The Victorian Government has said it will introduce a new offence to target adults procuring children to do their criminal "dirty work".

Key points: "Fagin's Law" to be introduced to Parliament in 2017

"Fagin's Law" to be introduced to Parliament in 2017 Adults who procure kids for crime could face up to 10 years' jail

Adults who procure kids for crime could face up to 10 years' jail Government cracking down on youth crime after series of highly publicised incidents

Attorney-General Martin Pakula said legislation would be introduced to State Parliament next year to see adult criminals facing up to 10 years' jail for such behaviour.

The new law has been dubbed Fagin's Law, after the antagonist in the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist who teaches children to steal for him in exchange for shelter.

It is the latest attempt from the State Government to crack down on youth crime, following a spate of highly publicised violent offences and unrest in the youth justice system.

"We know, in some instances, where young people are stealing in particular, they're doing so at the behest of older criminals," Mr Pakula said.

"This will mean that those older criminals who encourage young people to commit crimes could land themselves behind bars for 10 years, and it gives the police the power to better protect the community."

The Government is also establishing a new youth control order giving the Children's Court the power to restrict the people with whom a young person associates, order curfews and require youths to comply with a school, training or work plan.

The Government will also introduce a stricter bail monitoring scheme, make it easier for young offenders to be dealt with in adult courts, and increase the maximum period of detention from three to four years.

"I think most people are prepared to give a young person a second chance, but we're not giving them a third, and a fourth and a fifth," Premier Daniel Andrews said.

New offence to be broader than incitement

There is already an offence for incitement in Victoria, but Mr Pakula said it required police and prosecutors to prove a specific crime had been procured.

"This is more general, this is about criminals who, for example, just tell young people to steal things and bring them to them for payment," he said.

"There is a gap in that law at the moment — there isn't a specific offence that deals with that."

Shadow attorney-general John Pesutto said the Opposition had a number of concerns, but that it would look at the detail.

"The first thing is that it's already an offence for adults to implicate youths in the commission of crimes," he said.

"That is whether it's drug trafficking, stealing, incitement or conspiracy in relation to any other offence.

He added: "We are repeatedly seeing people commit serious offences while on bail, and we haven't seen anything from the Government to deal with the very light sentences we've been seeing from courts over a long period now that deal with serious crimes and offending."

On Sunday, the State Government announced it would spend $2 billion recruiting nearly 3,000 extra police over four years and upgrading and replacing stations.

'Overinvesting' in police not the answer

The Human Rights Law Centre's Hugh de Kretser told 774 ABC Melbourne that while funding police was important the money could be better spent on early intervention programs.

"Time and time again what we see is governments overinvesting in police at the expense of the listening to what criminologists tell us actually works to drive crime down," he said.

"What we'll see if a $2 billion investment in police over the next couple of years in Victoria, what that will do is deny other programs vital resources they need to address the root causes of crimes."

He said funds would be better directed to prisoner rehabilitation programs and child protection agencies.

But Victorian Police Minister Lisa Neville said the extra police were needed for other strategies to work.

"We can not just police our way out of this ... this is part of a broader strategy, which we'll be talking to Victorians about over the coming days," she said.

"This is a linchpin, though — without those extra police our ability to do the other interventions and different tools to actually bring down the crime rate and reduce the harm would be compromised."