Most young people under juvenile justice supervision on an average day in 2010–11 lived in Major cities (48%) and regional areas (41%) before entering supervision. (Western Australia and the Northern Territory did not participate in the Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set during 2010–11 and are excluded from this analysis as estimates were not available.)
However, young people from geographically remote areas were the most likely to be under supervision. Young people aged 10–17 from Remote areas were 4 times as likely to be under supervision as those from Major cities, while those from Very remote areas were almost 7 times as likely. This pattern occurred in both community-based supervision and detention.
Nationally, young people from the areas of lowest socioeconomic status were almost 5 times as likely to be under supervision on an average day as those from areas of the highest socioeconomic status. On an average day in 2010–11, there were 5.8 young people aged 10–17 under supervision per 1,000 from areas of lowest socioeconomic status, compared with 1.3 per 1,000 from areas of highest socioeconomic status. Again, this pattern occurred in both community-based supervision and detention.