Research shows that children and young people who have been abused or neglected are at greater risk of engaging in criminal activity and of entering the youth justice system. A better understanding of the characteristics and pathways of children and young people who are both in the child protection system and under youth justice supervision can help support staff, case workers, and policy makers to get the best outcomes for these children and young people.

Using data from the linked child protection and youth justice supervision data collections, this report presents information on young people who had been under youth justice supervision during 2018–19, who had also received child protection services in the 5 years between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2019.

Results are based on the 7 jurisdictions with data in both the youth justice and child protection national minimum data sets. New South Wales is excluded, as they do not provide standard child protection NMDS data.