made those decisions in the first place and then receive support so it doesn't happen again in the future."