Published 22 April 2021

The youth justice system is for young people who have or are alleged to have committed an offence. It holds them to account for their offending and gives them a genuine opportunity to change their lives for the better without getting a criminal record, by focusing on diversionary measures. Oranga Tamariki aims to work in partnership with others, such as the Police and the courts, to address the underlying factors that contribute to offending as early as possible, to reduce the potential for lifelong offending and poor outcomes. Discussions around the outcomes of people who are involved in youth justice often focus on whether people flow from the youth justice system on to the adult justice system. The purpose of this report is to: explore the pathways young people take to the youth justice system; understand what their wellbeing indicators and outcomes look like before, during, and after youth justice involvement, and explore how they compare with people who had no youth justice involvement. This report looks at people in New Zealand born in the years 1993-20022and divides them into four groups representing lifetime statutory involvement with care and protection and youth justice. Care and protection statutory involvement includes those who have had a care and protection family group conference, family whānau agreement, or a care and protection out-of-home placement. Youth justice statutory involvement includes those who have had a youth justice family group conference or a youth justice placement. The four groups are: 1. The “crossover” group - statutory involvement with both care and protection and youth justice. Roughly two percent (1.6%) of the population falls into this group. 2. The “youth justice only” group-statutory involvement with youth justice only (no statutory care and protection involvement). Two percent of the population falls into this group. 3. The “care and protection only” group -statutory involvement with care and protection only (no statutory youth justice involvement). Five percent of the population falls into this group. 4. The “no involvement” group -no statutory involvement with youth justice or care and protection. Most people are in this group (92% of the population). This report focuses on comparisons between the crossover and youth justice only group, and the care and protection and no involvement groups. The evidence in this report shows the crossover group are the most vulnerable, followed by the youth justice only group and then the care and protection only group. Although the crossover group is the most vulnerable, it is also the smallest (around two percent of the population). (From the Executive summary). Record #7107