Youth justice in Australia 2023–24

A major feature of any youth justice system is the supervision of young people on legal orders. They may be supervised in the community or in detention facilities.

Most young people under youth justice supervision are supervised in the community rather than in detention. This is partly because a key principle in Australian youth justice is the idea that young people should be placed in detention only as a last resort.

This principle is contained in youth justice legislation in each state and territory, with the exception of Queensland. It is also consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN 1989) and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (also known as the Beijing Rules) (UN 1985). The Convention on the Rights of the Child states that children should be deprived of liberty only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period.

In August and December 2024, Queensland made various amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 in relation to, among other things, sentencing principles and maximum penalties. These amendments will be discussed in the 2024–25 annual report.

Supervision may take place while young people are unsentenced – that is, when they have been charged with an offence and are awaiting the outcome of their court matter, or when they have been found or have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Most of those under supervision on an average day are sentenced – that is, they have been found guilty in court, and received a sentence. Both unsentenced and sentenced supervision can take place in the community and in detention (Table 1.1).

Unsentenced community-based supervision consists of supervised or conditional bail (which may include conditions such as curfew or a monetary bond) and home detention bail.

Sentenced community-based supervision comprises:

1. probation and similar orders – where regular reporting to the youth justice agency and participation in treatment programs may be required
2. suspended detention – where the young person must meet certain conditions (for example, abiding by a curfew, reporting to police or living at a specified address) or not re-offend within a specified time period
3. parole or supervised release – supervision that follows a period of detention.

In Australia, information about young people under youth justice supervision is collected in the Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set (YJ NMDS). Tables 1.2a and 1.2b provide a summary of the types of youth justice services that are available in the states and territories, and specifies the availability of data across the jurisdictions.

✔  Youth justice outcome or service that is available in the state or territory.

Notes

1. In Tasmania, legislation does not explicitly preclude police-referred detention, but no orders of this type have been included in the NMDS submission.
2. This is a youth justice outcome or service that is available in the state or territory but is outside the scope of the YJ NMDS.
3. Suspended detention and supervised release from detention includes probation and parole.

Key policy directions in 2023–24

Youth justice policies are determined by state and territory governments and are largely implemented by youth justice agencies. Appendix D outlines information about the policy directions in each state and territory.

In 2023–24, some of the most commonly identified policy directions included:

• undertaking early intervention to provide services and programs to at-risk young people and their families
• offering alternatives to detention, including the use of warnings, cautions and conferencing
• delivering better outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people
• providing an individualised, therapeutic, culturally safe and trauma-informed approach to youth justice service delivery to prevent escalation of anti-social or offending behaviour
• designing and delivering programs to reduce reoffending
• increasing the minimum age of criminal responsibility, or announcing an intention to do so in the coming years
• improving the services and supports provided to young people with disability to achieve equity and inclusion in the youth justice system
• improving infrastructure in detention facilities, as well as building the capacity and capability of the youth justice workforce.

Young people's involvement in the youth justice system is affected not only by policies implemented by youth justice agencies but also by policies developed in other areas such as child protection, accommodation and housing assistance services, education, employment, family and community services, and health. 

Recommendations from the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory continue to be considered and implemented (Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry 2017). As recommended by the Royal Commission, the Northern Territory provided YJ NMDS standard data from 2017–18 onwards, which had not been possible since 2008–09.

In August 2023, the Northern Territory raised the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12. In August 2024, the Northern Territory committed to lowering the criminal age of responsibility back to 10.

Due to the implementation of a new information system ahead of the 2022–23 YJ NMDS submission, data for the Northern Territory will not be comparable to Youth justice in Australia releases prior to 2022–23. 

Additionally, new legislation was implemented to the Northern Territory youth justice system on 15 May 2021 – the Youth Justice Legislation Amendment Act (YJLAA) 2021 (the Act). The intent of the Act was to target repeat youth offenders to reduce youth crime. The Act resulted in some key changes to processes of the youth justice system. This change in legislation may have affected the number and rate of young people in detention in the Northern Territory.

In Australia, the Meeting of Attorneys-General (MAG) reviewed Australia's age of criminal responsibility. MAG noted that the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory have committed to raising the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and states have supported the development of proposals to raise the age, having regard to any carve outs, timing and discussion of implementation requirements (MAG 2023).

In May 2023, the Australian Capital Territory introduced legislation to raise the criminal age of responsibility to 12 initially (this was implemented in November 2023), then to 14 within the next 2 years (which is expected to be implemented in mid–2025).

In April 2023, Victoria made an announcement to raise the criminal age of responsibility to 12 by the end of 2024, and to 14 in 2027. In August 2024, Victoria announced that they would no longer raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14, but remain committed to raising the age to 12.

In June 2022, Tasmania committed to raising the age of criminal detention from 10 to 14 years old. Subsequently, in September 2023, the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings report recommended that the Government introduce legislation to increase the minimum age of criminal responsibility to 14 years, without exception and work towards increasing the minimum age of detention (including remand) to 16 years by developing alternatives to detention for children aged 14 and 15 years who are found guilty of serious violent offences and who may be a danger to themselves or the community. The Tasmanian Government has accepted this recommendation.

In July 2020, the Australian Government released The National Agreement on Closing the Gap. Outcome 11 of the new agreement aims to reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the criminal justice system. The target is to reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention by at least 30% by 2031 from 31.9 per 10,000 young people on an average day in 2018–19 to 22.3 per 10,000 young people by 2030–31 (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet 2020).