ABSTRACT
Case file information and the views of professionals are drawn together in this chapter to illuminate the nature of crossover children's offending. This chapter provides an overview of offence types, offending volume, and sentencing outcomes seen among crossover children. What is shown is that crossover children in this study were more frequently charged with violent offending, and often incurred a greater number of charges than other children before the criminal courts. Some of the key offending contexts seen are largely unique to this group, such as adolescent family violence leading to out-of-home care placement, and children's acquisition of charges related to behavioural challenges in residential care. However, the most common offending context among the crossover children was group-based offending or “co-offending”. Crossover children also frequently incur charges arising from their interactions with the criminal justice system, such as resisting arrest, and their frequently younger age of initial police involvement poses another important concern.
