Youth Justice in Australia 2019-2020
Jun 11, 2021
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) have released their annual “Youth Justice in Australia 2019-20” report. 1,780 young people aged 10 and over were under youth justice supervision on an average day in Queensland in 2019-2020 with 89% supervised in the community, 12% in detention. Young people spent an average of 32 weeks under supervision. A rise in numbers of young people aged ten and over under supervision over a 5 year period is related to legislative changes in Queensland which increased the age limit for youth justice from 16 to 17 in February 2018. The number of young people under youth justice supervision has decreased from 2018-2019 and the rate of young people aged 10-17 under supervision has decreased over the 5 year period.
Of those young people under youth justice supervision in 2019-2020, more than three-quarters were male (76%) and 68% were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander with Indigenous young people 20 times more likely than non-Indigenous young people to be under youth justice supervision. Males under supervision were most likely to be aged 18 or over, having committed their offences when they were 17, and females were most likely to be aged 16. In youth detention, almost 9 in 10 (88%) were un-sentenced—that is, they were awaiting the outcome of their court matter, or had been found guilty and were awaiting sentencing.