Police blitz finds teenage girls the new breed of criminal invading suburbs A STATEWIDE crackdown on property crime has uncovered a new breed of girls goading their peers into violent robberies, stealing cars and breaking into homes. At least a dozen teenage girls, many stepping out of the shadows of petty criminal boyfriends, have been identified as ringleaders during a series of blitzes in the southwest Brisbane district of Oxley. The statewide sting nabbed 265 offenders on 1254 charges, including a range of youths from private school students to repeat offenders. Detective Inspector Geoffrey Acreman said the increasingly active role of girls as young as 14, who could operate while arousing less suspicion than males, was a broader trend. "A lot of these girls in the past were considered to be peripheral players brought in by the boyfriends but we're finding some of them were actually the ringleaders in some instances and also working alone," he said. That's thrown a spanner in the works . . . because the public probably pay very little attention to a carload of girls sitting on the side of the street. "But if you replace them with three boys, all of a sudden the public are looking at them suspiciously and wondering what they're up to," Insp Acreman said. Queensland police clamping down on rising property crime also found: Crime sprees by increasingly larger groups crossing southeast Queensland in convoys of stolen cars. A rise in single vehicle crashes involving children in stolen cars. The alarming trend of mob ram raids, in which multiple cars and up to a dozen people descend on businesses such as bottleshops. One Logan teen who calls himself "the Ram Raid King" after causing more than $1 million property damage. Children as young as 10 lured into crime by older family and friends. Offenders increasingly boasting about their crimes on Facebook, even posting photographs of themselves with cars they steal. Teens using crime to fund expensive heroin addictions, bucking a wider youth trend away from the drug. Monash University professor of psychiatry Louise Newman said there was no current data on girls as criminal ringleaders, but the more fluid roles boys and girls take when committing crime might reflect "broader cultural change." Girls involved in crime were more likely to be from troubled backgrounds or victims of violence themselves, she said. Their relationships also played a role, with women in jail often tied to men from criminal subcultures. Insp Acreman said the girls' family backgrounds were less a factor in their criminal acts than "who they hang out with." While some young offenders funded drug addictions, the girls were more likely to be among those youths who saw crime as "exciting, an adrenaline rush, it's fun, they like engaging police." A police ban on car chases meant that while squad cars often identified offenders in stolen cars mid-spree, it was left to detectives to later hunt down "couch-surfing" suspects through friends and family. "If you get away from us today because you're in a car and we're not going to allow you to endanger the public, don't think you're getting away with this tomorrow because we will hunt you down in your homes, in your friends' homes, we will find you," Insp Acreman said. While blitzes in North Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns police districts continue, Oxley police have claimed temporary victory after apprehending an "extraordinary" 131 offenders on 789 charges. Some of the teen girl ringleaders were among a core of repeat offenders from seven families around southeast Queensland. Police have met the girls' families to try to discourage the wayward teens and their younger siblings from a future as career criminals.