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Care criminalisation: issues and current research – Research brief

This research brief provides an overview of what is known about care criminalisation and the importance of adopting a trauma-informed lens in work with young people in residential care.

They came to us for care and left with a criminal record

There is a nexus between living in Out of Home Care (OOHC) and being involved with the criminal justice system. In NSW children and young people in OOHC have been found to be overly represented in the NSW Children’s Court, with estimates ranging from 19% to 34%(Indig, Vecchiato, Haysom, Belby, Carter, Champion & Whitton, 2011). …

Leaving Care: What we know and don’t know about outcomes for young people

The research is clear: young people do not fare well when they leave care. Study after study, both in Australia and internationally, tells us that our care leavers are more likely to be unemployed, homeless, experience poverty, mental health concerns, and as I argued in my previous blog, are at far greater risk of entering …

Minimum age of criminal responsibility in the ACT

This submission addresses the question of whether the age of criminal responsibility (MACR) should be increased and submits that the age should be raised from 10 years old to a minimum of 14 years old in the Australian Capital Territory.

Let’s Talk About the Summer Holiday – a poem about detention

What Terry’s experience and poem tells us is that all young people—especially those in detention with experiences of childhood trauma and violence—have the right to have fun and “just be a kid”.

Research webinar: The criminalisation of children in care in England/Wales, New South Wales, and Victoria