Number of youth offenders in Qld hits lowest level in more than a decade

The youth offender rate per 100,000 people dropped from 3575.8 to 2079.5 during the 2008-2020 reporting period, with the youth proportion of all offenders falling from 18.4 per cent to 12.4 per cent.

Queensland had the fourth-highest youth offender rate behind the Northern Territory (2681), NSW (2297), and Western Australia (2230).

In Queensland, the number of youth offenders with a principal charge of theft dropped to 1985 in 2019-20 from 2240 the previous year and 4989 in 2008-09. Those on charges of unlawful entry with intent fell to 1402 from 1516 and 2025, respectively.

Youth offenders charged with acts intended to cause injury remained essentially stable across the past three years but were almost 300 fewer than 2008-09. Principal…