Glossary
active order: An order that starts, ends or is ongoing during the reference period.
age: In YJ NMDS youth justice reporting, a young person’s age at the start of the first relevant period of supervision, unless it began before the financial year in question, in which case it is age at the start of the financial year.
average day: A measure of the number of young people under supervision from the YJ NMDS. It is calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends under supervision during the financial year and dividing this by the total number of days in the year. This summary measure reflects the number of young people under supervision on any given day during the year and indicates the average number of young people supported by the supervision system at any time. It reflects both the number of young people supervised and the amount of time they spent under supervision.
breach: A situation where a young person re-offends or fails to comply with the conditions of a community-based order.
community-based supervision: A legal arrangement that requires a young person to be supervised by a youth justice agency within the community. Community-based supervision may be unsentenced or sentenced.
- Unsentenced community-based legal orders include supervised or conditional bail and home detention bail.
- Sentenced community-based orders include probation and similar orders, suspended detention, and parole or supervised release.
detention: A legal arrangement that requires a young person to be detained in a youth justice facility. This comprises both sentenced and unsentenced detention.
detention sentence: A sentence that requires the young person to be detained in a youth justice detention centre.
dual track system: The system in Victoria where young people aged 18–20 can be sentenced to a youth detention centre rather than to an adult prison if the young person is particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subject to undesirable influences in an adult prison.
during the year: A measure of the number of young people under supervision from the YJ NMDS. This measure is a count of the number of individuals who were supervised at any time during the financial year. It is calculated by counting each young person once only, even if they entered and exited supervision multiple times.
First nations: A person of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Island descent who identifies and is identified as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.
legal status: A term that defines whether a young person is subject to unsentenced or sentenced orders. Young people may also have a legal status of ‘other’ (neither sentenced nor unsentenced).
parole or supervised release: A sentenced community-based supervision order that is issued or enacted following a period of sentenced detention. Release on parole or supervised release is possible in some situations when a young person has served a specified proportion of their detention sentence. A breach of the parole or supervised release order usually results in the young person’s returning to detention to serve the rest of the sentence.
police-referred detention: Unsentenced detention that occurs before the young person’s initial court appearance.
probation and similar orders: A sentenced community-based supervision order that may be issued with additional mandated requirements, such as community work or program attendance. The youth justice agency may or may not directly supervise any additional mandated requirements, but remains responsible for the overall supervision and case management of the young person. Includes probation and community service orders that a youth justice agency supervises or case manages.
rate: One number (the numerator) divided by another number (the denominator). The numerator is commonly the number of events in a specified time. The denominator is the population ‘at risk’ of the event. In YJ NMDS reporting, rates are multiplied by 10,000 to create whole numbers.
rate ratio: A means of comparing rates by dividing one rate by another. Rate ratios may be used to compare First nations and non-Indigenous rates, and to provide a measure of First nations over-representation.
reception: The entering of a detention centre to begin an unsentenced or sentenced detention order. Neither a transfer to a new detention facility nor a change in legal status constitutes a reception, but if a young person is released from detention and then re-enters at a later date, this is counted as a new reception.
Reference period: The relevant financial year.
release on bail: Following a period of remand, a court may order a young person to be released into the community pending the court outcome. Bail may be either unsupervised or supervised (see supervised or conditional bail).
remand: Placing a young person accused of an offence in detention to await trial or the continuation of the trial.
remoteness: A term defining the remoteness of a person’s usual town or suburb of residence, based on the ABS’s Australian Statistics Geography Standard remoteness structure. This structure enables areas that share common characteristics of remoteness to be classified into broad geographical regions of Australia: Major cities, Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote. YJ NMDS reporting uses this structure in analysing young people’s remoteness.
socioeconomic position: A measure of how well off a person, group or area is. YJ NMDS reporting uses the ABS’s Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas to analyse the socioeconomic position of the usual residence of a young person under supervision. It comprises 4 indexes that each focus on a different aspect of socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage. The YJ NMDS uses the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage. People living in the 20% of areas with the greatest overall level of disadvantage are described as living in the lowest socioeconomic areas (area 1). The 20% of people at the other end of the scale – those living in areas with the least overall level of disadvantage – are described as living in the highest socioeconomic areas (area 5).
successfully completed community-based order: A community-based order where a young person has completed the hours and/or conditions of their community-based order without its being revoked or overturned.
successfully completed detention order: A detention order where a young person has completed the hours and/or conditions of their detention order without its being revoked, overturned or ending due to an escape.
supervised or conditional bail: Allowing a young person accused of an offence to await trial, or the continuation of a trial, in the community under the supervision of a youth justice agency.
suspended detention: A sentence that usually involves a period of intensive supervision in the community, with the possibility of detention if the young person breaches the conditions of community supervision. It consists of immediate release orders, suspended detention orders, and intensive supervision of young people with detention orders.
unsentenced supervision: Youth justice supervision (community-based or detention) that occurs when a young person has not been sentenced. This might occur when the young person has been charged with an offence and is awaiting the outcome of the legal matter, or when they been found guilty in court and are awaiting sentencing.
young person: A person whom a youth justice agency supervises as a result of their having committed, or allegedly committed, an offence.
youth justice agency: The state or territory government agency or department responsible for youth justice supervision.
youth justice detention centre: A place administered and operated by a youth justice agency where young people are detained while under the supervision of the relevant youth justice agency.
youth justice system: The set of processes and practices for managing children and young people who have committed, or allegedly committed, an offence.