The figures show the number of Australian teens involved with the justice system continues to drop. 

Fewer and fewer Australian teens are under supervision by the justice system on any given day, according to a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. 

The 2022-2023 instalment of an annual report shows an average of 4,542 young people aged 10-17 were under justice supervision over the year, down 20 per cent from 2018-2019. 

The report says 96 per cent of these young people were aged over 14 and 18 per cent were in detention. 

The rate of First Nations young people under supervision fell by 18 per cent over the past 5 years, the report says. 

AIHW spokesperson Ms Amanda Donges says that young people aged 10–17 living in remote areas or from lower socioeconomic areas continue to be more likely to be over-represented in youth justice supervision.

Although most young people aged 10–17 under supervision are from cities and regional areas (84 per cent), those from remote areas had the highest rates of supervision. 

On an average day in 2022–23, young people aged 10–17 who were from very remote areas were 11 times as likely to be under supervision as those from major cities.

Similarly, almost 2 in 5 young people (38 per cent) under supervision on an average day in 2022–23 were from the lowest socioeconomic areas (that is, from an area that is in the 20 per cent of areas with the greatest level of disadvantage), compared with about 1 in 20 young people (4.9 per cent) from the highest socioeconomic areas.

The full report including regional fact sheets is accessible here.