About this report

This report presents information about young people in Australia who were under youth justice supervision during 2023–24, both in the community and in detention. It looks at the characteristics of these young people, key aspects of their supervision, and recent trends. It is based on data from the YJ NMDS for all states and territories in Australia.

Numbers in this report include young people of all ages (including those aged 18 and over) unless otherwise specified. Proportions presented in this report are calculated off numbers presented in the report and/or supplementary tables. Population rates are calculated only for young people aged 10–17, as this is the main age group for youth justice supervision in most states and territories. For more information on the impact of COVID‑19 and the minimum age of criminal responsibility on population rates see:

For information on each state and territory's youth justice systems, see:

All data presented in this report are available in the online supplementary tables – See Data.

Average daily data, broken down by age, will not be comparable with data in Youth justice in Australia releases before 2019–20. For more information on the calculation of age, see Appendix A2: technical information.

Impact of COVID-19 on youth justice data (2020, 2021, 2022)

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 'first wave' of social restrictions was introduced in Australia in mid-March 2020. These restrictions were progressively eased in most states/territories from May 2020. A 'second wave' of social restrictions was introduced in Victoria from July 2020 and started to progressively ease from September 2020. A 'third wave' of social restrictions was introduced in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory from June 2021 and started to progressively ease from October 2021. Since then, additional waves of COVID-19 have affected all jurisdictions with small restrictions in place during that time.

While, as outlined in the Prime Minister's media announcement on 18 March 2020, youth justice centres and other places of custody, courts or tribunals were considered essential services (Prime Minister of Australia 2020), COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on their operations, and restrictions they face may have continued beyond the easing of restrictions in the general community. The impact may differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction (Judicial College of Victoria 2020).

  • In New South Wales, for example, Children’s Court hearings were vacated from 24 March to 1 May 2020 with few exceptions. This led to a decrease in the number of court finalisations between March and June 2020, which resulted in a reduction of young people in sentenced detention.
  • During this period, there was also a decline in unsentenced detention as more young people were discharged to bail and fewer young people had their bail revoked when breaching bail conditions (Chan 2021).

This report includes data from March 2020 to June 2022, which coincides with the presence of COVID-19 in Australia. However, the direct impact of COVID-19 and related social restrictions on the number of young people under youth justice supervision is difficult to determine due to a range of factors including:

  • variability of the data
  • variations in state-based legislation, policy and practice
  • small numbers of young people under supervision.

More research is required to better understand the impact of COVID-19 and related social restrictions on youth justice supervision across Australia.

 

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