Youth justice in Australia 2023–24

Contact with police

People first enter the justice system when they are investigated by police for allegedly committing an offence. Police may start legal action against them (proceed against) via court actions or non-court actions. Court actions are those where charges are laid that must be answered in court – non-court actions include cautions, conferences, counselling or infringement notices.

Young people are more likely than adults to be proceeded against for allegedly committing an offence. This is due, in part, to the fact that involvement in crime tends to be highest in adolescence or early adulthood and diminishes with age (Farrington 1986; Rocque et al. 2015; Ulmer and Steffensmeier 2014).

In 2022–23, police proceeded against 182 per 10,000 young people aged 10–17 (the primary group in the youth justice system) and 141 per 10,000 among those aged 18 and over (ABS 2024c).

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) publishes information on the types of principal (most serious) offences among young people who were proceeded against by police.

In 2022–23, the most common principal offences among young people aged 10–17 were:

• acts intended to cause injury (25%)
• theft (13%)
• unlawful entry with intent (8.1%) (Figure 10.1).

The most common principal offences among adults aged 18 and over were:

• acts intended to cause injury (26%)
• illicit drug offence (16%)
• public order offences (11%).

The adult category includes a much broader age group than the young people category and this might influence the results. (ABS 2024c).

Figure 10.1: Young people and adults proceeded against by police, by selected principal offence, 2022–23

Source: ABS 2024c.

Community-based supervision, detention and prison

Although young people were more likely than adults to be proceeded against by police, adults were more likely to be placed under formal supervision.

On an average day in 2023–24, 39 per 10,000 adults aged 18 and over were in adult community-based corrections (Figure 10.2).

This compares with 10 per 10,000 young people aged 10–17 under community-based youth justice supervision on an average day in 2023–24.

At the same time, 20 per 10,000 adults were in prison compared with 2.7 per 10,000 young people aged 10–17 in youth justice detention (Figure 10.2).

Figure 10.2: Young people aged 10–17 and adults under supervision on an average day, by type of supervision, 2023–24

Notes

1. Data on young people under supervision are for 2023–24.
2. Available ABS data on adults under supervision are the average of monthly snapshots taken on the first day of the month from July 2023 to June 2024.
3. The number and rate of young people on an average day is not available for the Northern Territory in 2023–24 for community-based supervision.
4. Rates for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory young people in 2023–24 are for young people aged 12–17 due to the increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 in those jurisdictions.

Sources: ABS 2024; tables S37a and S75a.

Young people aged 10–17 under youth justice supervision were more likely to identify as First Nations people than adults under supervision. More than half (55%) of young people aged 10–17 supervised in the community and 1 in 4 (25%) adults in community corrections were First Nations people (Figure 10.3).

Similarly, on an average day in 2023–24, almost two-thirds (65%) of young people aged 10–17 in detention were First Nations people compared with about one-third (34%) of adults in full-time prison.

As a result, the level of First Nations over-representation was higher among the youth detention population on an average day in 2023–24 than among adults in full-time prison on an average day in the 2023 calendar year (Figure 10.3). Available ABS data for First Nations and non-Indigenous adults are crude rates, by calendar year.

First nations young people aged 10–17 (27 per 10,000) were about 27 times as likely as non‑Indigenous young people to be in detention (1.0 per 10,000). First nations adults (273 per 10,000) were about 20 times as likely as non-Indigenous adults to be in full-time prison (14 per 10,000) (ABS 2024b; Table S75a).

On an average day, the proportions of young people aged 10–17 and of adults under justice supervision who were male were similar:

• about 90% of young people in detention and 92% of adults in prison were male
• 77% of young people and 80% of adults supervised in the community were male (ABS 2024; tables S36a and S74a).

Figure 10.3: First nations young people under youth justice supervision and adults under adult criminal justice supervision on an average day, by type of supervision, 2023–24

Notes

1. Data on young people under supervision are for 2023–24.
2. Available ABS data on adults under supervision are the average of monthly snapshots taken on the first day of the month from July 2023 to June 2024.
3. The number and rate of young people on an average day is not available for the Northern Territory in 2023–24 for community-based supervision.
4. Rates for the Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory young people in 2023–24 are for young people aged 12–17 due to the increase to the minimum age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 in those jurisdictions.

Sources: ABS 2024; tables S36 and S74.

Young people in detention were more than twice as likely as adults in prison to be unsentenced (that is, to be awaiting the outcome of their court matter or sentencing).

On an average day in 2023–24, 84% of young people aged 10–17 in detention were unsentenced compared with 39% of adults in prison (ABS 2024; Table S109a).