Youth justice
Youth Justice Services' staff work to a common philosophy
(PDF 63 KB) which advocates that:
- families play an extremely important and ongoing role in helping a young person change their behaviour
- a young person should be continually offered the chance to change their behaviour
- young people should be assessed to find out the best way to stop them from breaking the law
- all young people must be treated with cultural sensitivity
- the Department works with other agencies which can help young people and their families
- young people should only go into detention when all other options have failed or when the offence is extremely serious.
The range of services and programs offered by the Department to young people and their families fall into four main areas:
- Preventing and diverting young people from entering detention centres.
- Helping young people complete community-based sentences after they have been convicted of a crime.
- Intervening with young people and their families to help them get back on track when a young person develops a criminal record.
- Working with young people in detention or coming out of detention.
In recent years, the Department has combined these services in two regional locations and in the metropolitan area. These services now offer a complete youth justice service which can help young people no matter what the offence. The Regional Youth Justice Services in the Goldfields and Mid-West Gascoyne started operating in 2008, followed by the introduction of metropolitan Youth Justice Services throughout Perth in 2009.
Last updated: 11-Jun-2013