The number of young people in youth justice supervision has steadily declined over the past five years, but the over-representation of indigenous youths has only worsened, a new report has found.
There were about 5500 young people under supervision on any given day in the past financial year, down from almost 7000 in 2011-12, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report found.
The drop equates to about 21 youths (down from 27) per 10,000 young people.
Indigenous young people are 17 times more likely to be under youth justice supervision compared with the non-indigenous population, up from 13 times as likely in 2011-12.
"Although less than six per cent of young people aged 10-17 are indigenous, indigenous young people made up 48 per cent --or about 2,300--of those under youth justice supervision on an average day,' AIHW spokesman David Braddock said on Friday.
'And while there has been a drop in the rate of indigenous young people under supervision in recent years, the decline for non-indigenous young people was proportionally greater, effectively increasing Indigenous over-representation in the youth justice system."
The rate of young people under supervision was lowest in Victoria during the past financial year (14 per 10,000) and highest in the Northern Territory at 57 per 10,000.
Over the five years to 2015-16, the rate of young people under supervision fell in all states and territories except the Northern Territory and Queensland.
