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Police diversion of young offenders and Indigenous over-representation

Trends & issues in crime and criminal justice no. 390

Troy Allard, Anna Stewart, April Chrzanowski, James Ogilvie, Dan Birks and Simon Little
ISSN 1836-2206
Canberra: Australian Institute of Criminology, March 2010

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Abstract

Indigenous overrepresentation in the justice system is a challenge facing Australian society. It has recently been suggested that increased use of diversionary processes could reduce this overrepresentation. Reported in this paper are the findings of a project examining the 1990 offender cohort's contact with the Queensland juvenile justice system. The project focused on the extent of Indigenous over-representation, evidence of disparity in how Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people were processed and the impact of diversion on re-contact with the juvenile system.

This paper was commissioned by the Criminology Research Council.