YOUNG PEOPLETRANSITIONING

FROM OUT OF HOMECARE IN VICTORIA:

Strengtheningsupport servicesfor dual clients

of ChildProtection andYouth Justice

Phase Two Report

Philip Mendes

Pamela Snow

Susan Baidawi

November 2013

Leaving Care and Youth JusticePhase 2 report

Suggested CitationMendes, P., Snow, P.C. and Baidawi, S. (2013). YoungPeople Transitioning from Out-of-Home Care inVictoria: Strengthening support services for dual

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clients of Child Protection and Youth Justice –Phase Two Report. Melbourne: Monash University.

Contents

List of Tables...............................................3List of Figures..............................................4Acknowledgements.............................................5Executive Summary............................................6Background..................................................12Literature review...........................................13Methodology.................................................17Results.....................................................19Out of home care..........................................19Education and Employment..................................27Mental Health.............................................43Substance use.............................................45Intellectual disability...................................46Offending behaviour.......................................47Youth Justice involvement.................................54Desistance and reduced offending..........................61Leaving care and post-care experience.....................67

Young people’s perspectives.................................85Discussion..................................................91Out of home care..........................................92Education.................................................94

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Leaving care and post-care services and experiences.......95Offending behaviour.......................................96Youth Justice system......................................98Desistance, Reduced Offending and Persistent Offending. . . .99

Towards a best practice model for addressing offending behaviour in young people leaving out of home care.........101References.................................................104

List of Tables

Table 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample

............................................................18

Table 2. Young people's explanations of why they were placed

in out of home care.........................................20

Table 3. Number of out of home care placements and placement

types.......................................................23

Table 4. Highest level of high school education.............28

Table 5. Positive and negative descriptions of school

experiences.................................................28

Table 6. Involvement in further education...................40

Table 7. Self-reported mental health conditions.............43

Table 8. Age at which offending behaviour commenced.........48

Table 9. Initial offence types described by young people....48

Table 10. Sites of offending described by young people......49

Table 11. Self-reported Youth Justice orders/tariffs received

by young people.............................................57

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Table 12. Age young people ceased Youth Justice involvement. 61

Table 13. Current level of offending........................62

Table 14. Access to post-care services at the time of leaving

care........................................................71

Table 15. Reasons for post-care placement breakdown.........73

Table 16. Subsequent post-care accommodation................74

Table 17. Accommodation at the time of interview............75

Table 18. Pregnancy and parenthood..........................76

Table 19. Adult criminal justice system involvement.........76

Table 20. Characteristics of young people who did and did not

become involved in the adult criminal justice system........76

Table 21. Current formal and informal supports..............79

Table 22. Number of siblings mentioned by young people......82

Table 23. Suggestions to reduce offending behaviour among

young people in out of home care............................87

Table 24. Selected out of home care and demographic

characteristics of study sample and general Victorian care

leavers.....................................................91

Table 25. Selected characteristics of the study sample and

young people in Youth Justice custody in 2012...............92

Table 26. Children and young people aged 10-17 years admitted

to out of home care, by age group, states and territories

2011-12. (Source: AIHW (2013, p. 76)).......................93

List of Figures

Figure 1. Number of self-reported mental health diagnoses. . .43

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Figure 2. Age of initial offending and initial Youth Justice

involvement.................................................55

Figure 3. Time between initial out of home care and initial

Youth Justice involvement...................................56

Figure 4. Cumulative number of young people entering out of

home care, engaging in offending, involved with Youth Justice

and disengaged from education...............................56

Figure 5. Self-reported ratings of help given by Youth Justice

workers.....................................................58

Figure 6. Initial post-care accomodation....................72

Figure 7. Status of young peoples' current relationships with

mothers.....................................................80

Figure 8. Young peoples' current formal supports............84

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the project partners for theirassistance in carrying out this research, and our gratitude toevery young person who contributed their time, perceptions andexperiences to the project.

The authors would also like to acknowledge the support andcontribution of the project advisory committee comprised ofrepresentatives from our partner organisations (listed below),as well as DHS Child Protection, DHS Youth Justice and theCentre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare.

Commission for Children and Young People (Victoria)Berry StreetJesuit Social ServicesOzChildThe Salvation Army WestcareThe Youth Support and Advocacy ServiceWhitelion Inc The authors gratefully acknowledge the generous funding of theHelen Macpherson Smith Trust and the fantastic co-operationand support of our partner organisations and other agencieswho contributed to the study.

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Executive Summary

Evidence suggests young people leaving state care are at agreater risk of involvement with the Youth Justice systemcompared to young people in the general population. Thisreport presents the results of the second phase of the LeavingCare and Youth Justice project which aimed to generate a morein depth understanding of the involvement of care leavers inthe Youth Justice system, including their backgrounds andpotential programs or interventions which have assisted or mayassist this group of young people.

Data collection involved individual semi-structured interviewswith fifteen Victorian care leavers aged 18 to 26 years whohad also experienced involvement in the Youth Justice system.The findings focus on a number of areas, including the reasonsfor entry to out of home care, experiences of out of homecare, education and leaving care. Finally offending behavior,youth and adult justice system experiences as well as post-care outcomes are presented.

Analysis of the young peoples’ self-reported reasons for entryto care revealed that around half of the sample had enteredout of home care in adolescence as a result of behaviouralissues (including substance use, violence and otheroffending), family conflict or running away. The remainder of

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the sample had either entered care at a younger age as aresult of abuse and neglect, or were unclear as to the reasonsthey had been in care. By the time of leaving care, each ofthe young people had experienced residential care placements.Other than smaller residential units in which young peoplereported receiving more individual attention, residential careenvironments were often experienced as lacking boundaries,discipline and responsiveness from staff.

While most of the young people had used alcohol and otherdrugs, a high proportion of the young people described havingsubstance abuse problems (12/15) and mental health diagnoses(10/15). Additionally, eleven of the 15 young people describedthe involvement of other family members, siblings, fathers andother extended family members in the criminal justice system.Around half of these described extensive involvement in theadult justice system of multiple family members.

School difficulties were also common among the sample, including experiences of bulling, conflicts with students and teachers and specific learning difficulties (5/15). Twelve of the 15 young people described being excluded from school as a result of suspensions (n=2), expulsions (n=4) or both (n=6), and year 10 was the highest school educational level achieved (6/15 young people). Disengagement with education appeared to coincide with multiple and complex problems, often occurring around the time of entering residential care. Despite this, many of the young people managed to re-engage in alternative education with the support of workers (7/15), and the majorityhad engaged in further education courses and programs by the time of the interview. At the same time, translating trainingand education into employment opportunities proved difficult for this group, and only a minority of the young people had any work experience over their lives.

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For the majority of young people (9/15), offending behaviourcommenced at the age of 12 to 13 years. Assault, theft andsubstance use and property damage were the main types ofinitial offences described by the young people, however 13/15described multiple offence types emerging fairlysimultaneously. The young people were more likely todescribe receiving charges as a minor for offences whichoccurred only outside of the placement environment (8/15),compared to those which occurred solely within the placementenvironment (2/15), or both outside and inside the placementenvironment (4/15). Socially-based group offending withfriends from school, other young people in care and boyfriendswas the most common social context of emerging offending(8/15), however a number of the young people also reportedoffending alone (6/15). This included young people who werecharged with assaults and property destruction in the contextof placement, and others who committed other crime (e.g.thefts) alone. A minority of young people (2/15) alsodescribed offending with immediate and extended biologicalfamily members.

Substance use and social pressure were the two key factorsassociated with offending behaviour. The majority of youngpeople (13/15) described committing offences while substance-affected, and a minority (3/15) progressed to committing crimeto fund substance use. All of the young people indicated thattheir initial involvement in out of home care preceded theirinvolvement in the Youth Justice system. Initial Youth Justiceinvolvement occurred at an average age of 14.1 years (range10-16 years), with an estimated average of just under twoyears (1.9 years) between the age at which young peopledescribed becoming involved in offending, and the age at whichthey first became involved with Youth Justice services. Bythe age of 16, all of the young people had entered out of homecare, engaged in offending, become involved with Youth Justiceand disengaged from education.

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All but one young person had been under at least one YouthJustice order, including Good Behaviour Bonds, Probation, andSupervision Orders; Approximately one half had been in YouthJustice detention at some point (7/15). One of the mostnoteworthy themes was the general lack of knowledge and recallof many young people concerning the precise reasons they wereinvolved with Youth Justice, or the orders which they had beenplaced under. It appears that the chaotic nature of youngpeoples’ lives and offending made it very difficult for themto make connections between their own behaviour and thevarious judicial consequences which they experienced as aresult. Around one third of the young people had positiveassessments community-based Youth Justice interventions -these young people appreciated accessing practical oremotional support through these processes. Conversely, anotherthird of participants believed that community-based YouthJustice interventions made no difference to their offendingbehaviour. Three of the 7 young people described fairly positiveexperiences of Youth Justice custody, which tended to be basedupon access to material goods and education, as well aspositive experiences of staff. The remaining four young peopledetailed more negative experiences, which were associated witha sense of being unsafe and/or losing connections with workersand friends in the community. Of concern was that 4/7 youngpeople reported witnessing, being victimised by orperpetrating assaults whilst in Youth Justice custody.

Positive leaving care experiences (4/15) from the perspectiveof young people were associated with opportunities to acquirematerial goods and to no longer be involved in the childprotection system. However, at least 9 of the 15 young peopledescribed a chaotic transition from care, associated withescalating substance use and/or offending behaviourimmediately preceding, during and/or soon after the transitionfrom care. Overall, there were fairly negative outcomes in

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relation to many life domains - 8/15 young people had beenhomeless at some point since leaving care, two of theparticipants were pregnant and a total of 4/15 young peoplehad one or more children of their own.

Nearly one half of the participants (7/15) had alsoexperienced involvement with the adult criminal justicesystem. All of these participants were male, six had spenttime in adult custody since leaving care, and four had furthercharges pending. These participants tended to have enteredcare at a later age (> 10 years), either due to behaviouralissues or family conflict. Post-care factors which were morecommon among the young people who proceeded to the adultjustice system included:

Having no support from a post-care worker at the time ofleaving care

Experiencing homelessness since leaving care; and Having no informal post-care supports (i.e. only being

connected to voluntary or involuntary services orworkers)

Positively, most of the participants in the study (10/15) hadeither desisted from offending or greatly reduced theiroffending behaviour by the time of the interview. Becoming aparent and dealing with substance abuse issues were eachdescribed as key factors which precipitated a reduction inoffending behaviour. The young people who had reduced theiroffending frequency and/or severity had often described ashift in their attitudes based on a level of care forthemselves and others which had not previously dominated theirdecision-making, including wanting a better life, not wantingto lose children and realising the impact of their offending.

The four young people in the study who continued to exhibitongoing offending behaviour at the time of the interview wereall young males, aged between 19 and 25 years, who were

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currently on adult criminal justice orders (bail and parole).Three of these young people had further court cases pending.Extensive family involvement in the criminal justice system,later age of entry to care, problematic alcohol use andestrangement from family characterised this group of youngpeople. This group of young people appeared to have nosignificant connection to adults in their lives other thanvarious agency workers.

The respondents’ perspectives and feedback concerningoffending and leaving care were particularly revealing. Whenasked why young people in care commit offences, the followingthemes emerged:

Offending is a mechanism for seeking care or attention,expressing/coping with difficult feelings or attemptingto influencing their circumstances

Offending is a reaction to a lack of care and disciplinein their out of home care environment

Offending is a result of things that have happened in theyoung person’s past

Offending is about following the behaviour of peers

When asked what could be done to reduce offending among young people leaving care, the respondents outlined three main strategies, comprising care, containment and treatment:

Care: Young people in care need more one-to-one attentionfrom workers and carers, for example being kept occupied,listened to and encouraged.

Containment: Out of home care environments should be morestrict (for example having earlier curfews) and thatthere should be greater consequences for breaking anyrules.

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Treatment: Addressing mental health and substance abuseissues was described as the final key factor necessary toreduce offending behaviour among young people leavingcare.

The dual order child protection and youth justice client grouppresent with complex needs which cannot be adequatelyaddressed within a single service sector. The study findingspoint to various interventions that may prove helpful toreducing offending behaviour among young people in and leavingcare, including:

Intervention with families – Where suitable, familyinterventions could potentially be adopted either priorto entering care, during leaving care planning or withinYouth Justice interventions.

Therapeutic care options – The available evidencesuggests that therapeutic foster and residential careplacements may prove useful options for young peopledisplaying problematic externalising behaviour, includingoffending behaviour.

Enhancing understanding of trauma and attachment issuesin schools – Sufficient information in this area isrequired for adequate understanding and responsiveness tothe needs of dual order care leavers.

Strengthening educational supports - Supports to assistwith various learning difficulties including intellectualdisabilities, dyslexia and auditory processing disorders,for example, may assist young people to remain engagedwith education for a longer period.

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Expanding alternative education options - Expanding thealternative, particularly trauma-informed, educationaloptions available to young people in out of home careappears to be an important strategy for retaining careleavers in the education system.

Focusing on the transition from education and training toemployment opportunities - Greater emphasis needs to beplaced upon translating education and training optionsonto employment for care leavers, particularly those whohave become involved with the criminal justice system.

A range of accessible substance abuse and mental healthtreatment options – The availability and accessibility ofyouth-specific alcohol and drug services was vital toreducing and desisting from offending behaviour.However, access to mental health supports for dual ordercare leavers was relatively sparse, and warrants furtherinvestigation.

Flexible trauma-informed leaving care models – there is aneed for flexible leaving care models which are able tosustain practical and emotional support to young peoplebeyond the age of 18 years.

Post-care accommodation and support - Appropriate, safeand affordable housing and practical and emotionalsupport from at least one pro-social adult at the time ofleaving care and in the post-care period appearsnecessary to support reduced offending and desistance.

While the findings are limited to a small sample of dual ordercare leavers in Victoria, they lend a voice to the needs andexperiences of a complex and vulnerable group of young people.They indicate various areas for potential intervention which

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may reduce the transitioning of young people from out of homecare into the youth and adult justice systems.

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Background

This report presents the second phase of the Leaving Care andYouth Justice study. The phase one report of the studypresented a detailed literature review of together withfindings from consultations with key stakeholders in Victoria(Mendes, Snow, & Baidawi, 2012). Seventy-seven keystakeholders participated in interviews and focus groups witha view to identifying practices and policies that could reducethe over-representation of young people leaving out of homecare in the Youth Justice system. Respondents outlinedexperiences of trauma, substance abuse, educationaldisengagement and peer group pressure as key factorsassociated with offending behaviour in the out of home carepopulation. The findings from phase pointed to a need for moreformalised interagency collaboration, trauma-informed trainingand approaches for all professionals and services involvedwith this group, and intensification of the interventions andsupports offered both in custodial settings and post dischargefrom custody or care.

This report concerns phase two of the study, which involvedconsultations with former dual order child protection andYouth Justice clients aged 18 years and older. A briefliterature review is presented concerning previous studieswhich have specifically focused on offending behaviour inyoung people leaving out of home care. Next, the studymethodology is described, followed by the research findings.Finally, the report discusses study findings in the light ofprevious research and implications for policy, practice andfuture research are discussed.

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Literature review

The following section provides a brief overview of theliterature pertaining to offending behaviour and youth justicesystem involvement for young people in and leaving out of homecare. For a more detailed review of research regardingoffending behaviour and young people in care, see Mendes, Snowand Baidawi (2012).

State care and youth offendingA number of Australian studies have found a significantcorrelation between experiences of out of home care (OHC) andcriminal behaviour (Lynch, Buckman, & Krenske, 2003;McFarlane, 2008, 2010; Morgan Disney & Associates & AppliedEconomics, 2006). For example, a survey of 60 care leavers inVictoria (Raman, Inder, & Forbes, 2005) found that nearly halfhad had involvement with the justice system, and twelve percent had spent time in detention in the twelve months afterexiting care.

Surveys of Youth Justice (YJ) populations also suggest stronglinks between OHC histories and YJ involvement. Three separatestudies from NSW have indicated that 21-28% of males and 36-

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39% of females on community-based (Wood, 2008) or custodial(Murphy, McGinness, Balmaks, McDermott, & Corriea, 2010) YJorders had a history of OHC placement. The past three AnnualReports of the Victorian Youth Parole and Youth ResidentialBoards have also shown that one third to one half of youngpeople in custody had current or previous OHC involvement (TheYouth Parole Board and Youth Residential Board of Victoria,2011, 2012, 2013). Overseas studies have also indicated asimilar overrepresentation of young people from OHCbackgrounds in YJ systems internationally (Cusick & Courtney,2007; Darker, Ward, & Caulfield, 2008; Packard, Delgado,Fellmeth, & McCready, 2008). A number of factors appear tocontribute to this correlation as detailed below.

Child maltreatment and youth offendingSeveral studies have examined the links between childmaltreatment (neglect and/or abuse) and juvenile offending(Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000; Ryan & Testa, 2005). Queensland-based research conducted by Stewart et al (2002) found thatyoung people with substantiated maltreatment records were morelikely to have later offending records than those with nosubstantiated maltreatment (17 per cent vs 10 per cent).Additionally, maltreated young people who had experienced anOHC placement were twice as likely (26 per cent vs 13 percent) to have subsequently offended than those who weremaltreated but had never been placed out of home. This findinghas also been confirmed in the international literature (Ryan& Testa, 2005), but it has been proposed that “placement outside ofthe home is likely to be indicative of the seriousness of the maltreatment”. This isbased on the finding that young people who had been placedoutside the home were more likely to have experienced multipletypes of maltreatment (Stewart et al., 2002, p. 5), and thismay place them at elevated risk of a range of poorpsychosocial outcomes, including offending behaviour.

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Research has identified that children whose first OHCplacement or final substantiated maltreatment occurred at anolder age were more likely to offend (Jonson-Reid & Barth,2000; Ryan & Testa, 2005; Stewart et al., 2002; Stewart,Livingstone, & Dennison, 2008). Additionally, studiesindicate that victims of physical abuse are more likely tooffend than victims of other forms of maltreatment (Ryan,Marshall, Herz, & Hernandez, 2008; Stewart et al., 2002).

While the link between maltreatment and youth offending isestablished, it must be emphasised that not all maltreatedchildren offend (McFarlane, 2008; Stewart et al., 2002;Stewart et al., 2008), and not all young people enter care asa result of abuse or neglect. Indeed, Minty and Ashcroft(1987) found that 41 per cent of a sample of boys who wereadmitted into care due to parental illness, death orincapacity had received three or more convictions inadulthood. This emphasises the complex interplay betweenparental well-being and parenting skills, and challengessimplistic assumptions that maltreatment is the sole cause ofdelinquency amongst young wards (Taylor, 2006).

Other factors impacting on youth offending and youth justice involvementStudies on offending amongst state wards have consistentlyreported that males offend at higher rates than females(Cusick & Courtney, 2007; Darker et al., 2008; Ryan, Hong,Herz, & Hernandez, 2010; Ryan et al., 2008; Stewart et al.,2002), and that the risk of delinqency increases with age.However, both of these findings are fairly consistent withyouth offending statistics generally (Cusick & Courtney, 2007;Farrington, 1986). While the number of females from statecare backgrounds involved in the youth justice system isgenerally lower, it should be noted that proportionally moreyoung women in YJ custody have been found to have a history ofbeing placed in out of home care (Cunneen & White, 2011;Indig, 2011; Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000). For example, Indig et

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al (2011) determined that 40 per cent of young females incustody in NSW had a care background compared to 25 per centof young males. Finally, in the Australian context, researchindicates that Indigenous young people involved with youthjustice were more likely to have had child protectioninvolvement or a state care background than non-Indigenousyoung people involved in youth justice (Australian Instituteof Health and Welfare, 2012; Indig, 2011).

Systemic factors which impact on the risk of offending includeOHC placement type and placement stability, as well as thelevel of support provided during and after the transition fromstate care. Studies suggest that young people who haveexperienced a higher degree of placement instability (Barn &Tan, 2012; Cusick, Courtney, Havlicek, & Hess, 2010; Jonson-Reid & Barth, 2000; Ryan & Testa, 2005; Taylor, 2006; Widom,1991) or who have had placements in group homes or residentialcare settings (Ryan et al., 2008; Taylor, 2006) are morelikely to offend. Additionally, there is evidence to suggestthat young people who have spent a shorter time in care aremore liekly to engage in criminal activity (Barn & Tan, 2012).

Other individual factors have been identified as impacting onoffending behaviour amongst young people in care includingboredom, disengagement from education, substance use,intellectual disability, mental health difficulties,intergenerational involvement in the criminal justice system,unemployment and financial difficulties (Barn & Tan, 2012;Blades, Hart, Lea, & Willmott, 2011; Haapasalo, 2000; Indig,2011; Snow & Powell, 2008, 2011; Taylor, 2006).

Youth offending and leaving careLeaving care is formally defined as the cessation of legalresponsibility by the State for young people living in OHC. NoAustralian studies have specifically examined youth offendingduring the leaving care period, yet this is a significant time

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for many reasons: first, research indicates that in general,it is during this period that offending increases (Farrington,1986; Hirschi & Gottfredson, 1983). Secondly, offendingbehaviour during this time is likely to impact upon thetransition from care, and thirdly, those transitioning into YJcustody may be disadvantaged in terms of ongoing supportcompared to other care leavers (Moslehuddin, 2010). Someinternational studies have examined offending behaviour duringthe transition from care, with most focusing on crime ratesrather than practice and policy responses.

US researchers Cusick and Courtney (2007) compared theoffending behaviours of care leavers with the generalpopulation in a large-scale longitudinal study. Resultsindicated that the care population was about twice as likelyto engage in offending behaviours from age 16 to 17, andsignificantly more likely to report being arrested between 18and 19 years of age. Cusick et al (2010) also developed atypology of offending amongst young people transitioning fromcare (from surveying their samples at 17-18 years, 19 yearsand 21 years of age) which distinguished between rare or non-offenders (34 per cent of sample); adolescent offenders (28%)whose offending diminished by age 19; desisting offenders(19%) whose offending behaviours diminished by age 21; chronicoffenders (11%) who had the highest probability of violent andnon-violent offending behaviours over time; and chronic non-violent offenders (8%) who had a high probability of engagingin non-violent offences at each of the surveyed time points.By the age of 26, a majority of the young women and more thanfour-fifths of the young men in the study reported ever havingbeen arrested, and nearly one-third of the young women andalmost two-thirds of the young men reported spending at leastone night in adult justice custody since they were 17 or 18years old. (Courtney et al., 2011).

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The age of discharge and level of post-care support may impactupon the risk of offending (Schofield et al., 2012; Taylor,2006). In her study of 39 care leavers in the UK, Taylor(2006) identified that only one of the eight young people whohad left care aged 18 or over had served a custodial sentence,compared to 13 of the 20 individuals who had been dischargedby the age of 16. Additionally, Taylor found that regardlessof their experiences whilst in care, the young people oftenhad poor leaving care experiences, and commented that thosewho had become involved with alcohol and drugs were atparticularly high risk of becoming involved in crime. Lyon,Dennison and Wilson (2000) similarly found that young peoplefelt that their needs were unmet in trying to navigate thetransition to independent living. Crime was described as anecessary response by young people to meet basic needsincluding maintaining accommodation and providing for theirown children.

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.

Methodology

Aims: Phase two of this study aimed to access the perspectivesof young care leavers to generate a more in depth

understanding of:

Sample and recruitment: The study was advertised to the partner agencies including:

Berry Street

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• The reasons why some young people who have been in

out of home become involved in the Youth Justice

system;

• How Child Protection and Youth Justice work

together, particularly understanding what happens

when a young person who is involved in Youth

Justice leaves out of home care;

• The backgrounds of care leavers in the Youth

Justice system, and what happens to this group of

Jesuit Social Services OzChild The Salvation Army Westcare The Youth Support and Advocacy Service Whitelion Inc

Agency staff identified young people who met the followingeligibility criteria who were currently or previouslyaccessing the agency:

Aged 18 to 26 years Previous involvement in out of home care (at least 6

months in kinship care, foster care or residential careplacements)

Previous involvement in the Youth Justice system (either community-based or custodial youth justice involvement)

Convenience (non-probability) sampling was utilised given thedifficulty locating young people within the target group.Interview location and time was either arranged by agencystaff or by the research assistant contacting the youngperson.

Data collection: Semi-structured in-depth interviews wereconducted with the young people covering a range of topics,including out-of-home care history and experiences of out-of-home care, education history and experience, leaving careexperience, post-care experience, early offending history andYouth Justice history and experience. Young people alsocompleted a short demographic questionnaire with theinterviewer at the conclusion of the interview.

Sample: The final sample comprised 15 young people aged 17 to26 years who were interviewed between February 2012 and May2013. Interviews were either conducted at agencies which theyoung person was currently or previously involved (n=11), or

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at the young person’s home (n=4). Interviews ranged in lengthfrom 19.5 to 97.5 minutes, and the mean interview length was44 minutes. Visual timelines tracking events such as entryinto care, changes in placement and schools, leaving care andyouth justice involvement were created with each young personusing paper and pencil during each interview. Young personwere able to refer to the timeline to describe temporalrelationships between events. Other socio-demographic and carecharacteristics of the sample are shown in the table below.

Age (mean, [range]) 20.4 years, [17-26 years]Gender 10/15 Male; 5/15 FemaleLocation 12/15 Metro; 3/15 RegionalCountry of Birth 13/15 Australia; 2/15 New

ZealandATSI1 status 2/15 identified as ATSI

originTable 1. Socio-demographic characteristics of the study sample

Data Analysis: All interviews were audio-recorded andtranscribed. Thematic analysis was then conducted using thedata from interview transcripts with NVivo9 software.Quantitative data was entered into SPSS software for analysis.

Results

1 ATSI – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

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This section of the report details the findings according tothe topics explored with the young people. Quotes from theparticipants are utilised to highlight pertinent themes in thefindings. Within this section, figures and proportions areoften utilised to describe the group of young participants;these figures should always be interpreted with caution andshould not be generalised to the broader dual order clientpopulation, given the small sample size and non-probabilitysampling.

Other limitations of the study include the use of agencies asa sampling frame for the study. The results presented arelikely to be more reflective of the experiences of youngpeople who remain connected to services and supports afterleaving care. This may under-represent certain groups of careleavers, particularly those who may have remained involvedwith Youth Justice (young people on a current youth justiceorder were excluded from the study) or those who had enteredthe adult custodial justice system at the time of the study.Conversely, young people who may have had previous involvementwith Youth Justice but were faring well and no longerconnected to services post-care may also be under-representedin the findings. Finally, the findings presented here rely onretrospective self-report data. Such recollections aresubject to issues concerning participant recall and bias.Additionally, as Taylor (2006, pp. 69-70) explains, ‘the memoriesof care leavers may be further complicated by the often traumatic nature of theirearlier experiences and by the fragmented picture that they may have as a result ofmovement and change’. Nonetheless, theirs is a voice which hasbeen lacking in the research to date concerning offendingamong young people leaving care, particularly in theAustralian context, and provides valuable insights into thetrajectories and experiences of care leavers who have beeninvolved in the Youth Justice system.

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Out of home care Entry into out of home care The age range of entry into out of home care (kinship care,foster care or residential care) among the participants variedfrom 2 to 16 years; however the majority of the young people(9/15) reported first entering care after their 10th birthday.The mean age of entering care for the sample was 10.5 years,and the median was 12.5years2.

The main reasons young people gave as to why they had enteredcare are shown in the table below. Note that while thesereasons are unofficial, they do give a good indication as toeach young person’s understanding of why they were in care. Reasons for entering care

Number of young people

1. Challenging behaviours

5/15 (this mainly comprises violent behaviour and substance use; these young people entered care between 10 and 16 years)

2. Child maltreatment

4/15 (these young people entered care between 2 and13 years)

3. Running away/family conflict

3/15 (these young people entered care between 14 and 15 years)

4. Young person unsure

3/15 (these young people entered care OOHC at age 5or younger)

Table 2. Young people's explanations of why they were placed in out of home care

Group 1: Challenging behaviours (5/15)The most common reason for entering care which was describedby the young people was that their parent(s) could not managethe young person’s behaviour (5/15). Four of the five youngpeople in this category were male, and all had been residing2 These calculations only include 14/15 participants as one young person could not recall what age she had entered care, but stated that she was under 5 years of age. The true mean/median age of first entering care are therefore likely to be slightly lower for the sample than those quoted above.

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with their mothers prior to entering out of home care,(typically with other siblings in the home) and all hadformally entered care after the age of 10 years. The followingquotes indicate the responses given by these young people whenasked about their understanding as to the reasons they hadbeen in out of home care:

I come to understanding that my… my mother, she was a single mum, youknow? She had 2 of us, and well me and my sister, and uh… she struggledwith me because I was ADD and … and hyperactive, and I was getting into alot of trouble – YP2

Basically my mother was fed up with me…I was unable to live at home justbecause I was out of control. My mum wasn’t safe. I wasn’t safe – YP3

So mum didn’t lose the rest of her kids, because I was violent – YP4

Because when I was at home I just did whatever I want... I kept bringingeveryone back to my house and they wrecked a few things – YP8

My mum kicked me out because she found, like [drugs] – YP9

Three of these young people described being diagnosed withchildhood mental health issues, including AD/HD and conductdisorders. Only one of these young people did not describeeither mental health or substance abuse issues prior toentering care. It is important to note that although theseyoung people did not indicate childhood maltreatment directlyprecipitated their entry into care, this does not preclude thepossibility that they had experienced abuse, neglect or othertraumatic incidents. One of these young people articulatedtraumatic incidents which had occurred prior to his entry intocare:

My dad was an alcoholic, he used to beat my mum up and that, so … and mymum had boyfriends that… they treated me badly, you know, and beat mearound and stuff like that – YP2

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At least two of the young people in this group had trialledrespite care arrangements prior to formally entering out ofhome care. What remains unclear is the level of supports andservices offered to their parents prior to the entry to care.

Group 2: Child Maltreatment (4/15)The second most common reason described by young people was ahistory of abuse and neglect which directly drove their entryinto out of home care:

Practically got taken off my dad because of all the assaults and dad wasn’t avery nice person – YP5

Well my mum was doing drugs…she was allowing people to come to thehouse who weren’t exactly the best people. The house was always messy, shewas always violent towards us because of things that happened in the houseand another reason she decided to put us in care was to protect us from myfather – YP6

Because I wanted to… I never had food to eat or clean clothes, or clean house.Never had any toys, I never had any bedding or anything… I got admitted intothe psych ward … and then I told them that I don’t want to go back to mymum’s house, and I told them the reasons, and then they went to court andthey took me off my mum – YP14

Because my mum was being forced to abuse me – YP15

Three of these four people were female, and they each enteredcare at different ages (2, 8, 10 and 13 years). This entiregroup described significant mental health issues, includingAD/HD, depression and anxiety. In three instances, the youngpeople in this group had been placed in a child psychiatricunit during their time in out of home care. The two youngpeople in this group who entered care under the age of 10 wereboth initially placed in foster care placements. In one case,this only lasted a week before the young person enteredresidential care at the age of 8. In the other two cases,

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where the young people were aged 10 years or older uponentering care, they were both initially placed in residentialcare.

Group 3: Family conflict (3/15)The third group of young people were all young males (n=3) whodescribed leaving home in mid-adolescence due to conflictswith their caregivers, for example:

My mum moved to the country and I wasn't allowed to move with her so shegoes ‘You can live with her boyfriend at the time’, so I stayed with him but wedidn't get along, so I just got out of there and then I was living at mateshouses and we got into a bit of trouble with the police and then the policerealised they didn't have anywhere to bail me to, so they put me in resi care –YP10

I was originally from New South Wales. I moved down here with my Mum, wehad arguments, she kicked me out…police picked me up one day, put methrough welfare for a week and that’s when I ended up in [OOHC] – YP12

Both YP 10 and 12 entered residential care after policeintervention due to offending or welfare issues, prior towhich time they described a period of residing with friendsand being homeless, respectively, before formally enteringcare. YP 7 was initially placed in foster care, but moved toresidential care a couple of months later.

Group 4: Unclear (3/15)The final group of young people did not clearly articulate tothe interviewer the reasons why they were in care. This mayindicate that these young people they did not know why theyhad been placed in care, or alternatively they may not havefelt comfortable to share their experiences concerning theseissues with the interviewer. This group was comprised of twomales (aged 25 and 19) and one female (aged 18), all of whomestimated that they had entered care at around 5 years of age.

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I just didn't want to leave my mum yeah and I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ Yeah but they were like, ‘You have to’ – YP13

Q: Do you have any idea why you went into care? A: NupQ: No one’s explained?A: No – YP1

A: DHS are dogs. Q: Yep. Was anything more explained to you than that? A: Nope – YP11

In two instances the young people described unsuccessfulattempts at reunification with at least one parent. For YP1,reunification failed as she ran away from her mother’s care,and subsequently entered residential care at age 14. For YP13,the trajectory was also complex, involving foster care, thenreturn to his mother at age 8, who subsequently died threeyears later. Later attempts at kinship care with extendedfamily members were unsuccessful due to conflicts, substanceuse and violence. The final young person in this group (YP11)was initially placed in foster care at age 5, and laterentered residential care at age 12.

Out of home care placementsThe table below indicates the number of placements andplacement types experienced by the participants; responsesranged from 2 placements to upwards of 15 placements. In mostcases, this number represented the minimum number ofplacements, as many young people could not recall all of theirplacements. By the time they exited out of home care, 14 ofthe 15 young people had experienced at least one placement inresidential care. The single young male who had not

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experienced residential care indicated that a residentialplacement could not be found for him, and that he had spentmuch of his adolescence living with his friends’ families.

Number of placements Placement Types2-4 6/15 Kinship Care3 5/155-9 3/15 Foster Care 9/15

10-14 3/15 Residential Care 14/1515+ 2/15

Young personunsure

1/15

Table 3. Number of out of home care placements and placement types

Groups 1 and 3 who entered care as a result of behaviouralissues or running away were all initially placed inresidential care placements. This is understandable given theolder age at which these groups entered care, and the alreadydifficult behaviours displayed by this group upon entry intocare (e.g. substance use, property destruction etc.). Themajority of this group (6/8 young people) indicated that theyhad 5 or fewer different placements throughout their time incare, while the other two young people had upwards of 10placements each.

The seven young people in groups 2 and 4 (i.e. those whoentered care at a generally younger age due to abuse orneglect, or for reasons the young person could not recall),were all initially placed in foster care placements, typicallyat a younger age than the other two groups. Only five of theseseven young people could recall the number of placements theyhad had in out of home care, which ranged from 6 to upwards of15 placements. As would be expected, the young people in thesegroups described a greater number of placements, given that

3 Note that sometimes the kinship care placements described appeared to be voluntary family arrangements rather than a formal out of home care placement.

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they had spent a longer amount of time in care. Conversely,the young people who had only described having two placements(n=3) had all entered out of home care after the age of 12years.

Experiences of out of home careYoung people described both positive and negative aspects oftheir care experiences. Positive experiences included:

Having a sense of freedom

… it was just fun just because there was a bunch of kids in there and we usedto just do shit and fuck up and throw eggs at the workers cars, smoke bongsand everything, used to shoot this shit up, it was fun – YP10

You get to go out. Allowed to go out do anything, you know, like what youngpeople are supposed to do. Live yeah, just live young and free – YP9

It was good because there was no rules. I did what I wanted – YP4

I don’t know, I think it was more the freedom and like - because most resiunits you've got everything, like the food and everything locked up, which myunit, I didn't have anything locked up so it was pretty cool, you didn't knowwhat you're going to do that day or anything – YP5

Being removed from maltreatment

It was crap, but it was better than my mum’s – YP14

It was easy because I didn’t have to worry about my family. I didn’t have toworry about mum being violent all the time. I didn’t have as many restrictionsas I did with my mum – YP6

Positive experiences with workers

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In the beginning I didn't like it. I'd barely stay there. But I liked it there. Resi,it was fun. They always took me out, tried to keep me occupied. I liked it,because there was only two kids in my unit, me and someone else. Theworkers, they made it feel like - I don't know, they were nice. They dideverything for me. They helped me so much… if I needed anything, they'd getit for me, or if I was sad, they'd talk to me always. But the main ones, becausethey're like - I was close with them. But when other people came in it was like- some of them were okay, because you get to know them. They're alwayscoming along. But some of them are like, no, but if we didn't like workers,we'd tell the boss of the resi and she'd make sure they don't come back. Shemade it comfortable – YP8

[The workers were] grouse, I loved them. They were awesome. They’ve helpedme out a lot, and you know, been there for me and done a lot for me. And Iappreciate everything that they’ve done for me – YP1

In speaking about more negative experiences or perceptions oftheir time in out of home care, young people used variouswords, including ‘horrible’, ‘traumatic’ and ‘hell’. Othersdescribed various reasons behind these perceptions, forexample:

Difficulties with other young people in residential units, workers or carers

Well there was a couple of other kids living there, one of them I absolutelydespised and it actually so happens to be [my boyfriend’s] ex-girlfriend, andme and her were always arguing over him and we were always trying to killeach other and then there was this guy that was also living there, I’d met himbefore so we were kind of friends and kind of not and I’d just had enough ofhim bringing his friends over and picking on me, so in the end I’d cracked it -YP6

Before I was 10 I was placed in a foster home, but that wasn’t … like… uh mymum organised that… and that was pretty terrible. I vaguely remember it. Iwasn’t allowed to do much; I had to sit on the couch pretty much all day – YP2

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Then it was this one, then… um… the boys kept attacking me there. And I keptsaying to [the staff], that they’re hurting me and stuff and they’re doing thingsto me. And they didn’t listen! And it was only when… I think I tried to killmyself or something, I can’t remember. And I was put into hospital and then Itold them, and they did a body exam and then they said, yeah, no, this iswhat’s happening. And she’s saying that the… that these are the boys... andthen when the police interviewed them, they came forth and said, ‘yeah wewere having fun with her, because she’s young and stuff’. And I was like, ‘nowcan I move?’, and they moved me – YP 14

Like the young person above, at least 4 young people hadexperiences during their time in either out of home care oryouth justice custody which constituted further harm. This waseither perpetrated by care-givers, other young people in careor custodial settings, or by other adults, for example:

I had um… pneumonia… And then the worker didn’t believe me. And thendragged me out of bed and got carpet burn all down my face, and chuckedme to school in my pyjamas, and the teacher’s like, ‘why is she doing this?’,and they’re saying ‘oh because she didn’t want to get dressed for school’. Andthey looked at me and they’re like, ‘there’s something not right’. And then theychecked my temperature, right? And when they checked my temperature theycould see the red mark down my face. And then they called the police, and Itold the police what happened, and then that worker got moved. He didn’t getfired, he just got moved to another resi unit – YP 14

[My teacher’s] name was X… she was 22, I was 11 years old, and …. Yeah…uh…. I slept with her. And it was pretty bad … I went to court and that … Justended up… blowing up. You know, and I just didn’t really relate to school afterthat – YP 2

Being bullied, feeling ashamed or stigmatised due tobeing in care These issues are discussed further in the next sectionconcerning education.

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Separation from siblings or missing family

I was fucked. I didn’t like it, I didn't like the fact that I was separated from mymum. That's one thing that I remember, yeah – YP13

It was hard because as much as I didn’t want to be around violence and stuff,I really did miss my mum and I wanted to be with my mum – YP6

It was alright. But it’s just you know, I had homesick feelings ever since when Iwas young – YP9

Police involvement

You never got to do anything. Like and if you left the house they’d just call thepolice and you’d be brought back. And every child is difficult at a certain partof their life, and if you broke a window or verbally abused someone you’d justget charged. And that really doesn’t teach anyone. Basically it was just… it wasjust… it was like being in jail, really – YP 15

Placement instability

…having to up and leave places, it’s just exhausting. When I was little Icouldn’t remember, but now I like, when I started going into foster placement,and like as I got older it just sucked. I hated it. I just wanted to be in one placetill I was 18… when we were in foster care, there was like five of us kids, andjust we weren’t all together and we were separated. And then at one stage weall got put together – YP 1

SummaryOverall, the young peoples’ experiences of entering care andbeing in care revealed a diverse range of experiences,including reasons for entering care, number of placements andout of home care experiences. The young people describedvarious reasons for entry to care including their ownbehavioural issues, paternal maltreatment or abandonment, and

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conflicts leading to them running away from home. It isconcerning to note that three of the young people, agedbetween 18 and 25 years, were not able to articulate thereasons why they had initially entered out of home care. Thisgroup of young people indicated that they had entered care forthe first time at approximately 5 years of age. Approximatelyhalf of the respondents had entered the care system alreadydisplaying problematic behaviours including violence,substance abuse and/or offending behaviour. For these youngpeople, such issues seemed to form part of the reason fortheir entry to care in the first instance.

The young people had experienced a range of placement typesand numbers, however all had experienced a placement inresidential care at some point. No young people described anylong-term foster care placements, however some had kinshipplacements which lasted for extended periods (e.g. longer than6 months). Both positive and negative experiences of out ofhome care were described. Positive experiences related tohaving a sense of freedom (particularly in residential care),being removed from maltreatment, and having positiveexperiences of workers. Negative experiences includedinterpersonal difficulties (e.g. with other young people inresidential units, workers or carers), bullying, experiencingfeelings of shame, missing siblings and family, policeinvolvement and placement instability.

Education and Employment

Highest level of high school educationThe young people in the study reported attending between 1 and5 primary schools (median = 2), and between 1 and 4 secondaryschools (median = 2). The table below indicates the highestlevel of school education attained by the participants, noneof whom had completed high school. There was little notable

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difference in educational attainment by gender; 2/5 femaleshad completed year 10, as had 4/10 males.

Educationallevel

Proportion of youngpeople

Year 6 1/15Year 7 3/15Year 8 3/15Year 9 2/15

Year 10 6/15Table 4. Highest level of high school education

Experiences of primary and secondary schoolThe young peoples’ comments concerning their primary andsecondary school experiences were examined; the table belowindicates the proportion of respondents who described onlypositive experiences, only negative experiences, and those whoreported both positive and negative experiences of school.

Generalexperiences Primary school Secondary school

Positive 6/15 5/15Negative 3/15 7/15

Mixed 6/15 3/15Table 5. Positive and negative descriptions of school experiences

Primary schoolMost of the young people in the study (11/14) had attendedmultiple primary schools. The participants’ descriptions oftheir experiences of primary school varied considerably. Sixof the 15 young people described positive experiences,generally associated with having a sense of continuity andenjoyment:

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Did primary school in [rural city] and [school X], that was fine. I went allthrough year six - up to year six – YP5

Primary school, I loved it…I don't know. Because I stayed. It was - I don'tknow, I had lots of fun there – YP8

Yeah, we were known - me and my sisters were well known at school. So yeah,we had a fun day. A fun time at school – YP12

Others described solely negative experiences of primary school(3/15). These were associated with multiple changes ofschools, suspensions and expulsions, as well as variousstressors including bullying and other forms of victimisationby other students and staff, and difficulties with schoolwork:

We were .. me, my sister and my older brother were going to school, wereseparated. And that the only time we could see them was on access and atschool. And we just hated it, we ran amuck at school. Hurt people andeveryone used to pick on us because we weren’t together and we weren’t athome with our family – YP1

I struggled with the work… I got a Japanese assignment and I remembered Iwould go home and just stress out over it and end up cracking the shits andripping up the assignment after me and my mum spent hours on it. And I justlook back and like in the mornings I wouldn’t go to school unless my shoeswere nice or my ankle socks were nice, I just wouldn’t go to school. I wouldjust refuse and teachers would come to the house and try to get me out ofbed. It was just a bit of a mess I think – YP3

My experiences with primary school were quite bad. You know, I just had alot of ups and downs with the teachers, the kids. Yeah a lot of … naughty stuffhappened - YP2

A final group described a combination of positive and negativeexperiences (6/15):

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Yeah it was alright. It was pretty rough, when I think about it. It was, like thesetup. It was like the back of [suburb]. No it was alright yeah. It was what itwas – YP13

Yeah. And I went into the same school as my sister and my brother. Um.. and Igot kicked out – YP14

This participant then moved to another primary school, whereshe described more positive experiences:

That went good; I stayed in there until I was in grade 6 – YP14

Secondary SchoolA greater proportion of young people described negativeexperiences of secondary school (7/15) than primary school(3/15). The negative experiences described included havingdifficulties with school work, conflicts with teachers,bullying from other students and experiences of schoolexclusion:

I wasn’t smart enough. And I didn’t know how to do the work. It was toodifficult for me – YP14

In contrast, one third of the participants described solelypositive experiences of secondary school, which wereassociated with either socialising or enjoyment of learning.Despite recalling positive experiences, all of these youngpeople had still ultimately disengaged with education

I used to love maths, now I hate maths. I just liked getting to know people,because I was always, after school I was just… well not literally locked up,but locked up in the house. So it was just a really good way for me tosocialise – YP 15

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I had a bit of a crew going at school. It got pretty crazy, I'd say. I used to lovegoing for it; the social part of it yeah, but I used to look out for other kids andthat. So we had like a big group of us, then groups of us would split up. Weused to muck around, you know we were young fellas and that. I was just anut at school. I used to just - it was like a paradise and I'm just, it's cool yeah?I had my first girlfriend there – YP13

Some young people described poor experiences with mainstreamsecondary schools, but later had better experiences withalternative education.

Specific learning difficultiesOne third of the young people (5/15) described a history oflearning difficulties. In three cases, this was associatedwith a formal diagnosis of a specific disability, learningdifficulty or other disorder (dyslexia, intellectualdisability and auditory processing disorder, respectively). Inthe remaining cases, the participants described difficultiesassociated with literacy and numeracy:

I knew I had a learning problem. Like I couldn’t read properly, and I couldn’t,you know do my maths and all of that – YP9

School supports7/15 young people had been given some form of school supportin their primary school years, which is also a likelyindication of various learning difficulties. The supportsoffered were either some form of classroom helper, orattending special classes:

I was in a class for disadvantaged people that couldn’t read and write, I’d sit there for 2 hours; it was helpful – YP1

I used to have an inter-grade teacher with me, 24… like I mean every hourevery day of the school period...because I was… different. Well that’s what

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they tell me, anyway. I just had difficulty staying out of trouble, learning, youknow? I was what you call uh… illiterate. I was never really interested … andeven when I did try and get interested it just got even harder for me. But yeahI had an inter-grade teacher just because I was, yeah, different - YP2

I was in a classroom with English and Maths we went into the classroom like this, certain classroom me and a couple of other people and done the English and Math there. Then we did the rest in the school – YP12

It should be noted that of the 5 young people who describedspecific learning difficulties, 4 had received some form ofschool support. The remaining young person had an intellectualdisability, but described attending mainstream schools with noadditional support.

School difficulties

Bullying

Four of the 15 young people described incidents of bullying atschool; three of these were young females. The incidentsdescribed by the young people involved both verbal andphysical bullying from other students.

I remember there was this one older Asian guy that used to pick on me andpunch me up and yeah, it definitely wasn’t a stable time in my life – YP3

They bullied me because I had [a daughter]… they kept saying that I kepthaving abortions, and I was like sleeping around with everybody in theschool, and they were saying that she was one of the teacher’s babies – YP14

I actually had one girl walk up to me, grab me by my head and slam me into a piece of wood, so I was always being bullied – YP6

School Exclusion

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Twelve of the 15 young people described being excluded fromschool as a result of suspensions (n=2), expulsions (n=4) orboth (n=6). Four of these young people had first been excludedfrom education in their primary school years; in 2 cases thisinvolved expulsion. The three participants who had notexperienced school exclusion were all female, none of whom haddescribed any specific learning difficulties. Many of theevents precipitating suspension and expulsion were driven bythe young peoples’ reactions to being teased or bullied byother students and disciplined by teachers and other adults inthe school system.

Suspensions

2 of the 8 young people who had been suspended during theirschooling did not describe the reasons for these suspensions.For the remaining six, the most common reason - described by 5of the 6 participants as contributing to their suspension(s) –was fights with, or assaults towards other students:

I got suspended for punching on, because racism and stuff because of myfamily. And just punching on because people didn’t like me – YP1

[I] got suspended I think for two days for hitting this kid over the head with astick; snapped it over his head because he was picking on this kid – YP 13

A: The usual stuff, get into punch-ons and that. Suspended. Q: How many times did you get suspended from school? A: Lost count – YP12

Smoking and substance use were also described as factorscontributing to suspension(s) by two young people.Additionally, truanting and disruptive behaviour were alsodescribed by two young people as contributing factors:

Suspended for smoking, suspended for wagging – YP1

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[I] got suspended seven days for smoking choof at high school – YP13

The workers and the schools didn’t want me to be in school, because I was likebeing too difficult. Like I wasn’t that difficult, I would just be loud and talkinga lot. That’s about it. Just disruptive – YP15

Expulsions

As would be anticipated, the incidents that precipitatedexpulsions tended to be more serious in nature than thoseassociated with suspensions. Two of the 10 young people whoindicated they had been expelled did not describe the reasonsfor this. For the remainder, the reasons included propertydestruction, assaults towards other students and threats,abuse or assaults towards school staff. Unlike the reasonsprecipitating suspensions, the majority of acts contributingto expulsions (7/8 cases described) tended to be directed atstaff and school property, rather than other students orgeneral misbehaviour such as substance use and truanting.

There was me telling the principal, ‘You fucking cockhead. Why don't you justexpel me? Just expel me’, and they did. Q Why did you do that?A I was just full of anger and full of rage and I was a bit...not embarrassedbut I’d just been caught smoking bongs … I’d just been caught out so I wasreactive to whatever they were saying to me - YP3

I got expelled for lighting a locker on fire, and setting someone’s hair on firetoo – YP1

We were in maths, and it was towards the end of the day and I was having ashitty day and my maths teacher was just shitting me, so I walked out on himand he comes out and has a go at me and that and grabbed me so I pulledout a sharpened razor blade out on him and threatened to slit his throat andthen yeah, he said “Have fun”, he was going to expel me for it and then afterthat I didn't want to go back to mainstream schools – YP 10

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In four cases, young people had not experienced suspensionsprior to being expelled. One of these young people describedbeing expelled in primary school (grade 6) as a result ofsubstance use:

My dad was around drugs too much, so I’m like a follower - l like followingstuff. So I see him smoking a cigarette, I thought it was a cigarette. It didn’tsmell like a cigarette, so I was like ‘sweet!’. Woke up in the morning, went toschool, rolled up and then yeah. Smoked it in the toilets, got caught from thejanitor – YP9

Year 7 was good, I was at [Catholic School] in [regional town] and mummoved me to [another regional town] and after three days they expelled me…Itrashed the principal’s car – YP4

One of the schools I hit the principal, only because he was being a smart-ass.And then the other one, I don’t actually remember why – YP11

[My brother and I] smashed a girl’s face into the ground and broke her nose.She bashed up my sister, who was in prep, and she was in grade 6, and shecracked her head open. Someone must have saw me and ran to the principal.And then when the principal was trying to get me and my brother, we startedhitting the principal. And then my brother didn’t get expelled, but I gotexpelled – YP14

Temporal relationship between entering care and school expulsionFor one young person, the temporal relationship between entryinto care and school expulsion was unclear. In the majority ofthe remaining cases (7/9), expulsions occurred in the 12months following young peoples’ entry into residential care.Of these seven young people, two had a history of longer-terminvolvement in the out of home care system, prior to entering

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residential care (e.g. foster care, kinship care or one-to-oneresidential care placements).

In the remaining two cases, expulsion occurred in the 12months prior to entering residential care, while young peoplewere residing with their parents. One of these young peoplehad previously been in a foster care placements at a youngerage, but was attempting reunification with her mother at thetime that she was expelled, and later entered residentialcare. It should be noted that in most cases (8/10), youngpeople continued education in some capacity after experiencingexpulsion.

Although there appears to be some association between enteringresidential care and educational disengagement, this is by nomeans indicative of a causative relationship in eitherdirection. However, it does point to a need for co-ordinationbetween case management and education staff at the time ofentry into residential care, as this appears to be aparticularly high risk time for a weakening of educationallinks to occur.

Impact of being in care upon education Some young people spoke specifically about impact of being inout of home care upon their experiences of education. Whilemostly negative impacts were described due to shame, bullyingby other students and placement changes, others describedpositive experiences of being re-engaged in education, whichare described in the next section.

Placement changes

Four young people specifically spoke about the disruption toeducation which resulted from changes in placement, includingplacements in secure welfare and custodial settings:

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It wasn't the fact that I didn't want to go to school, it was the fact of DHSwouldn't allow me to go to school…Getting moved from here, there andeverywhere – YP5

A: When they moved me out, it was stupid how they did it… moved me to[suburb A] – one of the workers charged me, so they moved me to [suburbA]. I think that was why they moved me, I'm pretty sure. And then it washard for me to get to [suburb B], from being there.

Q: What was in [suburb B]?

A: My school - YP10

For other young people, placement changes did not appear toimpact upon their experiences of education:

They used to just take me [to school] anyway. It doesn’t matter where I was,they would take me – YP14

Shame and Bullying

Two young people spoke about experiences of feeling differentin school due to being in care, for example:

I remember, I was in another residential unit in [suburb] at [address] and Iremember they would pick me up in a van from school. And when they pickedme up I would hide in the bottom of the van so the other kids wouldn’t seeme, that I was in a van full of delinquents and I was embarrassed of where Iwas staying. The worker said to me, ‘Get off the floor of the van’ and I’m like,‘Nah, I don't want the fucking kids to see me, this is embarrassing’. That’s oneincident, I just didn't want the kids to find out where I was staying – YP3

Residential Care

Five young people specifically spoke about disengagement fromeducation during their time in residential care. The young

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peoples’ comments suggested that their educational experienceswere impacted by the residential care environment, includingthe attitudes of other young people and staff responses totheir school disengagement:

Just enjoying myself and enjoying the freedom that I had…because everyone taught me to like, you know, ‘you have to be street smart, not book smart’. But it’s good to be both, I guess – YP1

Not wanting to go. Because you’re seeing other kids not going. Why do I have to go? – YP2

They were way too lenient. If I said ‘I don't want to go to school’ they’d be like‘Okay’. Yeah, they were way too lenient, if they were a little more strict, I wouldprobably still be in school today – YP6

Educational disengagementAside from suspensions and expulsions, the young peopledescribed many reasons contributing to their eventualdisengagement from education, including bullying, substanceuse, offending, difficulties with schoolwork and othernegative educational experiences. While these are describedseparately, young peoples’ accounts generally indicated thatit was not a single issue, but rather compounding factorswhich lead to educational disengagement.

Bullying by other students, or feeling judged was described asa major contributing factor by 3 of the 5 female participants,for example:

Just hard going to a mainstream school because like you know, everyonewould pick on me because I’d left and then come back. And just I tried goingto [a] Community School but I didn’t like it because everyone was like judgingme and stuff - YP1

Another female described entering a relationship as the mainreason for leaving school:

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I left in Year 7… It wasn't because of the school, it was because I got aboyfriend and he wasn't in school, so I decided, yeah, I'll stay with you. Hejust lived around the corner, so I just stayed with him all the time – YP8

The final female indicated a multitude of factors leading toschool disengagement, including falling behind on school workas a result of her intellectual disability and changes inplacement:

Because of everything that was going on, they didn't want to put me back inmainstream school because I couldn't deal with it. It was more theschoolwork and that, because I was so behind, because of my intellectualdisability too, I don't comprehend stuff properly so it was hard for me to sit inclass without fidgeting or running amok just because I was bored – YP 5

One of the young males similarly described disconnecting fromeducation as a result of multiple complex factors, includingmental health and behavioural issues:

I passed year 7. Started year 8, got taken out two months after year 8[started] because they moved me, and because, well, it was just too hard forme to do it when everything was going on. So I didn’t do year 8. Didn’t do year9, so I wasn’t in school year 8 or year 9 - so those two years – YP15

Of the remaining nine males, the majority (7/9) described acombination of substance use and offending leading them toeither be disinterested in school or too disconnected tocontinue with education:

I got remanded too many times. I thought I would just give up on school – YP7

It was pretty hectic at the time. There was drugs and that, rocked up to schoolwith drugs and was just being an idiot, so I just left altogether – YP10

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A final factor contributing to educational engagement whichwas mentioned by participants were negative experiences withteachers. While nine participants had described variousteachers they did not like, for five participants, theseexperiences were particularly problematic. It is worth notingthat four of these five participants had described learningdifficulties. Many of the negative interactions with teachersinvolved young people feeling unsupported with learningdifficulties, behavioural problems or bullying:

[The teachers] didn't understand anything. They just look at me like I'm aretard because I can't understand what they're saying – YP5

The teachers were always annoyed at me, I don’t know why; they werealways just cranky at me… I got sick and tired of being picked on and beinghurt and the teachers weren’t making it any easier - YP6

It was pretty hard work to do but I was trying my best. Every time I wouldfail, you know they would give me another book and they would tell me tostart over again - YP9

While some of the young people appeared ambivalent aboutdisengaging with education, others expressed regrets, eitherblaming themselves or the out of home care system for theirloss of contact with learning pursuits. Some young people hadmade attempts to re-engage with further education providers.

I should have gone to school. If I would have been at school already I wouldhave passed my education. I look at my friends now… fuck, they’ve alreadygot cars, holidays, jobs. I look at them and, [expletive], it should have beenme doing that – YP9

I got sick of it, I don’t really know. I don’t know being a normal kid really,dropping out of school. But now I want to go back and do it – YP12

Positive experiences with teachers

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Ten of the participants also spoke about positive experienceswith teachers, mainly those who had given them specialassistance or support (either educational or social), and hadshown care and concern for them. In two instances, youngpeople mentioned positive experiences with independenteducation providers working from a trauma-informed model ofeducation. While a number of young people were unclear aboutmany aspects of their personal history, their memory of thefull names of teachers and the names of the schools where theyhad these particularly positive experiences was striking:

[The teacher] was really really nice. And because I have trouble with readingand writing, she helped me a lot with that and I’d go sit there before schoolstarts and read to her and she’d like teach me how to read and write. So yeah,I passed year 8, I mean English…So I felt good about myself – YP1

In primary school there was Miss [X] who’s now passed away but she was verysupportive and she worked with my mother trying to work out the best placefor me to be, stay at school and all this. At high school there was a teachernamed Miss [Y] and she was amazing. She just loved me and she was youngand she just...I wouldn’t misbehave in her classes either. I got along with herreally well and she worked with my mother and she was like a spokespersonfor the school to my mother just because they got along well. There weredefinitely some positive relationships along the way - YP3

My art teacher in primary school, actually… she was probably my mostfavourite teacher in all the schools I've ever had. She used to sit down and talkto me when she could see that I needed someone to talk to. If mum forgot mylunch, she’d go down and get me lunch and bring it back or go home to myhouse, pick up my lunch and bring it to me and whatnot. She was a reallygood teacher and I'd actually like to go back to primary school and be withher again – YP6

Miss [X], she was my favourite teacher, she’s still my favourite teacher. Shewould kick my ass any day… She understood me; she understood having akid’s really hard and everything like that. And if anybody ever mentioned [mychild] or anything to me like that in class, she would kick them straight out.

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None of the other teachers did that; they’d kick me out of the classroom fortrying to start stuff – YP14

Experiences of alternative education systemsAround one half of the young people (7/15) had engaged withalternative education systems including independent schoolssuch as Berry Street School and Salvation Army WestcareSchools, community schools, and attending education in youthcustodial settings. Young peoples’ experiences of alternativeeducation varied from good to highly positive, in starkcontrast to some of their negative experiences in mainstreameducational programs:

I went to the [X] education program school. And I liked that – that was pretty cool. Just like more kicked back, and not like that many people. I just guess I can’t be in like you know a group of 20 or 30, but yeah. I was 16, and I don’t know it was like a year – YP1

“At the [Agency] shed, there was a few [teachers] there that kind ofunderstood me and if I went ballistic at school, could be the only ones thatwould calm me down but in mainstream, they’re absolutely shit – YP5

Engagement with these educational programs generally cameafter encouragement from case workers, case workers and youthjustice officers:

My probation officer found out about this school, the one in [suburb A], thatyou’ve got a free dress, there was about 30 students. And it's a lot easier andthe teachers pay more attention to you and stuff, so I went there. And thenmade it until halfway through year 11 and finished – YP10

When I was in resi I got a tutor and I finished my Year 10…I thought, ’oh mygosh, I'm getting old. I need to do something. I have nothing’. I was justlike,’ I have to do something’ and the workers talked me into it – YP8

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One young person had been disengaged from school for two yearsprior to being encouraged by his workers to attend a communityschool, where he completed year 10:

[Suburb] Community School, that was when I was… I can’t remember where Iwas when I was doing that…I can’t remember. I know it was workers, but Ican’t remember how exactly it happened – YP 15

The value of alternative education programs can also be seenin the fact that of the 6 participants involved in the studywho had completed a year 10 level education, 5 had beeninvolved in alternative education programs in the community.The final young person had also experienced a form ofalternative education during time in custodial youth justicesettings.

Experiences of further educationThe majority of the young people (13/15) had engaged infurther education either while they were still in care orafter they had left care. Eleven of these 13 people had beengiven some level of support by workers (9/11), or family andfriends (2/11) to access further education. The table belowindicates the various levels of involvement in furthereducation described by the young people.

Involvement in further education Proportion of youngpeople

Completed further education (certificate level courses)

6/15

Commenced further education but did not complete course/certificate 6/15

Currently engaged in further education(certificate level courses) 3/15

Never engaged in further education 2/15Table 6. Involvement in further education

Two of the six young people who had completed further

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education had done so in custodial settings (youth or adultjustice), while the other four had accessed educationproviders in the community (generally vocational education andtraining providers). One of these young people had gone on tocommence an advanced diploma after completing a Certificate 3while in lead tenant accommodation. A further three of thesesix young people indicated that they would now like to accessemployment. Only three participants stated that they hadexperiences of working at the time of the interview - twoparticipants (aged 25 and 26) had significant employmenthistories, while the other hand only held a job briefly beforehaving conflicts with a co-worker and leaving.

Of the six young people who had commenced but not completedfurther education courses, three had been given support andencouragement by workers to engage in these courses (includingout of home care workers YJCSS workers and DHS staff), and inon case non-professional supports were accessed:

A friend of mine’s dad helped me out with the pre apprenticeship in carpentry.I said to her ‘I might start an apprenticeship’ and she said, ‘my dad owns abuilding business, why don't you go speak with him?’ and so got into it fromthere and I ended up playing footy for his footy club and stuff – YP3

There reasons why the young people had disengaged in thesecourses varied. In two cases, the reasons were unclear.Another young person found he was simply unsuited to educationand preferred to work:

I tried all those things. My brain just was not up to it. It was not built to storenumbers and letters, you know? I tried to learn, because as I was getting a bitolder I was taking in the advice of what other people were saying, you know,‘hey if you don’t mould your future now, you’re not really gonna have onewhen you get older’. And that kind of freaked me out. So I went and tried….Three times I went to [X] University. You know, at one period I went there, onmy own bat, too, alright and … what… however long it was later down the

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track, ‘Oh I’ll give it a shot again’, and it just happened until the last time Iwas just, ‘nup’. You know, I work – YP2

The other three young people disengaged for various reasons,including problems with other participants in educationsettings, finding the training overwhelming, and conflictswith other obligations:

[I] had to leave Cert three because of a restraining order on one of the otherpeople in there, so it made it hard and ever since then I just can't be botheredgoing back to school because there's nothing I want to do – YP5

It’s just too fast and the chefs were always yelling stuff – YP10

I started a diploma, like an advanced and normal diploma, they’re puttogether. And that was a 4 year. I got about, to the third year, and then [mypartner] had to go into hospital to get her appendix taken out, so I had tolook after her. So when I went back into school I was too far behind … a bit ofa bummer getting that far through – YP15

Three of these six young people in this group were positivelyengaged in education and employment at the time of theinterview. One was completing a different certificate levelcourse, another was working, and one was actively seekingemployment.

Three young people were completing certificate level coursesat the time of the interview, including literacy and numeracy,drug and alcohol work and community service work. Again, twoof these young people had been given support and encouragementfrom out of home care workers and leaving care workers toengage in these courses. Finally, two young people had notengaged with further education. One of these young people hada child in her care, and the other had significant ongoingissues relating to mental health, substance abuse andoffending behaviour which has prevented involvement in these

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activities.

Experiences of employmentThree of the participants in the study described a history ofemployment. One male described working soon after he leftschool at age 13, and continuing to stay involved in variouslabour jobs since. A second young male described finding workin the construction industry “through a friend”, but indicatedthat he struggled to maintain work due to substance abuseproblems:

I’ve had heaps of jobs I’ve failed at because of alcohol. And like I managed tofinish my last job - YP7

Three other young males also said that they would like to beemployed and were looking for work. One of the young peopledescribed his difficulties finding employment at age 19 aftercompleting a certificate and withdrawing from further studies:

I haven’t been able to get a job. I’ve been trying and trying for like the lastyear, so… I just haven’t been able to, because of my lack of experience. Like Ieven tried getting a job at Hungry Jack’s just to get cash in hand experience,and just to have something on the resume. And 2 hours… literally 2 hourslater after I sent the application in, I got a, a decline basically…And like, wellI have a child and I’m trying to get experience in life… But what I’m trying tosay is, I haven’t been able to get a job because of my age, and who I am –YP15

This young person suggested that work experience was vital tobeing able to secure employment post-care:

They should have like implemented like a work experience program,especially with lead tenant, they should put it in with lead tenant. Instead ofpushing the school, getting them some experience in work. So like, make...even that one year thing after 18 to 19, they should help you have a job soby the time you leave care, you have a job, you’re going to be able to

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support yourself. That’s what they should do. Because it’s really, like, it’sreally hard being on your own, starting on your own - YP15

Summary Overall, the study participants displayed very limited and disrupted experiences of school education as a result of behavioural issues, bullying, substance use, school exclusion,learning difficulties and transience over their educational years. The majority of the young people (12/15) had experienced school exclusion (suspensions, expulsions or both), and a minority (6/15) had completed year 10 level of high school education.

Disengagement with education appeared to coincide with multiple and complex problems, often occurring around the timeof entering residential care. Despite this, many managed to re-engage in alternative education with the support of workers, and the majority had engaged in further education courses and programs by the time of the interview. At the same time, translating training and educational outcomes and involvement into employment opportunities proved difficult forthis group, with only a minority having had work experience bythe time of the interview.

Mental Health

Two thirds of the young people in the study (10/15) indicatedthat they had been diagnosed with a mental health condition(excluding substance abuse disorders, which will be describedin the next section).

Mental health condition Proportion of youngpeople

Depression 4/15Anxiety 5/15

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Personality Disorder4 3/15ADD or ADHD 4/15

Tourette’s Syndrome 1/15PTSD 2/15

Conduct Disorders5 2/15Paranoia 1/15

Schizophrenia or relateddisorder

2/15

Table 7. Self-reported mental health conditions

The number of self-reported diagnoses per participant rangedfrom a single diagnosis to up to four diagnoses in the case ofthree young people as shown in the graph below. Over one halfof participants described multiple mental health issues.

1 2 3 4 5012345

Number of mental health diagnoses

Numb

er o

f Yo

ung

Peop

le

Figure 1. Number of self-reported mental health diagnoses

Three of the young people reported being hospitalised inpsychiatric facilities during their childhood, all of whom hadentered care as a result of childhood abuse and neglect:

4 Personality disorders described by the participants included Borderline Personality Disorder (n=2) and Antisocial Personality Disorder (n=1).5 Conduct disorders include young people specifically diagnosed with conduct disorder (n=2) and one young person who reported a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder (n=1).

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I went into the Eagle Unit… it’s in, it’s in the Royal Children’s Hospital, I think.And I was there for about a year, until I was about 10. And when I was 10 Iwent to secure welfare for two months. – YP15

Q Where did you go when you were 8 years old?

A I got admitted into the psych ward in the Marion Drummond unit in theAustin Hospital, and then I told them that I don’t want to go back to mymum’s house, and I told them the reasons, and then they went to courtand they took me off my mum. – YP14

“I've been in and out of psych places, same with psych wards…. it all dependshow bad it was, if it was pretty bad DHS would lock me up in Melbourne, inSecure Welfare or if it was pretty bad self-harming or threats to kill and that,I'd end up at the hospital, they'd do a psych review and I'd end up inStepping Stones in Melbourne. – YP5

While they were not specifically asked about medication usage,seven of the young people mentioned that they had beenprescribed psychiatric medications (including central nervoussystem stimulants such as Ritalin and antipsychoticmedication), during their childhood and/or adolescence,sometimes as young as age five, for example:

A If I was on my medication, I was good [at school], I’d sit down and I’ddo my work, but if I wasn’t I’d just walk out of the class when I wanted.

Q What kind of medication were you supposed to be on?

A Ritalin and Risperdal or something.

Q And how young were you when you got put on that?

A Six when I got put on Ritalin – YP4

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Q How old were you when you started taking medication?

A Six.

Q So you’ve always been on meds?

A I’m not on it anymore. I told the doctors to go get stuffed.

Q When did you stop taking them?

A When I moved out, of care - I turned around and said, ‘you know what?About 60% of people who’ve got disorders and take medication, itmakes them worser. They don’t actually need the medication, they cancontrol it without the medication. You’re just drugging me up for nobloody reason’, and they’re like, ‘ok’ – YP14

Few young people spoke about receiving any significantcounselling, psychological or psychiatric interventions beyondchildhood. Only one participant reported being connected to amental health support (counselling service) at the time of theinterview, which had been initiated as part of a Youth Justiceorder. While this cannot be taken to imply that suchinterventions were not received or offered, it may be usefulfor future research to examine the access to and uptake ofmental health services for the dual order client group,particularly beyond the childhood years and emergencyinterventions.

Substance useAs indicated previously, the participants often spoke abouttheir use of alcohol and other drugs. 14/15 young peopleindicated substance use was part of their history, and 12/15described problematic substance use (e.g. substance use thatwas beyond experimental and was associated with negative

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outcomes for young people in terms of their safety,relationships or offending). Interestingly, the three youngpeople who did not describe problematic substance use eachindicated that they were taking prescribed medication from ayoung age. The most commonly mentioned substances used by theparticipants were marijuana (11/15) and alcohol (10/15).Seven of the 15 young people also mentioned other drug use,including amphetamines, methamphetamines, chroming and heroinuse.

The one young person who stated that he did not becomeinvolved in drug use had entered care as a result of abuse andneglect. He described significant mental health (AD/HD) andbehavioural issues, and although his placement trajectorylargely mirrored that of many other participants, hisoffending behaviour was limited to assaults and propertydestruction occurring within residential care placements. Hewas placed on a good behaviour bond and did not continueinvolvement with the youth or adult justice systems. Hetransitioned through a lead tenant placement during which timehe re-engaged with education and fathered a child. He nowlives with his child and his partner in a transitionalproperty.

Alcohol and other drug treatment Six young people spoke about accessing drug and alcoholtreatment services (including support workers, counselling,detox and youth-specific drug and alcohol support services) atsome point in the past. In most cases (4/6), accessing thesesupport services assisted young people to reduce substance useand to significantly reduce or stop offending. Two otheryoung people indicated that becoming pregnant resulted in themreducing substance use, with the support of their partners:

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When I first met [my boyfriend] I was actually smoking marijuana and thefirst thing [my boyfriend] said when he met me and he found out I waspregnant and he said “It’s either that drugs or the baby” so I quit drugs and Ichose to keep the baby and be with [my boyfriend], so if it wasn't for memaking that decision I would probably still be doing drugs – YP6

What saved me was my boyfriend and me falling pregnant, I guess. Because ifit wasn’t for me being pregnant or me like you know telling you know myboyfriend telling me to stay away from everything, and just detox myself I’dbe either dead in the gutter or on heroin – YP1

Further examination of the association between substance useand offending behaviour can be found in the next sectionfocusing on offending behaviour.

Intellectual disabilityOne participant indicated that she had been formally diagnosedwith an intellectual disability, and had been connected todisability services in late adolescence through a referralfrom Youth Justice services. When asked how she found outthat she had an intellectual disability, the young personstated:

We’ve known all along since I've been in DHS, but it's only just confirmed whenI went on to Justice which was about 12 months ago – YP5

For this young person, referral to disability services seemedpositive:

We don't really catch up on a regular base, because it's so hard to catch me ina week, I’ve got that that many appointments, but she is pretty cool, I canreally have bitch sessions with her and she knows what I'm on about… She’slike the best friend I never had – YP5

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Another participant did not state that he had been diagnosedwith an intellectual disability, however he indicated that hehad been placed within a prison unit in the adult criminaljustice system which is only accessible to people with anintellectual disability. He stated that he had issues withreading, writing and spelling, but it was unclear whether hewas connected to disability support services.

Offending behaviour

All of the young people in the current study had describedsome degree of offending behaviour and involvement with theyouth and/or adult criminal justice systems. The degree ofthis involvement, however, varied considerably among theparticipants. This section examines the participants’ earlyoffending behaviour, the involvement of other family membersin the criminal justice system, the factors associated withescalation in their offending, and their experiences of theyouth and adult justice systems.

Age of initial offendingThe participants self-reported a range of ages that theiroffending behaviour first commenced; this ranged from ageeight to age 16, with the majority of young people (9/15)indicating that they first started offending at the age of 12to 13 years. For six of the 15 young people, there were somediscrepancies between the age at which young people stated thatthey became involved in offending and other behaviour theydescribed (for example, substance use, assaults and propertydestruction), which had in fact, commenced earlier.

For the purposes of this section, the age at which youngpeople described any behaviours which constitute offending(including substance use), is considered the age at which theybegan offending, as shown in the table below. In some cases

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describing these behaviours as ‘offending’ is a technicality,as at least two young people described offending behavioursoccurring before the age of 10, which is the minimum age ofcriminal responsibility in Australia.

Age offending behaviour commenced

Proportion of youngpeople

≤10 years 2/1511 years 1/1512 years 5/1513 years 4/1514 years 2/1515 years 0/1516 years 1/15

Table 8. Age at which offending behaviour commenced

The average age at which participants first described anyoffending behaviour was 12.1 years. The sample was fairlyevenly divided between those whose offending behaviour beganprior to first entering out of home care (7/15) and thosewhose offending behaviour began after formally entering out ofhome care (8/15). This is likely to simply be reflective ofthe age of entering care of these groups. Those whoseoffending began before entering care tended to have enteredcare later (average age of 13.4 years), compared to thosewhose offending began after entering care (7.8 years).

It should also be noted that there was a slight difference inthe average age at which offending began between these groups.Those whose offending began before they entered care reportedbeginning to offend earlier than those whose offending beganafter they entered care (11.9 years vs 12.4 years,respectively). This difference is not statisticallysignificant and these figures should be interpreted withcaution given the small sample size and reliance on youngpeoples’ memory of these events.

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Types of initial offencesThe young people described four main types of offences whichconstituted their initial offending, including assault, theftand substance use and property damage. Most young people(13/15) described multiple offence types emerging fairlysimultaneously.

The two young people who only described a single initialoffence type had both engaged in thefts as their initial formof offending; one had desisted from offending after beingplaced on a good behaviour bond, while the other had continuedto engage in theft behaviours, but indicated that he tended tobe apprehended less as he grew older and more shrewd with hisoffending. Both of these young people had experienced minimalsubstance use issues and neither had become involved in theadult criminal justice system at the time of the interview.

Initial offence types described

Proportion of young people

Assault 10/15Substance use 8/15Theft 8/15Property damage 5/15Table 9. Initial offence types described by young people

Context of initial offendingThe young people in the study were more likely to describereceiving charges (as a minor) for offending that occurredoutside of their placement environment (including kinship andfoster care environments), as shown in the table below.

Sites of offending Proportion of youngpeople

Inside placement only 2/15

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Outside placement only 8/15Both inside and outside

placement4/15

Unclear 1/15Table 10. Sites of offending described by young people

Three main social contexts were described in relation to youngpeoples’ initial offending. It should be noted that one youngperson described socially-based offending which also involvedfamily members, hence the total numbers described in the threegroups equate to more than 15 young people.

Socially-based offending (8/15)

Offending with social connections, including friends fromschool, other young people from residential care units andboyfriends, was the most common social context of the initialoffending described by the participants. Young people in thisgroup described a combination of thefts, assaults andsubstance use, which commenced between age 12 and age 14,generally occurring outside the context of their home or outof home care placement:

When I was 12 I started shoplifting and that just got out of control… it wasalways with other people… would have been friends and boyfriend and stuff– YP1, began offending aged 12

I had come down to [regional town], then we went down the street with afriend and she was stealing and so was I and so yeah, that was the first time Iever got in trouble with the law…Other than that I never actually got caughtfor any thing I ever did – YP6, began offending aged 14

Started hanging around them at about 13, when I first moved out, after I metthem all and then I started to get into more stuff in year eight or nine andstuff, year seven to not make me feel… Just getting drugs and fighting” – YP10, began offending aged 13

Lone offenders (6/15)

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Six young people indicated that their initial offendingbehaviour was not associated with their social connections,and that they offended alone. For most of these young people(5/6), their initial offending behaviour was comprised ofassaults and property damage which occurred either in thecontext of their family home or residential care environments.This is the only group of young people who described engagingin property destruction. These behaviours commenced from age8 to 15 for the young people in this group:

Setting units on fire, assaulting staff members, self-harming, doing what Iwanted when I wanted if I wasn't getting any attention and I sure as hellmake it I was getting the attention – YP 5 – began offending aged 11

Used to bash up my resi workers and smash the properties up – YP 14, beganoffending aged 9

It really started happening after they started giving me medication, to beperfectly honest. I was just getting really rough, and I would slam myselfagainst walls, not meaning to break them, and I would like fall through thewall. I would assault the workers, I would bite them. I was just a psycho child,now that I think about it… I would break something, I would hit them, I wouldbite them, or something like that. Most of the time they would give mewarnings, even after I’ve done it. And I would be the normal average teenagerand just test my luck – YP 15, began offending aged 11

“When I started? Well when I was young, yeah when I was young. When I firststarted off serious incident was when I was 16” – YP 13, unclear what ageoffending started

I wasn’t back at my mum’s for long. I had issues. I would trash the houseand I would push my mother around and ra, ra, ra and it would’ve been acouple of weeks and then I was back in another residential unit – YP 3, beganoffending age 12

The final young person in this group described stealing behaviours which commenced when he was aged 8:

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I got in trouble with the law at a very, very young age. Like no-one taught me,it was just… I loved it. I started off breaking into people’s houses when I wasyoung, with my next door neighbours. And I would take the cool stuff, likeyou know figurines, you know? Like the GI Joes, you know, Tonka Trucks – YP2, began offending aged 8

Family-based offending (2/15)

Two young people indicated that their initial offendinginvolved other older family members, one of whom also statedthat a friend of his was equally involved. While this is onlya small proportion of the sample, it should be also noted thata further two other young people indicated that they had beeninvolved fights whilst in primary school together with othersiblings.

I started off breaking into cars and just taking people’s money and justbreaking into people’s shed’s and taking alcohol, and then I started bashingpeople for their wallets and then I started stealing cars… I think I was 14when it first started, when I started stealing…with an older brother and amate – YP 4, began offending aged 13

A: Drinking. Didn’t even give a stuff about nothing, rolling people for nothing, stealing cars for nothing. Yeah. And just doing drugs, that’s basically it

Q: Who were you offending with?A: Like, uh… like 20 year old people and all of thatQ: How did you know them?A: They were my cousins. My cousins – YP 9, began offending aged 12

Factors associated with offendingYoung people described two main factors associated with theirown offending – substance use and social/peer pressure.

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Substance useAs indicated previously, most of the young people (14/15)described some involvement with substance use. Most of theseyoung people (13/15) also described one of two main linksbetween substance use and their offending behaviour:

a) Being substance-affected at the time of committingoffences: All of the young people who described a linkbetween their substance use and offending behaviourstated that they had committed offences while substance-affected (13/15). In particular, a number of young peopledescribed being alcohol-intoxicated and committingviolent offences, such as assaults.

Mainly alcohol, to be honest. It really gets me going. Sometimes drugs getsme paranoid a bit, but not really, they just put me in a kick back mood. Butyeah, alcohol, I just snap easily and I blackout and I don't know what I do – YP10

I got drunk off scotch whiskey and ended up walking out of the custody centrefour hours later with 13 charges and not knowing how I got them…Apparently I punched on with police ticket inspectors or that at Flinders StreetStation. I dunno, I was drunk. I was blind drunk, really – YP 12

I got pretty bad on the drugs side of it and then anyone used to just piss meoff, they used to cop it. But most it, most of my assaults and all that I had nocontrol over because once I get to a certain point, I just black out and I don'tremember anything that happened and the police thought I was jokingaround when I was going ‘Well, what are you on about? Why am I here?’ butit's been proven that when I get to a certain point I just black out and don'tremember anything – YP 5

b) Committing crime to fund substance use: Offending as ameans of funding substance use was less common, affectinga minority of the young people in the study (3/15). This

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was generally related to substance use other than alcoholor marijuana, for example methamphetamine or heroin use:

I was kind of like offending, like last year, but without anyone knowing what Iwas doing. And I’d never get caught for it. And I think it was because of thedrugs, but yeah, I’d like go out and steal copper for drugs and stuff….I wasdoing it to keep my drug habit like you know alive and every time I’d hang outit’s like, ‘I’ve got to go out and do this now’ – YP 1

Probably heroin made me offend more insofar as not domestic but as far asin burglaries and car thefts and stuff like that. Definitely, as soon as I startedusing heroin I just wanted to make money all the time to get more heroin. Sodefinitely heroin is what made me offend more…I wasn’t really eating but Iwould steal food from Safeway, and I would steal food from Safeway and sellit as well, [to] one of my drug dealers. He was living in a caravan and I wouldsteal him like five Lean Cuisines which are valued at probably ten bucks eachand he would give me half a gram for it – YP 3

Social pressure

A sense of social pressure was the second most common factorwhich young people described as being associated with theirown offending. The term social pressure has been used, asopposed to peer pressure, as often young people spoke about“following” older family members or older partners intooffending, rather than specifically same-aged peers.

Going out with friends of a night-time and just getting into a lot of troublewith the police. And I started smoking bongs… but yeah. Just me followingpeople I guess – YP1

It’s because I looked up to my brother a bit too much and I seen him do thisstuff so I just probably – yeah, looking at him, see what he's doing, you know,I saw a fair bit – YP10

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I avoided most of the people I knew for 18 months and didn’t get in trouble.Whenever I start hanging out with them again I get in trouble. If they dosomething [criminal], you have to do something or they bag you out for therest of the day… it’s more peer pressure - YP11

One young person described ensuring that his offending wasserious enough to be respected by his peers in Youth Justicecustody:

I used to sprint out of court and I’ll literally run past the security guards outthe front, straight down to Myer and steal in front of everyone. I was stealingjust to get back in. I wanted to be in there [Youth Justice custody centre]. Iused to punch on with the jacks6 because if you go in with just a thefteveryone just bags you so I’d go in for assault and everyone loves you… Mightas well make it worth my while. Cop more time on remand while I’m at it –YP11

Family involvement in the criminal justice system11/14 participants indicated that other family members hadinvolvement with the adult criminal justice system7. In mostcases participants described having (generally male) parents,siblings, cousins and uncles involved in the criminal justicesystem:

My dad was involved with them - he first got locked up at 16, so my dad'sfavourite home is jail – YP5

Yeah, just my older brother... he's in jail at the moment. He's doing 18 monthsand he’s fucking five times worse than me, he’s been in jail seven times nowand yeah, he’s still got six more matters coming up – YP10

Probably my sister. I wouldn’t know. I think she has, yeah. She’s been in juviebefore – YP 15

6 “The Jacks” is a colloquial reference to police officers.7 Note that one respondent was not asked this question as the interview wasterminated early.

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Five of these 11 participants described more extensive familyinvolvement of multiple extended family members within thecriminal justice system. Both of the young people whoidentified of being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderorigin fell within this group:

My uncles, my cousins are locked up in [NSW prison]. Cousins are in [NSWprison], my uncles gets locked up at – my uncles get locked up they get lockedup in [NSW prison]... I’ve got family in jails all round New South Wales. We’reright in there, we’re right, we’re happy. I mean if you need smokes we just askone of the family members… All the men have been locked up I think. Yeahwe have, all of us. Geez that’s bad… All the women haven’t been locked up butall the men have. Except for my sister, she’s been locked up too – YP12 Yeah a lot of family fucking members. Yeah a lot of history with the law,fucking the family, yeah. I've had fucking family being in jail … how trippy isthat?… Like my little brother, he's fucking locked up and that's alright. To him,it's like yeah it's good. He's like that's like, I don't know, that's just the way it is– YP13

I think all my family has – YP6

Conversely, three participants indicated that they were theonly people in their families who had been involved in thecriminal justice system:

My mum was a hard worker, my sister’s a law-abiding citizen, you know mybrother works hard, my other sister, [X] works hard. You know, my dad, eventhough he was an alcoholic, he was a hard worker, he was broke if he everhad less than 10 grand. That’s the kind of person he was - YP2

I’m the only one with a record in my whole family – YP11

Youth Justice involvement

For the purposes of this study, youth justice related to anylevel of criminal justice involvement as a minor which

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involved court-imposed sanctions, including Good BehaviourBonds. The participants sometimes found it difficult torecall when they first became involved with the Youth Justicesystem, what sanctions were received and when Youth Justiceinvolvement ceased. The descriptions in this section thereforeindicate young the young peoples’ histories to the best oftheir recollection.

One young person stated that he had never received any YouthJustice sanctions. Despite describing a history ofshoplifting, breaking into shops and stealing items and theftsof motor vehicles, the young person stated that he had onlyhad “a lot of police involvement” in the form of arrests, and had neverbeen involved with Youth Justice:

I’ve worked them out when I was younger. Worked out a way to scam ’em, and just not to get locked up. That’s just ok to get into trouble. Do as much cool shit as you can and they won’t lock you up – YP12, began offending aged 11

This young person had a complex history. He is of Indigenousorigin, and had been homeless from age 12 to age 14. It ishighly likely he has an intellectual disability, given hislater placement in an intellectual disability unit within theadult criminal justice system.

For the remaining young people, initial Youth Justiceinvolvement occurred at an average age of 14.1 years [range 10- 16 years]. The graph below provides a visual representationof the time lag between young peoples’ initial offendingbehaviour (blue line), and their involvement with the youthjustice system (red line). There was an estimated average ofjust under two years (1.9 years) between the time young peopledescribed becoming involved in offending, and when they first

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became involved with Youth Justice services. There was somevariation, however, in the length of time between when youngpeople initially reported engaging in offending behaviour andthe time at which they first had Youth Justice involvement;This varied between 0 years (i.e. less than 12 months) and 4years.

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 160

1

2

3

4

5

Initial offending behaviour

Age (years)

Numb

er of

youn

g peop

le

Figure 2. Age of initial offending and initial Youth Justice involvement

All of the young people stated that their initial involvementin out of home care had preceded their involvement in theYouth Justice system. The graph below illustrates the numberof years between involvement in out of home care andinvolvement in Youth Justice described by young people. Forabout half of the young people (7/15), initial Youth Justiceinvolvement occurred within two years of entry into out ofhome care.

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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 130

1

2

3

4

5

Time between initial OHC and initial YJ involvement (years)

Numb

er o

f Youn

g Pe

ople

Figure 3. Time between initial out of home care and initial YouthJustice involvement

The graph below indicates the cumulative number of youngpeople who had entered out of home care, engaged in offending,become involved with Youth Justice and disengaged fromeducation at each age. By the age of 16, all of the youngpeople in the study had experienced each of these events. Thisfigure shows that at from approximately age 12 to 16, agreater number of young people had been engaged in offendingthan had entered out of home care. It also depicts that thedisengagement from education was, overall, the last of thesefour events to occur for the young people interviewed.

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<5 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 160246810121416

Young people offendingYoung people involved in Youth JusticeYoung people disengaged from schoolYoung people placed in out of home care

Age (years)

Cumulative number of young

people

Figure 4. Cumulative number of young people entering out of home care, engaging in offending, involved with Youth Justice and disengaged from education

The table below indicates the types of Youth Justice orderswhich young people could recall being placed under, commonlycommunity-based tariffs such as probation and supervisionorders. Eight of the 14 young people who had been on YouthJustice orders had been on more than one type of order.Types of Youth Justice Sanctions

Proportion of young people

Good behaviour bond 2/15Probation 7/15

Supervision order 9/15Attendance order 4/15

Any custodial sanction(including remand)

7/15

Remand 5/15Residential centre order 2/15

Custodial centre order 4/15Parole 3/15

Table 11. Self-reported Youth Justice orders/tariffs received by young people

Experiences of Youth Justice

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One of the most noteworthy themes in the participants’descriptions of being involved with the justice system was thegeneral lack of knowledge and recall of many young peopleconcerning the precise reasons they were involved with YouthJustice, or the orders they had been placed under. Four ofthe participants spoke about “blocking out” or ignoringcertain experiences, such as being in court:

I don’t pay attention in court. I just sit there and stare at the wall – YP 11

…or interactions with Youth Justice or out of home care workers concerning their offending:

I’m not sure, really there’s nothing they could do so I didn’t pay any attentionto what they were saying – YP 4

They have a talk but that’s it. We’d just sit there, block out anything we canhear. I do – YP12

I wasn’t in the mood to change so it pretty much went in one ear and out theother – YP 4

Community based Youth Justice Young people were asked to rate the help offered to them byYouth Justice workers. Twelve of the 15 participants respondedto this question, as shown in the graph below (two youngpeople had never had a Youth Justice worker, and one youngperson said he could not recall the help given).

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Very poor Poor Made no diffe...

Good Very good0123456

Number of young people

Figure 5. Self-reported ratings of help given by Youth Justice workers

The young people who rated the help that had been offered as‘good’ or ‘very good’ generally described experiences of beinglistened to, and stated that they had accessed or could accesspractical assistance from their Youth Justice worker:

My old Youth Justice worker, before I got a new one, he helped me with getting a job. Took me out to hand in my resumes and applications and all that stuff. So … it was pretty cool. I loved it, he was grouse – YP1

She would tell me, you know ‘what do you do on the streets?’ and all this. And I’m not a liar I’d tell her what happens. And she’d tell me ‘why, why you do thisfor?’ I just tell her you know I’m a follower, I follow peoples’ footsteps. It’s like,‘you can change it’, I’m like, ‘nah not really. It’s just how I got raised’… Just helping me with my drivers’ licence, my learners’…she was doing my resume for me… calling up courses and all that – YP9

…if I did need [help], then they would have helped me and stuff but at that time I didn't really want it. – YP10

… they would just listen. They were pretty much a counsellor, pretty much – YP14

Conversely, the young people who rated their experiences ofYouth Justice workers neutrally or negatively described

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various reasons for this, for example conflicts with workersand experiencing Youth Justice appointments as aninconvenience:

Just the worker that was dealing with me. She was pretty full on, didn't listento anything I said or just made me go more berserk – YP5

I used to hate going to see the, my YJ worker… I had better stuff to do – YP4

Custodial Youth Justice Seven of the 15 participants had been detained in YouthJustice custody (either sentenced or on remand), at somepoint. There was a fairly even gender breakdown among theparticipants who entered YJ custody (2/5 female participantsand 5/10 male participants). Most of these young people (4/7)had only been in custody on remand, and had never beensentenced to a Youth Justice centre. This includes both ofthe females who had experienced custody, and two of the fivemales who had been in Youth Justice custody.

For the majority of these young people (6/7), their mostrecent experience of Youth Justice custody was estimated tohave occurred between 2009 and 2010. One young person wassomewhat older than the average group, and his final YouthJustice custodial experience would have taken placeapproximately in 2004.

Three of the 7 young people described fairly positiveexperiences of Youth Justice custody, which tended to be basedupon access to material goods and education, as well aspositive experiences of staff:

It was good. I liked it. The staff don’t treat you like a piece of shit. They treatyou nice. Like they let you do your own thing, so long as you follow the rules.Like you just get to do things – YP14

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It’s pretty good I reckon. I think they've changed it a bit now…When I wasthere you are allowed ciggies bought into you, so I got heaps of them. You gotmore money than you do in adult jail, you get three dollars or somethingfrom the actual jail that they give you and they've got TAFE there, the TAFEcourses and stuff – YP 10

It’s like a holiday, you’ve got Foxtel, you get takeaway. Now it’s a shithole. Itused to be a reward for getting in trouble… I let myself get caught half thetime. I get off the street, I get a roof over my head, three hot meals a day, Iget to eat, play on the PlayStation, watch Foxtel, go to the gym; all for stealinga candy bar. I prefer to be in remand than in resi. Back in the day it was like afour star hotel. Resi is just a shithole. – YP11

The remaining 4 young people detailed more negativeexperiences, which were associated with a sense of beingunsafe, or loss of connection to workers and friends in thecommunity:

It was pretty rough in there. Kids were in there and a lot of them were a lotbigger than me, some of them were older than me and it’s pretty rough attimes because those kids have got something to prove; they’re young and theyall want to prove that they’re tough. So I probably got hit a few times butthen I hit other people as well. But yeah, it was a rough time. I was definitelyout of my league there. It was definitely a rude awakening for sure but itdidn't stop me from going back though – YP3

They strip search you too much. They did it three times. When I got there,twice in the cells and then another time when I got there. I'm like, ‘who wouldhave anything?’, ‘Why do you keep doing this?’ I felt so uncomfortable. In theend I was like, this is weird, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - YP8

Visits

6 of the 7 young people described having visits during theirtime in Youth Justice custody. For the most part, these wereworkers from the young person’s residential care placement.Two of the young people also stated their mothers had visited

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them in custody, and another young person spoke about workersfrom other support agencies visiting him.

Visits to Youth Justice custody presented greater difficultiesfor young people whose families and workers were located innon-metropolitan areas, such as YP 4, who had a three monthcustodial sentence at age 16:

When I was locked up in Parkville, [my case manager] come and visited me. Ionly saw him once… Mum and that would [visit]. I think I seen her three times,I told her not to worry about it because it was too far to travel - YP4

Others experienced fairly regular visits from out of home careworkers or case managers. YP7 had weekly visits from his caseworker; he indicated these visits were useful times to discussvarious issues:

How I’m going in there, what I plan to do when I get out, yeah – YP7

Victimisation

Four of the seven young people stated that bullying orassaults between young people in custody had occurred. Someyoung people indicated that they were not targets of thesebehaviours, either because they were known by other youngpeople, or because they were spared for other reasons (e.g.being very young or pregnant).

It was just a whole other world in there. The kids were on a whole other level.It was full on, the custodial part of it anyway. Being assaulted and assaultingothers, it was just madness – YP3

Some of them were hard-asses, but I was little, I was protected because I wasyoung. They don’t go after the young ones. And then when I got older, I waspretty well known so they wouldn’t come after me. And then I got pregnant sothey wouldn’t touch me – YP 14

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We used to gang up on the new kids. I was all sweet when I was new becausethe main person that had all the respect, I used to hang out with his littlebrother – YP 11

I hated it. I got bashed every day…., because I was little lazy then… [The staff]didn’t really know. It was more just when you went to our cell to clean it orwhatever. People would just run in on you to bash you for fun. It was crazy –YP 4

Substance use in custody

Five of the seven young people stated that they had witnessedthe use of substances in custody, particularly alcohol andmarijuana.

Ceasing Youth Justice InvolvementThe majority of young people in the current study (10/15) hadceased Youth Justice involvement by the age of 18 years asshown in the table below. This is likely to be a reflectionof the selection criteria for the study sample (the youngpeople were required to no longer be involved with YouthJustice), and should not be considered representative of theage at which the general dual order client population ceasesYouth Justice involvement.

Age Proportion of youngpeople

<17 years 4/1517 years 6/1518 years 1/1519 years 2/15

No YJ 1/15Still on

GBB1/15

Table 12. Age young people ceased Youth Justice involvement

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Desistance and reduced offending

Most of the participants in the study had either desisted fromoffending or greatly reduced their offending behaviour by thetime of the interview. Again, this is likely to be a result ofthe sampling criteria, which required that young people had nocurrent involvement with Youth Justice in order toparticipate. The table below indicates the level of offendingdescribed by young people at the time of the interviews:

Completely

desisted

Mostlydesisted

Persisted Unclear

Males (n=10)

3 2 4 1

Females (n=5)

2 3 0 0

Total (n=15) 5 5 4 1Table 13. Current level of offending

Desisters (5/15) The young people in this group were under no current criminaljustice orders and described no offending behaviour in theirday to day lives. Three of these young people were agedbetween 18 and 19 years, while the remaining two were aged 25and 26 years. Four of these five young people had had childrenof their own (three of whom were involved in the care of theirchildren), and three were living with their own partners. Allof the young people who had desisted had affordable housing atthe time of the interview, and two of these participants wereemployed. Most of these young people did not describe anextensive family history of criminal justice systeminvolvement.

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Becoming a parent appears to have had a significant impact onreducing offending behaviour for four of these five youngpeople. Those that had children of their own described asignificant desire to be involved with their children and tobe good parents:

The judge turned around and said, ‘next time I’m sentencing you, and you willbe having her in there, and you won’t see her. You’ll get to spend 5 minuteswith her, and she will be taken off you’…. I didn’t want her to grow up withoutme for the first few years of her life, being sentenced … I wanted to beinvolved in her life that’s why I stopped all the crap – YP14

I’ve got too much to lose, yeah? I’ve got my daughter, you know? If I gave upmy daughter, what’s the point in me being around? … I could never.. becauseI know where [my daughter] would go to - The Department! Be wearingfricking mini-skirts at 10, you know? And God knows what else. I do knowwhat will go on, you know? And I’m not going to… I’m not going to let ithappen. I’m not going to let my sweet girl, innocent, that didn’t even getasked to be brought into this world let go down and fall between the cracksand shit. It’s just not going to happen, yeah? – YP 2Well I'd say it is extremely important… Because if I was to stuff up with the lawagain I probably would never see my kids again and I know that if I did stuffup with the law again, [my boyfriend] would definitely walk out on me, soyeah I love [my boyfriend] and I love my kids so much that I would give up theworld if I absolutely had to – YP6

The final young person in this group believed that dealing withsubstance abuse issues was the key to him desisting fromoffending. Addressing these issues involved long-term entryinto a supported accommodation and drug and alcohol recoverycommunities:

Because I’m drug-free, I’m not offending; it’s as simple as that. If I’m notusing drugs I won’t be offending. So being drug-free is the reason why, it’sprobably a big part of me not offending… Because the life I’m living today, it’sa lot different to how it was back then and offending could well wreck my life

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today so I don't do it. It’s illegal and I sort of live my life today a bit spiritualand offending is just not part of the way I live life these days – YP3

Three of these young people spoke about difficulties ceasingoffending, suggesting that desisting from criminal behaviourwas not a straightforward process for them. In particular,learned behaviours around theft appeared difficult todiscontinue, particularly in the context of young peoples’limited finances:

I remember when I first got somewhere – I was doing it hard. The pensionmoney, you gotta pay 1300 fucking dollars a month rent – you know what Imean? And you smoke cigarettes, and you like to drink beer, you know? You’vegot to buy shopping, you know and you’ve got to put food, and the next thingyou got no money. It’s hard yeah? So I just went and did a quick one, like 20something grand, but I almost got caught, too… I sat there and I rememberthinking… I sat back and I put myself in the situation of getting caught, like …like I thought, ‘well, I would cry my… I wouldn’t be able to stop crying’,because my daughter’s at home, right, she’s gonna wake up to go, ‘where’smy dad?’, and then here I am being a fucking idiot, you know? – YP2

It’s a big no-no and I always pull myself back. Like I’ll be in the supermarketand there’ll be something small like razors or something that’s worth 30 bucksand I think just stick them in your pocket, but I just don't. It’s just not worthit…I did find it hard to break that pattern and I have stolen in recovery and Ihave stolen when I’ve been drug-free but you just gain a bit more awarenessand when you go to do it in the end or if it doesn’t add up you’d prefer to paythe money than risk that little chance of getting caught – YP3

I don’t even know what I do when I get pissed off. I won’t break anything ofmine anymore, because that’s like… what’s the use? Especially because I careabout my daughter, mainly. So I’ve wanted to smash this car up, damage it,like destroy it a few times, but I was like… then I can’t get [my daughter] like,move around. What’s the point? – YP15

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Overall, the young people who desisted seem to have found somesense of greater purpose or meaning for their lives which theywere able to utilise to moderate their own behaviour. This,combined with developing a level of maturity and the presenceof formal and informal supports (such as partners, parents andformer workers), appeared to have contributed towards theirdesistance from offending.

Reduced Offending (5/15) This group of young people had significantly reduced theiroffending behaviour at the time of the interview. Somedescribed less serious ongoing offending (n=2), while others(n=3) were currently under criminal justice order, includingbail, parole and other community-based orders, and had largelydesisted while on these orders.

Two of the young people in this group were females, both aged18. Both had described a history of significant offendingbehaviour, including serious assaults and car thefts. Bothhad also heavily used substances in the past. These two youngpeople, like those that had desisted, described a shift intheir attitudes based on a level of care for themselves andothers which had not previously dominated their decision-making. They each described various factors involved in theirreduced offending, including wanting a better life, notwanting to lose children and realising the impact of theiroffending:

I don’t know, I just don’t want to get into trouble any more. And I don’t want to risk losing my child when it’s born and stuff …. And I’m just sick of it. I just want to settle down and have an education and just get my life back to normal – YP1

Before I didn't give a fuck about no one. I didn't care about anything, butnow I care about how people feel and everything… when I went into juvie itwas because I stabbed someone and I didn't care much about anyone or

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anything. Then after it, I was watching this documentary about peoplestabbing people and, I don't know, it clicked, it was terrible and I seen thatyou can kill someone with a little stab. I was like, ‘that's fucked. I wouldn'twant to do that’. So, I just stopped and I was like, no more. I stopped. I don'tdo drugs, nothing. I drink, but it's reduced a lot. I used to drink every day.Now I can just drink whenever. It's still most weekends. I still do like it, butit's not as much as I used to ... I wanted to cut down, because so much stuffkept happening. When I was drunk, I kept hurting myself and there was somuch drama, I can't be bothered with it. I just - I'm getting old, I need to dosomething, so I just cut down – YP8

Both of these young people had accessed alcohol and drugtreatment services to deal with substance use issues whichwere associated with offending. At the same time, both ofthese young people spoke about ongoing illegal behaviour,though this tended to be non-violent and less serious innature than their previous offending:

I still kind of do things, but like small things, and things that I need. Liketampons and shit – YP1

I always get fines for drinking in public, not buying a train ticket, little thingslike that. I don't really care about them, but I hate paying for the fines. Ileave them and I don't have much money to pay the stuff and get taken tocourt and they reduce it for me. But I've got so many, I might have to dosomething about that. I'd rather not get them, but it's not that important. Iwill still go on a train without a ticket. I will still drink in public. But hurtingpeople, stealing things, stuff like that, no – YP8

The other three participants in this group were all stillinvolved with the criminal justice system. Their offending hadlargely been curbed as a result of wanting to adhere to theircriminal justice orders (parole, bail and a community-basedorder), so as not to be imprisoned:

If I break the law, I get locked up. I've already been told that – YP5

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After I turned 18, they don't really give you second or third chances after thatso I pulled my head in a little bit – YP10

Other factors appeared to have also impacted upon behaviouralchange, according to the young people, such as experiences inprison, having their own place to live, and having access tosupports:

It's more not being in Resi. At least this way I’m in my own house and - ifpeople piss me off I can just walk out without the police getting called - YP5

Yeah, Brosnan Centre, just because I want to move on and get out of Victoriaand start fresh, probably even out of the country if I can, yeah, just becauseI'm sick of it, I need to grow up… They’ve just been the only support I had; noone else has been going to my court cases – YP10

The young person above also stated that he was currentlyliving with a friend and her parents, who had agreed to allowhim to board with them. Part of his desire to desist fromoffending came from a wish to make this arrangement work,given that it was suitable and affordable for him:

I live with her family, and her family are like my family as well… it’s good rent.80 bucks a fortnight. Better than $300, so I don't want to stuff that up – YP10

Prison, opened my eyes. All the older boys, because I was good mates with allthe New Zealanders in there and they were like “Don’t come back, rah rah..It’sa shit life, don't want to live it, we've been doing this shit for 30 years now.Look what we've got?” I don’t want to look back at my life in 10 years and say“Fuck, look at what I have? – YP4

At the same time, this last young person detailed experiencesof feeling comfortable in prison:

Adult prison’s good. I’d go back to prison tomorrow if they wanted to send meback… Everyone’s already proved that they can fight. Everyone that’s in adult

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prison, all the older people, they just want to go home to their kids, they’re notin the mood for our shit, they do their own thing, they train, they swim, theywalk, that’s it – YP4

Persisters (4/15)The four young people in this group continued to exhibitongoing offending behaviour at the time of the interview.They were all young males, aged 19, 20, 25 and 25 years,respectively. They were all currently on adult criminaljustice orders (bail and parole), and three of these youngpeople had further court cases pending. Three of these youngpeople had described significant extended family involvementin the criminal justice system. Like the young people who hadreduced their offending, this group indicated that it wasimportant or very important to them to not offend, mainly dueto the threat of adult criminal justice sanctions, but thisdesire appeared unable to moderate their behaviour:

Adult courts are more strict on … strict on especially assault charges and stufflike that. So I can’t afford to just get drunk and … yeah. They take that stuff serious in court – YP7

It’s very important not to get into trouble… Because I don’t want to breakparole – YP12

Three of the young people in this group described extensivealcohol consumption and direct links between alcohol andoffending behaviour. Each had described current or previousattempts to moderate their alcohol consumption. The forthyoung person had described links between substance use(amphetamines and heroin) and offending behaviour:

I was technically classed as an alcoholic… it’s more peer pressure. Most of thetime people are off their faces. Peer pressure is a lot more convincing when you’re on alcohol – YP11

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I’ve only had one drink for two weeks and three days… I usually drunk everyday before that… [I drank] heaps, until I can’t walk properly, or can’t walk atall – YP7

One of these young people (aged 20), was on a Good BehaviourBond and had upcoming court cases at the time of theinterview. The young person stated his offending behaviourbegan at age 14, when he was in foster care. During his timein out of home care, he had spent significant periods in YouthJustice custody (total of two years over three separatesentences). He also described significant extended familyinvolvement in the adult criminal justice system. He was inYouth Justice custody at the time that his Child Protectionorder expired, and was released to a Lead Tenant program,where he remained until age 19, and then moved back with hisfamily. Once back with his family, YP7 stated he had recentlybeen charged with an assault. Prior to his recent offending,he stated that he had not offended for 18 months, while he wasin the Lead Tenant placement.

The remaining three young people were disconnected from theirfamilies; none had spoken about their fathers and all haddescribed experiences of estrangement from their mothers fromthe age of 11 or 12. In one case, the participant’s motherhad died in his late childhood. Additionally, two of theseyoung people had experienced significant conflict and/orabandonment by siblings and extended family members. One ofthe young people was residing in a youth refuge, while theother two were in public housing at the time of the interview.Aside from various workers, none appeared to have anysignificant adults in their lives at the time of theinterview. Significantly, two of these young people indicatedthat there they had no significant connection to services,support workers or parents at the time of leaving care.

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Leaving care and post-care experience

This section examines the leaving care and post-careexperiences of the participants, including involvement withthe adult criminal justice system. All of the young people inthe study were at least 17 years of age at the time offormally leaving care, and more than one third (6/15) were 18years of age.

Lead tenant arrangementsFive of the 15 young people left care via lead tenant or othertransitional arrangements prior to leaving care. Thiscomprised equal proportions of the female (2/5) and male(3/10) participants. Those who had entered care at a young agedue to abuse and neglect were most likely to have left carethrough lead tenant arrangements (3/5 of this group). Theyoung people who stated that they entered care due tobehavioural issues or conflicts with caregivers were lesslikely to have been placed in lead tenant arrangements (1/7 ofthe young people in these groups). Approximately one half ofthese lead tenant/transitional placements were arranged by outof home care providers (3/5), while the other two were eitherarranged by Youth Justice or supported accommodation programswhich specifically targeted offending youth or young peopleexiting youth justice custody.

Four of the five young people who transitioned through leadtenant arrangements described difficulties with theseplacements, including conflicts with the lead tenants andtrouble adhering to requirements such as budgeting. The finalyoung person did not provide much detail as to his lead tenantexperience. There was a sense from some of the young peoplethat they were not ‘cared’ for in these placements; in two

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instances, the young people left lead tenant placementsvoluntarily to live with friends or partners:

What they have is they have two kids living there, right it was me and therewas another girl. And then they have two adults. These adults have nothingto do with you in the sense of help you and if they do help you it’s by their…like they’re doing it off their own. But they’re just there to make sure that youdon’t chuck wild parties and trash the house, right? And they live there forfree, right? So you’re in a lead tenant, I was there… yeah… Just still went wild -Didn’t take the bills and the rent seriously. Didn’t, you know, like uh… “They’lllet me go. It’s alright. They’ll give me another chance - YP2

It was good until they fired... they took out [the lead tenant]. Because it wasonly me and [the lead tenant] in the unit, and [she] was the lead tenantperson. And they removed her, and then they put some snobby little princessin, which I royally stuffed up. She was just like the worst. She would like, neverwash her dishes, never do any of the housework, like always come home late,whenever she wanted to, come and take the TV remote off me and watch herTV shows, so… what I did one day was I picked up all of her stuff and Ichucked it outside, and I broke half of it. I got into really big trouble for it. Butit was worth it – YP14

Well I didn’t really get help in lead tenant. I kind of like ended up raisingmyself… it was really rotational, like people would come and go – YP15

Leaving care planningParticipants were asked about their experiences of leavingcare planning. A number of participants indicated that it wasdifficult for them to participate in these processes for avariety of reasons, including substance use and offendingissues, being involved with partners, or reluctance to engagewith workers or services:

A: It’s not what they could have done, it’s what I could have done to make itmore easier for me and me not being in the situation that I’m in now.

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Like me attending my appointments and stuff. But yeah so I kind ofblame myself.

Q: So looking back, why do you think that you didn’t?

A: Because I was too wrapped up in my boyfriend – YP1

I was that deep into drugs and I don't know what they could’ve done thatwould’ve helped me because I just didn't care much for anything but thedrugs. But I think they should be able to review a case and if extended timefor care is necessary, I think they should be able to extend it from say maybe18 to 21 instead of cutting them off completely – YP3

I avoided DHS every chance I got. I’m not going to willingly walk up to a [leaving care] meeting with them – YP11

Usually they put you in independent living, that’s what my sister, said, but Ididn't, because - I don't know, they told me, ‘You have to get paid’. I was like,‘I can't be bothered with Centrelink. I hate it’. So I wasn't on any payments,so they couldn't put me anywhere, so I was just like, ‘I'll go and live with mygrandpa’ – YP8

Leaving care plans and experiencesMost of the young people stated that they more than likely hada leaving care plan, however few could recall any of thecontents of the plan. For this group of young peopleengagement in leaving care planning or the process of leavingcare appeared minimal. None of the young people spoke aboutany input into leaving care planning which involved addressingany of their offending or related behaviours:

I did [have a plan] but I can't remember all of it – YP10

To be honest, I’ve seen that much paperwork, and this much bullshit. Youknow I really couldn’t tell you, honestly. I tried to forget about all that, youknow? So I can’t really tell you. Honestly, like being honest, if they did, they

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did. But it obviously didn’t make much of an imprint, an impact on me toremember, you know? – YP2

I can’t remember if there was a plan. I’m sure there would’ve been somewhatof a plan but it was more them just pulling out – YP3

I think [my worker] had one organised for me but I don’t think I went to themeeting or nothing – YP4

Positive leaving care experiences were described by 4/15 youngpeople. Some of these participants were appreciative of theopportunity to acquire material goods while others werepleased to no longer be involved in the child protectionsystem:

It was alright. They bought all my furniture for me – YP14

[It was] not bad actually. I got to go and buy some … get heaps of stuff to start in the lead tenant. Stuff like a TV, bed, clothes, even a PS3…That was part of that leaving plan – YP 7

Excellent, best thing that ever happened... no more DHS – YP11

However, for at least nine of the young people, the transitionfrom care described was a chaotic experience. These youngpeople generally described escalating substance use and/oroffending behaviour immediately preceding, during and/or soonafter the transition from care:

I ended up cracking the shits, yeah? Like, I was getting into too much trouble,if I didn’t leave here I would have ended up doing jail or some shit for justdoing something stupid – YP2

I don't think [leaving care] was too bad. My drug taking had taken off and Ididn't really care much for where I lived, so whether I had a residential unit togo back to or I had someone’s couch, it didn't really matter. All I cared aboutwas the drugs at that point and I don't think even if they had of got me a nicelittle one bedroom place, I don't think it would’ve mattered at this point intime – YP3

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I don’t know. I started smoking a fuck load of drugs, stealing heaps more carsand that was it – YP4

A few of the young people also indicated that they were notable to access sufficient or appropriate personal supports ormaterial resources during their transition to independence,particularly formal supports during and after the transition,and appropriate and affordable housing:

During the end, when I was leaving, my worker, I didn't see her much. Shedidn't say goodbye. She was terrible. She was like, ‘I'll see when you're 18 andwe'll go out and do something for the last time’. She didn't… My workershere, they tried to contact her sometimes. She doesn't pick up, she takes agesto reply back. It's just annoying. … In the leaving parts for me it was bad…Them not communicating and I don't think [my worker] was there enough forme… they should have talked to me more and helped me more, saw me a bitmore when I was leaving, so we could do stuff, organise things. She didn't.She said she would, but she didn't. – YP 8

They should have found a better place for me to go move, that's about it,really… Something cheaper, not something that was taking all of my pay...And also the place that they put me in, they were stealing off me, they havethe key to my room, not even my room, just using my stuff – YP 10

Finally, a couple of the young people specifically indicatedthat they did not want to leave care at the time that theirChild Protection order expired:

[Leaving care was] horrible. I just.. I don’t know I didn’t want to turn 18 – YP1

I didn’t really want to leave resi… Just because everything was there, I hadsomewhere to stay, I wasn't paying rent, there was food there. Yeah, when Imoved out it was back to fending for myself again, which I still am, still atmates houses – YP10

Post-care services

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Approximately one half of the participants were connected topost-care services at the time of leaving care, as shown inthe table below. Those that had accessed post-care serviceshad generally been in out of home care for longer period oftime than those who did not report accessing post-careservices. It is worth noting that in at least one instancesupport services were offered but not accessed as the youngperson felt she did not need them at the time of leaving care.One third of the young people (5/15) reported that they hadworkers from Youth Justice or Youth Justice Community SupportServices (YJCSS) at the time of leaving care; three of theseyoung people were not connected to post-care services at thistime.

Access to post-care services at the time of leaving care

Proportion ofyoungpeople

Average timein care(mean)

Adultjustice

involvement

Accessed post-careservices

7/15 10.4 years 2/7

Did not access post-care services 8/15 4.8 years 5/8

Table 14. Access to post-care services at the time of leaving care

There appeared to be some associations between accessing post-care services and later offending behaviour. While it wasonly a small sample, it is worth noting that only 2/7 young people who were connected to post-care services at the time ofleaving care had experienced adult justice involvement, and 6/7 young people who were connected to post-care services had desisted from offending at the time the interview. Conversely,of the 4 young people who were persistent offenders at the time of the interview, 3 reported that they were not connectedto post-care services at the time of leaving care. Three of these four young people were also connected to Youth Justice or YJCSS or other services (e.g. YSAS) at the time of leaving care. Finally, 5/7 young people who had involvement with adult

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corrections since leaving care did not have a post-care workerat the time of leaving care.

What about just after you turned 18, where there any workers at all?

A Not then – YP12

These observations do not imply causation, but ratherillustrate the difficulties of the transition from statutoryout of home care services to a voluntary post-care model whereyoung people are involved with offending behaviour. Therelationship between access to post-care services and supportsand later offending behaviour warrants further exploration.

Post-care accommodationThe graph below illustrates the post-care accommodationarrangements of the young people, the most common of which wasliving with a family member. At the time of the interview,five of the 15 post-care placements had been successful inthat young people had not left due to conflict or beingevicted/asked to leave. Even so, in two of these five cases,the young people had been incarcerated as a result of furtheroffending (both had returned to family members). The remainingthree successful placements included two females were residingwith partners in transitional housing/public housingplacements and the final young person was initially placed inpublic housing, but moved interstate a year later.

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Resided with family

Transitional/Public Housing

Boarding house/couch surfing/ refuge/homeless

Private rental

0 1 2 3 4 5 6Figure 6. Initial post-care accomodation

For the remaining 10 young people, two had no clear plans uponleaving care, and a further two young people did not describethe reasons why the placements were unsuccessful, as shown inthe table below. It is interesting to note that of the fouryoung people who were able to access transitional or publichousing properties, three of these placements had not failedby the time of the interview.

Reasons for post-careplacement breakdown

Proportion of youngpeople

Successful placement 5/15No plan apparent 2/15

Interpersonal issues 4/15Unaffordable 1/15

Breaching tenancy agreement 1/15Table 15. Reasons for post-care placement breakdown

In the remaining six instances where post-care placementsbroke down, participants described various reasons, includinginterpersonal issues, a lack of housing affordability andbreaching tenancy agreements leading to eviction:

I came out and I think my mum said she would give me one more shot. WhenDHS wiped their hands she goes, ‘You can come home and I’ll give you onemore shot’. I don't think that lasted very long and then I just started sleepingon people’s couches and living at community houses and moving around likethat and then I would be in jail and then I would be staying with friends. All I

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remember is there was nothing set up for me as far as getting my own unit orsomething like that, there was nothing like that. – YP3

When they moved me out, when I was 18, they put me in a place that was 300dollars a fortnight and I was only getting 360 so that was giving me $60 afortnight to spend and I couldn't - that wasn't working so I had to move out ofthere and I was back to being at mates’ houses. But yeah, it was fuckingstupid as. You can’t afford to live on 30 bucks a week. – YP10

Landlord came over and saw the house was completely trashed. Threw a party the night before. – YP11

…my mate’s girlfriend stole their [residential] unit van. So we grabbed thatand went [interstate]…. They didn’t give me nowhere to go. Just kicked mestraight out.– YP12

Seven of the young people spoke about the longevity of theirinitial post-care placements. All of these initial placementshad lasted less than 12 months, and the majority (6/7) hadlasted 6 months or less. When post-care placements/plans brokedown, young people mainly found friends or other familymembers to reside with, or entered the homelessness system. Ofthe whole sample, only one young person was able to sustainhousing in the absence of another adult from whom they couldlive. Those who relied on friends to support their transitiongenerally were unable to sustain housing and became homeless.Others relied on partners, partners’ families or familymembers to provide housing or support them to maintainhousing.

Subsequent post-careaccommodation

Proportion of youngpeople

Successful placement 5/15Unclear 2/15Friends 4/15Family 2/15

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Homelessness services 2/15Table 16. Subsequent post-care accommodation

One participant gave feedback as to how planning for post-careaccommodation could be improved - YP3’s post-care placementwith his mother broke down fairly quickly after leaving care,suggested:

I think if they want to move back home there needs to be a plan in place of…you need to sit down with your mum and dad and try and have set rules ofwhat you’re able to do and what you’re not able to do. So as in she’ll kickme out for these things, write them down and I will do these things, writethem down, just a bit of an agreement and know your boundaries becauseif you’re going home after they wipe their hands of you, if you’re goinghome or you don't really have anything if you get kicked out. So I think theboundaries need to be set of exactly what you’re able to do. – YP3

Other suggestions were that young people need to have a planfor housing upon leaving care, and that post-care housing mustbe affordable in the context of young peoples’ limitedfinances.

HomelessnessBy the time of the interview, 8/15 young people had beenhomeless at some point since leaving care. This includessquatting, being in emergency accommodation services, boardinghouses and couch surfing. Those who had not experiencedhomelessness generally had family or friends with whom theycould reside if required. The table below indicates the youngpeoples’ accommodation at the time of the interview.

Accommodation at time ofinterview

Proportion of youngpeople

Residing with family 3/15Private rental 3/15

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Public housing 4/15Transitional housing 2/15Boarding house/couch

surfing/homeless/refuge 3/15

Table 17. Accommodation at the time of interview

FinancesA few young people indicated that they had learned varioustechniques of acquiring money whilst in care (e.g. gettingmoney from workers, acquiring money through entering YouthJustice detention), but that these did not serve them aftertransitioning to independence. A number of young people spokeabout financial difficulties post-care, particularly in thecontext of needing to care for their own children, andacquiring or maintaining housing. Current rates of YouthAllowance payments effectively price care leavers out of theprivate rental market, and also render many emergencyaccommodation options (e.g. boarding houses) unaffordable.

Pregnancy and parenthoodOne of the 15 participants was pregnant for the first time atthe time of the interview, and another young woman waspregnant for the third time, having had two previous childrenwho were in the care of the Department of Human Services(DHS). A further 4/15 participants had one or more children oftheir own. Three of the five parents were directly involved inthe care of their children, and in at least three cases(indicated by an asterisk* in the table below), the youngpeople described Child Protection involvement with their ownchildren. Note that the young people were not specificallyasked about Child Protection involvement with their ownchildren/pregnancies; the degree of involvement described maytherefore underestimate the actual level of Child Protectioninvolvement for the study sample. The table below givesfurther details about these children:

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YP

Gender ofYP

Age of young personwhen

their children wereborn

Child(ren)’s carearrangements

1 Female

Pregnant at time of interview. Due to give birth at 18.5 years

2 Male Child born when he was 20years*

Currently the sole carer of his child

6 Female

Two children born when YPwas 17 years and 18.5 years, respectively.Currently pregnant with third child*

Both children in DHS care

12

Male Child born when he was 24years

Child in the care of the child’s mother

14

Female

Child born when she was 16.5 years*

Shared care arrangement between young person and her grandmother

15

Male Child born when he was 19years

Currently carer of his child with the child’s mother (cohabitating)

Table 18. Pregnancy and parenthood

Adult criminal justice system involvementJust less than one half of the participants (7/15) had someinvolvement with the adult criminal justice system sinceleaving care, all of whom were male.

Adult Justice System Involvement Proportion of youngpeople

Any involvement 7/15 (all male)Spent time in prison

(remanded or sentenced) 6/15

Further charges currentlypending 4/15

Table 19. Adult criminal justice system involvement

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The table below compares various characteristics of those whodid and did not become involved in the adult criminal justicesystem:

Characteristic

Proportion ofyoung people

involved in adultjustice system

(n=7)

Proportion ofyoung people not

involved in adultjustice system

(n=8)Male 7/7 3/8Average age of entering care

11.4 years 9.8 years

Average time in out ofhome care 5.9 years 8.8 years

School exclusion 7/7 5/8Substance use other than alcohol and marijuana

5/7 2/8

Mental health diagnosis

4/7 6/8

Had a post-care workerat time of leaving care

2/7 5/8

Homeless since leavingcare

5/7 3/8

No informal supports 3/7 0/8Table 20. Characteristics of young people who did and did not become involved in the adult criminal justice system

Other than gender, substance use (other than alcohol andmarijuana) was more common among those who became involvedwith the adult criminal justice system. The two otherparticipants in the sample who reported substance use otherthan alcohol or marijuana but did not proceed to adult justicewere both females, one of whom had a child and the other ofwhom was pregnant at the time of the interview. Both of theseyoung women had also ceased using these other substances.

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The participants who became involved with the adult justicesystem tended to have entered care at a later age (> 10years), either due to behavioural issues or family conflict(5/7 of young people who proceeded to the adult criminaljustice system). It should be noted that the number of self-reported out of home care placements did not appear to berelated to progression to adult criminal justice systeminvolvement in this sample – 5/6 young people who progressedto adult justice reported more than two placements, as did 6/8young people who did not progress to the adult criminaljustice system. This may be reflective of the generally longerperiod of time spent in out of home care by young people whodid not progress to the adult justice system. Unfortunatelythere was not sufficient detail in the data collected tocompare the average placements per year in care of those whodid and did not progress to the adult justice system.

Post-care factors which were more common among the youngpeople who proceeded to the adult justice system were:

Having no support from a post-care worker at the time ofleaving care

Experiencing homelessness since leaving care; and Having no informal supports (i.e. only being connected to

voluntary or involuntary services or workers)

Given that male gender appears to be the factor mostassociated with adult criminal justice system involvementwithin this sample, it is worth examining the cases of the 3young males who had not proceeded to this outcome.

Two of these three young people (YP 2, YP 15) were males hadentered care under the age of 10 as a result of abuse andneglect issues. Neither of these young people had become

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extensively involved with substance use and both had childrenfor whom they were direct caregivers. While neither of theseyoung people had close relationships with either of theirparents, each described having a significant relationship witha worker, who continued to be involved with them followingtheir discharge from care, for example:

Oh man, he pulled me up so many times, yeah? He goes, ‘if I think you need aflogging, I’ll give you one’, you know, ‘and I don’t care if they fire me’. Youknow, he pulled…. I don’t know, he just related to me so much. You know hehelped me… and [worker X].. [worker X] I just related to [worker X], you knowlike and we’re still friends to this day. – YP2

One of my best mates was my ex-carer [worker] and we’ve, ever since the firstshift he did we’ve clicked, and we were like really best friends, like really goodfriends. And even now, like most of my [car] I’m driving was built up by him.We still meet – saw him a couple of weeks ago. And he ended up being thepermanent lead tenant there at that present time, because there was no onethere. – YP15

he last young person (YP 9) had entered residential care atage 12 as a result of family conflict concerning his substanceuse, specifically marijuana use. He was placed in residentialcare until age 14, however most of his time in care was spentin a kinship placement with an aunt. While he described havingextended family members who were entrenched in substance use(marijuana) and offending behaviour, he also described his ownpro-social attitudes, including regrets concerning his lack ofeducation and being ‘out of step’ with certain milestonesachieved by his peers:

I should have gone to school. If I would have been at school already I wouldhave passed my education. I look at my friends now… fuck… they’ve alreadygot cars, holidays, jobs. I look at them and, fuck, it should have been medoing that. – YP9

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This young person had also begun to address substance useissues as part of his Youth Justice order, and another ofthese young males who had also used marijuana, similarlyindicated that he had ceased this of his own accord by thetime of the interview.

None of these young people had had extensive involvement withthe custodial YJ system. For YP15, Youth Justice involvementonly consisted of community-based sanctions for behaviouralissues (e.g. assaults and property destruction) in the contextof placement. Similarly, YP9 had been placed on community-based orders for offending that took place with older familymembers. YP2 had experienced community-based Youth Justiceorders, and had been placed on remand on some occasions, butnever sentenced to a Youth Justice centre. His offendinggenerally involved property crimes such as thefts andburglaries, which he mainly carried out alone.

Finally, each of these young people described a sense ofobligation to care for another person in their lives; in thecase of YP 2 and 15 their own children and in the case of YP9,his mother.

I wanted to follow other people’s lines when I was that young, so yeah. Butnow, yeah I’ve learnt that I’m sticking with my mum. Looking after her. – YP 9

Further discussion regarding the impact of having childrenupon offending is discussed in the next section concerningdesistance and reduced offending.

Current supportsThe young people described a range of formal and informalsupport people who were currently in their lives, as shown inthe table below. Formal supports included workers from leavingcare, housing, drug and alcohol, disability, corrections andYouth Justice Community Support Service agencies, as well as

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counselling services. Informal supports included parents,extended family, partners and partners’ families, friends andformer case managers or workers who had remained in contactwith young people. While each of the young people had atleast one informal support person in their lives, the natureof the assistance and encouragement offered in theserelationships varied.

Current supports Proportion of young people

Formal only 3/15Informal only 2/15

Both formal and informal 9/15Table 21. Current formal and informal supports

Biological parentsThe young people rarely spoke about their biological fathersthroughout the course of the interviews. In fact, 7/15 youngpeople made no mention of their biological fathers at all. Ofthe 8 young people who spoke about their fathers, only onespoke of a current relationship, indicating that he presentlylived with both of his parents. Three of the eight youngpeople who mentioned their fathers stated that their fatherswere perpetrators of violence towards them, and one statedthat his father was a drug addict. The remainder indicatedthat they had been involved with their fathers at some pointduring their lives (e.g. living with them for periods duringadolescence), but did not speak about having a currentrelationship.

The young people were far more inclined to speak about theirrelationships with their mothers. As shown in the figurebelow, the nature of these relationships varied fromsupportive, to estranged.

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No relationship/estranged

Conflictual/distant relationship

Supportive relationship

Unclear

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Figure 7. Status of young peoples' current relationships with mothers

No relationship/estranged: Four participants described norelationship with their mothers; this was either due tomaternal death, conflict or abandonment at either the age of11 or 12. In one case the young person declined to speak aboutthe reasons for the estrangement.

I moved down here with my mum, we had arguments, she kicked me out. Imoved to Melbourne, she lives in [rural city]. My mum, she’s evil… She stillworries about me – YP 12

My mum didn’t really want to see me. – YP 15

I grew up with my mum until she passed away when I was 11 – YP 13

Significantly, each of these young people had also made nomention of any current relationship with their fathers, andthree of these four participants were engaged in ongoingoffending behaviour at the time of the interview. The oneparticipant in this group who had desisted in offending wascurrently residing with a partner, had fathered a child, andhad a close relationship with an ex-worker, who he describedas a “really good friend”.

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Conflictual or distant relationship: 6/15 people described arelationship with their mothers which was conflictual ordistant; in many cases, this relationship had improved overtime, and while most of these participants did not describe anideal or supportive relationship with their mothers, most werestill able to call on them for material or social support attimes:

Me and my mum… my mum can’t… ah man… it just makes me frustrated, you know? You know we can’t see… we get along yeah? We don’t argue. We just can’t see… like her way of thinking, where I’m … I feel like I’m even, like I’ve got a good idea, but then she’s probably thinking the same thing about me – YP 2

I don't see my dad or talk to my dad anymore but my mum I do, only becausemy little brother’s down there… [my relationship with my mum is] shit. Sheonly rings me when she wants something, or I only ring her when I wantsomething. – YP 5

A: [my mum] lives in Adelaide, so not often, like a couple of times a year, butI speak to her every couple of days.

Q: What’s your relationship with her like today?

A: Yeah it’s okay. It’s not, ‘I love you dearly, you’re the best mum in theworld’, but it’s okay – YP 14

Supportive relationship: The three young people (all males)who described supportive relationships with their mothers hadlargely become estranged from them due to their own offendingbehaviour. Two of these young people had initially been placedin care due to their problematic behaviours, and all hadentered care after the age of 10 years. Two were now livingwith their mothers, while the third young person described aclose relationship with this mother, although they were notresiding together:

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I know a lot of resi kids and a lot of kids that have done YJ and that, they don'tcome out of it and a lot of them end up reoffending for life but all I know is Igot given an opportunity to live a better life and I’ve taken it and I seem to bedoing it so I think never lose faith in someone. All I know is my mother neverlost faith in me. Like I couldn’t live with her and I understand that but shealways had contact and she would always come and drop off food and shewould try. She was a scared woman but she would try and she didn't give upon me and we have a wonderful relationship today – YP 3

Now, yeah I’ve learnt that I’m sticking with my mum - Looking after her..Basically all my aunties were lecturing me, it was like why are you doing thisto your mother? Your mum’s got like no one with her, she doesn’t have her…boyfriend, she never had no one to look after. My brother would do the samething; my brother would be like living with my dad. My brother was living withmy dad in New Zealand and then my mother wouldn’t have no one to stay –YP 9

It appeared that for the young people in the study, those whohad any relationship with their mothers had fared better thanthose whose relationship was completely estranged.

SiblingsWhile young people were not specifically asked about theirsiblings, 13/15 made mention of brothers and/or sisters duringtheir interviews. The table below illustrates the minimumnumber of siblings of the young people.

Number of siblingsmentioned

Proportion of young people

No mention of siblings 2/151 sibling 2/152 siblings 7/153 siblings 1/155 siblings 2/156 siblings 1/15

Table 22. Number of siblings mentioned by young people

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Many young people spoke about their sibling (s) in the contextof offending behaviour. 8/15 young people stated that theirsiblings had also been in trouble with the law, and 5/15 youngpeople spoke about offending with siblings (including assaultsin school environments).

Another recurrent theme in relation to siblings, mentioned by8/15 young people, was experiences of being separated frombrothers and sisters. This was either due to placementdecisions in out of home care, the young person being takeninto care while other siblings remained at home or in kinshipplacements, and losing contact with siblings due to eithertheir own or their sibling’s youth detention or adultimprisonment, for example:

After a little while of being with my little sister in the Morwell Care Unit, mylittle brother ended up coming to live with us as well and then after that I gotmoved to Bairnsdale and that just got even harder and then my little sistergot moved to a Residence Unit in Traralgon and my little brother got movedto a Disability Unit in Traralgon and so we were all over the place and thatjust made it even harder to be away – YP 6

Q: So what was your relationship like with your family through all this time [while you were in and out of Youth Justice detention]?

A Poor … they never even… I’d go on for a year without seeing them.

Q Even your brothers or just your parents?

A Um.. all my brothers as well.

Q You wouldn’t see any of them? What was that like?

A Pretty sad – YP7.

Three of the young people, all females, expressed current orprevious concern for their younger siblings, for instance:

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My little sister’s 15, she comes back at 10:30, 11 o’clock at night and they – myMum rang me a couple weeks ago and told me that a couple of 13, 14 yearold girls were killed in [regional town] and my first instinct was to call my littlesister because Mum hadn’t heard from her in over a week and Mum wasgetting worried, so I called my little sister, I’m like, ‘Thank God she’s fine’, soyeah. It’s scary considering that those girls were killed at night in a park. – YP6

Like my sister, she's - when she's by herself, she's fine; when she's with me andmy friends, we just stay home and be good, she's good. She doesn't doanything. But when she's with certain people, that’s when she'll do anything,like she doesn't care. She has to care. I'm hoping she'll see something oneday and she'll stop. But she's good. She's great, but at times she's - I feel likeshe doesn't care, and that's the people she's with. Because they want to do it,then she has to do it. She can stop, but if the people around her are stilldoing it, it encourages her to do it. – YP 8

Other informal supportsOver one half of the young people (9/15) spoke about keyrelationships which were vital to supporting their transitionfrom care. These included relationships with grandparents,partners, partners’ families and friends. These support peopleassisted the young people with finances, supplyingaccommodation, and emotional support:

It’s been alright because I’ve had my boyfriend’s support and help and stuff,and I’m just like you know.. his family’s just starting to get back involved withme, and you know, all that type of shit. – YP1

[My case manager] e was actually willing to allow me to stay with [myboyfriend], his brother and sister because it was a safe house, it was clean atall times, I was getting looked after, I had food in my stomach, a roof over myhead and clothes on my back, yes and I also had money in my pocket, so theysaw that if it was in a suitable situation, that I would be safe and out of

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harm’s way, then I could stay there, so I was staying with [my boyfriend]. –YP6

When I was at my grandpa's it was pretty strict. I liked it, because mysiblings, they live there, the younger ones. Yeah, but I don't know – too manyrules. I didn't really have much freedom. If I could do what I wanted - but,yeah, it wasn't comfortable and I couldn't be me there. I'd just be like good. Ijust wanted to go and have fun. But it was good living there. I got fat,because the food was so nice. – YP 8

I live with [my friend and her] family. And her family are like my family aswell. – YP 10

[When I left care] it was pretty crap, um… it was pretty crap between when Iwas living at my Grandma’s because I was sleeping on the floor at myGrandma’s. She only has a one bedroom house. But apart from that it’sbeen. Like since I moved [to transitional housing], it’s been good. – YP 14

Formal supports (13/15)Most of the young people continued to have formal supports interms of workers and services in their lives at the time ofthe interview. This would be expected since services were thepoint of recruitment of young people for the interviews. Thefigure below illustrates the proportion of young people whoself-reported being involved with each of the support serviceslisted at the time of the interview. The two young people whowere not receiving support from workers or services were oldermales, aged 25 and 26 years respectively. Both were residingin private rental and had employment at the time of theinterviews. One maintained contact with a former worker, whilethe other received informal support from a drug and alcoholsupport group rather than a formal service.

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Former OHC service/ workers

Drug and alcohol

Corrections

Mentoring

Counselling

0 1 2 3 4 5

Number of Young People

Figure 8. Young peoples' current formal supports8

Young people’s perspectives

This section presents findings concerning a number ofadditional areas in which young people shared theirperspectives and about offending, Youth Justice involvement,being in out of home care and leaving care.

Why do young people in care commit offences?Young people expressed their views on the reasons why someyoung people in care committed offences. Two of the youngpeople did not respond to this question. The remaining youngpeople generally described multiple reasons which theybelieved were drivers of offending behaviour in young peoplein out of home care, including:

Offending is a mechanism for seeking care or attention,expressing/coping with difficult feelings or attempting toinfluencing their circumstances

8 YJCSS – Youth Justice Community Support Service; SAAP – Supported Accommodation Assistance Program

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I think it’s because it’s their way of like dealing with things, getting a message out to someone that’s hurt them or done something to them, and just saying, ‘yeah, look at what you’ve done to me’, I guess. – YP 1Because they’re unhappy where they are and they have a problem with rules and with the system. So they get put in this resi unit and if they don't like it they’re going to...well I’d break things and stuff therefore boom, communal damage offending because I couldn’t cope with rules– YP 3

It all depends because a lot of kids in care do have all different problemswrong with them so it all depends on the mood the kids are in. If they wakeup in a brilliant mood then you're going to have a good night, if they wake upin a shit mood, God help you. But it all depends, with a lot of other - with sayfour kids in there, they're just going to follow what the other kids are doing soit's like the leader of the pack but kids in Resi, they just do it for all differentreasons really. Most of it is to get attention, sometimes, or to get removedbecause the only way you can get removed from the unit is if you do anassault or do something major. – YP 5

There’s a few reasons. I believe it’s for attention because they want to gohome, they don't think that they deserve to be in Residence Unit, theydeserved to be home. Maybe it's because they don't like the way that thingsare, maybe it's because they're too lenient with them. I know I used to stuff upbecause I wanted to go home, I wanted to be with my mum and my brothers -my brother and my sisters, and I did want the attention… I know a lot ofpeople who are in care at the moment and all of them have said the samething, they want to go home, they want to be with their parents or their auntieor their uncles, they all say the same thing, they don't want to be there. – YP 6

Because they’re in DHS care. .. Because no one likes DHS, so they rebel by getting in trouble, which gives them paperwork, which is the easiest way to make them suffer. - YP 11

I think ‘cause… slight attention [seeking]. Because there’s no permanentperson looking after them. We are lied to daily. It’s really abandonment

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issues, basically. Like, it’s just… if you have someone loving and looking afteryou all the time, and it’s not always different people, then they can kind ofcontrol where you are, what you’re doing, give you attention. It’s mainlyattention, really. It’s mainly attention and because … yeah… Most people thatdo that bad shit, like me, like when I was doing that stuff, most of it was justmistakes. Like, mainly the damage, like the property damage, that was mainlyjust mistakes – YP 15

Offending is a reaction to a lack of care and discipline intheir out of home care environment

Because they’re pretty much allowed to. When I say they’re allowed to, there’sno discipline, there’s nothing there. If you lock them inside the house, they getin trouble. You know? The kid could yell blue murder, you know? Belted me,raped me, anything. And there’s going to be an inquiry. There’s kids… they’vebeen given a mile, and they’ve taken a hundred of them… Why they get intotrouble so much? Because they’re just bored. There’s no love in there, youknow? There’s no Dad, there’s no Mum. You know, ‘Son, what have you donetoday? Go clean your room. Where’s your homework?, or something like that.– YP 2

Because they have too much freedom.. I could go out whenever I want. Nocurfew. Just make sure I come back in a few days – YP 7

Because they’re not listened to, they don’t have support, and they don’tactually have discipline either. That’s the main thing as well. – YP 14

Offending is a result of things that have happened in theyoung person’s past

I don't know, maybe it's their upbringing or stuff that’s happened in the past. – YP 4

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I don’t know. Depends how they were raised. If they went through, like badproblems, they would do those things. Like if they’ve been bullied since theirwhole life, you know you would grow up and you would be a bully. – YP 9

Offending is about following the behaviour of peers

It's the people they're around. If they hung around people that didn't want todo that stuff, they wouldn't do it. They'd be good too, like my sister. She's -when she's by herself, she's fine; when she's with me and my friends, we juststay home and be good, she's good. She doesn't do anything. But when she'swith certain people, that's when she'll do anything, like she doesn't care. – YP8

Because young people that are in care, peer pressure and stuff, probablybecause they don't have families, so they don't really care, that's usually thecase. Yeah, in care, so they wouldn't really care much about what happens. –YP 10

What should agencies like Child Protection and Youth Justice do to help youngpeople to not offend again?

When asked what could be done to assist young people in out ofhome care to desist from offending, the young people againgave a variety of responses, as shown in the table below. Notethat young people sometimes had more than one response.

Suggested strategies to reduceoffending behaviour

Proportion of youngpeople

Stricter out of home careenvironments

6/15

More one-to-one attention 6/15Nothing can be done 6/15

Treatment of mental healthand substance use issues 2/15

Unsure/no response 2/15

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Table 23. Suggestions to reduce offending behaviour among young people in out of home care

One of the more common responses by the young people was thatout of home care environments should be more strict (forexample having earlier curfews) and that there should begreater consequences for breaking any rules (6/15 youngpeople). The respondents were not advocating punishment perse, but such consequences as having serious conversationsabout offending behaviour and potentially missing out oncertain rewards as a result of breaking rules, for example:

There needs to be more rules in the Resi’s but heaps more control needs to betaken… I just think it might help with the curfews and – they’ve got a curfewbut you stay out, they’ve got to let you in… So I don't know really what theycan do about it. – YP 4

At the start it’s like “Well [I] really did do wrong” and then they just swept [myoffending] off and went “Pfft! It doesn't matter” like “Well, it doesn't matterwhat you do, you're the one getting in trouble not us”. So if they had havekept the whole “You did wrong, end of discussion” thing going at least for acouple of days, then it would have been a lot better – YP 6

Take it more seriously than actually just saying, ‘this is a serious matter’. Youknow they’ve got to… the thoughts have to come from their heart, not just, ‘ohthis is a good idea! We should try this!’, you know? No! Take it seriously. Thisis people’s lives you’re messing with here, you know? This is going to turnthem into what they’re going to be. More discipline. I’m not saying growlingor whatever, just… full stop discipline. There has to be rules and they have tobe stuck by. And kids should not have that much leverage they have this dayand age. The only right a kid has is to be safe. Safe. And sound. That is theonly right they have. Until they’re old enough, they don’t have any rightswhatsoever – YP 2

Other young people believed that young people in care neededmore one-to-one attention from workers and carers, for examplebeing kept occupied, listened to and encouraged:

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Maybe listening. Do more activities with me… We had to pay for everything. Ifwe didn’t have money, we didn’t get to do activities. – YP 14

.. it was all about environment with me. If I was in, like… I was an angel outof the resi house. As soon as I’m back in that house – I mean like you go out,take me to the movies, it was just like walking.. or just take me out of thehouse, or even like out of the front door, I was like perfect. I wouldn’t doanything silly. But as soon – I don’t know what it was – but as soon as I was inthe house, like a residential house, my brain just clicked, like to be a psycho.That’s how it was. – YP15

Keep them occupied. I think they should do activities with them, take themout. – YP 8

DHS could be a bit better, and not so much… yeah. And the resi unit couldactually spend more time with the kids, rather than just sitting in the office24/7… [the workers] just sat in the office. That’s why I used to trash the joint-YP 11

A number of young people (6/15) indicated that there isnothing that various child welfare agencies could do to reduceoffending, particularly if young people were not ready tochange:

They can’t really do anything. Probably because it’s not going to work, all theycan do is give you that little talk but when they get out, they’re going to forgetthat talk, aren’t they? They’re not your parents. – YP 10

[There’s] not really [anything they could do]... Once you get into trouble once it’s like hard to stay out of it – YP 11

Not really much they can do... Seriously, if people want to go out and offendand get drunk and do what they want and then assault people, you can'treally sit there with a dog chain or something on them going ‘You can't move’.People are going to do what they want when they want, especially teenagers,especially being out of home. If you have DHS or Youth Justice going, ‘No, youcan't do this’, they’re going to go ‘Well, you're not my parent, I can do what I

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want’ so it’s hard. They can only control so much, they can't really stop youfrom doing it – YP 5

Finally, two young people saw addressing mental health andsubstance abuse issues as the key to reducing offending andother problematic behaviours among young people in care:

I think looking at my drug issues instead of just processing me as an offender;they needed to look why I was offending - because I was on drugs and Iwasn’t happy where I was at. I think you’ve got to look more to why he’sdoing it instead of he’s doing it, we’ll give him the consequence for doing it.There’s definitely a lot more ways… At that age a lot of kids don't want to stopeither, that’s just the start of their addiction but you’ve still got to give them ashot. – YP 3

Two other young people drew links between their medicationregimes and their offending behaviour, which primarilyconsisted of behavioural issues in the context of residentialcare in both cases:

… they actually found the right medication and all that for me to be on…when all the assaults were happening and that, they were trying all differentmedication on me and some medication would be fine on me, othermedication would make me go berserk. – YP 5

[The offending] really started happening after they started giving memedication, to be perfectly honest. I was just getting really rough, and Iwould slam myself against walls, not meaning to break them, and I would likefall through the wall. I would assault the workers, I would bite them. I wasjust a psycho child, now that I think about it… it was just the medication,that’s what I reckon. Because as I was off them, I felt more smarter, I wasn’tdoing any stupid shit. – YP 15

While this response was not directly articulated by otheryoung people in response to this question, many did outlinethe fact that reducing or ceasing alcohol and drug use wasvital to them reducing or desisting from offending, forexample:

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Well most of the stuff stopped when I got out of DHS. Drinking stopped because the fun went out of it when I turned 18 because I was allowed to drink it, and then yeah – YP 11

Overall, the two most prominent themes of the young peoples’responses suggest that the majority of respondents believedthat they were lacking consistent or appropriate boundariesand responsiveness during their time in out of home care.Young people spoke about the need for “rules”, “discipline”and “consequences”, as well as addressing issues thatcontributed to their offending, such as mental health andsubstance abuse problems.

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Discussion

This report has presented findings of a study of 15 Victoriancare leavers who had also experienced involvement with theYouth Justice system. This section will discuss the findingsin the light of previous research and service responses to thedual order group.

The sample group’s demographic characteristics were largelyreflective of the Victorian leaving care population in termsof Indigenous status and the proportion who had first beenplaced in OHC after the age 12 years. However, compared tocare leavers in general, females were under-represented, andyoung people who had been in care for more than two years wereover-represented in the sample.

Demographic Characteristic

Study sample(n=15)

Victorian CareLeavers (2009-10) (n=590)9

Male 67% 46%Indigenous 13% 13%First out of home care placement >12 years 53% 67%

In care for > 2 years 87% 50%Table 24. Selected out of home care and demographic characteristics of study sample and general Victorian care leavers

The young people in the study sample presented with similarcharacteristics of social disadvantage as have been documentedin Australian leaving care and Youth Justice custodialpopulations more broadly, including high rates of schoolexclusion, mental health issues, issues with intellectual

9 Source: Cummins, P., Scott, D., & Scales, B. (2012). The Report of the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry. Melbourne: State Government of Victoria, p. 264.

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functioning, substance abuse problems and early parenthood(Indig, 2011; Mendes, Johnson, & Moslehuddin, 2011; The YouthParole Board and Youth Residential Board of Victoria, 2013).The table below compares selected characteristics of the studysample with the results of a snapshot survey of youngVictorians in Youth Justice custody in 2012 (The Youth ParoleBoard and Youth Residential Board of Victoria, 2013). Thoughless than half of the study sample had actually enteredcustodial Youth Justice (7/15), overall they presented withhigher prevalence of each measure of social disadvantage thanthe Youth Justice custodial sample.

CharacteristicStudy sample

(n=15)

Young people inYouth Justicecustody (2012)

(n=172)10

Male 67% 94%Experience of school suspension or expulsion 80% 67%

Presented with mental health issues 67% 35%

Presented with issues concerning their intellectual functioning

33% 27%

Drug users 93% 88%Parents 33% 13%Table 25. Selected characteristics of the study sample and young peoplein Youth Justice custody in 2012

While the study sample cannot be considered representative ofthe broader dual order client group, these findings suggest10 The results of a snapshot survey of 162 males and 10 females in custodyon 12 September 2012 carriedout by the Department of Human Services in (The Youth Parole Board andYouth Residential Board of Victoria, 2013).

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the likelihood that they comprise a particularly vulnerableand disadvantaged subgroup of the Youth Justice population.The results support the need for and value of trauma-informedapproaches both within custodial Youth Justice as well asacross the youth justice system more generally, including withrespect to policing and court practices (Cashmore, 2011).

Out of home care

The young peoples’ experiences of entering care and being incare revealed a diverse range of experiences, includingreasons for entering care, number of placements and out ofhome care experiences. The young people described variousreasons for entry to care including parents being unable tomanage the young person’s behaviours, paternal maltreatment orabandonment, and family conflict leading to young peoplerunning away from home. A high proportion of the young peopleinterviewed reported that they had entered care in as a resultof behavioural issues, family conflict, being “kicked out” byparents or running away (8/15), as opposed to a directconsequence of abuse or neglect (5/15). It is concerning tonote that three of the young people, aged between 18 and 25years, were not able to articulate the reasons why they hadinitially entered out of home care. This group of young peopleindicated that they had entered care for the first time atapproximately 5 years of age.

Approximately half of the respondents had entered the caresystem already displaying problematic behaviours includingviolence, substance abuse and/or offending behaviour. Forthese young people, such issues seemed to form part of thereason for their entry to care in the first instance. A keychallenge for the out of home care service sector is itsresponse to young people entering care in adolescence whoalready present with challenging behaviours, including

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offending behaviour. This issue was raised by key stakeholdersin the phase one consultations, who anecdotally noted thathigher numbers of adolescents appeared to be entering out ofhome care for the first time in recent years (Mendes et al.,2012). Recent data from the Australian Institute of Health andWelfare shows that nationally, Victoria had both the highestnumber and highest percentage of young people aged 10 yearsand older admitted to out of home care in 2011-12 (1353 youngpeople or 38.4% of admissions to out of home care) (AIHW,2013, p. 76). Future research should seek to understand thenature of supports and services offered to families prior tothe young person’s entry to care where behavioural issues areapparent.

Children and young people aged 10-17 admitted to out of homecare, 2011-12

Age (years)

Vic NSW Qld WA SA Tas ACT NT Total

10-14

880(25.0%

)

749(22.0%

)

629(23.5%

)

203(18.7%)

146(23.6%)

72(25.4%)

49(19.8%)

107(26.8%)

2,835(23.2%

)

15-17

473(13.4%

)

306(9.0%)

291(10.9%

)

48(4.4%)

70(11.3%)

28(9.9%)

31(12.6%)

37(9.3%)

1,284(10.5%

)

Total(10-17)

1353(38.4%

)

1055(31.0%

)

920(34.4%

)

251(23.1%)

216(34.9%)

100(35.3%)

80(32.4%)

144(36.1%)

4119(33.7%

)Table 26. Children and young people aged 10-17 years admitted to out ofhome care, by age group, states and territories 2011-12. (Source: AIHW (2013, p. 76)).

The respondents in the study who had entered care as a resultof abuse and neglect rarely described positive experiences offoster care. Those who initially entered care as a result ofbehavioural issues, family conflict or running away often

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initially entered residential care, (perhaps after a fostercare placement which quickly broke down). The findings inrelation to experiences of residential care parallel those ofa previous UK study of dual order care leavers (Taylor, 2006),which found that “there was a general consensus amongst the young peoplethat there is very little that [residential care] staff can do to control unruly residents,who are themselves usually well aware of this fact” (p.95). Residential careplacements, overall, were described as chaotic environments,which lacked discipline, boundaries, attention and love. Theconstant movement of young people as a result of behaviouralissues (e.g. to other residential units, secure welfare,police cells, psychiatric and youth justice facilities)effectively prohibited the experience of stability required toresolve the issues present. There appears to be limitedcapacity and resources in mainstream residential careenvironments to manage significant behavioural issues,including offending behaviour. Young peoples’ accountsindicated that their difficult behaviours were, at times,ignored or tolerated, while at other times they were managedby containment through external services (e.g. psychiatric,secure welfare or police responses).

The findings also pointed to the value of smaller residentialcare units, lower staff numbers and staff turnover inresidential care, and more one to one time for young people inresidential care environments, echoing suggestions frominternational studies (Ryan et al., 2008; Taylor, 2006, p.181). Finally, there appears to be a gap in the availabilityof therapeutic placement options for adolescents in out ofhome care. Few of the young people described experiencingintensive supported placement options after their latechildhood or early adolescence, and some indicated that theyhad spent more time in Youth Justice custody than in othercare options throughout their adolescence. The availableliterature indicates positive outcomes associated with varioustherapeutic options for young people with offending

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behaviours, including Multi-Dimensional Foster Care, andtherapeutic residential care, which may be of benefit with thedual order client group (Knorth, Harder, Zandberg, & Kendrick,2008; McLean, Price-Robertson, & Robinson, 2011).

Education

The respondents’ educational experiences were fairlyreflective of the out of home care and Youth Justicepopulations more broadly (Cashmore & Paxman, 2007; Mendes etal., 2011) . None of the young people had completed highschool, one third had described specific learning difficultiesand/or intellectual disabilities, and more than three quartersof the young people had experiences of school suspensionand/or expulsion.

As noted in previous studies of care leavers, young peopleoften regretted their loss of educational attainment and thelater opportunities which may have arisen from this; manyblamed themselves for these unrealised dreams while othersexpressed disappointment in the care system which theybelieved had allowed them to disengage from education tooeasily (Cashmore & Paxman, 2007; Jackson, 2001; Taylor, 2006).Additionally, as has been noted in previous Australianresearch (Stewart et al., 2008), the transition from primaryto secondary education appeared to be a high risk area foreducational exclusion and/or disengagement, as did the time ofentry into residential care. The importance of educationalengagement as a predictor of future offending among careleavers has been identified in previous internationalresearch, which suggested that education appeared moresignificant than substance abuse issues as a factor associatedwith post-care offending among males (Ryan, Hernandez, & Herz,2007).

Implications: The experiences and feedback of the respondents

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concerning their schooling experiences reinforces findingsfrom phase one of the study, which suggested thatstrengthening the capacity of the education sector to identifyand respond appropriately to managing trauma, learningdifficulties, intellectual disability, behavioural and welfareissues is a key potential preventative approach in this area(Mendes et al., 2012). Additionally, the facilitating ongoingconnections with education during the transition intoresidential care, in particular, is of key importance. Whilemaintaining these links and plans between the out of home careand education sector is already a stipulated component of theOut-of-Home Care Education Commitment, this research furtherstrengthens the case for these links and supports.

Finally, the value of alternative educational options for thedual order client group has been highlighted by the research.Ensuring that such targeted educational opportunities areavailable to the dual order client group and that they aresupported to access these options is clearly a key priority.At the same time, the experiences of the young people in thestudy highlight a gap between translating education intolonger-term training and employment outcomes for this groupcare leavers which may provide a focus for future research.This has also been found in other studies with dual order careleavers, and is a potential area for strengtheninginterventions (Cusick et al., 2010).

Leaving care and post-care services and experiences

Five of the 15 young people left care via lead tenant or othertransitional arrangements prior to leaving care. Those who hadentered care at a young age due to abuse and neglect were mostlikely to have left care through lead tenant arrangementswhile the young people who stated that they entered care dueto behavioural issues or conflicts with caregivers were lesslikely to have been placed in lead tenant arrangements. Most

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of the respondents also had limited participation in leavingcare processes as a result of ongoing issues includingsubstance use and offending, being involved with partners, orreluctance to engage with workers or services.

Positive leaving care experiences (4/15) from the perspectiveof young people were associated with opportunities to acquirematerial goods and to no longer be involved in the childprotection system. However, at least nine of the 15 youngpeople described a chaotic transition from care, associatedwith escalating substance use and/or offending behaviourimmediately preceding, during and/or soon after the transitionfrom care. There appeared to be some association betweenaccessing post-care services and later offending behaviour andinvolvement in adult corrections which warrants furtherexploration in future research.

The post-care outcomes of this group of young people inrelation to housing, employment and early parenthood arelargely reflective of previous studies (Mendes et al., 2011;Taylor, 2006). The respondents described a range of initialpost-care placements, including returning to family,transitional or public housing and private rental.Unfortunately, over one quarter of the young people had exitedcare to homelessness, including boarding houses, couch surfingor refuges. By the time of the interview, 8/15 young peoplehad been homeless at some point since leaving care.Conversely, 6/15 young people had secured public ortransitional housing properties at the time of the interview.A number of other participants had also been able to draw uponinformal supports such as extended family and friends in orderto source accommodation since leaving care.

The young people rarely spoke about their biological fathersthroughout the course of the interviews, however they weremore inclined to speak about their relationships with theirmothers, with whom at least 9/15 young people had some degree

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of contact at the time of the interview. The nature of theserelationships varied from supportive, to estranged. The youngpeople who had no relationships with either parent wereappeared particularly vulnerable to ongoing offendingbehaviour, as has been suggested by other studies of dualorder care leavers (Cusick et al., 2010). Over one half of theyoung people (9/15) also spoke about key relationships whichwere vital to supporting their transition from care, includingrelationships with grandparents, partners, partners’ familiesand friends, and most (13/15) were currently connected to atleast one support service at the time of the interview.

Implications: While returning to family proved to be the leastsuccessful post-care accommodation option among the youngpeople, involving family in leaving care planning may proveuseful where family is the intended post-care placement. Youngpeople with no appropriate family to return to or connect withshould be a key priority for housing, particularly publichousing, which was the most successful post-care placementoption. Aside from housing and other practical, young peoplerequired practical and emotional support from pro-social adultrole models in the post-care period. Any post-care model fordual order clients should incorporate strategies for buildingand sustaining these connections.

Offending behaviour

The participants self-reported a range of ages that theiroffending behaviour first commenced; this ranged from age 8 toage 16, with the majority of young people (9/15) indicatingthat they first started offending at the age of 12 to 13years. The sample was fairly evenly divided between thosewhose offending behaviour began prior to first entering out ofhome care (7/15) and those whose offending behaviour beganafter formally entering out of home care (8/15). The main

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types of offences which constituted the initial offending ofthe respondents included assault, theft and substance use andproperty damage. Most young people (13/15) described multipleoffence types emerging concurrently. The three main social contexts described in relation to youngpeoples’ initial offending included:

Socially-based offending (with friends, peers inresidential care and partners)

Lone offending (generally consisting of thefts oroffending in residential care contexts, for exampleassaults and property destruction)

Family–based offending (with immediate or extended familymembers)

There was consistency between the factors which young peopledescribed as being associated with their offending, and thosedescribed in key stakeholder consultations, namely:

Substance use – including being substance affected at thetime of committing offences as well as a minority ofrespondents who reported offending to fund substance use.

Social pressure – this came from peers in residentialcare, friends outside of the care system, partners andfamily members.

A significant majority of young people who are involved withthe youth justice system are use and abuse substances,necessitating the availability of alcohol and drug treatmentservices associated with these systems (Indig, 2011; Mulvey,Schubert, & Chassin, 2010; Prichard & Payne, 2005; Putnins,1995; The Youth Parole Board and Youth Residential Board ofVictoria, 2013). Other studies have found, at least for youngmale offenders, that the presence of a substance use disorderand the level of substance use have been found to be strong,independent predictors of offending and arrest among young

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people, and that substance abuse treatment which lasts for atleast 90 days and includes significant family involvement isrelated to significant reductions in alcohol use, marijuanause, and offending over the following six months.

Young people with a child protection background also form asignificant proportion of youth drug and alcohol service users- a recent snapshot survey of young people who accessed theVictorian youth drug and alcohol sector found that 46% ofyoung women and 26% of young men accessing services hadcurrent or previous involvement with Child Protection (Daley &Kutin, 2013). This suggests a potential usefulness for bothtrauma-informed and long-term substance treatment models fordual order clients; such approaches could be explored furtherin practice and research contexts.

While the involvement of family members in the criminaljustice system was mentioned in key stakeholder consultationsas well as previous studies of youth and adult justicepopulations (Indig, 2011; Mendes et al., 2012), the interviewswith young people served to emphasise the extent of thisfamily involvement for some young people. The majority ofrespondents (11/14) reported family involvement in thecriminal justice system, five of whom described extensivefamily involvement. Indeed, for some of the young people,family systems, rather than statutory systems, were in factthe basis of their initial exposure to a number of antisocialactivities, including interpersonal violence, substance useand other offending behaviour. A number of young people couldpoint to family members who were far “worse” than them inrelation to offending behaviour. There were social rewards tobe obtained through offending behaviour from family, partnersand peer networks for many of the young people interviewed.Previous research has also found that in-care offending amongyoung people may sometimes be ‘a continuation of established behaviourprecipitated by their experience of family failings and socio-economically deprived

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background’ (Barn & Tan, 2012, p. 219; Shaw, 2012). This sociallearning element of the development of offending behaviour hasperhaps been under-emphasised in the literature pertaining tooffending among young people in and leaving care, which hastended to focus on attachment theory as a central construct(Bandura, 1977; Bowlby, Fry, & Ainsworth, 1965; Taylor, 2006).

Youth Justice system

Initial Youth Justice involvement occurred at an average ageof 14.1 years [range 10 - 16 years] for the young peopleinterviewed. There was an estimated average of just under twoyears (1.9 years) between the time at which young peopledescribed becoming involved in offending, and when they firstbecame involved with Youth Justice services.

For each of the young people, initial entry into out of homecare preceded their initial involvement in the Youth Justicesystem, which occurred within two years of entry into care forabout half of the young people. All but one of the youngpeople had been placed on a Youth Justice order (14/15), eightof whom had been on more than one order type. Nearly one halfof the young people had been in custodial Youth Justice, mostof whom (5/7) had experienced time on remand.

One of the most noteworthy themes in the participants’descriptions of being involved with the justice system was thegeneral lack of knowledge and recall of many young peopleconcerning the precise reasons they were involved with YouthJustice, or the orders they had been placed under. It appearsthat the chaotic nature of young peoples’ lives and offendingmade it very difficult for them to make connections betweentheir own behaviour and the various judicial consequenceswhich they experienced as a result. Around one third of theyoung people had positive assessments of the assistance givento them by community-based Youth Justice workers – these young

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people had accessed practical or emotional support throughthese processes. At the same time, another third ofparticipants believed that community-based Youth Justiceinterventions made no difference to their offending behaviour.

Three of the seven young people described fairly positiveexperiences of Youth Justice custody, which tended to be basedupon access to material goods and education, as well aspositive experiences of staff. The remaining four young peopledetailed more negative experiences, which were associated witha sense of being unsafe and/or losing connections with workersand friends in the community. Of concern was that 4/7 youngpeople reported witnessing, being victimised by orperpetrating assaults whilst in Youth Justice custody.

Implications: The findings support the need for theimplementation of the trauma-informed practice approachcurrently being implemented across the Parkville Youth Justiceprecinct (The Youth Parole Board and Youth Residential Boardof Victoria, 2013). At the same time, one concern highlightedin the study by Taylor (2006, p. 181) which was also raised inthe current study was the need to avoid a situation whereyoung people feel more safe, secure and attended to in YouthJustice custodial environments than in other residential careplacements. It is therefore advisable that similarly intensiveand responsive therapeutic options be made available to youngpeople in out of home care in the community.

There is also an ongoing need for comprehensive substanceabuse and mental health treatment services both attached tothe Youth Justice system and as available diversionary optionsgiven the complex needs of the young people who come intocontact with the system (Indig, 2011; The Youth Parole Boardand Youth Residential Board of Victoria, 2013).

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Desistance, Reduced Offending and Persistent Offending

Most of the participants in the study (10/15) had eitherdesisted from offending or greatly reduced their offendingbehaviour by the time of the interview. This is likely to be aresult of the sampling criteria, which required that youngpeople had no current involvement with Youth Justice in orderto participate.

DesistanceFive young people had completely desisted from offendingbehaviour. Becoming a parent appears to have had a substantialimpact on reducing offending behaviour for many of those whohad desisted. Those that had children of their own described asignificant desire to be involved with their children and tobe good parents. The final young person in this group believedthat dealing with substance abuse issues was the key to him desistingfrom offending. Addressing these issues involved long-termentry into a supported accommodation and drug and alcoholrecovery communities.Reduced offendingFive of the young people had significantly reduced thefrequency and severity of their offending. These respondentsalso described a shift in their attitudes based on a level ofcare for themselves and others which had not previouslydominated their decision-making, including wanting a betterlife, not wanting to lose custody of their children andrealising the impact of their offending. The situations whichcontributed to shifts in attitude included educationconcerning the potential consequences of violent offending,and discussions with older offenders. Many of the young peoplein this group had also accessed treatment for substance abuseissues which were contributing to their offending behaviour.There were a few young people who had curtailed criminalbehaviour as a result of current adult justice orders. Therewas a sense from these respondents that the threat of

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involvement in the adult justice system presented more of adeterrent effect than the Youth Justice system had in thepast.

Persistent offendingThe four young people in the study who continued to exhibitongoing offending behaviour at the time of the interview wereall young males, aged between 19 and 25 years, who werecurrently on adult criminal justice orders (bail and parole).Three of these young people had further court cases pending.Extensive family involvement in the criminal justice system,later age of entry to care, problematic alcohol use andestrangement from family characterised this group of youngpeople. In fact, these young people appeared to have nosignificant connection to adults in their lives other thanvarious agency workers.

Implications: Overall, the young people who desisted orreduced their offending seemed to have found some sense ofgreater purpose or meaning for their lives which they wereable to utilise to moderate their own behaviour. This,combined with developing a level of maturity, attending tosubstance abuse issues and the presence of formal and informalsupports (particularly partners, parents and former workers),appeared to have contributed towards their desistance fromoffending.

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Towards a best practice model for addressing offending behaviour in young people leaving out of home care

The dual order child protection and youth justice client grouppresent with complex needs which cannot be adequatelyaddressed within a single service sector. This sectionoutlines various interventions that may prove helpful toreducing offending behaviour among young people in and leavingcare:

Intervention with families – There is significant evidencethat dysfunctional family relationships (particularlywithin environments characterised by disadvantage) are acontributing factor to both the development of offendingbehaviour and to reoffending (Ganem & Agnew, 2007;Putkonen, Ryynänen, & Eronen, 2007). A substantialproportion of the young people entered care as a result ofbehavioural issues, being “kicked out” or family conflict.While the research did not focus on the family situation,it became apparent that many young people entered out ofhome care from (often single parent) families who wereunable to manage the young person’s behaviour, or withwhom there was ongoing conflict. Additionally, asubstantial number of the young people returned to livewith a family member at some point after leaving care.

This suggests a potential usefulness for various family-based interventions either prior to entering care, duringleaving care planning or within Youth Justiceinterventions. The possibility for strengtheningresources to assist families in such situations, whereappropriate, should be explored as a key preventative

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strategy to involvement or re-involvement with the youthand adult criminal justice systems. This approach was alsosuggested by key informants in the phase one consultationsof this study. While various community-based supportoptions (e.g. Child First, Family First) do exist, it isunclear whether these resources are accessible, timely andsufficiently responsive to the complexity which may exist.

Clearly such approaches will not be suitable under allcircumstances, however there is a growing evidence-basesupporting family-based interventions, particularly foryoung people with offending behaviours or those who areinvolved in the Youth Justice system (Andrews & Bonta,2003; Farrington & Welsh, 2003; Knorth et al., 2008;Murphy et al., 2010).

Therapeutic care options –There appears to be a gap in theavailability of therapeutic placement options foradolescents in out of home care who display significantbehavioural issues. The available literature indicatespositive outcomes associated with various therapeuticoptions for young people with offending behaviours,including Multi-Dimensional Foster Care, and therapeuticresidential care, which may be of benefit with the dualorder client group (Knorth et al., 2008; McLean et al.,2011).

Enhancing understanding of trauma and attachment issues inschools - While it is clearly not the role of theeducation sector to treat trauma or attachment issues,sufficient information in this area is required foradequate understanding and responsiveness to youngpeoples’ needs in this area. This is particularlyimportant in secondary education environments, where theacting-out behaviour of maltreated adolescents is less

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likely to receive ‘sympathetic attention’ (Cashmore, 2011, p.34).

Strengthening educational supports – Educational supportsto assist with various learning difficulties were fairlyinsubstantial among the young people interviewed.Assistance with intellectual disability, dyslexia,auditory processing disorders, for example, may assistyoung people to remain engaged with education for a longerperiod.

Expanding alternative education options – Alternativeeducation options such as one to one tutoring, the BerryStreet School, the Westcare School and community schoolswere vital to allowing young people to remain engaged ineducation. Expanding the alternative, particularly trauma-informed, educational options available to young people inout of home care appears to be an important strategy forretaining care leavers in the education system.

Focusing on the transition from education and training toemployment opportunities – Finding, acquiring andmaintaining employment opportunities was particularlydifficult for the young people interviewed. Similar toprevious research findings, it appears that greateremphasis needs to be placed upon translating education andtraining options onto employment for care leavers,particularly those who have become involved with thecriminal justice system at any point (Cusick et al.,2010). Supported education, training and employmentopportunities are vital as many of the young people whoabandoned vocational pursuits did so as a result of socialand emotional issues, rather than finding work or studytoo rigorous. It is important to note that young peoplemay not be ready to access such programs at the age of 18;therefore such programs should be available for an

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extended post-care period to enable young people toaddress other issues (e.g. housing, substance use), priorto engaging in training or employment.

A range of accessible substance abuse and mental healthtreatment options – Various treatment options includingwithdrawal facilities, day programs, alcohol and drugcounselling, residential and therapeutic communities wereaccessed by the young people in the study. Theavailability and accessibility of these youth-specificoptions was vital to reducing and desisting from offendingbehaviour. Despite a high proportion of dual orderclients having mental health diagnoses, there was verylimited uptake of non-emergency mental health supportsamong the participants. Access to mental health supportsfor dual order care leavers warrants furtherinvestigation.

Flexible trauma-informed leaving care models – Echoing oneof the major findings from phase one of this study, it wasclear that the majority of the young people in the presentstudy were not developmentally ready to transition toindependence at the age of 18 years. This is highlightedby the substantial proportion who looked to family,partners and other adults to support them post-18 years.Only one young person was able to sustain housing withoutrelying on support from a partner or other adults post-care. The findings suggest that young people whoexperienced homelessness and who lacked post-care supportwere more likely to become involved with the adult justicesystem. This suggests the need for flexible leaving caremodels which are able to sustain practical and emotionalsupport to young people beyond the age of 18 years, whererequired, as a preventative approach to furtherinvolvement in the youth and adult justice systems.Various guidelines and models of trauma-informed leaving

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care models are emerging (Gonzalez, Cameron, & Klendo,2012; The Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems Project, 2013).Further research should continue to expand the evidencebase comparing the longer-term outcomes of various leavingcare models.

Post-care accommodation and support – Appropriate, safeand affordable housing, combined with the presence of pro-social, supportive adults at the time of leaving care andin the post-care period was necessary for young people todesist or reduce offending. Strategies to support thosereturning to family could be investigated further. A keygroup requiring housing interventions are those with nofamily to whom they can turn post-care. Informal supports,in particular, including pro-social partners, extendedfamily members, former workers, and volunteer mentors werepresent in the lives of most of the young people who hadreduced or desisted from offending, and supporting thesenetworks should be a priority for leaving care planningand post-care support.

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