Youth Justice Act 2005

This section applies if a police officer believes on reasonable grounds that:

a person has committed an offence; and

the person is a youth or was a youth when the offence was committed.

The officer must, instead of charging the youth with the offence, do one or more of the following as the officer considers appropriate:

give the youth a verbal warning;

give the youth a written warning;

cause a Youth Justice Conference involving the youth to be convened;

refer the youth to a diversion program.

Subsection (2) does not apply if:

the youth's whereabouts is unknown; or

the alleged offence is a prescribed offence; or

the youth has some other history that makes diversion an unsuitable option (including a history of previous diversion or previous convictions).

However, the Commissioner of Police (or the Commissioner's delegate) may authorise or require a police officer to deal with a youth by Youth Justice Conference or by referring the youth to a diversion program despite the fact that the case is covered by subsection (3).

This section does not prevent the diversion of a youth in relation to an offence with which the youth has been charged.