When Taranaki police retreated from a hostile crowd at a car meet this week, the story fed a familiar narrative: young people out of control, authorities overwhelmed. But inside Youth Courts, something completely different is happening.

Judges ordered 84 young offenders into education and rehabilitation programmes in 2024, up from just 48 the year before. That's a 75% surge in a single year. (Source: Stats NZ, youth-court-orders)

This isn't about being soft on crime. It's about courts choosing a different tool from the box. Instead of supervision orders or community work, judges are increasingly sending young offenders to structured programmes designed to address why they're in court in the first place.

The timing matters. In 2018, courts issued 159 of these orders. Then the number collapsed to 48 and stayed there through the pandemic years. Something changed in 2024 to make judges reach for this option again at nearly double the rate.

What's notable is what this data doesn't show: a crisis. Politicians love talking tough on youth crime, and move-on orders expanded nationwide this week suggest the government believes visibility equals enforcement. But Youth Court orders tell a more nuanced story.

These programmes typically target underlying issues: substance abuse, anger management, literacy gaps, mental health. They cost more than community work and take longer than a warning. Courts don't default to them. They use them when they think a young person might actually turn things around.

The 75% jump suggests either more young offenders are being assessed as suitable for intervention, or courts are prioritising rehabilitation over punishment, or both. Without detailed case notes, we can't know which. But we can see the preference shifting.

Compare this to 2018, when 159 orders were issued. That was before COVID shuttered programmes, before the cost-of-living squeeze hit families, before the current government's law-and-order rhetoric. Courts issued fewer of these orders during the pandemic, not because crime fell, but likely because programmes weren't running or capacity was limited.

Now they're back, and growing fast. While headlines focus on car meets turning hostile and politicians promising crackdowns, Youth Court judges are quietly betting that 84 young people might stay out of the adult justice system if someone actually teaches them something.

It's not a story about youth crime spiralling. It's a story about courts trying something that might prevent the next headline about police retreating from an angry crowd.