Youth justice is an Australia's welfare topic

Young people who commit or allegedly commit a crime when they are old enough to meet the minimum age of criminal responsibility (12 years old in the Australian Capital Territory, and 10 years old in all other states and territories) may be dealt with under the youth justice system. Each state and territory in Australia has its own youth justice legislation, policies and practices but the general processes by which young people are charged, and the types of legal orders available to the courts, are similar.

Some people aged 18 and over may also be supervised in the youth justice system. Depending on the jurisdiction, this may be because they were apprehended for a crime that was (allegedly) committed when they were 17 or younger, their existing supervision continues once they turn 18 (instead of being transferred to the adult correctional system), or a court determines that they should be detained in a youth justice facility due to their vulnerability or immaturity.

Young people may be supervised when they are unsentenced – that is, when they are awaiting the outcome of their court matter or sentencing – or they may be sentenced to supervision after being proven guilty in court. Both unsentenced and sentenced supervision can take place in the community or in a detention facility (see glossary).

How many people are under youth justice supervision?

On an average day in 2024–25, 4,147 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision in Australia (excluding the Northern Territory as average day data was unavailable in the Northern Territory for all supervision and community-based supervision in 2024–25). Among the population aged 10–17, this was a rate of 12 per 10,000 young people. A total of 9,579 young people were supervised by youth justice at some time during the year (from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025).

Just over 4 in 5 (81%) young people under supervision on an average day in 2024–25 were supervised in the community, and 1 in 5 (21%) were in detention. The number of young people under all supervision will not equal the sum of community-based supervision and detention because young people can be in both types of supervision on the same day.

On an average day in 2024–25:

  • most (83%) young people under community-based supervision were serving a sentence
  • most (80%) young people under supervision in detention were unsentenced.

Variation in rates of supervision

On an average day in 2024–25, for young people aged 10–17:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) people were about 20 times as likely as non-Indigenous Australians to be under supervision, about 19 times as likely to be under community-based supervision, and about 22 times as likely to be in detention (see Safety and justice for First Nations people).
  • Males were about 3 times as likely as females to be under supervision.
  • Young people from Very remote areas were about 10 times as likely as those from Major cities to be under supervision (see Remoteness Areas).
  • Young people from the lowest socioeconomic areas were about 6 times as likely as those from the highest socioeconomic areas to be under supervision.

Among the states and territories, noting there is no data for NT for community-based supervision or any supervision, rates of supervision for young people aged 10–17 years on an average day ranged from 4.1 per 10,000 young people in Victoria to 21 per 10,000 in Queensland. For young people aged 12–17, the rate of supervision on an average day was 21 per 10,000 in the Australian Capital Territory (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Rate of young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day, by supervision type, states and territories, 2024–25

The rate of youth justice supervision varied among the states and territories, ranging from 4.5 per 10,000 in Victoria to 19.6 per 10,000 in Queensland.

The rate of youth justice supervision varied among the states and territories, ranging from 4.5 per 10,000 in Victoria to 19.6 per 10,000 in Queensland.

*Rates for the Australian Capital Territory in 2024–25 are for young people aged 12–17 due to the increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 in this jurisdiction.

Note: The number and rate of young people on an average day was not available for the Northern Territory in 2024–25 for all supervision and community-based supervision.

Source: AIHW 2025.

Time under supervision

Individual periods of supervision completed during 2024–25 lasted for a median length of 84 days (about 12 weeks).

  • Completed periods of community-based supervision were much longer than completed periods of detention, with a median duration of 92 days (about 13 weeks) compared with 5 days.
  • The median duration of completed periods of sentenced detention was longer than unsentenced detention, with a duration of 40 days (6 weeks) compared with 5 days.

When the total time spent under supervision during 2024–25 is considered (including multiple periods and those not yet completed), young people supervised during the year spent an average of 177 days or about 6 months under supervision.

Over the 5 years from 2020–21 to 2024–25, the number of young people aged 10 and over who were under supervision on an average day (excluding the Northern Territory) fell by 9.6% (4,590 to 4,147). The rate for young people aged 10–17 decreased from 14 to 12 per 10,000 young people (Figure 2).

Under community-based supervision:

  • the number of young people on an average day (excluding the Northern Territory) fell by 13% (3,857 to 3,358) over the 5-year period
  • the rate for young people aged 10–17 decreased from 11 to 10 per 10,000 young people between 2020–21 to 2024–25.

In detention:

  • the number of young people on an average day rose by 8.5% (792 to 859) over the 5-year period
  • the rate for people aged 10–17 rose from 2.6 to 2.7 per 10,000 young people between 2020–21 to 2024–25.

In comparison with the previous year, the number of young people under supervision varied slightly across all supervision types. The number of young people under supervision on an average day fell (from 4,218 in 2023–24 to 4,147 in 2024–25) and the rate for people aged 10–17 remained steady at 12 per 10,000 young people.

  • In community-based supervision, the number fell by 2.7% (from 3,460 in 2023–24 to 3,358) and the rate was unchanged at 10 per 10,000.
  • In detention, the number increased marginally (from 829 in 2023–24 to 859) and the rate was unchanged at 2.7 per 10,000.

Figure 2: Rate of young people aged 10–17 under supervision on an average day, by supervision type, 2020–21 to 2024–25

The rate of young people under supervision has fallen over the 5 years to 2024–25. The rate of community-based supervision was consistently higher than that for detention over the same period.

The rate of young people under supervision has fallen over the 5 years to 2024–25. The rate of community-based supervision was consistently higher than that for detention over the same period.

Notes 

  1. The number and rate of young people on an average day not available for the Northern Territory in 2024–25 for all supervision and community-based supervision.
  2. Rates for the Australian Capital Territory in 2024–25 are for young people aged 12–17 due to the increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 in this jurisdiction.

Source: AIHW 2025.

Interaction with other services

Many vulnerable young people under youth justice supervision are also involved with other services. Data are available on young people's involvement with:

  • youth justice and alcohol and other drug treatment services
  • youth justice and child protection.

Alcohol and other drug treatment

People aged 10–17 under youth justice supervision at any time between June 2012 and July 2016 were 30 times as likely as the general population to have received alcohol and other drug treatment services during that period (33% compared with just over 1%) (AIHW 2018).

Child protection

About 2 in 3 (65%) young people aged 10 and over under youth justice supervision during 2022–23 had received a child protection service in the 10 years from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2023 (AIHW 2024).

Key data gaps and data improvement activities

There are opportunities to improve our understanding about how young people with experience of youth justice supervision interact with other government agencies and support services.

The AIHW is actively addressing these opportunities through the following integrated data activities using the Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set (YJ NMDS):

  • Child Wellbeing Data Asset (CWDA): The CWDA aims to improve outcomes for children and young people by enabling holistic analysis of pathways through government services through enduring, nationally integrated, child-centred data across sectors. The CWDA is planned to be operational and ready for use in 2025.
  • National crime and justice data linkage project: To improve the evidence base on First Nations people involved with the criminal justice system by linking the YJ NMDS with the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Criminal Justice Data Asset (CJDA), which contains information on adults in the criminal justice system. Linking the YJ NMDS with the CJDA will help explore the flow of young people from the youth justice system to the adult justice system.

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on youth justice, see the following AIHW reports:

For more on this topic, see Youth justice.