Youth Justice

The Centre for Market Design is working with legal experts, university peers and the Victorian Government to assess the way the youth justice system operates.

The CMD is in the final stages of reporting on a joint field experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of a range of non-custodial interventions being piloted for young offenders in Victoria. The incidence and management of criminal offences by young people is a pressing problem for most governments.

In partnership with Court Services Victoria, the Children’s Court of Victoria, RMIT University and the Department of Justice and Regulation, the team has systematically recorded recidivism rates for different interventions over the past two years and has completed more than 450 interviews with young offenders appearing in court.

Analysis of these data will help determine the types of interventions that influence rates of recidivism and the longer-term costs and benefits of diversion programs.