Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15

Publication

Release Date: 22 Jul 2016

Topic: Youth justice

AIHW

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2016) Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 28 April 2024.

APA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2016). Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15. Canberra: AIHW.

MLA

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15. AIHW, 2016.

Vancouver

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15. Canberra: AIHW; 2016.

Harvard

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2016, Young people returning to sentenced youth justice supervision 2014–15, AIHW, Canberra.

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Most young people who have a supervised sentence serve only 1 sentence and do not return. For those born from 1990–91 to 1996–97, around 62% received only 1 sentence before the age of 18. The younger a person is at the time of first receiving a supervision sentence, the more likely they are to return. Of the young people aged 10–16 in 2013–14 and released from sentenced community-based supervision, around 23% returned to sentenced supervision in 6 months, and 46% returned within 12 months. Of those released from sentenced detention, 50% returned to sentenced supervision within 6 months and 74% returned within 12 months.

ISSN: 2205-5118 (PDF) 1833-3230 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-74249-959-8
Cat. no: JUV 84
Pages: 36

Findings from this report:

62% of young people who received a supervised youth justice sentence when aged 10–17 received only 1 sentence
52% of young people who first received a sentenced detention order returned to sentenced supervision before age 18
37% of young people who were first supervised in the community returned to sentenced supervision before age 18
Indigenous young people were more likely than non-Indigenous young people to return to sentenced supervision

Summary

In Australia, young people who have been found guilty of an offence may be given an unsupervised community-based sentence, a supervised community-based sentence or a sentence of detention. The latter two types of sentences are known as 'supervised sentences'.

Youth justice departments are responsible for providing young people serving supervised sentences with services designed to reduce the frequency and seriousness of any future offending. The rate of return to sentenced supervision is an indicator of the effectiveness of these services, although factors beyond the control of these departments will also have an impact on levels of returns to sentenced supervision.

This report is based on the 2014-15 Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set (JJ NMDS)-a longitudinal data set, containing data from 2000-01 to 2014-15.

Most young people do not return to sentenced supervision

Most young people who receive a supervised youth justice sentence serve only 1 sentence, and do not return to sentenced youth justice supervision. Of those under sentenced youth justice supervision and born from 1990-91 to 1996-97, 62% received only 1 supervised sentence before the age of 18. Returning to sentenced supervision was more likely for those whose first sentence was detention (52%), compared with those whose first supervised sentence was community-based (37%).

A minority go on to receive a large number of sentences before they turn 18. Almost 1 in 6 (16%) of young people whose first supervised sentence was community-based received a total of 5 or more supervised sentences between the ages of 10 and 18. For those whose first supervised sentence was detention, more than 1 in 4 (29%) received 5 or more sentences.

Young people who served shorter initial sentences were more likely to return to sentenced supervision than those who served longer initial sentences. This was the case for those whose first sentence was community-based, and for those whose first sentence was detention.

Young people released from sentenced detention are more likely to return to sentenced supervision

For young people aged 10-16 on release from sentenced supervision in 2013-14:

23% of those released from sentenced community-based supervision returned to sentenced supervision within 6 months and a further 23% returned within 12 months (a total of 46% returning within 12 months)
50% of those released from sentenced detention returned to sentenced supervision within 6 months and a further 24% returned within 12 months (a total of 74% returning within 12 months).

The younger a person is when they are released from sentenced community-based supervision, the more likely they are to return

Young people aged 10-12 released from sentenced community-based supervision in 2013-14 were 1.8 times as likely to return to some form of sentenced supervision within 12 months, compared with those who were aged 16 when they were released.