Total number of supervised sentences

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Introduction Age First Nations young people States and territories

While the majority of young people have only one supervised sentence, a small number of young people who entered sentenced supervision received 5 or more sentences before the age of 18 and some received 10 or more (Figure 1.8).

Of the 48,686 young people with a first supervised sentence of community-based supervision:

  • almost one-fifth (18%) received 5 or more supervised sentences
  • about 1 in 14 (7.0%) had 10 or more sentences (Supplementary table S6).

These proportions were higher for young people with a first supervised sentence of detention (1,949) where:

  • just over one-quarter (28%) received 5 or more supervised sentences
  • about 1 in 7 (14%) had 10 or more sentences (Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8: Young people with at least 1 supervised sentence from 2000–01 to 2023–24, by age at first supervision, number of sentences and type of first supervised sentence

This bar chart shows that a younger person is at their first sentenced supervision, the more likely they are to receive multiple sentences.

This bar chart shows that a younger person is at their first sentenced supervision, the more likely they are to receive multiple sentences.

Notes:

  1. Data relate to young people aged 10–17 who were supervised from 2000–01 to 2023–24.
  2. Northern Territory data was not available for young people who had a sentence start in 2023–24.

Source: Supplementary table S6.

Age

As noted above, people in younger age groups have more time to return to youth justice supervision. The younger a person was at first supervision, the more likely they were to have 5 or more sentences. For young people with a first supervised sentence of community-based supervision, about 3 in 5 (58%) of those aged 10–13 had 5 or more sentences and almost 1 in 3 (29%) had 10 or more (Supplementary table S6).

These proportions were higher for young people aged 10–13 with a first supervised sentence of detention – about 4 in 5 (81%) had 5 or more sentences and more than 1 in 2 (54%) had 10 or more (Supplementary table S6).

First Nations young people

Between 2000–01 to 2023–24:

  • 18,701 First Nations young people and 27,987 non-Indigenous young people received at least one community-based supervision sentence
  • 765 First Nations young people and 1,163 non-Indigenous young people received at least one detention sentence (Supplementary table S5).

Among First Nations young people, a total of 14,012 males and 4,678 females received at least one community-based supervision sentence, and 668 males and 96 females received at least one detention sentence (Supplementary table S5). Of these, males were 1.9 times as likely as females to receive 5 or more supervised sentences when their first supervised sentence was community-based supervision (32% compared with 17%) and 1.3 times as likely when their first supervised sentence was detention (40% compared with 30%) (Figure 1.9).

Figure 1.9: First Nations young people with 5 or more supervised sentences from 2000–01 to 2023–24, by sex, and type of first supervised sentence

This bar chart shows that young First Nations males were more likely to have 5 or more supervised sentences than First Nations Females.

Notes:

  1. Data relates to young people aged 10–17 who were supervised from 2000–01 to 2023–24.
  2. Northern Territory data was not available for young people who had a sentence start in 2023–24.

Source: Supplementary table S5 | Data source overview

States and territories

The proportion of young people who received more than one supervised sentence ranged from 27% in the Australian Capital Territory to 60% in the Northern Territory (Figure 1.10). Note that data for the Northern Territory was only available up to 2022–23.

Figure 1.10: Young people with more than 1 supervised sentence from 2000–01 to 2023–24, by state and territory of first supervised sentence

This bar chart shows that the proportion of young people with more than 1 supervised sentence varied across each state and territory.

Notes:

  1. Full cohort data are available for New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Tasmania has 10 full birth cohorts available for analysis, the Australian Capital Territory has 8, and the Northern Territory has 3.
  2. Data relate to young people aged 10–17 who were supervised from 2000–01 to 2023–24.
  3. Due to the small numbers reported in some states and territories, comparisons should be made with caution.
  4. Variations in state-based legislation, policies and practices may affect the comparability of data between states and territories.
  5. Northern Territory data was not available for young people who had a sentence start in 2023–24.

Source: Supplementary table S7

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