The Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set (YJ NMDS) 2018–20 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 not supervised or case managed by 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 are 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.
Figure: Overview of the youth justice system in Australia
Notes:
Shaded objects indicate youth justice agency involvement. These areas of the youth justice system are within the scope of the YJ NMDS, and are the focus of the AIHW's report series on youth justice supervision.
This diagram is an indicative summary and is not intended to reflect all possible pathways.
The YJ NMDS 2018–20 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
Statistical unit:
Person
Implementation start date:
01/07/2018
Implementation end date:
30/06/2020
Comments:
In April 2019 the Australasian Youth Justice Administrators changed their name (and the name of the collection), replacing 'juvenile justice’ with ‘youth justice’.
Youth Justice NMDS redevelopment
Previous versions of the YJ NMDS comprised a client file, an episode file and a centre file. The episode file contained information on a young person’s most serious supervised order, that is, if a young person was being supervised in relation to more than one order at any one time, only information on the most serious order was collected.
Following the review of the YJ NMDS by KPMG in 2008 and 2009, the YJ NMDS was redeveloped and the episode file was replaced with an order file and a detention file and an order type file was added to the NMDS. The client file and the centre file were not altered. A number of data items were added to the YJ NMDS and existing data item names were updated to match the data item names used in METeOR.
The centre file was removed from YJ NMDS in 2011.
The four files collected for the YJ NMDS have been replicated in METeOR as DSS clusters listed as follows:
Youth Justice Client file cluster
Youth Justice Order file cluster
Youth Justice Detention file cluster
Youth Justice Order types file cluster.
Source and reference attributes
Submitting organisation:
Australian Youth Justice Administrators (AYJA)
Origin:
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) 2004. Juvenile Justice National Minimum Data Set Version 1.3 Data Dictionary. Canberra: AIHW.
Reference documents:
AIHW 2019. Youth Justice National Minimum Data Set. Data Collection Manual 2018–19. Canberra: AIHW.