Youth Justice NMDS 2022–23; Quality Statement
Data Quality Statement Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Quality Statement |
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METEOR identifier: | 787207 |
Registration status: | AIHW Data Quality Statements, Standard 28/03/2024 |
Data quality | |
Data quality statement summary: | Description The youth justice system is the set of processes and practices for dealing with children and young people who have committed or allegedly committed offences. In Australia, youth justice is the responsibility of state and territory governments, each with its own youth justice legislation, policies and practices. The Youth justice national minimum data set (YJ NMDS) contains information on all children and young people in Australia who are supervised by youth justice agencies both in the community and in detention. The YJ NMDS is the only national collection of youth justice data. Each year, the state and territory government departments responsible for youth justice supply data extracted from their administrative systems to the AIHW under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Australasian Youth Justice Administrators (AYJA) and the AIHW. Those data are compiled in the YJ NMDS. Summary of Key Issues The YJ NMDS 2022–23 includes data relating to COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, from March 2020 up to 30 June 2023. There are data quality and coverage limitations specific to each state and territory. In particular:
Overall, the levels of missing data in the YJ NMDS are very low. Only four variables have rates of missing or unknown data greater than 1%—Indigenous status, suburb, postcode and state of last known address. Each year, most jurisdictions supply data from 2000–01 to the most recent financial year, incorporating updates to data as required. Trend data may therefore differ from those published in previous Youth justice in Australia reports due to data revisions. The most recent data are the most accurate. |
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Institutional environment: | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is an independent corporate Commonwealth entity under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 (AIHW Act), governed by a management board and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health portfolio. The AIHW is a nationally recognised information management agency. Its purpose is to create authoritative and accessible information and statistics that inform decisions and improve the health and welfare of all Australians. Compliance with the confidentiality requirements in the AIHW Act, the Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and AIHW’s data governance arrangements ensures that the AIHW is well positioned to release information for public benefit while protecting the identity of individuals and organisations. For further information see the AIHW website www.aihw.gov.au/about-us, which includes details about the AIHW’s governance (www.aihw.gov.au/about-us/our-governance) and our role and strategic goals (www.aihw.gov.au/about-us/our-vision-and-strategic-goals). The data for the YJ NMDS are provided to the AIHW by those state and territory departments responsible for youth justice. These departments include:
Jurisdiction-level data releases must be signed off by the relevant state or territory. |
Timeliness: | The extraction period for the 2022–23 YJ NMDS is from 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2023. This means that in 2022–23, data were resupplied for the period 2000–01 to 2021–22, and data for 2022–23 were supplied for the first time. The data set includes young people who were under youth justice supervision at any time during that period.
The state and territory departments responsible for youth justice provide data to the AIHW annually, following the end of each financial year. For the 2022–23 collection, the first iteration of data was due for upload and checking on the AIHW’s data validation system within 6 weeks of the end of the financial year (by 11 August 2023). The first release of YJ NMDS data for each collection period occurs in the Youth justice in Australia report. Subsequent publication of these data may occur in AIHW reports, online content, and other publications external to the AIHW. YJ NMDS data are expected to be published, annually, 9 months after the reference period. |
Accessibility: | Publications containing YJ NMDS data, including the annual Youth justice in Australia report and online appendix tables, are available on the AIHW website. These reports and tables are available free of charge. Requests for unpublished YJ NMDS data can be made by contacting the AIHW on (02) 6244 1000 or via email to [email protected]. A cost recovery charge may apply to requests that take longer than half-an-hour to compile. Depending on the nature of the request, requests for access to unpublished data may require approval from the AYJA and/or the AIHW Ethics Committee. General inquiries about AIHW publications can be made to the Strategic Communications and Engagement Unit on (02) 6244 1032 or via email to [email protected]. |
Interpretability: | Detailed supporting information on the quality and use of YJ NMDS data is available at the AIHW website. Readers are advised to consider supporting information to ensure appropriate interpretation of analysis presented by the AIHW. Supporting information includes footnotes to tables and details of the data items, coverage, quality and the methods used in reporting, such as the calculation of counts, rates and supervision periods. AIHW youth justice reports are available for purchase in hard copy or for download free of charge. |
Relevance: | The YJ NMDS contains information on all children and young people who were supervised by a youth justice agency in Australia during the reference period because they:
In Queensland, youth justice legislation previously applied to children and young people aged 10–16 when the offence was committed or allegedly committed. In February 2018, new legislation was enacted to include young people aged 17 in the youth justice system. Since the enactment of the legislation, Queensland has begun to transfer young people aged 17 into youth justice facilities. In all other states and territories, youth justice legislation applies to children and young people aged 10–17. Although most people under youth justice supervision are aged 10–17, some are aged 18 and over. For each young person recorded in the YJ NMDS, data are collected on:
The YJ NMDS contains information on all supervised legal arrangements and orders that youth justice agencies administer (both community-based and detention orders) and all periods of detention in youth justice detention centres. Supervised legal arrangements and orders include police-referred detention before the first court appearance; court-referred remand; supervised bail; and sentenced orders, such as community service orders, probation, suspended detention, sentenced detention and parole or supervised release. Periods of detention include police-referred detention (before the young person’s initial court appearance), remand (court-referred detention following a court appearance) and sentenced detention. For each period of supervision, data are collected on:
The YJ NMDS does not contain information on children and young people in the youth justice system who were not supervised (for example, young people on unsupervised bail), or who were supervised by other agencies, such as police. |
Accuracy: | Data for the YJ NMDS are extracted each year from the administrative systems of the state and territory departments responsible for youth justice in Australia, according to definitions and technical specifications agreed to by the departments and the AIHW. Overall, the levels of missing data in the YJ NMDS are very low. About 5% of all young people in the YJ NMDS since 2000–01 have an unknown Indigenous status. A small number of records in each of the order (5%) and detention (4%) files have unknown or missing information for the postcode and state of the young person’s usual residence. For all other variables in the YJ NMDS, the proportion of missing data is 1% or less. Each year, most jurisdictions supply data from 2000–01 to the most recent financial year, incorporating updates to data as required. Trend data may therefore differ from those published in previous Youth justice in Australia reports due to data revisions. The most recent data are the most accurate. Data quality issues specific to each state and territory include the following: Western Australia Data from Western Australia was included for the first time since 2007–08, in the YJ NMDS 2015–16 reporting period. For the 2015–16 and 2016–17 submissions the Western Australia data supply included only the sentenced detention period, where a young person was both sentenced and unsentenced at the same time. As a result, an undercount of young people on unsentenced detention orders is expected in those years. Tasmania For Tasmania, complete data on detention periods and orders are available only for 2006–07 onwards. Because data on length of detention are used to derive the time spent under community-based supervision, information on periods of community-based supervision before 2006–07 may therefore be incomplete and are not reported. Australian Capital Territory For the Australian Capital Territory, data for 2000–01 to 2002–03 are not available and data for 2003–04 to 2007–08 are available only in YJ NMDS 2007 format. Northern Territory The 2022–23 reporting period is the sixth year to include YJ NMDS data for the Northern Territory. Data prior to 2012–13 are not available in YJ NMDS format. |
Coherence: | The YJ NMDS was initially developed between 2002 and 2004, and the first report containing data from the YJ NMDS was published in 2006. This first version of the YJ NMDS (referred to as YJ NMDS 2007 on METEOR) contained information on only the most serious supervised legal arrangement or order for each young person under youth justice supervision (see Juvenile justice in Australia 2007–08 for more information). In 2009, the YJ NMDS was redeveloped to capture all supervised legal arrangements and orders for young people under youth justice supervision rather than only the most serious one. This version of the YJ NMDS (known as YJ NMDS 2009) allows for more complete analysis of the numbers and types of supervised orders that youth justice agencies administer. Juvenile justice in Australia 2008–09 was the first report to contain data from the redeveloped YJ NMDS. In 2015–16, the orders file was updated with changes to the following order types:
In 2019–20 a new data item ‘Order issue date’ was added to the order file to collect information about when an order was handed down by the courts. In the 2020–21 detention end reasons ‘7 release on bail by appeal’ and ‘8 release stayed pending appeal’ were removed. For the 2022–23 YJ NMDS, the reference period was 2000–01 to 2022–23. Data were resupplied for the period 2000–01 to 2021–22. YJ NMDS classification and coding changes can be applied retrospectively to all years of supplied data. Trend data may therefore differ from those previously published due to data revisions. Data coherence issues specific to each state and territory include the following: New South Wales For New South Wales, data provided in 2019–20 will differ from previous years after a review of order end reason classifications. Order end reasons affected include:
Order type data (see more details under coherence section) submitted from 2018–19 onwards will differ from previous years after a review of the mapping of local to national order type classifications. Order types affected include:
The Kariong Juvenile Justice Centre was transferred from the NSW Department of Juvenile Justice to the NSW Department of Corrective Services on 10 November 2004 and renamed the Kariong Juvenile Correctional Centre. As the YJ NMDS includes only young people who are supervised by youth justice agencies in Australia, information about young people in custody in the Kariong Juvenile Correctional Centre after 10 November 2004 is not included. In 2012–13 there were 28 young people on an average day in the Kariong Juvenile Correctional Centre, and formed only a small proportion (around 8%) of young people in detention in New South Wales. Kariong Juvenile Correctional Centre was closed in early 2015. During April and May 2015, 23 young people were transferred out of the Kariong Centre to another youth detention centre under the supervision of Juvenile Justice NSW. All young people under the age of 18 years who were transferred out of the Kariong Centre, and who entered the supervision of Juvenile Justice NSW, entered the YJ NMDS data collection on the date they were transferred. Victoria For Victoria, data provided from the 2018–19 submission onwards will differ from previous submissions after a review of order end reason classifications. Order end reasons affected include:
Queensland In Queensland, legislation to increase the youth justice age limit to 17 was passed in 2016 and enacted on 12 February 2018. Before then, the age limit in Queensland was 16, and young people aged 17 and over were treated as adults. From February 2018, young people aged 17 were transferred from the adult justice system into the youth justice system, leading to a rise in the number of young people held in youth justice supervision in Queensland and nationally. South Australia South Australian order type data reported in 2019–20 may vary from that reported in previous years due to a review of the mapping of local to national order types. Most community order types were impacted to a small degree by the review. Western Australia From 2017–18 onwards, Western Australia was able to capture more accurate legal status changes, so unsentenced orders will appear to have increased. Western Australia also began backdating sentenced orders from the 2017–18 submission onwards leading to variations in the number of sentenced orders captured within a reporting period. Australian Capital Territory In 2021, the Australian Capital Territory implemented a new youth justice information system which improved data quality and availability. Police-referred pre-court detention and remand (court-referred detention) are now included as separate records for 2020–21 in the YJNMDS. A review in the local to national order type mapping resulted in changes to 2019–20 YJ NMDS data for the Australian Capital Territory. Suspended detention orders are now being reported where previously they were combined with probation or similar orders. Northern Territory For YJ NMDS submissions from 2017–18 onwards, periods of sentenced detention have been backdated to take into account periods of unsentenced detention already served. This has led to a higher proportion of young people reported as being under sentenced and unsentenced detention at the same time. Due to the implementation of a new information system ahead of the 2022–23 YJ NMDS submission, data for the Northern Territory will not be comparable to YJ NMDS submissions prior to 2022–23. State and Territory youth justice department data Individual state and territory youth justice departments publish data which is not comparable to AIHW reports. This is due to each state and territory youth justice department applying counting rules specific to their jurisdiction. This can lead to differences, such as age calculations and how concurrent detention and community-based orders are treated. The YJ NMDS data is also not time-stamped so a whole day is counted when a young person comes in contact with a youth justice service which can lead to a higher count. |
Data products | |
Implementation start date: | 01/07/2022 |
Source and reference attributes | |
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare |
Relational attributes | |
Related metadata references: | Supersedes Youth Justice NMDS 2021–22; Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 28/03/2024 |