Summary

Research shows that children and young people who have been abused or neglected are at greater risk of engaging in criminal activity and of entering the youth justice system. A better understanding of the characteristics and pathways of children and young people who are both in the child protection system and under youth justice supervision can help support staff, case workers, and policy makers to get the best outcomes for these children and young people.

Using data from the linked child protection and youth justice supervision data collections, this report presents information on young people who had been under youth justice supervision during 2018–19 who had received child protection services in the 5 years between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2019.

Results are based on the 7 jurisdictions with data in both the youth justice and child protection national minimum data sets. New South Wales is excluded as they do not provide standard child protection NMDS data.

More than half of young people who had been in youth justice supervision had also received child protection services in the last 5 years

Of the 7,904 young people who had been under youth justice supervision during 2018–19, 4,243 (54%) had also received a child protection service in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019. 2,213 (28%) received child protection services in 2018–19.

Over half (54%) of those in community-based supervision and 61% of those in detention during 2018–19 had received a child protection service in the last 5-year period. 

Youth justice-involved young females were more likely than males to have received child protection services

While young people under youth justice supervision were almost 4 times as likely to be male as female (6,206, compared to 1,698), young females were more likely to have also received child protection services in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019.

Over 7 in 10 (71%) young females under youth justice supervision during 2018–19 had received a child protection service in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019 compared to 49% of young males.

The younger a person was when they entered youth justice, the more likely they were to have also received child protection services

Over 7 in 10 (71%)  young people aged 10 to 13 at their first contact with youth justice supervision had received child protection services in the 5-year period, while just 33% of those who were 16 and above had been involved with both services.

The actual involvement of young people under youth justice supervision with child protection in the older age groups may be higher than reported where their involvement in child protection occurred before the 5 years of child protection data included in this analysis (1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019)

Young Indigenous Australians in youth justice were more likely than non-Indigenous young people to have received child protection services

Just over 3 in 5 (61%) Indigenous young people under youth justice supervision during 2018–19 had also received child protection services in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019. This compares to just under half (48%) of non-Indigenous young people.

Almost half of young people under youth justice supervision in 2018–19 had been the subject of an investigated notification in the last 5 years

Almost half (47%) of young people under youth justice supervision during 2018–19 were the subject of investigated notifications in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019.

Just under a quarter of young people under youth justice supervision in 2018–19 were placed on a care and protection order and/or were in out-of-home care in the last 5 years

Almost 1 in 4 (23%) young people were placed on a care and protection order and 22% were placed in out-of-home care in the 5 years from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019.

About one-third of youth justice-involved young people were the subject of a substantiated notification for abuse or neglect, with emotional abuse and neglect being the most common

For both types of youth justice supervision, about one-third of young people were the subject of a substantiated notification for abuse or neglect—28% of young people in community-based supervision and 34% of young people in detention.

Of those young people in community-based supervision during 2018–19 who had been the subject of 1 or more substantiated notifications of abuse, 53% were substantiated for emotional abuse, 38% had been substantiated for neglect, followed by physical abuse (21%) and sexual abuse (9%). Proportions do not sum to 100% as some young people had multiple substantiations for multiple types of abuse over the 5-year period from 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2019.

For those in detention who had been the subject of 1 or more substantiated notifications almost half (49%) had been substantiated for emotional abuse, 42% had been substantiated for neglect, 23% for physical abuse and 10% for sexual abuse.

About 4 in 5 young people in out-of-home care who were youth justice-involved had been in residential care

Just over 1 in 5 (22%) young people under community-based supervision in 2018–19 had been in out-of-home care. Of those in out-of-home care, 4 in 5 (80%) had been in residential care, two-thirds (66%) had been in foster or relative/kinship care and 17% had been in only foster or relative/kinship care placements.

Just over 1 in 4 (26%) young people in detention had been in out-of-home care. Of those, more than 4 in 5 (84%) had been in residential care, 66%, had been in foster or relative/kinship care and 14% had been in only foster or relative/kinship care placements.

2 in 5 young people in out-of-home care who were youth justice-involved had 5 or more placements

Just over 2 in 5 (41%) of those in community-based supervision and who had been in out-of-home care had 5 or more placements. Of those in detention who had been in out-of-home care, 44% had 5 or more placements.