This report – a supplement to ‘Help way earlier!’ How Australia can transform child justice to improve safety and wellbeing – contains six case studies from Australia and around the world that are examples of evidence-based approaches to reforming child justice systems.  

There is a significant level of interest in finding solutions to the prevention of crime by children. This supplementary paper seeks to fill some gaps in knowledge and public understanding by providing examples of approaches from Australia and overseas. With case studies from Australia, Scotland, USA, Netherlands and Spain, the supplement shows how primary prevention, early intervention, integrated services and therapeutic community-based approaches that emphasise family and cultural connections can transform outcomes for children.

The examples also show that sustained and collective commitment to reform across the health, education, welfare and justice sectors is crucial to success.

Evidence-based practices highlighted in the six initiatives include:

• positioning children and families at the centre of decision-making in policy and service design and delivery
• investing in reform of upstream service systems for primary prevention and early intervention
• using community-led and place-based knowledge to empower local communities, especially First Peoples communities
• integrating multi-agency collaboration across health, education, justice and social services
• using holistic and therapeutic responses to address underlying causes of offending
• prioritising alternatives to detention by using small-scale facilities
• aligning legislation and government policies with a human rights framework.