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

On an average day in 2016–17, 5,359 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision 50% of those released from community-based supervision in 2015–16 returned within 12 months The number of young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day fell by 16% between 2012–13 and 2016–17 Indigenous young people were more likely than non-Indigenous young people to return to sentenced supervision 82% of those released from sentenced detention in 2015–16 returned to supervision within 12 months The Indigenous supervision rate rose from 15 to 18 times the non-Indigenous rate between 2012–13 and 2016–17 Young people who received a detention sentence were the most likely to return to supervision 96% of young people who were sentenced to supervision received a community-based sentence first. Of the young people under supervision on an average day, 83% were supervised in the community and 17% were in detention Indigenous people make up only 5% of those aged 10–17 in Australia, but made up 50% of all those under supervision 50% of young people whose first sentence was detention returned to sentenced supervision before turning 18

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Highlights