Huddled under a thin blanket, Moses Riek spent his first night in jail haunted by flashes of his mother pleading with him to be a good boy.
asserted
mother → huddle → him
At 18, he was now locked in an adult prison.
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he → lock → prison
In the silence of a shared courthouse cell, three adult men sleeping beside him, his mind began to map the steady escalation of his teenage crimes.
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mind → sleep → crimes
For perhaps the first time, he says now, he was trying to piece together how it had all gone wrong.
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it → say → time
Over a few years, what started with low-level offending, like shoplifting from major shopping centres, had spiralled into violence, and in 2020 he was handed a four-year prison sentence for other serious crimes.
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he → start → crimes
“I remember thinking, ‘oh, this is jail.
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this → think → ?
I’m actually in prison’,” Riek says.
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Riek → ’m → prison
That first night in prison, he was haunted by more than his mother’s anguish.
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he → haunt → anguish
He was haunted by his own.
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He → haunt → own
What had happened to the kid who dreamed of becoming a pro basketballer?
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who → happen → basketballer
It was, he says, difficult to pinpoint the exact time in his life when things began to unravel.
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things → say → life
In 2004, Riek, then just three years old, moved to Australia after fleeing with his family
Growing up as the eldest sibling took a toll when his father left home.
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father → move → home
Riek felt the burden of being more than a brother to his siblings.
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Riek → feel → siblings
Basketball, he says, became his outlet.
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he → say → ?
“I actually reached a very high level in basketball, but I lost it overnight because I suffered a pretty bad injury,” he says.
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he → reach → injury
“From there, I fell into the wrong crowd.”
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I → fall → crowd
That, he says, was when things started to go wrong.
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things → say → ?
‘If you change the beginning of the story, you change the whole story.’Karyn McCluskey, Scottish Violence Reduction Unit founder
While trying to piece together his own downfall, Riek started noticing others.
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Riek → change → others
A shopkeeper in Sunshine West died in hospital after an alleged attack by a group of young people.
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shopkeeper → die → people
A 13-year-old girl was allegedly murdered by a teenage boy in rural Victoria.
uncertain
girl → murder → Victoria
A good Samaritan was allegedly murdered at a suburban train station as he tried to stop a fight between children.
uncertain
he → murder → children
In the year to March 2026, children were over-represented in the state’s violent crime statistics, carrying out more than 60 per cent of robberies and about half of all carjackings and home invasions.
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children → represent → carjackings
While the most recent statistics released this week by the Crime Statistics Agency show a reduction of crime across the state – with a 2.1 per cent decrease in offences in the year to June – a report by the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) found the state’s current approach to youth crime prevention was not working.
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approach → release → prevention
Over the three years between 2022 and 2025, youth crime in Victoria increased by 40 per cent.
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crime → increase → cent
The report also found that the Department of Justice had overstated the effectiveness of the current Youth Crime Prevention Program when describing it as a “proven, evidence-based” intervention, and that it was reaching just 2 per cent of the state’s young offenders.
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it → find → offenders
As Riek found, falling in with the wrong crowd at the wrong time can alter the course of a life.
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falling → find → life
To stem that tide, and grapple with the rise in youth crime, the Victorian government late last year adopted a Scottish initiative called the Violence Reduction Unit.
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government → stem → initiative
Founded by former head of Strathclyde Police intelligence analysis, Karyn McCluskey, in the mid-2000s to combat rising violent youth crime in Glasgow, the unit treats youth violence like a health crisis.
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unit → found → crisis
As in Scotland, the Victorian unit probes how a child turns into a youth offender; their upbringing, family unit and living situation, their health, financial situation, school engagement and community involvement, and the support they receive along the way.
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they → probe → way
It tells you that something’s wrong,” McCluskey told this masthead after delivering a seminar on the program to youth workers in Melbourne.
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McCluskey → tell → Melbourne
“If you change the beginning of the story, you change the whole story.”
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you → change → story
The over-$20 million Victorian unit includes putting youth workers in hospitals, where they can support young offenders at vulnerable moments.
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they → include → moments
Former youth offenders are sharing their stories of crime and redemption with teens in custody, while new school programs are helping children spot the warning signs of grooming.
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children → share → grooming
The VAGO report only touched briefly on the new VRU, saying the $27.5 million investment – which includes $7.7m for youth mentoring and $5.6 million for early intervention officers across 23 schools – was ultimately too new to judge.
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which → touch → schools
“Victoria’s Violence Reduction Unit is not within the scope of this review, as it is too early to assess its effectiveness,” the report stated.
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report → assess → effectiveness
“However, applying learnings from the program could make the Violence Reduction Unit more effective.”
uncertain
Unit → apply → program
But while the state government continues to invest in early intervention and rehabilitation, it is also cracking down on youth crime.
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it → continue → crime
Labor’s Adult Time for Violent Crime initiative is backed by the state opposition, with the Liberals vowing to add to the list of offences that result in custodial sentences if elected in November.
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that → back → November
Andrew Bruun co-founded Youth Support and Advocacy Services (YSAS) during the “heroin epidemic” of the ’90s.
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- → co → 90s
He understands that Victorians are growing increasingly frustrated with the rate of violent youth offending.
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Victorians → understand → offending
…and 64 more, not listed.
The Aporia
