Closing the Gap targets: key findings and implications

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people: People who have identified themselves, or have been identified by a representative (for example, their parent or guardian), as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. See also First Nations people.

acts intended to cause injury: Acts, excluding attempted murder and those resulting in death, which are intended to cause non-fatal injury or harm to another person and where there is no sexual or acquisitive element.

acute myocardial infarction (AMI): Life-threatening emergency that occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked completely by a blood clot.

adults in prison: People aged 18 and over in all states and territories from 2019 – except in Queensland where people aged 17 and over were classed as adults in prison before 2019 (ABS classification).

age-specific rate: Rate for a specific age group. Age-specific rate is calculated by dividing the number of events (for example, deaths) in each specified age group, by the total population at risk of the event in the same age group. Rates can be expressed in many ways, for example, per 100,000 population.

age-standardisation: A method of removing the influence of age when comparing rates between population groups with different age structures. This is necessary when the rates vary strongly with age. The age structures of the different populations are converted to the same ‘standard’ structure, and then the rates that would have occurred with that structure are calculated and compared.

age-standardised rates: are incidence, or prevalence rates that allow making comparisons between populations that have different age structures. The age structures of the different populations are converted to the same 'standard' structure, and then the rates that would have occurred with that structure are calculated and compared. Rates can be expressed in many ways, examples, per 100,000 per population years, per 100,000 population and per 1,000 population.

age structure: Relative number and percentage of people in each age group in a population.

aggregate sentence length: The longest period that the convicted person in prison may be detained for the current sentenced offence/s in the current episode. This is also the maximum sentence length for a convicted person in prison for the current episode.

appropriately sized housing: A household that has bedrooms spare or does not require any additional bedrooms to meet the CNOS standard. See Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS).

average day: A measure calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends under youth justice supervision during the financial year and dividing this by the total number of days in the year. It indicates the number of people under supervision on any given day during the year, and the average number of young people supported by the supervision system at any one time – that is, it reflects both the number of young people supervised and the amount of time they spent under supervision.

Bachelor degree or higher: An undergraduate or postgraduate qualification at a university.

breach: An event that occurs when a young person re-offends or fails to comply with the conditions of a community-based order.

burden of disease: A term referring to the quantified impact of a disease or injury on an individual or population, using the disability-adjusted life years measure.

Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS): Standard used to assess overcrowding in households, based on the number, sex, age and relationships of household members. The CNOS specifies that:

• no more than 2 people shall share a bedroom
• parents or couples may share a bedroom
• children under 5, either of the same sex or opposite sex, may share a bedroom
• children under 18 of the same sex may share a bedroom
• a child aged 5–17 should not share a bedroom with a child under 5 of the opposite sex
• single adults 18 and over and any unpaired children require a separate bedroom.

A household that requires at least one additional bedroom to meet the CNOS standard is considered crowded or overcrowded.

A household that requires 4 or more additional bedrooms to meet the CNOS standard is considered severely crowded or severely overcrowded.

cancer (malignant neoplasm): A large range of diseases in which some of the body’s cells become defective, begin to multiply out of control, can invade and damage the area around them, and can also spread to other parts of the body to cause further damage.

carcinoma: A cancer that begins in the lining layer (epithelial cells) of organs such as the lungs.

cardiovascular disease/condition: Any disease that affects the circulatory system, including the heart and blood vessels. Examples include coronary heart disease, heart failure, rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.

cause(s) of death: All diseases, morbid conditions or injuries that either resulted in or contributed to death – and the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced any such injuries – that are entered on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death. Causes of death are commonly reported by the underlying cause of death.

centre based day care: A centre-based form of child-care service providing all-day or part‑time care typically for children from 6 weeks to 6 years of age who attend the centre on a regular basis. Care is generally provided in a building (or part thereof), created or redeveloped specifically for use as a child-care centre, and children are usually grouped together in rooms according to age. The majority of centres operate between 6:00/6:30 am and 6:00/6:30 pm on normal working days for a minimum of 48 weeks per year, so that parents can manage both the care of their children and demands of their employment. Private operators, local councils, community organisations, employers or non-profit organisations may operate these services. Services may offer access to preschool programs for children of eligible age (age varies between jurisdictions) and provide care for school children before and after school and during school holidays.

cerebrovascular disease: Any disorder of the blood vessels supplying the brain or its covering membranes. A notable and major form of cerebrovascular disease is stroke.

child maltreatment: ‘Abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age. It includes all types of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which results in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power’ (WHO 2020).

child protection: ‘The prevention of, and response to, exploitation, abuse, neglect, harmful practices and violence against children’ (UNICEF 2021).

child protection system: Child protection services provided by governments.

circulatory disease: An alternative name for cardiovascular disease.

circulatory system: The system (heart and blood vessels) that circulates blood around the body to supply oxygen and nutrients to all body tissues and to carry away waste products from them. Also known as the cardiovascular system.

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.

community housing: Housing managed by community-based organisations, available to households with low to moderate income or special needs. Community housing models vary across states and territories, and the housing stock may be owned by a variety of groups including government. First Nations people can access community housing.

coronary heart disease (CHD): A disease due to blockages in the heart’s own (coronary) arteries, expressed as angina or a heart attack. Also known as ischaemic heart disease.

correlation: A statistical measure of the relationship between 2 variables.

Cox proportional hazard model: A regression model for investigating the association between the survival time of patients and one or more predictor variables.

crowded (and overcrowded): A household that requires one or more additional bedrooms to meet the CNOS standard. See Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS).

crude rate: A rate that provides information on the number of events relative to the population ‘at risk’ (for example, the entire population) in a specified time period, without adjustments for other factors such as age. Crude rates can be expressed in many ways, such as, per 1,000 population or per 100,000 population.

decile: Each of 10 groups of equal size after dividing a population according to the distribution of scores or values of a continuous variable. For example, the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD) derived by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as part of the Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), divides geographical areas in Australia into 10 deciles containing equal numbers of areas, with the lowest ranked 10% of areas for each socioeconomic index being placed in Decile 1 and the highest ranked 10% in Decile 10.

detention: A legal arrangement that requires a young person to be detained in a youth justice detention centre. This includes both sentenced and unsentenced detention.

detention sentence: A sentence that requires the young person to be detained in a youth justice detention centre.

determinant: Any factor that can increase the chances of ill health (risk factors) or good health (protective factors) in a population or individual.

disability-adjusted life year: A year (1 year) of healthy life lost, either through premature death or equivalently through living with disability due to illness or injury. It is the basic unit used in burden of disease and injury estimates.

disability status: A person has a disability if they have an impairment which restricts their everyday activities and has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least six months. A person’s disability status is classified by whether they have:

• a profound core activity limitation – those who always need help with self-care, mobility and communication tasks
• a severe core activity limitation – those who don't always need help with self-care, mobility, and communication tasks, but may require help at times
• a moderate core activity limitation – those who had difficulty with self-care, mobility, and communication tasks but did not require help
• a mild core activity limitation – those who only required aids to undertake self-care, mobility, and communication tasks, or who were unable to do any of the additional mobility tasks (for example, easily walk 200 metres, walk up and down stairs without a handrail)
• a specific restriction when participating in schooling or employment activities
• no specific limitation with core activities or restriction with schooling or employment activities.

driver: A term used to refer to a characteristic that has been identified in the literature as an important risk or protective factor associated with the outcome of interest or is a factor either statistically significantly associated with the outcome being modelled in the regression model or with relatively high importance in the random forest analysis. This does not necessarily imply a causal link, but rather an association, or potential association, between the factor and the outcome.

dwelling: A structure or discrete space within a structure intended for people to live in, or where a person or group of people live. A structure that people live in is a dwelling regardless of its intended purpose. A vacant structure is only a dwelling if intended for human residence. A dwelling may include one or more rooms used as an office or workshop, provided the dwelling is in residential use.

employed: A term that describes a person of working age who, during the reference period, was engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit. This includes working at a full-time or part-time job (including casual), or being away from work during the reference period.

employment rate: The percentage of people currently in employment. The denominator includes people who are unemployed or not in the labour force. In Chapter 8, the percentage is of the working age population (25–64 years).

engaged in employment, education or training (EET): A term describing how youths are classified into different categories of engagement in employment, education or training, based on information about their employment status and educational attendance from the Australian Census of Population and Housing. Being fully engaged in employment, education or training is the formal Closing the Gap target measure. See also partially engaged in EET, NEET.

equivalised household income: Total household income that has been adjusted to facilitate comparison of income levels between households of differing size and composition. It is an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household. For a lone-person household, it is equal to income received. For a household comprising more than one person, it is an indicator of the household income that a lone-person household would require to enjoy the same level of economic wellbeing as the household in question.

equivalised household support income: A measure of the income of the household, excluding the income of the individual survey participant aged 15–24. The individual’s income is excluded because it would be associated with their employment status, a component of their EET engagement status. The measure is obtained by subtracting the individual survey participant’s gross weekly income from the total gross weekly income of the whole household. The result is then adjusted (or equivalised) to account for differences in household size and composition, enabling comparability across households.

estimated resident population (ERP): Official Australian Bureau of Statistics estimate of the Australian population. Derived from the 5-yearly Census counts and updated quarterly between Censuses, based on births, deaths, and net migration. Based on a person’s usual residence. First Nations populations are based on the Census of Population and Housing counts of First Nations people, adjusted for net under-count as measured by the Post Enumeration Survey.

excess deaths: The difference between the observed number of deaths for First Nations people during a period and the number expected if the rates for non-Indigenous Australians during that same period had applied to the First Nations population.

explanatory variable: A variable selected for inclusion in a statistical model as it is expected to explain or account for, in part, the variation in the outcome variable.

family: Two or more people, one of whom is at least aged 15, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering, and are usually resident in the same household (ABS definition). Each separately identified couple relationship, lone‑parent–child relationship or other blood relationship forms the basis of a family. Some households contain more than one family. Non-related people living in the same household are not counted as family members (unless under age 15).

family type: One-parent family, couple-family and other family type (the 3 types of families for which the NATSISS collected data).

fatal burden: The burden from dying ‘prematurely’ as measured by years of life lost (YLL). Often used synonymously with YLL, and also referred to as ‘life lost’.

financial stress: A term that describes being unable to raise $2,000 in an emergency.

First Nations household: A household that contains one or more people who identify as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

First Nations people: People who have identified themselves, or have been identified by a representative (for example, their parent or guardian), as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin. 

full-time employment: The employment status of a person who worked, or usually works, 35 hours or more each week at the time of survey – includes those who were employed in 2 or more part-time jobs and who worked, in total, more than 35 hours.

fully engaged in employment, education or training (EET): A term that describes a person who is engaged in work and/or study full time, whether primarily through full-time work, primarily through full-time study, through a combination of part-time work and part-time study, or some other less common scenarios.

gap: The difference between rates for First Nations and non-Indigenous Australians.

hazard ratio: A ratio that indicates how many times higher the probability of an event is in one group of people with a particular characteristic than in another group without that characteristic, after adjusting for other factors in the model. In the context of this report, the size of the reported hazard ratio indicates the strength of the relationship a driver has to deaths by suicide, relative to the reference group.

heart attack: A life-threatening emergency that occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked completely by a blood clot. The medical term commonly used for a heart attack is acute myocardial infarction.

homicide and related offences: The unlawful killing, attempted unlawful killing or conspiracy to kill another person.

household: For Census purposes, one or more people, at least one of whom is at least aged 15, who are usually resident in the same private dwelling. The total number of households is equal to the total number of occupied private dwellings, as a Census form is completed for each household from which dwelling information for the household is obtained. (Note that the definition of household varies depending on the data collection.)

For the AIHW National Housing Assistance Data Repository purposes, a household is a group of 2 or more related or unrelated people who usually reside in the same dwelling, and who make common provision for food or other essentials for living. A household can also be a single person living in a dwelling who makes provision for his or her own food and other essentials for living, without combining with any other person. The number of households may differ from the number of dwellings.

housing affordability: The cost of housing compared with the financial situation of households. Housing affordability is often measured using the proportion of households in financial housing stress.

housing of acceptable standard: A variable that describes whether a dwelling is of acceptable standard. A dwelling with fewer than 3 major structural problems; with working facilities for washing people, washing clothes or bedding, and for preparing food; and with working sewerage facilities was deemed to be of acceptable standard (according to the 2018–19 NATSIHS). A dwelling was deemed to be not of an acceptable standard if any of these facilities were unavailable, or if it had 3 or more major structural problems.

housing suitability: A variable that describes whether a dwelling is of an appropriate size in terms of the number of bedrooms needed for the size and composition of the household. For the purposes of the NATSIHS, dwellings requiring one or more bedrooms for a household than are available are considered overcrowded, while dwellings with the required number of bedrooms or spare bedrooms are considered appropriately sized or uncrowded. The housing suitability variable used in the 2018–19 NATSIHS is based on the Canadian National Occupancy Standard and may not adequately reflect First Nations perspectives on crowding.

housing tenure: A term that describes whether a household rents or owns an occupied dwelling, or whether it is occupied under another arrangement.

illicit drug offences: The possessing, selling, dealing or trafficking, importing or exporting, manufacturing or cultivating of drugs or other substances prohibited under legislation.

in the labour force: An expression that describes those who are either engaged in economic work (employed) or actively looking for work and available to start (unemployed) during the reference week of the Australian Bureau of Statistics Census.

index sentence: The sentence from which returns to sentenced supervision are counted.

Indigenous community housing: Housing that First Nations communities own and/or manage. These organisations may either directly manage the dwellings they own or sublease tenancy management services to the relevant state/territory housing authority or another organisation. This type of housing is made available to households with at least one First Nations member.

Indigenous status: A data item that records whether a person has identified themselves or has been identified by a representative (for example, their parent or guardian), as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD): The World Health Organization’s internationally accepted classification of death and disease. The Tenth Revision (ICD-10) is currently in use.

investigation: The process by which departments gather more information about a child involved in a notification. Staff assess the harm or degree of harm to the child and their protective needs. Investigations may include sighting or interviewing the child where practical (DSS 2021).

ischaemic heart disease: Also known as coronary heart disease or coronary artery disease is a term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart (coronary) arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle.

labour force: People who are employed or unemployed but actively looking for work during the reference week of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Labour Force Survey. This definition applies to the ABS Labour Force Survey and may differ somewhat from the definitions in other collections. See also not in the labour force.

labour force participation rate: The labour force (those employed and unemployed) as a proportion of the population.

legal status (Chapter 10): The legal status of an offender is determined by the warrant/s or court order/s that provide the legal basis for the detention in custody of the offender. A legal status of sentenced includes no appeal current, awaiting appeal, unfit to plead, and not guilty on grounds of insanity. A legal status of unsentenced includes unconvicted awaiting court hearing or trial, awaiting sentence, and awaiting deportation. A legal status of post-sentence is where a person in prison is subject to extended detention in prison following the completion of a custodial sentence.

legal status (Chapter 11): A descriptor of 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).

life expectancy: An indication of how long a person can expect to live, depending on the age they have already reached. Technically, it is the expected number of years of life left to a person at a particular age if death rates do not change. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth.

life tables: Tables of annual probabilities of death in the general population.

logistic or logit regression modelling: A statistical technique that can be used to identify characteristics that are significant in explaining an outcome of interest represented by 2 categories (binary outcome). By examining the relationships of multiple explanatory variables simultaneously with the outcome, regression modelling can assess the significance of each explanatory variable, while accounting for the effects of the other explanatory variables in the model.

malignant: A term that describes a tumour with the capacity to spread to surrounding tissue or to other sites in the body.

marginal effects (ME): The difference in the probability of an outcome (for example, the probability of being fully engaged in EET) between 2 groups (categories of an explanatory variable), such as males and females, accounting for all other explanatory variables in a model. Where there are more than 2 groups, each group is compared with a common reference group – for example, each of the other Australian states and territories may be compared with New South Wales.

mild or moderate core activity limitation: The limitation of a person who needs no help but has difficulty with core activities (moderate) or has no difficulty (mild) with core activities, but uses aids or equipment, or has one or more of the following restrictions:

• cannot easily walk 200 metres
• cannot walk up and down stairs without a handrail
• cannot easily bend down to pick up an object from the floor
• cannot use public transport
• can use public transport but needs help or supervision
• needs no help or supervision but has difficulty using public transport.  

mortality: The number or rate of deaths in a population during a given time period.

most serious charge: The charge which, historically, for unsentenced people in prison (whether convicted or not) carries the longest statutory maximum penalty. From 2006, the Prisoner Census moved towards the use of the National Offence Index for determining the most serious charge.

most serious offence: The offence for which a sentenced person in prison has received the longest sentence in the current episode for a single count of the offence – except for Tasmania, where most serious offence/charge data were determined by applying the National Offence Index, as the longest sentence cannot be attributed to a single offence.

multi-family household: A household with 2 or more families. See family.

multivariate modelling: Any statistical technique that can be used to identify characteristics that are significant in explaining an outcome of interest, while simultaneously accounting for other relevant explanatory variables.

neoplasm: An abnormal (‘neo’ = new) growth of tissue. Can be benign (not a cancer) or malignant (a cancer). Also known as a tumour.

non-fatal burden: The burden from living with ill health as measured by years lived with disability (YLD). Often used synonymously with YLD.

non-Indigenous: People who have not indicated that they are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.

not in employment, education or training (NEET): A classification that represents an outcome of the different combinations of time spent in work or education or training in which the person is not working at all nor engaged in any formal education or training activities.

not in the labour force: An expression that describes people who are not employed, unemployed and not actively looking for work or those who are actively looking for work but not available to start during the reference week of the ABS Census. This definition applies to the ABS Labour Force Survey and may differ somewhat from the definitions in other collections. See also labour force.

notification: A report made to a child protection department alleging child abuse or neglect, child maltreatment or harm to a child. These reports can be made by individuals or organisations (DSS 2021).

odds: The probability of an event occurring divided by the probability of the event not occurring. That is:

odds = probability divided by (1 minus the probability).

Odds and probability values will be close to each other when the probability is small (closer to zero).

odds ratio (OR): The odds of the event in one group, for example exposure group, divided by the odds in another group (for example, not exposed). The OR represents the odds that an outcome will occur, given a particular exposure, compared with the odds of the outcome’s occurring in the absence of that exposure. The value of the odds ratio is interpreted as follows:

• An odds ratio close or equal to 1 means that the exposure has little or no effect on the odds of the outcome’s occurring.
• An odds ratio greater than 1 means that the exposure increases the odds of the outcome’s occurring.
• An odds ratio less than 1 means that the exposure decreases the odds of the outcome’s occurring.

out-of-home care: Overnight care for children aged under 18 who are unable to live with their families due to child safety concerns. It is a medium- or long-term arrangement when there is a high level of risk determined by child protection authorities or when parents cannot care for their children for a time.

overcrowded (and crowded): A household that requires one or more additional bedrooms to meet the CNOS standard. The CNOS standard may not adequately reflect First Nations people’s perspectives on crowding. See Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS) and housing suitability.

overrepresentation: A term that describes being represented disproportionately or in too large a number compared with population size.

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 remainder of the sentence.

part-time employment: The employment status of a person who worked, or usually works, less than 35 hours a week at the time of the survey or Census.

partially engaged in employment, education or training: A term that describes a person employed or studying part-time (and not engaged in both work and study). For example, a person:

• employed part-time and not attending an educational institution
• studying part-time and either unemployed or not in the labour force.

preschool program: A structured play-based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, and aimed at children in the year or two before they start full-time schooling (irrespective of whether the institution providing it is government or privately provided). Programs may be delivered in a variety of service settings, including separate preschools or kindergartens, and a centre-based day care service in association with a school.

prior imprisonment: Imprisonment under sentence in an adult prison before the current situation. Prior sentence of periodic detention is included as prior imprisonment. People in prison who have had previous adult imprisonment in another state or territory may not be counted as having prior imprisonment. Prior imprisonment in the Australian Capital Territory includes both episodes of imprisonment under sentence and on remand.

prisoner: A person held in custody. For the purposes of the National Prisoner Census, prisoners are those whose confinement is the responsibility of a corrective services agency.

probation and similar: 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, recognisance and community service orders that a youth justice agency supervises or case manages.

proxy variable: A variable used in place of another variable that is more relevant but is more difficult to measure.

public housing: Rental housing managed by all state and territory housing authorities. Included are dwellings owned by the housing authority or leased from the private sector or other housing program areas and used to provide public rental housing or leased accommodation for public housing tenants. It is accessed by those on low incomes and/or with the greatest and/or special needs. First Nations people can access public housing.

public order offence: Offence relating to personal conduct that involves (or may lead to) a breach of public order and decency, or is indicative of criminal intent, or is otherwise regulated or prohibited on moral or ethical grounds. In general, a public order offence does not involve a specific victim or victims; however, some such offences, such as offensive language and offensive behaviour, may be directed towards a single victim.

quintile: One of 5 groups of equal size into which population can be divided according to the distribution of scores or values from a continuous variable. The Index of Relative Socioeconomic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) derived by the ABS as part of the SEIFA divides geographical areas in Australia into 5 quintiles containing equal numbers of areas, with the lowest-ranked 20% of areas being placed in Quintile 1 and the highest-ranked 20% being placed in Quintile 5.

random forest model: An example of non-parametric modelling which is a type of modelling used in statistics and machine learning that does not assume any specific form for the relationship between independent and dependent variables. In this report, it is used to estimate the relative importance of independent variables in explaining the outcome (for example, the outcome in Chapter 7 is being fully engaged in EET).

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. Rates (crude, age-specific and age-standardised) are generally multiplied by a number such as 10,000 to create whole numbers.

rate ratio: The ratio of 2 rates (of 2 groups or populations).

reception: The event of entering a detention centre to begin an unsentenced or sentenced detention order. Neither a transfer to a new detention centre nor a change in legal status constitutes a reception; however, if a young person is released from detention and then re-enters it at a later date, this is a new reception.

recidivism: A repeated criminal activity, synonymous with terms such as ‘repeat offending’ and ‘re-offending’.

relative standard error: A measure of sampling error; that is, the difference between an estimate derived from a sample survey and the ‘true value’ that would be obtained if the whole survey population were enumerated.

release on bail: An order that may be given by a court, following a period of remand, for a young person to be released into the community, pending the outcome of the trial. Bail may be either unsupervised or supervised.

remand (Chapter 11): The act of placing in custody a young person accused of an offence to await trial or the continuation of the trial.

remand prisoners (remandees) (Chapter 10): People who have been placed in custody while awaiting the outcome of their court hearing. They may be unconvicted (remanded in custody for trial), convicted but awaiting sentence (remanded in custody for sentence) or awaiting deportation. Some sentenced people in prison also have active remand warrants against them. In such cases, these people in prison are counted as sentenced.

remoteness area: A classification that divides each state and territory into several regions based on their relative accessibility to goods and services (such as general practitioners, hospitals, and specialist care) as measured by road distance. These regions are based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia and defined as Remoteness Areas by the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (before 2011) or the Australian Statistical Geographical Standard (from 2011 onwards) in each Census year. The 5 Remoteness Areas are: Major cities, Inner regional, Outer regional, Remote and Very remote.

rental stress: The situation of a household whose housing costs are more than 30% of the gross household income.

return sentence: A sentence that occurs after the index sentence.

return to sentenced supervision: An episode in which a young person returns to the youth justice agency for a period of sentenced supervision following one or more previous period(s) of sentenced supervision.

risk factor: Any factor that represents a greater risk of a health disorder or other unwanted condition or event. Some risk factors are regarded as causes of disease; others are not necessarily so. Along with their opposites, protective factors, risk factors are known as determinants.

robbery, extortion and related offences: Acts intended to unlawfully gain money, property or other items of value from, or to cause detriment to, another person by using the threat of force or any other coercive measure.

sentenced people in prison: People who have received a term of imprisonment from a court. This includes offenders who have been given an indeterminate sentence or custodial order – for example, people detained under the ‘Governor’s/HM’s Pleasure’ and ‘Forensic Patients’, or those who have received a life sentence. Before 2017, periodic detainees in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory were also included.

sentenced supervision: Any form of sentenced youth justice supervision (community-based or detention).

severe crowding: A household that requires 4 or more additional bedrooms to meet the CNOS standard. See Canadian National Occupancy Standard (CNOS).

sexual assault and related offences: Acts, or intents of acts, of a sexual nature against another person which are non-consensual, or consent is proscribed.

social determinants of health: The circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work and age, and the systems put in place to deal with illness. These circumstances are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces, including economics, social policies and politics.

social housing: Includes public housing and community housing, as well as housing programs specifically for First Nations people – state owned and managed Indigenous housing, and Indigenous community housing.

socioeconomic disadvantaged areas: Socioeconomic categories are based on different aspects of disadvantage (for example, low income, low educational attainment, and high unemployment) and reflect the overall or average level of disadvantage of the population in an area. Individuals in the same area may differ from each other in their socioeconomic category. The ABS uses a set of indexes created from summarising the diverse population, family and household characteristics related to socioeconomic advantage and disadvantage collected in the Census of Population and Housing and provide a ranking of areas in Australia. See SEIFA.

Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA): A set of indexes, created from Census data, that aim to represent the socioeconomic position of Australian communities and identify areas of advantage and disadvantage. The index value reflects the overall or average level of advantage and disadvantage of the population of an area; it does not show how individuals living in the same area differ from each other in their socioeconomic group.

socioeconomic position: An indication of how ‘well off’ a person or group is. In this report, socioeconomic position is often reported using the Socioeconomic Indexes for Areas, typically for 5 groups (quintiles) or 10 groups (deciles) – from the most disadvantaged (worst off or lowest socioeconomic area) to the least disadvantaged (best off or highest socioeconomic area). Levels of income, education and occupation are common person-based indicators of socioeconomic position.

state owned and managed Indigenous housing (SOMIH): Housing that state and territory governments provide and manage. It is accessed by those on low incomes and/or with special need and is available to households that have at least one member who identifies as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

statistical significance: A term used in statistical hypothesis testing to refer to the likelihood that the relationship observed between two or more variables in a sample is caused by something other than chance. Statistical significance is determined by using the p-value. The researcher decides on a p-value to determine the minimum significance level based on the level of risk of the experiment. The standard is to use a p-value of less than 0.05, which implies that there is less than 5% chance that the observed association is being caused by random noise and that there is enough evidence to reject the null hypothesis.

statistical hypothesis testing: A method of making decisions using data, whether from a controlled experiment or an observational study (not controlled).

stroke: An event that occurs when an artery supplying blood to the brain suddenly becomes blocked or bleeds. A stroke often causes paralysis of parts of the body normally controlled by that area of the brain, or speech problems and other symptoms. It is a major form of cerebrovascular disease.

substantiation: The result of a finalised investigation which concludes that there is reasonable cause to believe that a child has been, is being, or is likely to be, abused, neglected or otherwise harmed. This may include cases where children have no suitable caregiver (DSS 2021). See investigation.

suicidal behaviours: The collective term for suicidal ideation, suicide plans and suicide attempts.

suicidal ideation: Serious thoughts about ending one’s own life.

supervised or conditional bail: The act of allowing a young person accused of an offence to await trial, or the continuation of the 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 that supervision. Includes immediate release orders, suspended detention orders and intensive supervision of young people with detention orders.

theft and related offences: The unlawful taking or obtaining of money or goods not involving the use of force, threat of force or violence, coercion or deception, with the intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the owner or possessor of the use of the money or goods, or the receiving or handling of money or goods obtained unlawfully.

through-care program: A program that provides support to a person, beginning when they first go into prison and continuing to support them to transition into the community after release.

underlying cause of death: The primary or main cause of death: the condition, disease or injury that initiated the sequence of events leading directly to death, or the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury.

unemployed: The employment status of a person who does not have a job and is actively looking for one. This could be a full-time or part-time job.

unemployment rate: The percentage of people currently not employed. The denominator excludes people not in the labour force. In Chapter 8, the analysis is limited to those aged 25–64 years, as they are considered to be of working age.

unlawful entry with intent/burglary, break and enter: The unlawful entry of a structure with the intent to commit an offence where the entry is either forced or unforced.

unsentenced people in prison: A legal status indicating that a person is confined to custody on remand while awaiting the outcome of their trial. They may be unconvicted (remanded in custody for trial), convicted but awaiting sentence (remanded in custody for sentence) or awaiting deportation.

unsentenced supervision: Youth justice supervision (community-based or detention) that occurs when a young person has not been sentenced. It may occur when they have been charged with an offence and are awaiting the outcome of their legal matter, or when they have been found guilty in court and are awaiting sentencing.

variable: A characteristic, factor or data item recorded in a data set.

vascular: A term that relates to blood vessels.

working age: Generally refers to people aged 15–64. In Chapter 8, the term refers to those aged 25–64.

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.

YLD (years lived with disability): A measure of the years of what could have been a healthy life but were instead spent in states of less than full health. YLD represent non-fatal burden.

YLL (years of life lost): Years of life lost due to premature death, defined as dying before the global ideal life span at the age of death. YLL represent fatal burden.