In Victoria, various options are available for sentencing children and young people aged between 12 and 21, including:
- youth justice centre order or youth residential centre order
- youth control order
- youth attendance order
- youth supervision order
- probation order
- fine
- good behaviour bond
- undertaking
- dismissal.
Youth diversion is also available in the Children’s Court, although it isn’t technically a sentence.
Children and Young Offenders
The Youth Justice Act 2024 (Vic) defines a child as someone aged 12 to 17 at the time of the alleged offence and aged under 19 when criminal proceedings begin.
The Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) defines a young offender as someone under the age of 21 at the time of sentencing.
In Victoria, a child aged under 12 is considered unable to commit an offence. A child aged between 12 and under 14 is presumed to be unable to commit an offence, unless the prosecution proves that the child is capable of knowing what they did was wrong.
Dual Track
Victoria’s dual track is a unique system under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic). Dual track allows adult courts to sentence young offenders (aged under 21 years) to serve custodial sentences in youth detention instead of in adult prison. Dual track is intended to prevent vulnerable young people from entering the adult prison system at an early age.
A young offender must qualify for youth detention under the dual track system. The court must be convinced that the young offender has reasonable prospects of rehabilitation, or that they are particularly impressionable, immature or likely to be subjected to undesirable influences in an adult prison.
Sentencing Statistics for the Children’s Court
We regularly publish data on sentencing outcomes in the Children’s Court and the number of cases sentenced in the Children’s Court.
Our research has also previously found that:
- children aged 12 and 13 are responsible for just 0.3% of sentenced offending in Victoria (Sentencing Advisory Council (2025) Sentencing Younger Children’s Offending in Victoria)
- a significant proportion of children who offend have also had contact with the child protection system (Sentencing Advisory Council (2019) ‘Crossover Kids’: Vulnerable Children in the Youth Justice System – Report 1)
- younger children are more likely than older children to reoffend once they enter the justice system (Sentencing Advisory Council (2016) Reoffending by Children and Young People in Victoria)
- two-thirds of children held on remand do not receive a custodial sentence (Sentencing Advisory Council (2020) Children Held on Remand in Victoria: A Report on Sentencing Outcomes).
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