Failure to protect Indigenous children from violence at home ‘funnels’ them into crime, Queensland report finds

The report gives new insight into how unsafe home environments, and a lack of safe places to go to escape family violence, create conditions in which children become entangled in the justice system. Photograph: Dave Hunt/AAP

Queensland’s First Nations children experiencing domestic and family violence are being harmed – and funnelled into risk-taking and criminal behaviour – by failures in the child protection, youth justice and other support systems, a landmark report has found.

Released amid a heightened debate about youth crime in Queensland, the report gives new insight into how unsafe home environments, and a lack of safe places to go to escape family violence, create conditions in which young people become entangled in the justice system.