Target 11
By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10–17 years) in detention by at least 30%.
Nationally in 2022-23, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10–17 years in detention on an average day was 29.8 per 10,000 young people in the population (figure CtG11.1).
The 2022‑23 rate is above the previous three years (from a low of 23.6 per 10,000 young people in 2020‑21) but it is a decrease from 32.1 per 10,000 young people in 2018‑19 (the baseline year).
Nationally, the trend for the target shows no change from the baseline. This assessment is provided with a low level of confidence. Please refer to the How to interpret the data page for more information.
The state and territory assessments below reflect progress from the baseline (improvement, worsening or no change). There are no state and territory targets. The Australia assessment reflects progress from the baseline towards the national target.
| NSW | Vic | Qld | WA | SA | Tas | ACT | NT | Aust | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment of progress 2018-19 to 2022-23 |  | |  | | | | | |  |
| Confidence level | Low | High | Low | High | High | Low | Low | High | Low |
improvement no change worsening not applicable as required data not available. 
good improvement and target on track to be met (Aust only). 
improvement but target not on track to be met (Aust only).
Note: These assessments of progress are provided with a 'High' or 'Low' level of confidence. An assessment reported with a High level of confidence is considered to be more reliable than one reported with a Low level of confidence. Please see the 'How to interpret the data' page for more information.
Historical and ongoing target context
Most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people grow up in loving and supportive homes and continue to show resilience, developing and maintaining strong connections to their family, community and culture (Hall et al. 2019). However, due to a range of factors, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are overrepresented in the criminal justice system.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been governed by their own rich and complex systems of Lore/Law for tens of thousands of years. This was deeply woven into the fabric of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, guiding all aspects of community life including decision-making processes, mechanisms of social control, and the moral and ethical codes of behaviour which dictated daily interactions and responsibilities (Dodson 1995).
Since colonisation, systems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Lore/Law have been largely disregarded. In their place, a foreign legal framework has been forcibly imposed. This imposition not only displaced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander governance structures but was also responsible for dispossession and the forced removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, causing significant harm (Walker et al. 2023). The continued removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families is exacerbated by systemic biases and racism (Barber et al. 2016), with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people overrepresented in out-of-home care (McFarlane 2018).
The overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth in Australia’s detention system today is a continuation of colonial forces which threaten to remove and sever the connections and relationships that are so integral to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people’s wellbeing and health (Walker et al. 2023). This can begin well before entering detention, when an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander young person enters the child protection system. Evidence shows that children in out-of-home care are often criminalised more frequently for behaviour that, within a family home, would go unreported (CCYP 2023).
Other risk factors of incarceration include limited access to employment, education and healthcare as well as exposure to neglect and adverse childhood experiences, including trauma (Astridge et al. 2023; White 2015). A lack of access to secure and adequate housing can cause Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to be held on remand at significantly higher rates. In addition, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are being criminalised for minor offences, or ‘crimes of necessity’ (ALRC 2017; Walsh 2019). Over-policing, institutionalised and systemic racism (RCIADIC 1991), racial profiling (Cunneen 2020; O’Brien 2021) and mandatory sentencing laws (ALRC 2017) are further risk factors for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth.
References
ALRC (Australian Law Reform Commission) 2017, Incarceration Rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples , Discussion Paper 84.
—— Pathways to Justice - An Inquiry into the Incarceration Rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
Astridge, B, Li, WW, McDermott, B and Longhitano, C 2023, ‘A systematic review and meta-analysis on adverse childhood experiences: Prevalence in youth offenders and their effects on youth recidivism’, Child Abuse & Neglect , vol. 140.
Barber, JG, Delfabbro, PH and Cooper, L 2016, ‘Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children in out-of-home care’, Children Australia , vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 5–10.
CCYP (Commission for Children and Young People) 2023, Commissioners for children and Victoria Legal Aid disturbed by continuing criminalisation of kids in state care , https://ccyp.vic.gov.au/news/commissioners-for-children-and-victoria-legal-aid-disturbed-by-continuing-criminalisation-of-kids-in-state-care (accessed 23 November 2023).
Cunneen, C 2020, Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police , Routledge.
Dodson, M 1995, ‘Opinion: From “Lore” to “Law”: Indigenous Rights and Australian Legal Systems’, Aboriginal Law Bulletin , http://www8.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/journals/AboriginalLawB/1995/1.html (accessed 22 March 2024).
Hall, S, Fildes, J, Tiller, E, Di Nicola, K and Plummer, J 2019, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Report: Youth Survey 2019 , Mission Australia.
McFarlane, K 2018, ‘Care-criminalisation: The involvement of children in out-of-home care in the New South Wales criminal justice system’, SAGE Publications Ltd, Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology , vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 412–433.
O’Brien, G 2021, ‘Racial Profiling, Surveillance and Over-Policing: The Over-Incarceration of Young First Nations Males in Australia’, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, Social Sciences , vol. 10, no. 2, p. 68.
RCIADIC (Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody) 1991, Final report , Canberra.
Walker, S, Doyle, M, Stoové, M, Combo, T and Wilson, M 2023, ‘Experiences of Kinship and Connection to Family for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Young Men with Histories of Incarceration’, Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet , vol. 4, no. 4.
Walsh, Tamara. ‘From Child Protection to Youth Justice: Legal Responses to the Plight of “Crossover Kids”’ 46 (2019).
White, R 2015, ‘Indigenous Young People and Hyperincarceration in Australia’, SAGE Publications, Youth Justice , vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 256–270.
Disaggregations
Data tables appear under figures
By sex
Nationally in 2022-23, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males aged 10–17 years in detention on an average day was 51.6 per 10,000 young people in the population compared to 7.3 per 10,000 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females of the same age. The 2022‑23 detention rates for both males and females are above the previous two years but have decreased since the baseline year of 2018-19 (figure CtG11.2).
By age group
Nationally in 2022-23, the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 14–17 years in detention on an average day (56.0 per 10,000) was higher than the rate for young people aged 10–13 years (4.2 per 10,000). Nationally, detention rates have decreased since 2018-19 (the baseline year), however, rates have increased for both age groups since 2020-21 (figure CtG11.3).
By sex, by age group
Data on the average daily number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in detention, by sex, by age group is available in table CtG11A.4 .
Target data specifications
Outcome: | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system. |
|---|---|
Target: | By 2031, reduce the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people (10–17 years) in detention by at least 30%. |
Indicator: | The rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10–17 years in detention. |
Measure: | This measure is defined as: Numerator – average daily number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people aged 10–17 years in supervised youth detention Denominator – number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 10–17 years in the population and is presented as a rate per 10,000 young people. |
Target established: | National Agreement on Closing the Gap July 2020 |
Latest dashboard update: | 31 July 2024 |
Indicator type: | Target |
Interpretation of change: | A low or decreasing rate is desirable. |
Data source(s): | Name (numerator): Youth Justice National Minimum Dataset (YJ NMDS) Frequency: Annual Name (denominator): Estimates and Projections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population Frequency: Annual (revised data for 2010‑11 to 2021‑22 in the March 2024 dashboard update) Documentation (links): https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports-data/health-welfare-services/youth-justice |
Data provider: | Provider name (numerator): Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Provider area: Youth justice Provider name (denominator): Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Provider area: Demography |
Baseline year: | 2018‑19 |
Latest reporting period: | 2022‑23 |
Target year: | 2030‑31 |
Disaggregations: | State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status. State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex. State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by age group. State and territory and Australia, by Indigenous status, by sex, by age group. |
Computation: | Numerator divided by Denominator multiplied by 10,000. Counting rules Average daily numbers are calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends under supervision during the year (irrespective of age) and dividing this total by the number of days in the same year. Age is calculated based on the age a young person is each day that they are under supervision. If a young person changes age during a period of supervision, then the average daily number under supervision will reflect this. The numerator is calculated by summing the number of days each young person spends in detention during the financial year and dividing this total by the number of days in the financial year reporting period. Number of young people on an average day may not sum to total due to rounding. Rates are calculated from unrounded numbers of young people on an average day. Includes (numerator):
Excludes (numerator):
Denominator:
Disaggregations: Sex refers to a young person's biological characteristics at birth. A person's sex is usually described as being either male or female, but may be recorded as ‘other’. See Person—sex, code X (aihw.gov.au) Age is based on date of birth where known but can also be collect directly or estimated. Children with unknown age are excluded from the analysis by age. |
Data quality considerations: | Data by Indigenous status are influenced by the quality of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identification of young people in the YJ NMDS. About 5% of all young people in the YJ NMDS since 2000‑01 have an unknown Indigenous status. In 2021‑22, about 2% of all young people under supervision during the year had an unknown Indigenous status. Among the states and territories, this ranged from less than 1% in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory to 6% in New South Wales. Western Australia had no unknown Indigenous status. Rates are calculated by the PC using updated population data and may differ from data published in the AIHW publication, Youth Justice in Australia 2021‑22. For results derived using small numbers, year-on-year movements in the results should be interpreted with caution. Please refer to the How to interpret the data page for more information. While the scope of this target is youth aged 10–17 years, additional data have been provided for all people in detention (including those aged 18 years or over) for context. Rates for the age range 18 years or over have not been calculated as most people in the age range are under adult justice supervision. Youth detention numbers are provided by sex, by age group (10–13 years, 14–17 years and 18 years or over age groups). Comparisons of rates since 2016 should be used with caution, as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population estimates are underestimated. Please refer to the How to interpret the data page for more information. |
Future reporting: | Future reporting will seek to include the following additional disaggregations:
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Supporting indicators
Driver
- Un-sentenced detention rates
- Average time in detention for unsentenced youth
- Proportion of young alleged offenders (10–17 years) involved in police proceedings
Including charges and summons, cautions, diversions
- Proportion of young people convicted and sentenced
By type of sentence (community supervision, detention)
- Entrant rate to detention
Newly sentenced to youth detention
- Proportion of youth under community supervision transitioning to detention
- Young people returning to detention or community supervision
- Proportion of young people first coming into youth justice system aged 10-13
Offending and courts data, first entry to detention
Contextual information
- Community supervision trends
Proportion of young people in detention who had received child protection services (including out-of-home care)
- Proportion exiting detention
By reason
- Progress towards parity
Material for download
- Young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system data tables (XLSX - 112 Kb)
- Young people are not overrepresented in the criminal justice system dataset (CSV - 207 Kb)
To assist with interpretation of the data provided (Excel data tables and CSV dataset) please refer to the target data specification (above) and the indicator data specifications (provided in each supporting indicator page – linked above).