
Youth Justice in Australia 2018-2019
May 22, 2020
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) have released their annual report “Youth Justice in Australia 2018-2019. The report looks at young people aged 10 - 17 who were under youth justice supervision during this period.
The report found the most common age range for first entering supervision with the youth justice system was between 14-17 years old (71%). When looking at the previous 5 years, it was noted that nationally, the level of Indigenous over-representation in supervision has stablilised. This was attributed to a levelling off of youth justice involvement for non-Indigenous young people, and a fall in the rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people under supervision.
Overall, there was a rise in the number of young people supervised by youth justice in Queensland during this period. However, this is partially attributed to a change in legislation which saw 17 year olds transferred from the adult justice system into the youth justice system, which occurred in February 2018. Nationally, the total number of young people who were supervised by youth justice during this period fell.