Children and young people have reported they feel unnecessarily exposed to police while living in out-of-home care, particularly while living in residential care. The issue of criminalisation of children living in out-of-home care and their overrepresentation in the criminal justice system is a concern for the immediate and longer-term outcomes for many aspects of a child’s life.
Criminalisation refers to the normalisation of responses from child protection and criminal justice systems, resulting in a child being exposed unnecessarily to the criminal justice system. This includes stigmatising children, labelling their behaviours as criminal, and adopting a criminal response to actions that would not be treated as criminal in a family home.
Children living in out-of-home and residential care often have complex needs resulting from abuse or neglect including exposure to substance abuse or domestic and family violence. The impact of these experiences may manifest in an inability to regulate behaviours or difficulties with interpersonal skills. These children, as with all children, can rightfully expect to be cared for within a trauma-responsive system that does not unnecessarily criminalise behaviours that result from trauma.
This paper explores the issue of criminalisation of children living in out-of-home care, the main factors reported to contribute to their criminalisation and jurisdictional responses to address the issue.