Illustration: Aresna Villanueva
But those operations have failed to prevent the exponential rise in injuries related to knife violence. More than two dozen stabbings have already been reported since the start of 2023, including a wild melee in a public park between groups of teenagers that left a 13-year-old and a 14-year–old with serious injuries.in her inner suburban home, allegedly by her teenage son and a friend.
A police officer working to combat youth and knife violence, who asked not to be named for fear of losing their job for speaking out, said knife-related crime and violence was “as bad as it’s ever been”, with knives being found everywhere, including school grounds. “The increase in knife crime, particularly, and young people taking knives to school has become a much bigger issue than it was when we started,” said Tracie Alborough, a youth worker at YSAS.
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Brett Curran, who runs police operations in the north-west metropolitan region, said random knife attacks were “extraordinarily rare”. He said the majority of knife assaults and murders were committed between people who knew each other, in situations such as criminal associations or family violence.
Youth gangs are not a new phenomenon. Semi-organised violent groups of teenagers have existed in Melbourne for decades. But the way those groups form, organise, and eventually dissolve has changed.they were not organised like traditional crime groups, such as outlaw motorcycle clubs with rigid hierarchies, clubhouses, and gang colours or emblems.“While there are organised gangs, they can also be a bunch of kids who’ve just come together.
A number of recent, high-profile public incidents has been linked to gang activity, including a planned daylight brawl between two groups in a busy shopping centre, in which Victoria Police intervened before nine machetes, five knives and three other weapons could be used. Some of the weapons had been hidden in bushes or cars around the Watergardens shopping centre, where police alleged more than 14 people were planning to clash.