Youth Justice NMDS 2020–

Identifying and definitional attributes

• Youth Justice, Standard 15/02/2022

The Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set (YJ NMDS) 2020– contains information about young people under youth justice supervision in Australia. Young people under youth justice supervision are defined as those who are under the supervision or case management of a youth justice agency because they have:

• committed or allegedly committed an offence between the ages of 10–17 years

OR

• committed or allegedly committed an offence when aged over 17 years and who are treated as young people due to their vulnerability or immaturity.

It does not contain information on young people who are supervised or case managed by organisations other than a youth justice agency (for example, young people supervised by an adult correctional agency).

The figure below summarises a range of possible pathways through the youth justice system. The stages that require a young person to be supervised by youth justice agencies and to be included in the YJ NMDS are shaded. These stages are the focus of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's (AIHW) reporting series on youth justice supervision.

YJ NMDS files (data element clusters)

The YJ NMDS 2020– contains four files: client file, order file, detention file and order types file.

Youth Justice Client file cluster

The client file cluster contains demographic information on young people under youth justice supervision.

Youth Justice Order file cluster

The order file cluster contains information about the supervised orders handed down by courts and parole boards to young people under youth justice supervision.

Youth Justice Detention file cluster

The detention file cluster contains information about the periods of detention of young people under youth justice supervision. A detention period relates to the period of time a young person is detained in a youth justice remand or detention centre in relation to a particular detention type. A new reception into a detention centre, a change in legal status and a transfer to another detention centre all start a new detention period, while a release from a detention centre, a transfer to another centre or another jurisdiction, a change in legal status, an escape and an abscond all end a detention period.

Youth Justice Order types file cluster

The order types file cluster links the orders available in jurisdictions with the national order categories.

Collection and usage attributes

Person

Data are collected by state and territory youth justice agencies and provided to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for national collation, on an annual basis.

In April 2019 the Australasian Youth Justice Administrators changed their name from Australasian Juvenile Justice Administrators (and the name of the collection), replacing 'juvenile justice’ with ‘youth justice’.

Youth Justice NMDS redevelopment

Following a review of the YJ NMDS by KPMG in 2008 and 2009, the YJ NMDS was redeveloped to its current format from 2011–12 onwards. For more information on the redevelopment, see the Juvenile Justice NMDS 2011–12.

Source and reference attributes

Youth Justice Data and Information Group

AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2004. Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set Version 1.3 Data Dictionary. Canberra: AIHW.

AIHW 2021. Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set. Data Collection Manual 2020–21. Canberra: AIHW.

Relational attributes