African community leaders have hit back at the Prime Minister over his "gang violence" comments, saying that using immigrants for "political gain" will only create further division.

Malcolm Turnbull this week criticised the Victorian Government for not doing more about Melbourne's "growing gang violence and lawlessness", and police on Tuesday said the city had a problem with a small number of African youth involved in gang behaviour.

South Sudanese community leader Richard Deng invited Mr Turnbull to visit his community and speak directly to the kids.

"What disappointed me as a community leader is to see a Prime Minister of our country trying to say these are 'African gangs' — these are the children of Australia," Mr Deng told ABC News Breakfast.

"He's the Prime Minister, he needs to join hands with the State Government and police to support these kids.

"I invite Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to come to Victoria and see the community leaders."

Mr Deng said a number of kids in his area had become disengaged with the community and fallen in with "ringleaders" who pushed them into crime.

Richard Deng said the federal and state governments should be working together. ( ABC News: Patrick Wood )

He said it was limited to a "tiny number" of kids of African descent and he did not like to use the word "gangs".

"To be honest with you there are no gangs in Victoria," he said.

"There are just a group of young kids who are going together in a group and they are terrorising people because they are going in a group."

"These are young people who like to make a name for themselves to look tough in front of the Victorian police, for example."

Mr Deng said engaging these kids with employment and school would prove more beneficial than giving them labels.

"To make it clear, we don't support those youths who are not law-abiding citizens," he said.

"The law will deal with them and we want to make sure those who need support need to be supported through employment and education."

"This is the only way forward as a country. Using [our] community for political gain is not a solution," he said.

Ahmed Hassan, the director of outreach group Youth Activating Youth, said the Victorian Government was already working hard to create meaningful opportunities for disengaged youths.

"We need to continue this and it has to come from a federal level where the Prime Minister has to support the State Government initiatives," he said.

"The community leaders are pushing these agendas, we are on the ground, we are working through youth justice and through the schools and through sporting clubs."

Ahmed Hassan's group works to help disadvantaged people from diverse cultural backgrounds re-engage with their communities. ( ABC News: Patrick Wood )

African migrants 'face unfair stigma'

Community advocates said saturation media coverage of a "gang crisis" was fuelling discrimination against young African immigrants, who were increasingly "viewed as criminals wherever they go".

Anthony Kelly from Smart Justice — a group of organisations led by Victoria's Federation of Community Legal Centres — said the "black crime association" in mainstream media was a key factor behind the practice of racial profiling by police.

"Being stopped prolifically is a very common experience for African young people in Melbourne — being stopped by police and being asked what they're doing and to account for themselves," Mr Kelly said.

"Victoria Police are starting to train against that, against those biases, but we do know that it still occurs."

Mr Kelly said the "political football" over youth crime could have major consequences for African young people.

Recent vandalism in Werribee, including damage to cars and a rental property, fuelled debate about youth crime. ( ABC News: Joanna Crothers )

"Because there's a racialised element to this law-and-order panic, we see a vast array of discriminatory and criminalisation effects. They get viewed as criminals wherever they go."

Police Minister Lisa Neville said she was disappointed the Prime Minister was trying to get political mileage out of the issue.

"I'd appreciate maybe the Commonwealth Government focusing on some other issues like how we provide migration support to immigrants coming in to our community," Ms Neville told the ABC's 7.30 program.

"Stop cutting youth employment programs that are also so critical, TAFE programs, university, all of those things that are so critical to really getting to some of the root causes of this issue, rather than playing politics of this nature."

Sorry, this video has expired Victoria's Police Minister Lisa Neville talks about the politics of youth crime in Melbourne

African-Australian Multicultural Employment and Youth Services CEO Berhan Ahmed said African communities were sick of the partisan political fighting.

"I agree with the Victorian police, they were Africans and there are Africans in this violent crime, but this should not be stigmatising the whole African community," Dr Ahmed told the ABC's PM program.

"These criminals have to be punished, but not the community, and that's important — to put a line between the criminals and the African community at large."

Sorry, this audio has expired African youth crime 'not representative of community': Dr Berhan Ahmed

On Tuesday, Victoria Police Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said African youth were overrepresented in serious and violent crime and public disorder offences.

"These young thugs, these young criminals, they're not an organised crime group like a Middle Eastern organised crime group or an outlaw motorcycle gang. But they're behaving like street gangs, so let's call them that — that's what they are," Acting Commissioner Patton said.

The State Opposition has proposed mandatory sentencing for repeat serious criminals, and called for the State Government to scrap Youth Control Orders — a sentencing alternative requiring offenders to take part in education or work, rather than detaining them.

Crime statistics show an overrepresentation of Sudanese-born and Kenyan-born offenders in some categories.

There was a sharp rise in Sudanese-born offenders involved in aggravated burglaries, from 20 in the 2014-15 financial year to 98 two years later, according to Victoria's Crime Statistics Agency.

However, the statistics also show that a Victorian is more than 25 times more likely to be seriously assaulted by someone born in Australia or New Zealand than someone born in Sudan or Kenya.