Youth injustice: Does our justice system cause young people to offend?

11 Jun 2021

They're alone, afraid and disadvantaged. Children can receive criminal sanctions after committing crimes of necessity – including fare evasion – just to survive.

If their offending persists or escalates, these children can then end up in youth detention facilities across Australia. 

Inside, they are given a bed, food and safety.

For some, these basic comforts make their incarceration far more appealing than life in the sometimes disadvantaged homes they were fleeing when police arrested them.

In her work as a lawyer, University of Queensland's TC Beirne School of Law Professor Tamara Walsh, has witnessed police charge a young client for fare evasion on their way to court.

With no money to their name, she says children may be wrongly punished for being disadvantaged by a system that is creating a youth justice problem instead of fixing it.

Read the full article at UQ Research

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Professor Tamara Walsh

Professor Tamara Walsh

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