Victoria’s youth justice funding is weighted toward the small number of young people with repeated serious offences. Early intervention, which uses proven legal and social work supports to reduce reoffending and prevent deeper involvement in the criminal legal system, is critically underfunded.

Our Youth Crime Early Intervention Program is the only statewide service providing early legal and social work support to young people aged 18 to 24 who are experiencing homelessness, from their first contact with police and criminal charges. Many face intersecting challenges, including family violence, poverty and housing instability. They often move between services’ catchment areas in search of safety and secure housing.

Program evaluations show that this wraparound support diverts young people away from the criminal legal system. Yet this vital service is at risk of closing in March 2027 without Victorian Government funding.

The current minimum age of legal responsibility in Victoria is discriminatory and out of step with human rights standards and medical science on child development. It should apply to civil proceedings as well as criminal ones, including Family Violence and Personal Safety Intervention Orders.

Twelve and 13 year old children are still developing executive functioning, impulse control, risk assessment and critical thinking, and the ability to anticipate and weigh the short and long term consequences of their actions. At this stage, they may not yet have the cognitive maturity to fully understand the seriousness and legal implications of criminal conduct, or of breaching an intervention order.

Many children facing criminal charges or intervention orders have experienced family violence themselves.

No young person should be locked in prison because they can’t afford to pay their fines.

The threat of imprisonment alone does enormous harm. Fear of a warrant being executed, and of being locked up if they can’t pay the full amount in the next 7 days, pushes young people into desperate choices. They hand over their only savings or Centrelink payments, take out credit cards or loans, or go without food, rent or medication.

Young people who are already doing it tough are driven deeper into financial hardship, and many are left with debts and stress that follow them for years.

93% of people who access diversion successfully complete it, and they are half as likely to reoffend.¹

Despite this, systems and process barriers to court-ordered diversion create unnecessary delays, drive up costs and contribute to inconsistent outcomes for young people across the state. Timely access to diversion away from the criminal legal system is vital for rehabilitation for 18 to 24 year olds in the Magistrates’ Court.

We’re calling for a specialist Young Adult List, modelled on successful approaches like the Neighbourhood Justice Centre’s Young Adult List and the New Zealand Young Adult List.

This means:

• specialist-trained magistrates who understand youth development
• age-appropriate court processes that let young people take part in their own matters
• connections to community supports such as housing, education, mental health and family violence services

Together, these measures promote diversion, rehabilitation and better outcomes by addressing the underlying causes of offending.

Children and young people experiencing homelessness without any form of photo ID need a free, quick and easy way to get one, such as a Proof of Age card.

Photo ID is essential for young people escaping family violence to access housing, Centrelink, healthcare and other vital services. Recent changes removed a pathway that let our clients get a Proof of Age card with support from a qualified worker. Young people with no ID are now trapped in a bureaucratic loop: they need ID to get ID, which blocks access to the services they need to survive.

Young people leaving out-of-home care often struggle to understand decisions made about their childhood. We support care leavers to access their records through freedom of information (FOI) requests, but the process can take years. The documents are often heavily redacted and run to hundreds of pages, leaving young people without clear answers about their lives.

When they turn 18, young care leavers should have automatic, free access to their care histories, on an opt-out basis, so every young person can understand their own history and story.

In Victoria, more than half (54%) of care leavers experienced homelessness within four years of leaving out-of-home care.²

Young people leaving care deserve the same security and stability that other young people rely on their families to provide. The Victorian Government should guarantee five years of secure housing for care leavers as part of extended care to age 22. That gives them a foundation to build independence, stay connected to education and employment, and avoid homelessness.