From Child Victimisation to Youth Justice

Children in youth detention are overwhelmingly victim-survivors of violence, abuse and neglect – yet they remain largely absent from Australia's three national policies on child safety. This submission sets out how the Second Action Plans can close that gap.

Developed for 54 reasons by leading experts Kate Fitz-Gibbon and Matt Tyler, From Child Victimisation to Youth Justice draws on consultations with more than 200 Children's Commissioners, frontline practitioners, sector leaders, academics, policy experts and youth advocates, alongside the voices of young people who have been through 54 reasons' youth justice services.

It's a valuable resource for anyone working to improve outcomes for children and young people in contact with the youth justice system, or in domestic & family violence.

In it, you'll find:

• The evidence for why youth justice is a domestic, family and sexual violence issue – including that up to two-thirds of children in detention have prior child protection involvement
• What Children's Commissioners, practitioners and sector leaders told us about the missed opportunities for earlier intervention in these children's lives
• Eight recommended actions for national leadership, from embedding specialist DFSV outreach workers in youth detention to establishing enforceable National Child Justice Standards
• First-hand reflections from young people with lived experience of the youth justice system
• A clear case for Commonwealth leadership that respects state and territory responsibility for youth justice while strengthening Australia's implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child

The submission's eight recommended actions:

1. Embed Education Engagement Officers within youth detention to strengthen educational continuity and support recovery
2. Embed specialist domestic, family and sexual violence outreach workers within youth detention facilities
3. Create safe pathways for disclosure and specialist responses to victimisation within youth detention settings
4. Pilot innovative help-seeking pathways for children and young people in youth detention
5. Establish enforceable National Child Justice Standards
6. Make relevant Commonwealth funding agreements conditional on compliance with the obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child
7. Require Child Rights Impact Assessments for proposed youth justice reforms
8. Create an independent national review mechanism for proposed and enacted laws

Grounded in what we heard, and what we know

These recommendations are drawn from consultations with more than 200 Children's Commissioners, practitioners, researchers, policy experts and youth advocates, and from the voices of young people themselves – which also informed our From Recognition to Action submission. The insights from this project reflect a consistent message: punitive responses to children in conflict with the law do little to address trauma, improve safety or reduce reoffending – and a national effort to prevent violence against children can't succeed if it overlooks one of the groups most profoundly affected by it.