Youth justice reforms review

Report on 2021 Youth Justice reforms from Bob Atkinson

Changes to the Youth Justice Act 1992 came into effect on 30 April 2021. They aimed to:

strengthen accountability for serious repeat offenders
disrupt knife crime
disrupt hooning.

The Premier announced that former Police Commissioner Mr Robert (Bob) Atkinson would look at the effectiveness of these reforms after 6 months.

What the review looked at

The review looked at:

implementation
early impacts of the reforms
awareness of the reform program
perceptions of public safety in the broader community.

It involved extensive engagement across key government departments, stakeholders and the community.

The review aimed to:

give advice on whether the changes to youth justice laws, anti-hooning laws and the metal detecting wand trial were on track to reduce serious youth offending
identify issues with implementing reforms, and potential areas for improvement.

Outcome of the review

achievements
strengths
challenges.

The review found that overall, reform implementation was going well.

Key findings include:

youth co-responder teams have received high level of stakeholder support and confidence
electronic monitoring has had low uptake
the presumption against bail may be contributing to an increase in remand rates
knife crime at metal detection trial locations has decreased
some hooning offences have decreased.

The review also found improvements that could be made for law and program changes to have the best chance of reducing offending and improving community safety.

Key documents

Youth Justice Reforms Review Report (PDF, 2.9MB) or (DOCX, 1MB)
Youth Justice Reforms Review—Appendices 1–10 (PDF, 1.3MB)
Youth Justice Reforms Review—Appendix 11—Community Awareness and Safety Survey Report (PDF, 4MB)

Last updated 18 November 2022

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