ABSTRACT
Devising effective strategies to respond to the phenomenon of crossover children is best supported by a detailed and holistic understanding of their individual and family characteristics, alongside the pathways this group of children traverse through education, health, and welfare systems. This chapter presents information gathered from court records for a sample of 300 crossover children aged 10–17 years at the time of their alleged offending, who came before one of three Victorian criminal courts during 2016–17. The data build a demographic and statistical profile of these children, distinguishing factors concerning their child protection history and the role it might play in their offending pathway, alongside their family, education, health and mental health circumstances. What is revealed is the uniquely difficult battle these children face, and the resultant challenge to remediating their cumulatively harmful experiences and attend to the unaddressed welfare concerns that often shape their routes into the criminal justice system.
