A 16-year-old caught with stolen property in 2020 might have faced a fine, or had their phone confiscated, or been banned from driving. In 2024, that same offence is far less likely to result in any of those penalties.

While the government announces new move-on orders targeting rough sleepers in town centres, a different kind of penalty has been disappearing from New Zealand's justice system without anyone noticing. Monetary penalties, confiscation orders, and disqualification orders handed down by Youth Court have dropped to their lowest level in 32 years.

In 2024, Youth Court issued just 948 of these orders. That's down from 1,194 in 2022 and 1,110 in 2020. It's a 21% drop in five years, and the steepest decline in the dataset's entire history. (Source: Stats NZ, youth-court-orders)

These aren't the headlines that drive the news cycle. Nobody writes breathless stories about fines that weren't issued or driving bans that didn't happen. But this is the other side of youth justice: the penalties designed to sting without sending someone to a youth justice facility.

The peak was 2011, when Youth Court issued 1,609 of these orders. Since then, the number has fallen by 41%. Every single year since 2016 has seen fewer monetary penalties than the year before, except for a brief uptick in 2021 and 2022.

This isn't just about fines. Confiscation orders take away the proceeds of offending. Disqualification orders ban young people from driving, often for drink-driving or dangerous driving offences. These are the tools Youth Court uses when it wants consequences without incarceration.

And they're being used less and less.

Part of this might be policy: a shift toward restorative justice, toward rehabilitation rather than punishment. Part of it might be demographics: there are fewer teenagers in New Zealand now than there were in 2011. But the decline is faster than the demographic shift alone would explain.

The broader picture is this: Youth Court is processing fewer young people through every part of the system. Earlier data shows sexual assault cases at their lowest level in three decades. Drug offences have collapsed. And now, even the financial and administrative penalties are fading.

What we're left with is a Youth Court system that's shrinking faster than almost anyone realised. By 2024, it issued fewer monetary penalties than it did in 1992, when New Zealand had a larger youth population and a completely different approach to youth justice.

The question isn't whether this is good or bad. The question is: why is it happening so quietly?