Youth Justice in South Australia- The Numbers 2023-24
Information from multiple sources for 2023-24 show that in South Australia youth crime rates have dropped in the last year.
No child aged 10 or 11 has been in youth detention on an average day.
Aboriginal kids continue to greatly outnumber others in youth detention.
The vast majority of kids in detention were un-sentenced.
In SA, Aboriginal kids are 5.4% of the 10-17 age group but 54% of those under YJ Supervision in the community or detention.
This equates to 21 times over-representation both in detention and community supervision.
(For Aboriginal kids under supervision the rates are 138 per 10,000 compared with 6.7 per 10,000 for non-Aboriginal kids.)
YJ Supervision-average day
There were 292 kids under YJ supervision on an average day in 2023-24:
In Community: 262 In Detention: 32
Aboriginal: 150 Male: 102 Female: 48
Non-Aboriginal: 142 Male: 111 Female: 31
~ The total number of kids under supervision for the year was 626
~ The Time under supervision (community or detention) for a child averaged 171 days (24 weeks)
In Detention:
On an average day the no. of kids in Detention in 2023-24 in SA were:
Total: 32 Aboriginal: 17 Boys: 13 Girls: 4
Aged 10-13: Total: 1 Aboriginal: 1
~ There were NO 10- or 11-year-olds in detention on an average day.
~ Over the whole 23-24 Year there were 317 kids who spent time in detention.
o 85% were un-sentenced.
o Many have very short stays.
o Since 2019-20, total number of kids in detention on average day has fallen from 38 to 32.
Community Supervision:
~ Since 2019-20 Community supervision rates have increased by 20% while detention rates have dropped.
~ On an average day in 2023-24 there were 150 Aboriginal kids under community supervision.
~ There were 6 Aboriginal kids aged 10-13 under YJ supervision (community or detention) on an average day (4 boys; 2 girls)
~ There were 3 non-Aboriginal kids aged 10-13 under YJ supervision on an average day
Offending and Re-offending
There were 1,812 youth offenders aged between 10 and 17 years in South Australia proceeded against by police in 2023-24, a 17 per cent decrease on the previous year.
The Young Offender Rate in SA (1,028 per 100,000 young people) is much lower than the national average (1,764 per 100,000) and half the 2016-17 rate.
The percentage of young offenders who were charged or cautioned by police two or more times, is roughly 30%
In 2023-24, 20 young people were identified as responsible for 11% of all Youth Court charges.
The number of children under the age of 14 years who were involved in re-offending and were ranked in the top 20 instances of multiple charges over the past five years, amounts to two 12-year-olds and twelve 13-year-olds. In 2023-24 just one 13 year-old was in this category.
The most common charges lodged in the Youth Court in the last seven years (to 2022-23) were:
• failure to comply with bail agreement (19%)
• dishonestly take property without consent (17%)
• damage building or motor vehicle (7%).
Crime Victimisation Rates have dropped across a number of key areas in 2023-24 in SA.
Expenditure
“In South Australia, in 2023-24 we spent 20 times as much on youth detention-based services ($49m) as we did on family group conferencing ($2.4m) and nearly 8 times as much as we spent on community-based services ($6.4m). On an average day, the cost per young person in detention is $4,189 per day.”
NOTES:
o Numbers vary slightly between sources eg AIHW, or ABS or Productivity Commission.
o Police Data is challenging to obtain. Currently requires a full FoI application to get offending numbers.
Sources:
AIHW Youth Justice in Australia 2023-24 (updated 28 March 2025) Access at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/youth-justice/youth-justice-in-australia-2023-24/contents/summary
SACOSS Offending by Young People in SA March 2025. Accessed at:
https://sacoss.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Young-Offending-Briefing.pdf
Young Offender Plan https://www.agd.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1137445/Young-Offender-plan.pdf
ABS Data for 2023-24. accessed from SA AGD: Drop in crime Victimisation Rates https://www.agd.sa.gov.au/news/sa-sees-another-drop-in-crime-rates#:~:text=The%20statistics%20confirm%20there%20were%201%2C812%20youth,per%20cent%20decrease%20on%20the%20previous%20year