Youth justice
This page provides an overview of Chapter 11.
Target
The target associated with Outcome 11 of the 2020 National Agreement is to reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10–17 years) in detention by at least 30% by 2031 from a 2018–19 baseline of 31.9 per 10,000 young people.
Background
The vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) young people have never been under youth justice supervision or in detention. However, they are substantially significantly over-represented in youth justice supervision.
Imprisonment or detention can affect people’s social, health and socioeconomic outcomes, with adverse consequences for their employment, financial situation, housing, and physical and mental health.
Children under youth justice supervision are a particularly vulnerable group. Many have poor physical or mental health, have had contact with the child protection system (including out-of-home care placements), have experienced substance abuse, or have poor school attendance and attainment.
It has been shown that those who are first involved with the criminal justice system at a younger age are more likely to re-offend.
Current status
Nationally, the rate (number per 10,000) of First Nations young people aged 10–17 who were in detention on an average day in 2022–23, was 29.8. This rate is above the 2022 trajectory point projected to meet the national target of 22.3 per 10,000 by 2031.
In 2022–23, on an average day, around 1,500 First Nations young people aged 10–17 were under community supervision, and around 445 were in detention. Most of those in detention were unsentenced (around 375 or 84%), with a smaller proportion sentenced (99 or 22%). The number of unsentenced and sentenced young people in detention may not sum to total number of young people in detention as young people may have changed legal status during the same day, or been on both types of orders at the same time.
First Nations youth were 27 times as likely as non-Indigenous youth to be in detention in 2022–23.
In 2022–23, the rate of First Nations young people in detention in New South Wales (20 per 10,000), Victoria (9 per 10,000), South Australia (19 per 10,000) and Tasmania (7 per 10,000) were all lower than the 2031 national target of 22.3 per 10,000. Queensland (46 per 10,000) and the Northern Territory (43 per 10,000) had the highest rates.
In 2021–22, the rate of First Nations young people aged 10–17 in detention was similar in Major cities (26 per 10,000) and Inner regional and outer regional areas combined (25 per 10,000), but higher in Remote and very remote areas combined (37 per 10,000).
In 2022–23, boys (52 per 10,000) were 7 times as likely as girls (7 per 10,000) to be in detention on an average day.
Nationally, the number of First Nations young people in sentenced detention on an average day fell from around 145 in 2018–19 (the Closing the Gap baseline year) to 94 in 2021–22.
Strategies for improvement
Policy initiatives aimed at reducing the over-representation of First Nations youth in the justice system are multifaceted. They focus on preventing First Nations young people from having contact with the justice system, diverting them from further contact after an initial contact, delivering culturally appropriate services to meet the multiple and complex needs of those in contact with the system, and dealing with the drivers of contact with the system at a local community level. Promising prevention interventions include:
- primary prevention initiatives – to reduce petrol sniffing among young people, conduct night patrols and settle family disputes
- secondary prevention initiatives – to remediate existing problem behaviour
- tertiary prevention initiatives – to focus on the homes, families, schools, neighbourhoods and friends of chronic and violent youth offenders.
It is critical to develop preventive measures to reduce First Nations people’s engagement in crime and contact with the criminal justice system. Key to successful prevention and early intervention is to build positive long-term relationships with families, communities and service providers.
Other promising practices of First Nations youth justice programs include recognising the importance of having adequate resources, together with culturally appropriate and competent services; collaborating effectively; attending to the multiple and complex needs of offenders; engaging with families; and conducting culturally appropriate parental education.
Areas that need further in-depth research and evaluation include:
- how First Nations participants fare in mainstream justice programs
- how sustainable are the outcomes
- whether collaborative case management in youth crime prevention and reduction programs is effective for First Nations young people
- how effective are the structured, cognitive behavioural programs based on ‘Western’ psychological theories.