Keeping kids in school and family group conferences are helping cut the number of young people appearing in the Northland Youth Court.
Figures released under the Official Information Act show 627 people have appeared in Northland Youth Courts in the past three years. Of those 57 were convicted.
The Ministry of Justice figures show there were 75 Youth Court appearances in Whangarei in 2012, down from 99 in 2011, and 126 in 2010.
Northland police youth crime officer Sergeant Dan Cleaver said youth offending would always exist and police focused on actively reducing it in a bid to prevent more adult offenders later in life. Youth Court appearances had been dropping due to a rise in "alternative actions" - avoiding court action.
"I think the other part of that drop will be seen from earlier interventions, and getting involved with the youth and their families before they become bad enough offenders to require being placed before the courts," Mr Cleaver said.
The "alternative actions" included family group conferences - facilitated through Child, Youth and Family - designed to address what was causing the child to offend, Mr Cleaver said.
Keeping children in school and reducing truancy also reduced youth offending, Mr Cleaver said.
"We find that a lot of our youth offenders aren't in school, or are regularly out of school - and that's part of the reason they're offending."
Nationally 3015 people appeared in the Youth Court last year, of whom 198 were convicted.
The figures also show the number of Youth Court appearances nationally has been dropping in recent years.
There were 3579 appearances in 2011, also down from 3942 in 2010.
Most of last year's appearances involved males aged 14-16 (2430). However, 564 female youths also appeared.
Principal Youth Court Judge Andrew Becroft said that, unlike adult offenders, only around 20 per cent of youth offenders arrested by police went to court.
"The other 80 per cent are not let off, but they're dealt with by police firmly, promptly, creatively, in the community." Most youth offenders police dealt with "aged out" (matured) and did not re-offend, Judge Becroft said.