What works in reducing young people's involvement in crime?

This report provides an overview of the current knowledge of what works in preventing and reducing offending in young people aged 12 to 25 years. It forms part of a larger project being undertaken by the ACT Chief Minister's Department to develop a strategy for effectively dealing with youth in the ACT. The report initially provides a brief overview of youth justice policy from an international perspective. The main section of the report focuses on what can be done to reduce youth offending and identifies interventions and programs that can address this problem. The report concludes with a summary of what works.

The accompanying literature review, which formed the basis for the report, examines research on youth crime prevention programs for young people aged 12 to 25 years. To ensure that the review was relevant only information from 1990 to 2002 was considered. The review consists of an annotated bibliography organised under the headings of general texts on youth crime; risk and young offenders; schooling; gender issues; drug and alcohol issues; health, sport, space and recreation; and Indigenous issues. Within these categories, the review focuses on specific programs such as diversionary conferencing as applied in Australia and overseas.