Anne Stevens KC, a Youth Court lawyer, was commenting after police reported catching three youths in a stolen Toyota Aqua at the weekend.
Among them, only the oldest — aged 14 — would appear in the Youth Court, while the other two, due to their age, were referred to Youth Aid, police said.
The alleged theft follows a recent surge in car thefts in Dunedin that police say children too young to prosecute are behind.
Mrs Stevens said waves of youth crime did seem to happen, but despite some commentary to the contrary, there was no indication it was any worse now than it had been in the past.
In each generation there were children who could be said to be behaving badly, she said.
Poverty typically drove crime and the children involved needed role models and for people to talk to them about what they were doing and how it affected others.
Further, far from nothing was being done in this situation, as Youth Aid in Dunedin was an effective organisation.
"There’s [nothing] to do during the day if you’ve got no money. It sucks," Mrs Stevens said.
"So you are going to look staunch and if there’s a ram-raid going down and your bros are doing it, you’re going to join in, because it’s probably the only excitement you’re going to get in a month.
"And who cares if you die? What have you got to lose?"
Every generation said youth crime was worse than it had ever been, Mrs Stevens said.
"It’s not true. It’s simply statistically not true.
"It’s like this perception that crime is rising. It’s not; it’s absolutely not.
"These things tend to come in a wave.
"And I suspect quite a bit of it is young people boasting on social media ... and then it catches on for a bit.
"Then we sort of bail that lot up and put them through family group, the leaders," she said.
Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said yesterday two children stole a Toyota Aqua from Corstorphine Rd on Friday evening and drove it around Dunedin.
The children fled from police when they were spotted nearby before being caught by officers in Brighton about 12.45am on Saturday.
Three children were in the car when police caught up to it.
They were arrested and taken to the police station.
One child, who was charged with unlawfully taking a motor vehicle and failing to stop, will appear in the Youth Court.
Due to their ages, the other two were referred to Youth Aid, he said.
Snr Sgt Bond confirmed the children were linked to similar previous offending in the city.
At present, children in the city have been connected to more than 30 stolen or tampered-with cars since late last month.
A police spokesman said there were two other reports of vehicles stolen at the weekend.
One was taken from Grange St between 10pm on Saturday and 1am on Sunday.
The other was taken from Kaikorai Valley Rd, between 9am on Friday and 2.30pm on Saturday.
