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

68% of young people in detention were unsentenced—that is, awaiting the outcome of their legal matter or sentencing Of young people under supervision on an average day, 84% were supervised in the community and 16% were in detention On an average night in the June quarter 2020, 91% of young people in detention were male Individual periods of supervision that were completed during 2019–20 lasted for a median of 123 days (about 4 months) Indigenous young people made up 50% of those aged 10–17 under youth justice supervision on an average day The detention rate for young people aged 10–17 was down slightly over the 4-year period from 3.3 to 2.6 per 10,000 Most (80%) young people in detention were aged 10–17, the remainder (20%) were aged 18 and older 48% of all young people in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2020 were Indigenous The Indigenous supervision rate for young people aged 10–17 was 16 times the non-Indigenous supervision rate in 2019–20 The number of young people under supervision on an average day fell by 4% between 2015–16 and 2019–20 On an average night in the June quarter 2020, 798 young people were in detention 64% of young people in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2020 were unsentenced On an average day in 2019–20, 5,323 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision

Featured reports

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Highlights

1 in 607young people (or 16 per 10,000) aged 10–17 were under youth justice supervision in Australia on an average day in 2019–20
4 in 5young people under supervision on an average day were male (80%)
6 monthswas the average amount of time spent under supervision during 2019–20
Half(50%) of young people under supervision aged 10–17 on an average day in 2019–20 were Indigenous
84%of young people under supervision on an average day were supervised in the community, with the remainder in detention