1. Juvenile justice trends in Australia
Rachel Aalders

2. Key points
Relatively few young people are involved in the juvenile justice system
Significant and ongoing over-representation of Indigenous young people
Changes in the use of detention
Impact of factors at the state and territory level

3. Juvenile justice system in Australia
State and territory responsibility
Involves police, courts, juvenile justice agencies, parole boards
Young person
10–17 years (10–16 years in Qld)
18+ in some cases

4. Juvenile justice system—overview

5. Juvenile justice data and reports
Juvenile justice in Australia (AIHW)
Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set
Unit-record data from 2000–01
Data in presentation 2007–08
Criminal Courts (ABS)
Finalised defendants
Children’s Court data from 2006–07
Recorded crime—offenders (ABS)
People proceeded against by police
Data on children aged 10 years and older from 2007–08

6. Only a few are supervised
For 10–17 year olds, each year:
65,000 proceeded against by police
25,000 defendants in Children’s Courts
14,000 supervised by juvenile justice agencies
6,000 in detention

7. National trends in supervision rates

8. National trends—community

9. National trends—detention

10. National trends in detention—legal status

11. Community and detention rates

12. Community-based supervision—Indigenous status (rates)

13. Detention—Indigenous status (rates)

14. Detention—legal status (rates)

15. Trends in remand

16. Trends in sentenced detention

17. Report availability
All AIHW publications available for free to download
Juvenile justice report series
Juvenile justice subject page

18. Contact details Rachel Aalders
Senior Project Manager, Juvenile Justice
Child and Youth Welfare Unit