TASMANIA has the highest rate of young people under youth justice supervision in the country, according to data released yesterday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
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Young Tasmanians processed through the youth justice system are more than twice as likely to spend time under supervision than their Victorian counterparts.
About 35 in every 10,000 young Tasmanians spent time under supervision during 2012-2013.
This figure compared to about 16 in every 10,000 Victorian youths.
The national average was about 24 in every 10,000 young Australians.
Tasmania bucked the trend of increasing Indigenous over-representation in supervision seen in other states and territories.
However, the average rate of Indigenous youths in detention was more than double the non-Indigenous rate.
The vast majority of Tasmanian youths were given community-based supervision orders, with about 7 per cent held in detention.
Young Tasmanians spent more time under supervision than anywhere else in the country, with an average sentence of about 30 weeks.
The overall rate of young Tasmanians under supervision has declined rapidly over the past five years.
The current figure of about 35 in every 10,000 young people is down from 47 in every 10,000 youths during 2008-2009.