The Children’s Court is one of society’s most important social institutions. At the same time, it is steeped in controversy. This is in large measure due to the persistence and complexity of the problems with which it deals, namely, juvenile crime and child abuse and neglect. Despite the importance of the Children’s Court as a means of holding young people accountable for their anti-social behaviour and parents for the care of their children, it has not been the subject of close study. Certainly it has not been previously studied nationally. This book, an edited collection, is based on the findings of study that spanned the six States and two Territories of Australia. The study sought to examine the current challenges faced by the Children’s Court and to identify desirable and feasible directions for reform in each State and Territory. A further unique feature of this study is that it canvassed the views of judges and magistrates who preside over this court.

This edited collection brings together scholars and practitioners in every chapter to provide a comprehensive and unique exploration of courts in Australia. The primary focus is to identify controversies, challenges and change, in the form of potential reforms within the courts across Australian jurisdictions. Bringing forward original research and scholarship on a wide array of courts in Australia, combined with insightful practitioner perspectives, research will be effectively integrated with practice. This book is the first comprehensive collection of its kind to canvas the diversity of courts in Australia, providing comprehensive critical analysis of contemporary issues, debates and reforms. It considers the array of courts across state, territory and national jurisdictions in Australia, including coroners’ courts, family courts, criminal, civil courts and problem solving courts. It also adopts an intersectional approach, providing insights into the perspectives of various court users such as people with disability, ethnic minorities, Indigenous Australians, and victims of crime. Each chapter provides opportunities for further debate among scholars, practitioners and students regarding potential future directions for reform to improve the efficacy, equity and accessibility of Australian courts.This collection serves as an international ready reference for students, scholars and practitioners alike.

An Australian Research Council project is underway to assess the challenges facing children's courts around Australia and their possible future directions. Nine studies are being conducted - one for each federal, state, and territory jurisdiction. This report presents the findings for Western Australia. It describes the legal and operational context of the current system and reports the current and future issues identified by judicial officers and other key stakeholders. In Western Australia, the children's court deals with juvenile justice and child welfare matters.

This book represents the first major analysis of Anglo-Australian youth justice and penality to be published and it makes significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the wider field of comparative criminology. By exploring trends in law, policy and practice over a forty-year period, the book critically surveys the ‘moving images’ of youth justice regimes and penal cultures, the principal drivers of reform, the core outcomes of such processes and the overall implications for theory building. It addresses a wide range of questions including: How has the temporal and spatial patterning of youth justice and penality evolved since the early 1980s to the present time? What impacts have legislative and policy reforms imposed upon processes of criminalisation, sentencing practices and the use of penal detention for children and young people? How do we comprehend both the diverse ways in which public representations of ‘young offenders’ are shaped, structured and disseminated and the varied, conflicting and contradictory effects of such representations? To what extent do international human rights standards influence law, policy and practice in the realms of youth justice and penality? To what extent are youth justice systems implicated in the production and reproduction of social injustices? How, and to what degree, are youth justice systems and penal cultures internationalised, nationalised, regionalised or localised? The book is essential reading for researchers, students and tutors in criminology, criminal justice, law, social policy, sociology and youth studies.