News
Article
Senate Committee finds there is no youth crime crisis and backs in Working Together Action Plan
24 September 2026
Organisations working with children and young people in Victoria welcome the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee's report on Australia's youth justice and incarceration sys...
Article
Open Letter to the Premier
25 November 2025
We, the undersigned community organisations, write to express our deep concern and strong opposition to the Victorian Government’s proposed youth justice changes, which would allow children as youn...
Article
Knee-jerk ‘Adult time for violent crime’ laws are a costly mistake that will make our communities less safe
12 November 2025
As a coalition of lawyers, social workers, youth workers, financial counsellors and experts, Smart Justice for Young People strongly opposes the Victorian Government’s youth justice announcements t...
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Young Victorians deserve better: the 2025–26 budget misses the mark on our future
13 April 2025
We’re facing big challenges: rising rents, climate chaos, mental health crises, and a cost-of-living squeeze that makes just surviving feel like a full-time job. But this year’s state budget doesn’...
Submissions
Article
Smart Justice for Young People: Senate Inquiry into Youth Justice and Incarceration
16 March 2026
Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) gave evidence to the Federal Government's Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system. Across the country, particular groups of children a...
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Smart Justice for Children and Young People across Australia: Submission to the Senate Inquiry into Australia’s youth justice and incarceration system
19 December 2025
Evidence suggests that what we see here in Victoria is most likely being seen across other jurisdictions, highlighting the need for a coordinated national approach to youth justice and incarceratio...
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Smart Justice for Young People submission on new and/or refined models of youth mental health care.
23 May 2025
This submission was co-authored by Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) and Youthlaw.
Article
Youth sector joint submission: Inquiry into the redevelopment of Melbourne’s public housing towers
07 April 2025
A coalition of leading youth organisation have responded to the Inquiry into the redevelopment of Melbourne’s public housing towers. This Inquiry considered the Victorian Government’s decision to d...
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Submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission Call for Submissions on Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing Reform across Australia
30 June 2023
Smart Justice for Young People (SJ4YP) have responded to the Australian Human Rights Commission Call for Submissions on Youth Justice and Child Wellbeing Reform across Australia. This submission i...
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Submission to the Committee against Torture Convention against Torture
29 August 2022
The Youth Detention Working Group is one of SJ4YP’s working groups. The Working Group has identified three priority areas of focus, based on our organisations’ and individual members’ expertise: ...
Article
A Plan for Aboriginal Justice in Victoria
01 January 2022
A Plan for Aboriginal Justice in Victoria: Empowerment, Identity, Culture.
Article
Westjustice Submission for the Inquiry into Victoria’s Justice System
20 September 2021
This submission identified the following issues as underpinning the experience of children, young people and women in the criminal justice system in the inner west: • the direct impact of current...
Article
Travel Assistance Program: Key Findings and Recommendations 2019 Program
01 September 2020
Education is not only a basic right, but in Australia, attendance at school is also required by law. Yet, the cost of public transport is often prohibitive for many young people to exercise this ri...
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SJ4YP response to Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System
01 September 2020
The following SJ4YP members supported this collective response: • Anglicare Victoria • Dr Diana Johns, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Melbourne University • CatholicCare Victoria • Federation of ...
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Submission to the inquiry by the Legal and Social Issues Committee into Youth Justice Centres
01 March 2017
Co-authored by Youthlaw and SJ4YP.
Reports
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Stigma, Discrimination and the Weaponisation of Survival: Women's Experiences of the Intersection between the Child Protection and Criminal Legal Systems
27 March 2026
'Stigma, Discrimination and the Weaponisation of Survival' is a powerful collaborative research report into the intersection of the child protection and criminal legal systems and the harm women ex...
Article
Ending Strip Searching in Australian Prisons
03 March 2026
FIGJAM, Flatout and the Human Rights Law Centre’s landmark new report Ending Strip Searching in Australian Prisons, calls for strip searches in Australian prisons to be banned in law by all Austral...
Article
A Tale of Two Cities. The Hidden Geography of Police Powers in Victoria
21 January 2026
A study of designated areas 2019 - 2024.
Article
Racial Profiling, Policing and Lack of Accountability
01 January 2026
Book chapter
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Recent publications related to racial profiling in Victoria
01 January 2026
The Racial Profiling Data Monitoring Project have compiled a list of recent publications related to racial profiling in Victoria.
Article
Working Together: Action Plan to End the Over-Representation of Particular Groups of Young People in the Criminal Justice System - Accessible Version
01 October 2023
Accessible Word doc version of the Working Together Action Plan
Article
Working Together: Action Plan to end the over-representation of particular groups of young people in the criminal justice system
01 October 2023
Victoria’s overall youth incarceration rate is falling, but certain young people still come into contact with the justice system at disproportionately high rates. They are over-represented in polic...
Article
Victoria needs #PoccumsLaw
01 August 2023
Poccum’s Law: The Blueprint for Bail Reform We stand with Aunty Donna and Uncle Percy in their fight for #PoccumsLaw. We call on the Victorian Government to urgently amend the Bill and implement ...
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VALS Submission to the AHRC Call for Submissions on Youth Justice
03 July 2023
This submission outlines: • Factors contributing to children and young people’s involvement in the youth justice system • Changes to youth justice needed to protect children and young people • Ref...
Article
WRAP around families experiencing AVITH: Towards a collaborative service response
01 April 2023
“WRAP around families experiencing AVITH: Towards a collaborative service response” (the “WRAP around families” project) was a targeted, mixed-methods research project with the specific aim of deve...
Article
Community Legal Mental Health Partnership Project
01 January 2023
People diagnosed, labelled and/or living with mental ill health or experiencing an acute mental health crisis are more likely to experience legal issues — including criminalisation. They also encou...
Article
Policing COVID-19 in Victoria: Exploring the Impact of Perceived Race in the Issuing of Covid-19 Fines During 2020
01 January 2023
This report analyses the data of all 37,405 COVID-19 fines issued in 2020 in Victoria. This quantitative analysis of the impact of racial appearance on police in the issuing of COVID fines is the f...
Article
Yoorrook - Nuther-mooyoop on Systemic Injustice in the Child Protection and the Criminal Justice Systems
01 December 2022
VACCA's submission to the Yoorrook Justice Commission.
Article
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Nuther-mooyoop to the Yoorrook Justice Commission: Criminal Legal System
01 November 2022
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Nuther-mooyoop to the Yoorrook Justice Commission: Criminal Legal System
Article
Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility
01 August 2022
VALS Policy Brief Raising the Age of Criminal Responsibility. Every child should be free to go to school, have a safe home to live in and be supported to learn from their mistakes. But right now, ...
Article
Adolescents using Family Violence (AFV) MARAM Practice Guidance Project 2022: Review of the Evidence Base
01 August 2022
In 2022, the Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ) at RMIT University was contracted by Family Safety Victoria to contribute to the development of a MARAM Practice Guidance regarding Adolescents Usin...
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Evaluation of the Pre-court Support for Adolescents using violence in the home (AVITH) Pilot: Final Evaluation Report
01 July 2022
This evaluation represents an important addition to evolving understanding of the issue of adolescent violence in the home (AVITH) and, in particular, the way in which Victoria’s current family vio...
Article
Inquiry into the Children of Imprisoned Parents
29 April 2022
Inquiry into the Children of Imprisoned Parents: Submission on behalf of the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women.
Article
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Nuther-mooyoop to the Yoorrook Justice Commission: Child Protection
01 January 2022
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Nuther-mooyoop to the Yoorrook Justice Commission: Child Protection.
Article
Reforming Police Oversight in Victoria
01 January 2022
VALS Policy Brief Reforming Police Oversight in Victoria.
Article
Just Outcomes for Young People
01 September 2021
Just Outcomes for Young People A submission to the Inquiry into Victoria’s Criminal Justice System by the Legal and Social Issues Committee, Parliament of Victoria by Mark Yin, Youth Affairs Counci...
Article
Together in safety: A report on the Australian Government’s separation of families seeking safety
01 April 2021
This report shines a light on the Australian Government’s deliberate choice to use family separation to cause suffering, and calls for urgent action to end this cruelty so that families can be reun...
Article
Westjustice Submission Regarding Victoria's Youth Strategy
18 January 2021
Westjustice Community Legal Centre (Westjustice) submission regarding Victoria’s Youth Strategy. Westjustice is a community legal centre that provides free legal help and financial counselling supp...
Article
Behind closed doors: Adolescent Violence in the Home (AVITH) during COVID & challenges to come
01 November 2020
This Issues Paper seeks to highlight the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the use of violence by adolescents against their family members. Commonly referred to as ‘adolescent family vi...
Article
Evaluation of Balit Ngulu
29 May 2020
Translated from the Wurundjeri language, Balit Ngulu means ‘Strong Voice’. Balit Ngulu was established by the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) in 2017 to improve access to high quality leg...
Article
The PIPA project: Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home (AVITH)
01 March 2020
The overarching aim of the PIPA project was to address a gap in knowledge concerning AVITH, specifically the initial legal response that adolescents and their families receive when their use of AVI...
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Children at court: every interaction counts: Needs Assessment Report
01 October 2018
This report presents findings from a Needs Assessment that was undertaken as part of an evaluation of the Court Support 4 Kids program (CS4K). The CS4K program was first developed by McAuley Commun...
Article
Court Support 4 Kids Evaluation Report
01 October 2018
This report presents findings from a qualitative evaluation of the Court Support 4 Kids program (CS4K), a court support service for women involved in family violence intervention order matters (FVI...
Article
Hear our voice: Equal rights for women and girls in Australia
01 January 2018
The Human Rights Law Centre (HRLC) provided an updated shadow report to the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women. Our Hear Our Voice report hi...
Article
Ngaga-dji (hear me) young voices creating change for justice
01 January 2018
Ngaga-dji (hear me) is a call to action.
Article
Aboriginal Community Justice Reports Addressing Over-Incarceration
01 October 2017
Aboriginal Community Justice Reports Addressing Over-Incarceration Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service Discussion Paper.
Article
Couch surfing limbo: Legal, policy and service gaps affecting young couch surfers and couch providers in Melbourne’s west
01 August 2017
Couch surfing is increasingly being recognised as a form of homelessness in Australia. It is a particularly complex issue for young people (aged under 25) in outer urban areas, who face additional ...
Article
Total Control: Ending the routine strip searching of women in Victoria’s prisons
01 January 2017
The Human Rights Law Centre calls on the Victorian Government to: 1. Immediately end the practice of routinely strip searching women in prison. 2. Enact laws that prohibit strip searches except in...