







































Children and Teenagers 
ISSN 2576-3709 (Print) ISSN 2576-3717 (Online) 

Vol. 6, No. 4, 2023 
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Original Paper 

Where are the Parents? The Drama of Youth Crime in the Media 

an Australian Focussed Discourse Analysis 
Dr. Pamela D. Schulz OAM (Note 1)1 

1 Senior Adjunct Research Fellow School of Law Justice and Society, University of South Australia 

Adelaide South Australia 

 

Received: August 18, 2023     Accepted: August 28, 2023     Online Published: September 7, 2023 

doi:10.22158/ct.v6n4p1                               URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/ct.v6n4p1 

 

Abstract 

The language in media stories surrounding the high drama of juvenile and youth crime is very alarmist 

and continues to fuel political debates and demands for tougher penalties rather than the proverbial 

slap on the wrist for young offenders. Further there are fear discourse elements that suggest that for 

some politicians cited in the daily news cycle as being “out of control”. In opposition to this fear and 

alarmist discourse in the notion that the media news cycle highlights youth crime for its sensationalist 

perspectives and poor reporting of youth courts and their judgments in such matters. A comprehensive 

discourse analysis of youth crime reporting may suggest that media must take the blame for some of the 

inappropriate focus on youth crime as being selective. This yearlong study suggests that the public 

need more information to see for themselves whether the current moves and political debates need to be 

reviewed and refreshed. In addition, family supports are a signal to consider as presented by expert 

authorities involved in decision making and reporting. 

 

Introduction: A Youth Crime Study in Media: Chaos Drama and Badly Behaved. Where is this 

coming from? Thousands of years of complaining still echoes today 

For more than 2500 years there has been a plethora of complaints about the youth of today. We are 

mostly familiar with Socrates complaints of them being disrespectful and not listening to their parents 

and refusing to do as they are told. Clearly disobedient children and teenagers are not a new 

phenomenon. This study aims to see what is extant in today’s media. There is ample research that 

clearly identifies that youth and young people are affected by their upbringing and their parenting and 

when growing up in dysfunctional homes where love affection and education is ignored and not given 

chances to succeed are that young teenagers may find themselves in trouble. According to research 

conducted by Boxall Cooley and Lawler in 2021 the percentage of young people who commit crimes 



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are more likely to emanate from dysfunctional home lives and have been subjected to domestic 

violence perpetrated on themselves or other members of the family.  

Social work studies also reflect this view and there are significant examples that show…around the 

world social workers and professors of sociology are grappling with what appears in the news to be a 

world-wide phenomenon. For example, from as far away as Ethiopia (Tekelwoyni, Zeleke, & Kidane, 

2021) the issues are considered and looking to other nations for similarities and differences.  

Just as Australia appears to be grappling with the problem of youth crime according to the media other 

countries are finding that their communities are facing similar issues.  

This media discourse study of over 100 media platforms focusses on media reporting of youth crime as 

a moral panic and political debates in Australia and other countries which have presented reports of this 

type of criminal behaviour. Moral panic in communities about crime have been reported in many 

studies and especially within the context of fear discourse as outlined by Altheide and more recently by 

Lee and Mythen in their seminal book on Fear of Crime (Lee & Mythen, 2018). Indeed, the notion of 

moral panic has set in as politicians step up to microphones detailing that if elected, they will be tough 

on crime and that those currently in government must do something to curb this problem. Cohen first 

outlined moral panic in communities as early as 1976 and again revisited this idea in 2002 when he 

outlined the gangs of Mods and Rockers in England. Other researchers joined the concern and the idea 

of concerns in media becoming a campaign to elicit a new form of policy became the norm in news 

reporting (Cohen, 2001). 

In Britain the problem of “aimless youth wandering the streets” and that gun and knife crime has been 

on the rise in Britain. According to Bhuller (2018) citing youth crime statistics from 2018 more than 

40,000 young people were apprehended for proven possession of a knife and also suggesting large 

numbers of youth entering into the justice system. Many researchers are considering more than a euro 

centric or modern democratic national approach and suggest that a nuanced view of community distress 

is often amplified by the method of reporting in modern media platforms. Other media platforms in 

Europe and the West suggest that the large number of young male refugees (Alkoissa, 2018) from 

various countries that do not share the significant mores and values of that society are also fuelling the 

concerns in fear discourse.  

An early sweep of media platforms is replete with significant pejorative or aggressive lexis (word 

choices) which borrow heavily on conflict and war like tropes. They are charted below as a first 

measure of the type and style of reporting that leads to fear discourse and panic. Such is the use of 

these discourse elements that it clearly is having some impact within media and some communities. In 

fact, David Altheide (2023) is known for his work over many years in what he calls fear discourse and 

moral panic being used as a form of political football in order to encourage a tough on crime approach. 

There have also been many stories in mainstream newspapers that drive the communication of fear and 

demanding a tougher line from authorities such as the police and the justice system. In a story in the 



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Australian by David Penberthy (2023) who describes the city of Pt Augusta in the north of South 

Australia (often known as the gateway to the Outback) marked mayhem and that there are some people 

who are calling for change to prevent the spate or crime wave. This commentary and report suggested 

that; “Port Augusta has become synonymous with mayhem” He goes on to describe joyriding itself 

almost an oxymoron as a lexical choice as there is no joy when the car is crashed injuring young people 

attempting to escape police a regular type of news item on nightly TV news. It should be noted here 

that Pt Augusta has a large indigenous population and often the offenders are locals from that 

community.  

Further in this story are details of booze filled crowds of yahoos and break-ins as commonplace and 

frequently used as descriptions. An indigenous man an elder in the Pt Augusta community Mr Malcom 

“Tiger” McKenzie has described families as seemingly out of control and very dysfunctional which he 

blames on the withdrawal of the welfare cashless card which controls how indigenous families spend 

their money and in particular, on what is allowed to be bought on this card. Within this article there 

were also reports of young people being injured and police officers being injured in the line of duty. In 

another recent story online and reports related to judicial officers the journalist raised the usual question 

related to youth crime waves reported in Queensland and in the Northern Territory of Australia (Furler, 

2023). 

He suggested that: “But after more than 20 years watching the courts, I think the justice is wrong 

on one big thing. Some of our judges and magistrates are completely out of step with public 

opinion”. In his opinion widely circulated and repeated on social media there is a significant lexical 

choice of topic which blames the justice system for some of the ills reported daily by mainstream and 

other platforms. Discourse analysts suggest that the major topics outline and then reiterated through 

semantic macrostructures such as headlines (Teo, 2000) set in train a belief system of how to read the 

stories and this in turn creates a public perception of distrust and in this case with the justice system.  

Similar reports of suggestion of the race and cultural or ethnic identity are overtly displayed when 

media cameras are deployed and despite pixilating faces to reveal their overt backgrounds and this can 

often be seen as their arms and legs are videotaped being placed in a paddy wagon or police vehicle for 

the nightly news reports. Other subtext cues are given when the news anchor announces we spoke to 

XYZ Community Leader for his/her report on the latest problem crime spree.  For example, in the 

USA descriptions of offenders are quite blatantly reported as Black African Latino or Arabic whereas in 

Australia it is often ignored and only when the news pictures flash on screen and “community leaders” 

are asked for an opinion that the viewer clearly understands the cue… the offender is not white or 

Caucasian. Again Mark Furler has added that: “Space limitations, particularly in radio and TV 

reports, mean every intricacy of a person's background is not revealed”. While this is true in 

principle it is clear that linguistic constructions will tell a different story and those often appear in 

headlines. Various discourse analysts such as Van Dijk (1998) have researched the power of semantic 



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macrostructures that appear in discourse as headlines or paragraph leads and are often bolded on 

website to draw what is commonly termed clickbait. This attracts readers and viewers, and the type and 

style of language is often used to describe and cast attention via fearful statements.  

For example, the table below highlights headlined macro structures as descriptors of the youth involved 

in crime. It can also be seen that this table identifies significant behaviours in each of the elements of 

the table and they are not modified as youth that are neglected or disadvantaged or uneducated or 

disturbed suggesting that they are capable of intelligent choices and thus are to be blamed for the 

distress and disruption that are produced by their behaviours. Several of the descriptions are designated 

by race and as such can be seen as overtly racist in nature. For example, Teo cited above has indicated 

that at a certain point in time Vietnamese youth were heavily involved in crime if newspapers at the 

time were to be believed. In addition, Van Dijk (2003) has suggested as immigration debates raged in 

Europe in the 1980’s that a deal of the anti and right-wing approach to the ideology of migrants seeking 

a better life in the Western Democracies were race based. His research has since been identified by 

various UN and other reports as significant in changing the support for refugees and migrants in 

political and other discourses.  This appears to still be a topic of debate. 

Discourse Analysis Method of lexical choice and newsworthy topics 

More than 150 websites were submitted to a lexical choice textual analysis and the major themes and 

topics were collated and listed according to frequency of appearances in news stories both on major 

online platforms and newspapers and other outlets. Also included are television stories which used the 

term youth crime, teenage crime and youth crime wave as examples of headlines to each story.  

Following the collation a table was commenced of each of the frequency themes and topics and listed 

in a table for ease of understanding the main methods of describing the crimes and critical incidents. 

The table below following shows a clear sensational approach which identifies young people as in 

control and having agency in upsetting and garnering media attention. In addition, it can be see that in 

most of the incidents reported that the community were likely to be in danger and that the government 

of the day needed to respond in some way. (Examples of this include the demands by a parent advocacy 

group appearing on national television in Australia). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Table 1. Of Headlines: Lexical Choice Topics and Number of Descriptions in Media 

JOYRIDER/ JOYRIDING (stolen cars) 76 

CRIME WAVE 45 

STEALING 33 

RAMPAGE/ABORIGINAL 21 

SPREE 23 

OFFENDERS/INDIGENOUS 57 

CALLOW YOUTHS 13 

AIMLESS 15 

DRUG ADDICTED 27 

INTOXICATED 37 

VIOLENT 24 

MURDER CHARGES 8 

DELINQUENTS/MISGUIDED 20 

CRASHING CARS 26 

ILLEGAL USE (OF MOTOR VEHICLES) 22 

YOUNG MALES/AFRICAN GANG 31 

SMASH AND GRAB RAID 21 

HOME INVASION 7 

BLACK YOUTHS/INDIGENOUS 9 

AFRICAN GANGS 5 

CRASHING CARS 13 

KNIFE CARRYING 9 

STABBING 5 

ASSAULTING 8 

DANGER/MACHETE ATTACK 27 

ANTI SOCIAL MISFITS 3 

TEEN KILLERS 2 

 

Media Reporting of Youth Crimes online and mainstream 

The table above reveals that there is a lot of fear and trepidation surrounding the phenomenon of youth 

crime. As headlines and media platforms suggest headlines are actively indicating that youth crime and 

delinquent behaviour are soaring. From city to city and major regional towns the notion that young 

people are “out of control” is beyond the reach of caring parents, schools or community.  

Communication theory holds that frequency is a clear indication that the media will begin a campaign 

of what Schulz (2010-2011) calls the “discourse of direction”. In this the media start making inferences 



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that policies and practices should call for “tough on crime” or stricter controls by policing methods. 

This has certainly been seen in several media stories suggesting that the proverbial “slap on the wrist” 

penalties for youth crime are no longer stopping young people from offending.  For example, ABC 

political reporter Kate Mc Kenna (2023) has written about the strict new laws passed by Queensland 

Parliament which will ensure “tougher penalties”. Accompanying the story is a graphic series of icons 

displaying the effect these tougher laws will have on young offenders including stricter bail conditions 

of the age range affected (10-17-year-olds) and indeed, what will occur if they posted their escapades 

on social media and the likelihood of having to wear ankle bracelets if bailed to go home and await a 

court date. This has occurred as criticism of the slap on the wrist approach to giving young people extra 

chances to change their behaviour which appear to have failed. 

There are also calls to penalise dysfunctional families and parents for ignoring their children’s 

behaviours and allowing them to roam freely throughout the suburbs and creating mayhem and other 

fearful events such as burnouts and car crashes. The drama of such delinquent behaviour is such that an 

ABC report from the far north of Queensland described “a record spate of car thefts” (Testa et al., 2022) 

and reporting on calls for greater punitive measures to stop this activity creating fear and uncertainty in 

the community.  There are often calls for some sort of behavioural rehabilitation and occasionally we 

see calls to make children join the army for a spate of discipline.  

For example in New Zealand (2013) there is a style of military intervention which has been used since 

2010-2013 and has claimed a benefit of prevention of serious re-offending… their website claims that: 

“The MAC programme was designed to provide intensive wraparound support to 40 of the most 

serious and persistent young male offenders each year to assist them to make pro-social choices (e.g., 

not reoffending) and ultimately make a successful transition to adulthood”.  

Since then, various other options in New Zealand have been tried as intervention and recent political 

activity by one party promises to bring back this specific program and expand it further. In Australia the 

calls are getting louder via media that the Government[s] must do something to stop this offending and 

to make communities feel safe again. Among these are the calls to blame the parents for their children’s 

behaviour. One such example is the article by Sonia Hickey for Australian Criminal Lawyers in which 

she asks the question: Should parents be held responsible for the Crimes of their Children? As the 

article suggests the answer is very complex and may in fact need legal help to untangle the web of 

issues that are involved. Whether in fact a parent can be proven to have by virtue of neglect or wilful 

default lead to the committing of a crime by their children can be considered within the Children 

(Parental Responsibility Act 1997 NSW).  

In Australia the calls for getting tough on crime and children as offenders is increasing. Only in recent 

times there have been pejorative descriptions of a failure of the justice system by various media 

platforms and the lexical choices of the reports echoes that of the table presented earlier. This again 

highlights the “moral panic” and fear discourse so prevalent in current media reporting of justice issues. 



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Such is the moral panic that in some places private security has been employed by residents to stop the 

“crime wave” (Herbert & Mackenzie, 2022). Further research on this issue showed that other part of 

Australia have resorted to doing likewise in order to ensure the safety of residents and community 

property owners. A full list of websites is available to view on most search engines and the significant 

word usage is similar to others media platforms that “call” for a range of options in order to  stop the 

damage and distress it appears to cause.  

Analysing the discourse: Anaphora  

All discourse analysts suggest that the first sweep should most often check the topic and lexical choices 

and their frequency of usage. This is shown in the previous table.  This appears to clearly represent the 

main focus of attention for the authors reporters and commentators. Table one listed above is clear that 

there is a lot to be afraid of and further studies of the websites considered for this research clearly 

outline via Anaphora the retracing or repetition of certain elements of the stories that add extra weight 

to the stories. While this research has focussed early on the frequency measurement of the lexical 

choices made by media a more intense examination of the most repeated phraseology or word choice 

via Anaphora traces a clear path toward a system out of control, a community in fear of their lives and 

their property and personal well-being.  

 

Table 2. Anaphora and Repetition in Media Reporting 

Topic/Anaphora (repetition)  Impact  

Justice failure Confidence in justice system 

disrespected 

Judge bails teenage (killer car 

thief, hoon driver, home invader) 

Judges cannot be trusted to do the 

right thing by community  

Teenager commits crimes while 

on bail 

Justice system cannot control 

anti-social behaviour  

Slap on the wrist  Approach to youth crime is not 

working and too soft  

Crime wave/spate  Herald an overwhelming problem 

Judges are too soft  Suggest that courts can solve 

social problems by locking up 

offenders or placing them in some 

form of detention 

People living in fear Government and authority unable 

to quell crime wave 

Police resources stretched to limit As above  



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Growing number of vigilantes in 

response to crime 

Community decides to become the 

authority  

Youth control the streets Community fear government 

unable to quell crime wave  

Vigilantes take matters into their 

own hands  

? suggestion of the mob or people 

power taking over authority  

Where are the parents? Family dysfunction seen as a 

negative failure by society and 

community members 

Who pays for the damage? Calls for reparation and support  

Community anxiety as youth 

crime escalates 

Demands for action to quell and 

stop crime wave reported  

Police are powerless  Police are blamed if they take 

action that results in injury or 

harm.  

 

Anaphora (Gill & Whedbee, 1997) (repetition) is seen by several discourse analysts as a major 

rhetorical device used to indicate a speakers’ major focus. It draws in their audience and 

establishes—or at least claims—a commonality of ideology for the reporting teams whether on 

mainstream media platforms or on social media this is evident throughout the websites and media 

analysed. The terms public, confidence, criticism and justice failures while situated in open opposition 

to one another, are repeated many times within the texts. A recurrent—and powerful—narrative 

sequencing is established: one which is directed towards explanatory and justificatory purposes. And 

underlying this discourse of direction pattern of response to critique is an equally powerful set of 

conflict metaphors. The table below taken from media reports shows the power of such anaphora or 

retracing of the main points at issue.  

The table above clearly identifies that around Australian and regional areas that young people offending 

are a menace to social order, community well-being and community trust in authority. As this author 

identified so many years ago the media campaigns are moving towards giving way to the Discourse of 

Direction.  In addition, the media have started campaigns calling for tougher sentencing and changes 

to bail laws which place a strong emphasis on keeping young repeat offenders “off the streets” 

(Rachwani, 2022). 

In discourse terms however, lacunae are evident. Lacunae are what is missing in the discourse but 

evident to the readers or viewers (Teo, 2000). This needs further study by others but clearly one 

anaphora is parental dysfunction that is constantly avoided. Often what is deselected is as important as 

what is clearly focussed on in news reports. As Schulz and Cannon found (Schulz & Cannon, 2013) 



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missing terms in sentencing often found their way into media reports these included words such as 

penalty and punishment. There is some speculation that actually naming and shaming parents could in 

fact be considered as racially vilifying others. As a consequence little information is available about 

parental and family dysfunction categories.  

There are also similar stories around Australia and indeed the world about order and control following 

youth offending or the unfortunate death of a presumed young offender whether in a stolen car that has 

crashed or some other reason that a police patrol has found them to be a person of interest. The police 

are required to protect law and order and to apprehend wrong doing and in the instance in France the 

case of Nahel (no other name given) a 17 year old male of African descent known to police for failure 

to comply at traffic stops or being caught committing offences and placing people at risk has resulted in 

blazing headlines (semantic macrostructures) suggested that France is convulsed and that riots in the 

streets have plagued the community. Smouldering cars set alight by the rioters have been used as a 

trope for “smouldering resentment” by people of colour who feel they are unfairly targeted. While the 

world grapples with children out of control on the front pages or headlining news services many 

journalists tread warily around terms such as disadvantage and ethnicity. This is surely worthy of 

further discussion and debate by others (Note 2). 

 

Media Framing: Emotion Sensation Division Conflict and Celebrity 

According to Media theorists (Mc Combs, 2004) the above frames constitute most stories on 

mainstream media platforms, but the civilian journalists and bloggers are also using this keynote drama 

of youth crime to gain solidarity and click bait interest. One such example is the spate of issues raised 

about young black men here and abroad who when faced with police intervention may be arrested or 

other violence and car chases etc take place.  

These are often online showing cars ablaze or large crowds in the streets holding vigil over presumed 

police issues who have allegedly the facilitated death of a young person of colour. In all these stories 

the passion and division highlight these young people as celebrity if even for a moment while the story 

gathers momentum.  

Emotion and the other elements are also more likely to find their way into news stories particularly if a 

number of teens (possibly a gang) actively attack and raid a worthy victim. 

There are several views on what constitutes a worthy victim particularly if they happen to be young and 

pretty or elderly and vulnerable or worse still in a wheelchair which almost always will guarantee a 

story to headline a news bulletin. This view is echoed by various theorists (Silva & Guedes, 2022). For 

example, Silva and Guedes suggest in their study that the way in which the media represent crime often 

includes “sensationalist” aspects, which focus on negative images of crime in communities. Associated 

with the view of news as sensationalists is also the perception of them as realistic and they also suggest 

that the more sensational the crime or more vulnerable the victim will add more weight to the fear in 



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the community and draw attention to find a reason to watch and learn from the story. 

 Their study also includes the vulnerability of good citizens going about their daily lives and suddenly 

being preyed upon and traumatised by the experiences which are then actively pursued in the stories. 

Example of this have included significant aggressive stealing of cars by groups of teens and then 

crashing the vehicle. Sometimes the media shows a group of several young people hiding behind 

clothing being bundled into police cars. 

Often this is accompanied by lurid scenes of crumpled cars and bold headlines relating TEEN CRIME. 

The story under the banner of SA News relays the “wild ride” and teenage boys facing multiple charges. 

Often the headlines loudly proclaim yet another criminal activity perpetrated by these evil young men 

and sometimes women.  

Collocation (or the words nearest the topics) 

Collocation has been classified by many discourse analysts as a significant indicator of author mindset. 

De Beaugrande (De Beaugrande, 1997) calls the “collocation” of words the “company they keep”, and 

suggests that even modest word samples indicate a pattern that identifies issues or concerns that need 

attention. Fairclough (Fairclough, 2003) goes further, encouraging analysts to look for patterns that 

emerge in texts to show relationships, and especially clashes, between powerful and dominant 

discourses. According to Atkins (Atkins, 2002) frequent recurrences of such co-located selections can 

indicate a socially constructed point of view: one powerful enough to pull forward lexical items 

subconsciously as a speaker or writer composes, operating as a semi-automatic or pre-formed, “cued” 

selection. Atkins suggests that language conditions people’s attitudes and expectations. Those who 

habitually use, and re-use certain preferred words and phrases betray a settled way of thinking—and 

also the expectation that this will be shared by listeners. To some extent however this also applies to 

those who are the subjects of this language: those spoken of, who are objectified in the terms used, and 

who may well take up the positions of being discussed or identified. In other words, how language 

settles around an issue within a given community, controls community perspectives, and so behaviours. 

Within media frameworks certain collocations are evident on most news stories and they are often 

placed next to the words featured strongly in this media analysis. They include crime, youth crime, 

teenage boys, and young offenders. Below is a short selection to identify the type and style of reports 

and a table to exemplify this continuous author mindset. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Table 3. Collocations: A Selection Juxtaposed either Side of Story Themes 

Main theme  Collocations  Implication  

Crime by teenagers Terrorise steal and abuse Children as young as fourteen 

“out of control” 

Car crashes at speed  Teenage boys LED the police a 

merry chase for kilometres more 

than 2 hours 

Teenage crime brings chaos 

Joyriding in cars stolen from… 

Young teenagers out for fun 

bringing sadness and distress to 

community and the suburban 

lives whose cars were stolen and 

crashed  

Robbery at service stations, 

convenient stores, shopping 

centres 

Snatch and grab 

Robbed at knifepoint. 

Distressed shop worker /shopper 

etc  

Treated in hospital for stab 

wounds 

Where are the Police the Justice 

System and Parents and why 

don’t people know where they 

are at 2 am in the morning? 

Stabbing frenzy at event  Knife wielding youth  Weapons of war against 

community 

Car crash claims lives Danger on the roads as driver 

aged ONLY 14 wrong side of 

the road 

Nowhere is safe? 

 

The drama that is implied in these stories are memorable and frightening for some readers and viewers 

in the community and calls to politicians to “do something” are often made by well-meaning leaders, 

mothers of victims, distressed parents and grieving public following inevitable terrible consequences. 

While collocations are part of the textual critical analysis one of the key areas of interest is the fact that 

for most of these stories as presented by news and major platforms it is implied that the children 

committing offences have “agency” and are in a level of control of the community. In fact this agency 

by youth is clearly identified by member of the media and general public in the topoi or collective 

thinking that follows such strident stories.  

Topoi (or collective thinking by groups organisations or accepted reality by community) 

The drama of youth crime has been significant in terms of topoi by groups who all have a stake in the 

discourse… Police, The Justice System, Politicians, Community Leaders, and indeed families and 

victims of crime. Topoi has been described in many discourse analyses and suggest that based on the 

work of Ruth Wodak (Wodak, 2009) list of the most common topoi which are used when negotiating 

specific agenda in meetings, or trying to convince an audience of one’s interests, visions or positions 

are often used in media stories They include: 1. Topos of Burdening 2. Topos of Reality 3. Topos of 



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Numbers 4. Topos of History Topos of Authority 6. Topos of Threat 7. Topos of Definition 8. Topos of 

Justice 9. Topos of Urgency. 

 In these stories can be found the reality of the crimes committed by young people who ought to be 

home and doing their homework, the burdens placed on communities dealing with the issues that are 

raised by young people out of control and the sheer number of these crimes which are often related to 

or referred to a history of dysfunction and disordered lives. There are also long suggested lists that 

occur in pragmatics and argumentation and have been described and list to augment the above 

groupings. They include references constantly to the need for urgent action, calls for change and for the 

justice system to lift the burden from weary frightened victims described as elderly vulnerable unable 

to sleep for fear and wanting their community to calm down and show respect for one another. For the 

media the collective trains of thought or ideologies often are predicated by the terms outlined below 

from the most often selected headlines and stories. 

 

Table 4. Topoi in Media Stories Identified 

Topoi statements Description  Implications  

Wild riding youth night of crime Out of control young people 

Topoi of threat  

Where are their parents 

We’ve had enough of this People worn out by the drama of 

being in fear; Topoi of justice 

injustice  

Police and justice system not 

doing enough 

We have got to change this and 

stop this behaviour 

Who is responsible? Topoi of 

burden and reality of life in the 

suburbs 

Should sentences be tougher 

even on children? Let the justice 

system work that out. 

We must get tougher on these 

wild feral youths and teenage 

criminals 

If parents and the justice system 

do not fix the problem then 

perhaps changing laws might  

Laws are too lax and allow 

freedom to continue to offend 

Slap on the wrist for juveniles in 

trouble with the law 

Easy to get away with crimes Laws are not strong enough to 

control them 

 

Issues raised by the clear notion that the young people have agency reflects the theory of Appadurai 

(2006) and “the fear of small numbers”. Indeed, he noted that the concept of fear and agency against 

such fear can affect responses and understanding. In today’s complex media and ideological landscapes, 

people often shape their views based entirely on what they read and see in the popular mass media. To 

some extent this process is deliberately perpetuated by media outlets, which seek to influence public 

responses as an everyday way of making news and in fact to get significant clicks on their internet 

platforms. Further, the fear factor can often shape what people think needs to happen to change what 



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they see as needing fixing. This view is also shared by Beck (2005) and points out that the current spate 

of “panic” discourse within media reporting gives the community of media viewers and readers an 

unrealistic view of the current world, where personal safety is in fact not notably at risk. This is a world 

where, as he argues, no one appears safe, and where the general population is persuaded to believe in 

an exaggerated risk of becoming victims of violent crime. The news media readily select and write 

about the bizarre, the sensational or the most violent crime cases. The reporting, increasingly not even 

local, is based on what sells… The oft cited “If it bleeds, it leads” still hold true, as do the ‘four C’ 

principles of Courts, Cops, Crime and Conflict. Gross and Aday (2003) refer to the consistent and 

frightening world that is brought into homes via the media, describing the “scary world in your living 

room” and commenting on how the constant viewing of criminal matters is leading many people to 

believe that crime is an overwhelming problem across all modern societies. It also appears even worse 

if the perpetrators are seemingly in control and have agency over others, their cars, their property, their 

parties or their homes.  

Where are the parents? 

Dysfunctional families their inability or unwillingness to step into the fray can at times be very 

frustrating. As there appears to be a community understanding that mothers and fathers ought to be 

doing more to make their children (often very young ones) who are committing crimes behave better 

and show respect to the community in which they live. The Australian Institute of Family Studies (2011) 

report made an early link between child maltreatment and criminal activity in adolescents and young 

people generally. Part of their report suggests that there is evidence that: 

“A nexus between abuse and neglect and adolescent offending in the lives of some children and young 

people, and the lack of a coordinated response to these by both the child protection and juvenile justice 

systems. The “early years” message has had considerable influence, particularly in relation to child 

protection and early intervention, but early intervention has largely focused on interventions early in 

life rather than early in the pathway”. 

There are social work studies abounding showing that early intervention and parental support is a 

significant factor in ensuring that children have a decent chance at a good life free of intervention by 

the law. Good food, nutrition, loving parents, good schooling and parental and family supports are a 

key factor often missing in these children who find themselves joy riding and committing daring 

robberies as they fear they are “missing out on the good life”. In fact, there is growing evidence that 

this may be a part of the problem and can be considered along with a range of other areas of concern. 

Despite this Queensland Australia is about to become tougher in response to the crisis of young 

offenders which have resulted in two stabbing deaths.  

As a result, Youth Offender Advocates have called for calm and asked for a review that does not 

include long periods of detention for convicted youth crime offenders. Stories about alternatives to the 

fear society and calls for greater intervention are in fact few and far between as the moral panic has 



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taken hold and is used by politicians to garner votes on being “tough on crime” (Smee, 2023). 

In praise of the Justice System despite the topoi of laxity and the anaphora which described 

Judicial Officers and Police as not fixing the problem. 

While there is ample evidence of the above topoi and anaphora judicial officers have indeed understood 

the information from experts such as the Australian Institute of Family Studies whose many reports 

show evidence that locking children up and placing them in detention harms them more than the public 

realises. For example, one Youth Justice Bureau paper (2012) implied that in fact there was a drop in 

youth crime and that diversion programs such as conferencing have more merit than detention in a 

significant number of cases.  

There is a plethora of studies that shows how seriously judicial officers consider how to approach 

social justice issues such as youth offences, Indigenous community offending and various crimes that 

annoy pester and make people fearful. In recent times the author approached a former Deputy Chief 

Magistrate of South Australia and asked his opinion about my study and the lurid media headlining that 

was clearly making strong statements around Australia and around the Western Democratic nations. In 

reply he stated that there was significant evidence to show that over time young people (particularly 

boys) do take silly risks and play to their peers to show off. But he suggested that over time they mature 

grow up and become contributory members of society with appropriate social and community support.  

It is worth noting that this same judicial officer was among the first to start the idea of Nunga Courts 

and Circle Sentencing during his term of office in South Australia. It shows that judges and other 

judicial officers are indeed alert to the times and that their suggestions should be heard and acted upon. 

In fact, when a youth criminal offender is sent home on detention with a security bracelet he has not 

“walked free from Court, causing outrage” but is given a chance to reflect and re-position themselves 

into our community with respect for the law.  

In just under a decade ago Magistrate Jennifer Bowles (2014) of Queensland was reported by the media 

as asking a legitimate question of the time “Why Can I lock kids up, but I can’t ensure they receive 

treatment?” In this report she identifies the same problem occurring even then that there were …” too 

many children and young people appearing before Children’s Courts”.  

She also mentions the problem of substance abuse and mental health as being part of this problem 

because the offenders appearing have not been given the chance to engage in treatment for their 

problem. In addition, this issue is not confined to Australia or New Zealand as a myriad of reports are 

available online to discuss the matter. For example, children as young as fourteen are appearing for trial 

for serious felony charges in the USA (Mistrett & Espinoza, 2021). This controversial report 

showed that in2021 more than 250,000 children had been tried as adults and treated sentenced within 

the adult system. In fact, they state in opposition to this process and have reported that: “The children 

that remain exposed to the adult criminal legal system are overwhelmingly youth of colour. The vast 

majority serve short sentences in adult jail or prison and return home by their 21st birthdays, the age at 



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which services can be extended to in the youth justice system in the vast majority of states; indicating 

that many youths could be served, more appropriately, by the youth justice system”. 

From around the Justice system judicial officers have consistently used the topoi of examining the 

fairness and injustice shown up by the harsh penalisation of such criminal activity by youngsters who 

often need support for their dysfunctional families, substance abuse or neglect situations. [Executive 

Summary p1].  

Back in Australia late last year the former head of the Queensland’s Prison system has renewed calls 

for an overhaul of the youth justice system which he claims is “putting lives at risk”. The ABC report 

(O’Flaherty, 2022) named Keith Hamburger who, along with First Nations Leaders has impressed 

upon the report that the current circumstances are not fit for purpose and most particularly as detention 

facilities for young people. This appears to be an ongoing debate between those who call for stricter 

rules, harsher punishments and longer more punitive responsive sentencing. In fact, in copying a USA 

Experiment in reinvesting into justice the town of Bourke in New South Wales Australia, which has a 

high rate of First Nations young offenders reported by the ABC Four Corners Investigation TV 

program (Thompson, Mc Gregor, & Davies,2016) which is claiming success in prevention 

rather than reactive detention and stopping the inevitable cycle of young offenders ending up in prison.  

In the western world there is a concern which is rising from the actual members of the justice systems 

seeing the result of the harsh revenge junkiesm outlined in earlier studies by Schulz (2020). 

The very experts who see the results and the outcomes of the justice system for young people in trouble 

and in distress who act inappropriately suggests in their topoi of concerns the following lexical choices 

on a very regular basis: Treatment Intervention Concern and Support Family Support First Nations 

input by Elders Children in need of care Counselling Substance Abuse rehabilitation and avoidance of 

court processes. 

A Final Note: In every considered media platform in which these experts were reported the point 

was made to the author that the community is dealing with troubled children and not except in 

rare circumstances consistently violent and vicious adult persons. However, if the system fails to 

find a solution, then many will end up in prison learning to be violent and vicious and dangerous 

to society. 

 

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Notes 

Note 1. Dr Pamela D Schulz is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the University of South Australia at 

Adelaide. The OAM is the Order of Australia Medal awarded on the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 

2013 for her charity works in communications for the community in South Australia. She has served as 

a Ministerial appointed Chair of Defence Reserves Support Council in South Australia and Nationally 

and has served for five years from 2014-2019 on the Veterans Advisory Council. She is currently 

Honorary Communications Officer of the Defence Reserves Association of SA. 

Note 2. A full list of the websites and media platforms researched in this study is available on request 

from the author. 


