KIDS in out-of-home-care are more likely to end up being incarcerated, and the more homes they are shuffled between the more likely that is.
The connection between children who have been maltreated and the juvenile justice is revealed in a report tracking kids in 2022-23.
It found that almost two in 3 (65 per cent) of young people under youth justice supervision nationally had an interaction with the child protection system in the past ten years.
About half of the young people in community-based supervision (45 per cent) and detention (50 per cent) were the subject of a substantiated notification for abuse or neglect.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are significantly more likely to experience the crossover, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report says.
There are very few intervention, prevention or diversion programs that stop a child from being in one system and entering another, says Catherine Liddle, CEO of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (SNAICC).
"These children face complex and interconnected challenges, including a heightened risk of negative outcomes due to their involvement in both systems," Ms Liddle said.
"They are the most vulnerable of our vulnerable children yet, rather than meeting them with support, our systems are reacting in increasingly punitive ways."
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children are 26 times more likely to be in the youth justice system with prior involvement in child protection according to this report, and their overrepresentation in out-of-home-care is continuing to rise, Ms Liddle said.
"This is a truly confronting statistic," Ms Liddle said.
"The interconnectedness of the youth justice and child protection systems highlights a systemic failure and the strong need for culturally appropriate supports to divert at-risk children from further involvement with child protection and the justice system.
"By failing to address the underlying issues or provide adequate support and intervention, child protection systems are contributing to a cycle of criminalisation and systemic disadvantage for our children."
NSW Minister for Families and Communities and Port Stephens MP Kate Washington said the critical work needed to reform the broken child protection system inherited from the former state government had begun.
"Every decision the NSW Government is making is driven by the desperate need to improve outcomes for vulnerable children across the state, Ms Washington said.
"A critical element of our reform includes ensuring more families get access to the programs they need to stay safely together.
"Early intervention services are essential in equipping parents with the skills they need to help their children thrive."
Funding for the NSW's Targeted Earlier Intervention (TEI) program has increased by $20 million, or roughly 10 per cent, over the past two years.
The latest data shows that TEI services are being accessed at record highs, and fewer children are entering care.
The AIHW report highlights the value of early intervention, showing that the younger a person was when they first entered youth justice supervision, the more likely they were to have had an interaction with the child protection system.
Of those aged 10 at their first youth justice supervision, more than 9 in 10 (94 per cent) had an interaction with the child protection system at some point in the last 10 years.
Almost two in five young people under community-based supervision who had been in out-of-home care had five or more placements.
The vast majority of children who are recorded as abused or neglected do not go on to offend.
An earlier AIHW report found that during the four years between July, 2014 and June, 2018, only 7.5 per cent of young people who received a child protection service had also been involved with the youth justice system.
However, a large proportion of children who offend have a history of abuse or neglect.
Other research has found that those who have experienced a greater number of substantiations of reported abuse or neglect, ongoing abuse from childhood through to adolescence, and placement in out-of-home care are more likely to receive a conviction, the report says.
