Refreshments from 5:30pm with the lecture beginning in person or online at 6:00pm. The evening will conclude around 7pm.

The NT has the highest rate of ‘crossover’ children nationally, whereby children who reside in out-of-home care (OOHC) engage in offending behaviours. Drawing on interviews with 53 key stakeholders, experts and those with lived experience of child protection and youth justice system involvement, the interviews detail the ways in which children experience ‘criminalisation’ in the NT’s OOHC system, and how youth justice system reforms interact with these children. The findings identify a range of experiences, adversities and practices for children in OOHC that lead to offending behaviours, including children in OOHC without essential supports or adequate case management, quality care plans, psychological and disability assessment, as well as significant cultural isolation for Aboriginal children. They also detail an increasingly punitive, harmful and culturally isolating youth justice system that lacks early intervention and diversion initiatives, operating with a flawed deterrence logic. Recommendations include major legislative and programmatic reforms with children’s rights at their core. 

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