Introduction

Child maltreatment and youth offending both present critical societal challenges. Children who come to the attention of statutory child protection services due to abuse, neglect, and parental incapacity face a substantially increased risk of criminal justice system involvement. Often described as a “care to custody pipeline”, this troubling over-representation peaks at the most restrictive end of youth justice systems, in youth detention centres, where at least one-half of Australian children are known to child protection services (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare [AIHW] 2018). Even higher proportions of youth justice-involved females and Indigenous children experience interactions that span both statutory systems (AIHW 2018). Similar trends exist internationally, and calls for action to curb the alarming over-representation of “crossover” children are mounting across Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand (Baidawi & Sheehan 2019; Bala et al. 2015; Fitzgerald 2018; Fitzpatrick & Williams 2017; Ryan, Williams & Courtney 2013; Shaw 2016).