Young people involved with child protection services who commit crime

The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) has published a paper titled “‘Crossover kids’: Offending by child protection involved youth.” It has long been known that young people involved with the child protection system are over-represented in the youth justice system. This paper involved a detailed case file audit of 300 young people who appeared before the Victorian Children’s Court in 2016 - 17, and who had involvement with the child protection system. The review found that almost three-quarters of these young people has been exposed to family violence (typically rated as moderate to severe), at least 50% of the young people had a household member with a mental illness, and at least 20% of the young people had a deceased parent. Around half the young people had a diagnosed neurodevelopmental or neurological condition, with males twice as likely as females to have such a diagnosis.

Go to “‘Crossover kids’: Offending by child protection involved youth.”