When Professor Jioji Ravulo speaks at conferences overseas, he knows one piece of information about his work will shock just about everyone. He tells them that in some parts of Australia, children as young as 10 years old can be charged as adults for particular crimes.

As predicted, jaws drop.

Meanwhile, some politicians insist that Australia needs to be even tougher on youth crime, despite the evidence Jioji and his peers have been seeing for years. Jioji says the punitive approach we currently use in Australia doesn’t just fail to ensure public safety, it actually hurts children. Jioji advocates for a youth justice model that instead looks at the whole context of a young person who’s committed a crime, and prioritises rehabilitation.

Taleigha, a Burapai First Nations woman, shares her experience in the juvenile justice system. She offers a personal perspective on how the current legal framework can fail children and affect entire communities, showing the human side behind the statistics and research.

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The Solutionists is podcast from the University of Sydney, produced by Deadset Studios. Keep up to date with The Solutionists by following @sydney_uni on Facebook and Instagram, and @sydney.edu.au on Bluesky.

This episode was produced by Liam Riordan with sound design by Jeremy Wilmot. Supervising producer is Sarah Dabro. Executive editors are Kellie Riordan, Jen Peterson-Ward, and Mark Scott. Strategist is Ann Chesterman.

This podcast was recorded on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. For thousands of years, across innumerable generations, knowledge has been taught, shared and exchanged here. We pay respect to Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

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