Care-criminalisation: The involvement of children in out of home care in the NSW criminal justice system

This thesis investigates the relationship between the child welfare and criminal justice systems (termed 'care-criminalisation') as experienced by a cohort of children in the NSW Children's Court criminal jurisdiction to identify: 1. the rates of appearance of children in out of home care (OOHC) before the NSW Children's Court on criminal charges; 2. whether this appearance rate is disproportionate; and if so, 3. what factors are leading to that over-representation. A sequential mixed methods methodology was adopted, comprising the collection of qualitative data and analysis followed by quantitative data analysis. The qualitative methods involved a literature review of leading academic papers in the area, an assessment of over 200 years of Royal Commissions, government reports, previously unpublished primary source documents and agency material, an examination of contemporary media commentary (such as newspaper articles, radio and television broadcasts) and analysis of 25 years of NSW Parliamentary Hansard. The quantitative methods assessment involved analysis of 180 NSW Children's Court files from 2009-2010, observational research of cases and analysis of the transcripts of individual Children's Court matters.