Opening the Doors

Working with young people involved with the juvenile justice system

Definitions & Demographics

The juvenile justice system is the state's criminal justice response to children and young people who are alleged to have committed an offence or who have been found guilty of an offence, while aged 10 to 17 years of age. 7

Young people who come to the attention of the juvenile justice system follow one of the pathways illustrated below:

 

Under the juvenile justice system police may deal with young offenders in one of four ways depending on the type of offence and its seriousness, the amount of violence involved and the harm caused to the victim.

Warnings apply for trivial offences such as trespassing or offensive language, where there has been no violence or other related issues. Warnings can be delivered on the spot. Police officers must identify themselves and their Local Area Command, inform the young person that they are receiving a warning under the Act and record the young offender's name, address and date of birth. A record of the warning is kept on the police computer system but cannot be used as a record of criminal history.

Cautions apply to more serious offences such as drug possession, damage to property and stealing. To receive a caution, young offenders must admit the offence and agree to be cautioned. Cautions are administered by Specialist Youth Officers based at each Local Area Command.

Young people are assisted to access legal advice prior to being interviewed and must be interviewed and cautioned in the presence of an appropriate adult such as a parent, carer or legal representative.

Cautioning takes up to one hour to complete and involves the young offender meeting with police or a community member and considering what they have done. Cautions usually involve:

• an explanation of the reason for the caution
• an exploration of the impact of the offence on the victim and the young offender including consequences of future offending
• identification of how to avoid future offending.

Police will keep a record of the caution.

Youth Justice Conferencing
For more serious offences a young offender can be referred to a Youth Justice Conference. The types of offences that are commonly dealt with in Youth Justice Conferences are break and enter, assault, theft, car theft and property damage.

The young offender must admit the offence in the presence of a responsible adult and agree to the conference.

Around 1,244 conferences are conducted each year. Around 40% of all conferences have been referred by the police with the remaining cases referred by the courts. 7

A Youth Justice Conference involves families and victims in face to face meetings with young offenders. The aim of the conference is for the young offender to take responsibility for their actions, make amends in some way to the victim, and develop in a responsible, positive and socially acceptable way.

People who can attend a conference include the young offender and their family, the victim or their representative, the police officer who arrested the young offender, a legal representative for the young offender and an interpreter if required.

A neutral convenor from the Department of Juvenile Justice runs the conference. In the conference all participants talk about the crime and its impact upon them.

The participants agree on an Outcome Plan at the end of the conference. Outcome plans may include things like:

• giving an apology to the victim (spoken or written)
• giving back things that were stolen
• paying money for items that were stolen or damaged
• fixing something that was damaged
• doing unpaid work for the victim
• doing unpaid work the community
• doing a training course or program
• attending a counselling program
• attending a drug or alcohol program

Court
For very serious offences, and offences where a young person does not admit the offence, the police can commence court proceedings through the Children (Criminal Proceedings) Act 1987 7

Less than 1% of the total youth population appear before the Children's Court. 7

Very few young offenders are persistent or chronic offenders. Seven out of every ten young offenders do not re-appear before the Court on a second proven matter. Of those who do re-offend, half return only once. A small group of repeat offenders account for a large number of offences 3

The Court can make any of the following orders: dismissal and/or caution, referral to a Youth Justice Conference, good behaviour bond, fine, suspended sentence, probation on conditions determined by the court, community service order or control order (detention).

The Department of Juvenile Justice may formally supervise good behaviour bonds, probation bonds and must formally supervise suspended sentences, community service orders and detentions.

Community Service Orders
A Community Service Order (CSO) is a penalty given by the court. The order requires the offender to perform a certain number of hours of unpaid work, generally for a community organisation, charity, local council or hospital.

Juvenile Justice or Probation or Parole assess whether an offender is suitable for a CSO and whether work is available. Examples of CSOs include:

• maintaining grounds and parks
• assisting in cleaning up a community group's facilities
• office duties
• removing graffiti from buildings.

A supervisor of a CSO can breach a young offender if they haven't obeyed the supervisor's instructions, were aggressive to the supervisor, or did not complete the CSO hours.

Around 800 community service orders are given to young people each year.

Control order (detention)
Young people in detention represent a small proportion of all young offenders involved in the juvenile justice system.

Around 300 young people are in detention at any one time. About half are on remand (awaiting trial or sentance) and about half have been sentanced. 95% are male, 5% female and 39% are Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. 7

There are nine juvenile justice centres in NSW and one short term accommodation unit at Broken Hill.
These are:

• Frank Baxter - Gosford
• Kariong - Gosford (managed by Dept of Corrective Services)
• Reiby - Campbelltown
• Juniperina - Lidcombe
• Cobham - Werrington
• Keelong - Unanderra (near Wollongong)
• Orana - Dubbo
• Acmena - Grafton
• Riverina - Wagga Wagga

For more information about police and court proceedings see Youth justice - your guide to cops and court in NSW, published by Macquarie Legal Centre 2003.

Terminology

Young person involved in the juvenile justice system is an acceptable term. Not all young people involved in the JJ system are offenders (ie. guilty) so use young offenders with caution.

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