Adults who procure children to commit crimes in Austarlia to face 10 years in jail

Adults who solicit children to commit crimes on their behalf will soon be subject to harsher penalties as part of a Victorian crackdown on youth crime.

Under legislation to be introduced to the state's parliament by Premier Daniel Andrews' government, adults who procure children to "do their dirty work" will face up to 10 years' imprisonment.

The new law is the latest attempt by Andrews' government to counter the youth crime wave that has hit the state.

"We know, in some instances, where young people are stealing in particular, they're doing so at the behest of older criminals," Victoria's Attorney-General (AG) Martin Pakula said.

"This will mean that those older criminals who encourage young people to commit crimes could land themselves behind bars for 10 years, and it gives the police the power to better protect the community."

Pakula said there was already an offence for incitement in Victoria but it required police and prosecutors to prove a specific crime had been procured.

"This is more general, this is about criminals who, for example, just tell young people to steal things and bring them to them for payment," Pakula told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

"There is a gap in that law at the moment there isn't a specific offence that deals with that.

"We don't want to see these criminal bigwigs getting away with their crimes simply because they use a young person to do their dirty work."

John Pesutto, the state's shadow AG, said the Opposition had a number of concerns but it would examine the details.

"The first thing is that it's already an offence for adults to implicate youths in the commission of crimes," Pesutto said.

The announcement came in the wake of Andrews on Sunday committing to spending 1.5 billion US dollars recruiting almost 3000 new police officers over the next four years. Endit