Introduction

18.1 For a significant number of young people throughout Australia, contact with the legal processes associated with education, government service delivery and/or care and protection culminates in their involvement in criminal processes.[1] There is also a smaller number of young people for whom contact with police and the criminal justice system represents their first experience of formal legal processes.

18.2 Involvement in the juvenile justice system can have serious social and developmental consequences for children, particularly those who have repeated contact. These consequences can include disrupted education, reduced employment opportunities and family dislocation.[2] There are particular problems in juvenile justice processes for Indigenous young people and those living in rural and remote areas. In addition, relations between police and young people around Australia are generally poor.[3]

18.3 The levels of children’s court appearances and formal diversions from the juvenile justice system have remained stable for the last fifteen years.[4] Despite this there is a public perception that youth crime is increasing. This ‘moral panic’ is mirrored in and fuelled by media stories of a juvenile crime wave and by political rhetoric.[5]

Contrary to police and media reports and the claims of politicians, there is in Australia no juvenile crime wave and no large increase in serious juvenile crime.[6]

…current [juvenile justice] policy is flawed by political expediency and ‘knee jerk’ responses to perceived problems of antisocial and delinquent youth behaviour.[7]

Community perceptions that youth crime is rampant have lead to particularly punitive legislative developments in many jurisdictions.[8] These developments are harmful to children and endanger community safety.

18.4 Children come into conflict with the criminal law at different rates in different parts of Australia. In all jurisdictions they tend overwhelmingly to commit non-violent offences such as break and enter, motor vehicle theft and offences against public order.[9] A study of 52 935 juveniles who appeared before the NSW Children’s Court between 1986 and 1994 found that 86% of offences for which juveniles appeared were non-violent.[10] It also found that 7 out of 10 offenders did not reappear before the court and 9% of juvenile offenders were responsible for 31% of all proven offences.[11]

[T]he research consistently finds that a small proportion of offenders make multiple appearances and are responsible for a disproportionate amount of offending.[12]

At most only 2% of young people aged from 10 to 17 years come into contact with the Children’s Court.[13] Even if this figure is increased to take into account contacts with other formal processes such as cautions and family group conferences it is unlikely to exceed 4%.[14] The majority of young people do not re-offend. This means that the perception of a juvenile crime wave is based on the difficult behaviour of a very small minority of the youth population which results in all young people being stigmatised and subjected to inappropriate legal processes.

18.5 Children’s involvement with the juvenile justice system includes initial contact with police, investigation of alleged offences, diversionary schemes, trial, sentencing and detention. Sentencing and detention are dealt with in the following chapters.

[1] eg ‘…young people who have contact with the child welfare system are more likely to come into contact with the juvenile justice system’: National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families Bringing Them Home HREOC Sydney 1997, 499. See also NSW Community Services Commission The Drift of Children in Care into the Juvenile Justice System: Turning Victims into Criminals NSW Community Services Commission Sydney 1996.

[2] See eg paras 10.21, 10.52-53.

[3] See paras 18.63-65, 18.67.

[4] C Cunneen & R White Juvenile Justice: An Australian Perspective Oxford University Press Melbourne 1995, 101. See also S Mukherjee ‘The dimensions of juvenile crime’ in A Borowski & I O’Connor (eds) Juvenile Crime, Justice and Corrections Longman Melbourne 1997.

[5] S Cohen Folk Devils and Moral Panic: The Creation of the Mods and Rockers Martin Robertson Oxford 1980. See also M Cain Recidivism of Juvenile Offenders in New South Wales NSW Dept of Juvenile Justice Sydney 1996, 7; K Buttrum ‘Juvenile justice: What works and what doesn’t!’ Paper Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice: Towards 2000 and Beyond AIC Conference Adelaide 26–27 June 1997, 2; para 4.13.

[6] M Findlay, S Odgers & S Yeo Australian Criminal Justice Oxford University Press Melbourne 1994, 264.

[7] K Buttrum ‘Juvenile justice: What works and what doesn’t!’ Paper Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice: Towards 2000 and Beyond AIC Conference Adelaide 26–27 June 1997, 2.

[8] See eg paras 19.50-64.

[9] P Boss et al (eds) Profile of Young Australians Churchill Livingstone Melbourne 1995, 153.

[10] M Cain Recidivism of Juvenile Offenders in New South Wales NSW Dept of Juvenile Justice Sydney 1996, 1.

[11] id 1. See also I O’Connor ‘Models of juvenile justice’ Paper Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice: Towards 2000 and Beyond AIC Conference Adelaide 26–27 June 1997, 5.

[12] I O’Connor ‘Models of juvenile justice’ Paper Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice: Towards 2000 and Beyond AIC Conference Adelaide 26–27 June 1997, 5.

[13] K Freeman ‘Young people and crime’ (1996) (32) Crime and Justice Bulletin 2.

[14] P Boss et al (eds) Profile of Young Australians Churchill Livingstone Melbourne 1995, 153.