Welfare, justice, child development and human rights: a review of the objects of youth justice legislation in Australia

In Australia, as elsewhere, there is consensus that new and more effective ways of responding to young people who commit crimes need to be identified and, when available, implemented and evaluated. In this paper we review youth justice legislation across each Australian jurisdiction and consider how it provides the mandate for service delivery. We contextualise this with an account of historical variations in how the seemingly competing goals of welfare and justice have been balanced. This is followed by an overview of contemporary understandings of child development and human rights which are increasingly recognised as both relevant and important to the way in which the community works with justice-involved children and young people. The analysis illustrates how youth justice agencies are still expected to achieve multiple and, at times, conflicting legislated objectives which results in a lack of coherence in policy and practice. This serves only to limit effectiveness. We conclude that legislative reform will be necessary to realise any new vision for youth justice, especially if one of the overarching purposes is to protect vulnerable children.