Why 'admission of guilt' is not working in youth diversionary schemes in NSW – exploratory findings from interviews with police officers

ABSTRACT

Diversion from formal proceedings through the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW) (YOA) is only available if an ‘admission of guilt’ has been made by the offender. Young people are often reluctant to admit guilt to the police. Acknowledgement of this has in recent years resulted in the development of the Protection Admission Scheme (PAS) aimed at removing this barrier to diversion. To date, there has been no published review of the police’s implementation of the PAS. This paper begins to address this gap and raises some important issues relating to the operation of the diversionary scheme governed by the YOA and the challenges raised by the legislative requirement for an admission of guilt as part of diversionary eligibility. Through an analysis of the findings derived from six in-depth interviews with members of the NSW Police Force, the paper highlights two issues hindering the use of the PAS. Firstly, a systematic fault or contradiction between policy and its administration; secondly, police culture and traditional practices fostering resistance to the application of the PAS. The paper concludes that despite the PAS, the requirement for an admission of guilt continues to be a barrier to diversion. The findings provide valuable insights for policymakers.

KEYWORDS:

• admission of guilt
• diversion
• policing
• protection admission scheme (PAS)
• young people

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the support and generosity of Associate Professor Greg Martin and Associate Professor Rebecca Scott Bray in providing feedback for this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.