'You can get failed by systems': We say we care about victim-survivors of violence and yet we jail them as kids - ABC Religion & Ethics

Australia Broadcast Center

3 days ago

There is a contradiction at the heart of Australian government policy that is directly harming our most vulnerable children and young people.
Federal and state governments across the country are committed to ending domestic, family and sexual violence. This is vital work with a range of actions underway and many more needed. At the same time, these same governments are undermining this work by pursuing some of the most punitive and draconian youth justice policies in recent decades. The children they are locking up are — more often than not — victims of family violence or other forms of child abuse, first, and have engaged in criminal activity, second.
According to data from the Victorian Youth Parole Board, over 60 per cent of children in custody in 2023–2024 had experienced abuse, trauma or neglect. Jesuit Social Services' own data shows that 74 per cent of participants in our adult justice programs reported being a victim of family violence — more often than not, the violence occurred in childhood.
If only the response to children's victimisation was as swift and well-resourced as the subsequent justice response to their offending. All too often these young people will be asked to answer for their own use of violence — in police interview rooms and in children's court processes — well before anyone seeks to ask about their risks and needs as victim-survivors of violence. On that, our system response remains distinctly silent. It's perhaps unsurprising then that a 16-year-old told the South Australian Royal Commission in a report launched recently, 'you can get failed by systems … we need the government and people just to realise … most kids don't get heard and listened to'.
The focus is on punishment, not healing. Violence, substance use and disengagement from education are not signs of moral failings, but often indicators of prior victimisation. As one 18-year-old also told the Royal Commission, 'being abused has a way of messing up one's life'. Yet our youth justice system routinely criminalises the consequences of untreated trauma.
Punitive legislative and policy changes
Australia's National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children pledges to recognise children as victim-survivors in their own right. Yet, in the three years since the plan's introduction, state policy and investment has all too often prioritised youth detention beds over safe and supported accommodation for young people, expanded policing powers for young offenders over early intervention programs, and introduced regressive youth sentencing practices over investments in trauma-informed crisis care for child victims.
Indeed, there has been a wave of legislative and policy changes that have expanded the reach and severity of youth justice systems across Australia. These include raising maximum penalties, limiting access to bail and funnelling hundreds of millions of dollars into expanding detention capacity. In Queensland, as part of new legislation which expressly breaches Australia's international children's rights and domestic human rights obligations, the government has sought to retrofit police watch houses for children in conflict with the law, and to build new high-security youth detention centres.
These Queensland reforms are not an anomaly. In Victoria — a state once praised for its progressive stance on youth justice — the state's youth prison capacity is being expanded following legislation the government proudly proclaimed to be the nation's toughest bail laws for youth offenders.
This approach to youth justice is a deliberate choice to demonise and punish young people rather than doing the meaningful work of intervening earlier with a focus on a child's healing and recovery.
We acknowledge that there is no 'quick fix' to current youth crime community concerns. But the Victoria's 'tough on crime' approach — focused on maximising a child's time in contact with the justice system and holding them in environments that breed violence — will undoubtedly foster the next generation of abuse and harm. The average stay in detention for Victorian children is approximately 70 days, following which they return to the community.
The more time a child spends in detention, the more likely they are to reoffend when they get out. We see this in the data, and we hear this from Jesuit Social Services staff. Time spent in prison does little to help address any underlying issues — in fact, it entrenches them — and comes at a significant cost of around $8,000 per day for each child. This is funding that could be redirected to much needed early intervention and recovery services.
We must demand better for vulnerable children
We all want less violence and fewer victims of crime. Having spoken directly with members of our community who fear for their safety, we understand the public want to see action in response to recent crimes committed by young people. And yet, our governments are progressing solutions we know will fail.
We need a fundamental shift away from punitive, carceral approaches and towards therapeutic responses grounded in the needs of children and young people. There is a dearth of family violence support services designed for child victim-survivors, culturally safe healing models and supported housing across Australia. Models such as restorative justice, therapeutic jurisprudence and community-led diversion programs offer more effective alternatives to incarceration. These approaches not only address the underlying causes of harmful behaviour, but also support accountability, healing and longer-term community safety.
Particular attention must be given to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, who remain vastly over-represented in youth justice systems across Australia. These children are far more likely to experience intergenerational trauma, systemic racism and family violence. They are also more likely to be met with criminalisation rather than care. The current trend towards punitive youth justice reforms risks further entrenching these cycles of harm.
So many of our federal and state parliamentarians want the best for our country — particularly for our children. Yet, as a direct outcome of reactive political choices, children who — like us all — want to be loved, safe and heard are being cast aside and told that they only belong in prison.
We are witnessing a profound violation of human rights play out under our noses. It must stop. The evidence on what is needed is clear. More and more, our political leaders will lead only when their hand is forced. Absent this, they risk being paralysed by fears of public backlash. The responsibility then is on each of us — to speak up and demand better for Australia's most vulnerable children.
Kate Fitz-Gibbon is Principal Consultant at Sequre Consulting and a Professor (Practice) with the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University.
Matt Tyler is Executive Director of The Men's Project at Jesuit Social Services, leading efforts to prevent men's violence and abuse.