Statistics on Juvenile Detention in Australia: 1981-2001

• NCJ Number: 195573
• Author(s): Lisa Cahill; Peter Marshall
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 32 pages
• Corporate Author: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Sale Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Statistics
• Language: English
• Country: Australia
• Note: Australian Institute of Criminology Technical and Background Paper Series No. 1; downloaded June 24, 2002.

Annotation

This document contains information on the number of young people in custody of the juvenile justice agency in Australia.

Abstract

Six factors are analyzed in this report: gender, age, indigenous status, legal status, jurisdiction, and date. From 1981 to 2001, there was a general decline in the number of people aged 10- to 17-years-old in juvenile detention centers. Rates of juvenile detention experienced a similar but slightly more accentuated trend. These national trends were heavily influenced by changes within those jurisdictions that had the largest number of detainees, particularly New South Wales, Queensland, and Western Australia. An increase in the number of juvenile detainees in New South Wales and Queensland in 1990 caused a substantial increase in the national figure, despite the numbers decreasing in the other jurisdictions. The percentage of females in juvenile custody declined significantly from 1981 to 1991. Males have consistently dominated the detained juvenile population in every jurisdiction within Australia. Indigenous people are far more likely to be detained in a juvenile correctional facility compared to non-Indigenous people. New South Wales and Victoria had similar levels of over-representation to the national level. At June 30, 2001, the Australian Capital Territory had the highest rate of detention of people aged 10- to 17-years-old. Victoria had the lowest rate. Jurisdictional differences exist in terms of the proportion of people in detention who were under a sentence order. Victoria had the highest proportion of people who were sentenced -- 80 percent of the 10- to 17-year olds in juvenile detention in that State were sentenced. The lowest proportion was in New South Wales, where just 41 percent of juveniles in detention on June 30, 2001 were sentenced. There also seems to be a slight tendency nationally for a higher proportion of Indigenous detainees than non-Indigenous detainees to be under sentence than on remand. The largest numbers of people over the age of 18 years old were found in New South Wales and Victoria. 3 figures, 8 tables, 6 references