Trends in juvenile detention in Australia

 

Another area of concern is the continued over-representation of Indigenous juveniles in detention in Australia. The AIC's Juveniles in Detention in Australia Monitoring Program emerged following the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC 1991), which recommended the ongoing monitoring of rates of Indigenous juveniles in detention.

As described above, however, the over-representation of Indigenous juveniles has increased steadily since data began to be collected. It is important to note that over-representation ratios, used to demonstrate Indigenous over-representation, reflect rates of Indigenous juveniles in detention relative to rates of non-Indigenous juveniles in detention. This means that a high over-representation rate ratio may be due to an unusually high number of Indigenous juveniles in detention relative to non-Indigenous juveniles, or an unusually low number of non-Indigenous juveniles in detention relative to Indigenous juveniles (Taylor 2009). Read more…