Mortality after contact with the youth justice system

Children and adolescents who come into contact with the youth justice system are a profoundly marginalised population with greatly reduced chances for life and health. Young Indigenous Australians are over-represented in this system by a factor of 17. The aim of this study is to better understand the incidence, timing, causes, context, and risk factors for preventable death in young people who come into contact with the youth justice system. The records of all youth justice clients in Queensland (1993-2014) have been linked with adult correctional records, the National Death Index, and the National Coroners Information System. The aims of the project are to:

Describe the incidence, timing, causes, context and risk factors for mortality in young Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who had contact with the youth justice system in Queensland from 1 July 1993 to 30 June 2014.
Inform targeted prevention and policy reform by identifying key psychosocial risk factors, health morbidities, precipitating factors and service contacts in those who have died, through detailed interrogation of coronial records held by the National Coroners Information System.
Identify specific interventions and policy reforms that have the potential to reduce mortality in justice-involved young people, by combining the findings from Aims 1 and 2 with a systematic review and Delphi panel (consensus) approach involving key stakeholders from government, non-government and community-controlled health sectors.

Funding: National Health and Medical Research Council

Project team: Prof Stuart Kinner, Prof Rohan Borschmann, Prof Alan Clough, Prof Susan Sawyer, Prof Matt Spittal, Prof Adrian Miller, Prof Yvonne Cadet-James; Dr Lucas Calais-Ferreira