Victims of crime seek tougher youth sentencing in Queensland, but could that make things worse?

Standing at the intersection where their son and his pregnant partner were killed by a drunk driver last year, Russell and Ann Field spoke to the youth justice debate sparked by their deaths.

The teenager, who was 17 at the time of the crash, can apply for parole in five years. The Queensland government says an appeal has been lodged to try to increase the sentence.

More than 50,000 people have signed a petition by the Fields and the Liberal National party mayor of Redland, Karen Williams, calling for breach of bail to be legislated as a criminal offence and for harsher sentencing to be introduced.

The deaths of Field and Leadbetter sparked several changes to the Youth Justice Act, including the strengthening of anti-hooning laws, the trialling of GPS tracking for kids as young as 16 and reversing the presumption of bail for serious offences.

The attorney general, Shannon Fentiman, has ruled out reinstating breach of bail as a criminal offence, for which the Liberal National party opposition are pushing.

Walsh says the removal of the presumption of bail was harming children.

She wants more resources devoted to ensuring children have housing, food and a safe home environment. Half of all children who end up in the youth justice system have not had stable homes, one-fifth have been subject to child protection orders, and many more have been in and out of the child protection system, she says.

Rynne says these programs are successful as they create a detailed psychological profile of the perpetrator and their environment, creating individualised treatment and risk management plans.

Rynne says any new law around breaches of bail would need to target the most serious chronic offenders, coupled by specific programs to deal with them.