Overview

The youth justice system is the set of processes and practices for managing children and young people who have committed, or allegedly committed, an offence. In Australia, it deals primarily with young people aged 10–17 at the time of the offence, although there are some variations among the states and territories. A major component of the system is the supervision of young people in the community or in detention.

More reports and statistics on youth justice can be found under Children & youth and Prisoners.

Latest findings

60% of young people in detention were unsentenced—that is, awaiting the outcome of their legal matter or sentencing 51% of young people whose first sentence was detention returned to sentenced supervision before turning 18 Individual periods of supervision that were completed during 2017–18 lasted for a median of 119 days (about 4 months) The Indigenous supervision rate rose from 16 to 17 times the non-Indigenous rate between 2013–14 and 2017–18 On an average day in 2017–18, 5,513 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision Indigenous young people aged 10–17 made up 49% of those under youth justice supervision 40% of those whose first sentence was community-based returned to sentenced supervision before turning 18 The number of young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day fell by 9% between 2013–14 and 2017–18. Young people who received a detention sentence were the most likely to return to supervision 47% of those released from community-based supervision in 2016–17 returned within 12 months Indigenous young people were more likely than non-Indigenous young people to return to sentenced supervision 80% of those released from sentenced detention in 2016–17 returned to supervision within 12 months 96% of young people who were sentenced to supervision received a community-based sentence first Of young people under supervision on an average day, 83% were supervised in the community and 18% were in detention

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Highlights

1 in 486young people (or 21 per 10,000) aged 10–17 were under youth justice supervision in Australia on an average day in 2017–18
Indigenousyoung people were 17 times as likely to be under youth justice supervision as non-Indigenous young people
6 monthsmonths was the average amount of time spent under supervision during 2017–18
4 in 5young people under supervision on an average day were male (81%)
83%of young people under supervision on an average day were supervised in the community, with the remainder in detention