YOUTH IN CARE

• Youth in Care and the Juvenile Justice system

• Young people in the care of the state have greater exposure to the juvenile justice system than young people who are not in care.

Criminogenic factors• Poverty and neglect are strongest predictors of crime

• Difficulties in school including suspension, truancy and low educational attainment

• Homelessness or unstable accommodation

Also..• substance abuse • unemployment • poverty • family breakdown and disruption • negative peer association • poor personal and social skills • limited leisure and recreation opportunities

Youth Crime in Australia

Youth crime statistics• No change in last 2 years, serious crime decreasing

• The reoffending rate has decreased by 24%

• People between the ages of 15 and 24 are more likely to be victims of crime

Youth Crime Statistics• Older people are less likely to be victims of crime (1999-

10%:1%)

• Preventing crime. Programs which support school retention and literacy are more effective than ‘tougher penalties’

• Penalties that are ‘less harsh’ decrease re-offending

Youth Crime• Most juvenile crime is episodic, transitory, local,

unplanned, and not repeated. 

• 70% of young people who offend once and appear in court do not subsequently reappear.

Crime ‘slashed’!

Aboriginal Youth• Continuing and increasing over-representation of

Aboriginal children in custody• Early 1990s 26% of young offenders were Aboriginal• In 1999, 34% were Aboriginal• In 2002, 39% were Aboriginal

Aboriginal Youth• Despite comprising only 3% of the general youth

population, Aboriginal young people make up 30-40% of young people in JJ system

• Studies have found that institutionalised racism and a lack of understanding of Aboriginal young people and culture (can lead to higher representation)

Aboriginal Youth• Aboriginal young people are also significantly over-

represented as victims of crime.

• Aboriginal young people are three times more likely to be victims of sexual assault and five times more likely to be victims of domestic violence or assault causing grievous bodily harm.

‘Youth running wild’• 80% of young people have been stopped and spoken to

by the police at some stage

• 94% and 96% for marginalised and Aboriginal youth

In a recent report 78% of young people reported that police “never, or only sometimes treat them with respect”. 

Youth with disabilities• The 2003 Young People in Custody Health Survey, found

that of those young people in detention: • 88% reported symptoms of mild, moderate or severe

psychiatric disorder • 30% reported symptoms of attention deficit disorder

Youth with disabilities cont..• 21% reported symptoms of schizophrenia

• 17% had intelligence scores • assessed as intellectual • disability.

Education and crime• The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research has

found that young people with low educational attainment are:

• more likely to offend, • more likely to offend frequently, • more likely to commit more serious offences and more

likely to persist in crime.

Education continued..• Truancy and suspension are high risk factors for

involvement in crime. For example, around 90% of those in detention have been suspended from school.

• Interventions which improve school performance have proved successful in reducing offending behaviour.

Young Women• Young women are under represented in the juvenile

justice system. • Only 19% of those referred to Youth Justice Conferences,

and 5% of those in detention are female.

Young Women continued..• The vast majority of young women in juvenile justice come

from low socio-economic backgrounds, • have a poor attachment to education, and a history of

sexual and physical abuse and violence, neglect and/or trauma.

• A majority have experienced periods of homelessness.

Young women• These experiences contribute to patterns of high risk

behaviour, typically including problematic substance use, self-mutilation, unsafe sex, generally poor levels of self-care and a tendency to put themselves in high risk situations.

• Involvement in violent and abusive intimate relationships is also common.

• Young women's offending behaviour is often related to these histories and behaviour patterns, and is particularly related to substance use, with a large proportion of young women entering the juvenile justice system on drug-related charges .