Judge Andrew Becroft said the 50% decline in youth apprehensions was good news.
His comments were made during a University of Otago department of theology and religion panel discussion on youth justice with University of Otago law faculty dean Prof Mark Henaghan, sociology, gender and social work department lecturer Dr Shayne Walker, and Victoria University school of art history, classics and religious studies head Prof Chris Marshall.
Judge Becroft said the overall news was good, but there were still some ''huge concerns''.
''That said, however quickly youth apprehension rates are coming down, the drop in Maori youth apprehension is slower.''
The number of young females apprehended was also slow to decline, and the rate of serious violent offending was not declining at the rates he would like to see, he said.
Prof Henaghan questioned Judge Becroft's statistics. He believed apprehensions had declined, but not crime.''
There is a real trend where police don't apprehend youths - they warn them instead.''
Judge Becroft said whether youths were arrested or just warned, New Zealand Police still counted them as an apprehension in their statistics.
Prof Henaghan believed the number of Maori youth being apprehended was slower to decline because they were perhaps the focus of unfair attention from police.
Dr Walker agreed.
He believed there appeared to be a bias not only in policing, but across the entire justice system.
All believed a lack of positive role models, witnessing violence at a young age, having transient relationships with parents and having transient accommodation, growing up in poverty, drug and alcohol use, being illiterate, and getting involved with the wrong support network were risk factors which could lead to youth crime.
Judge Becroft believed keeping youths involved in a meaningful form of education, and making sure they had three or four adults outside their immediate family to take an active interest in their future, may be the ''silver bullet'' answer to youth crime.
He also questioned whether New Zealand had ''the right balance'' in drug and alcohol availability.
