Young First Nations offenders aren't being given the same chance to avoid court through diversion programs as their non-Indigenous contemporaries, a study has found.
NSW Police can deal with alleged offending by children aged 10 to 17 by choosing a less-drastic option instead of starting court proceedings.
But officers issued court attendance notices in 68 per cent of criminal incidents involving Aboriginal children between 2022 and 2025.
That compared with 38 per cent of criminal events involving non-Aboriginal children.
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) study showed a police force failing Aboriginal children, according to the Aboriginal Legal Service NSW/ACT.
"There's no other explanation: Aboriginal children are treated differently by police due to bias and racism," acting chief executive Sharif Deen said.
"This gap in police treatment can't be explained by any objective factor. The only difference is the child is Aboriginal."
Pressed on the perceived racial bias, Police Minister Yasmin Catley backed officers and said they were doing the necessary work.
"This is broader than a police problem," she said.
"This is a community problem, and we all need to work together to try and keep these young children out of the criminal justice system."
Much of the 30 percentage point gap in diversion rates was due to offence seriousness, bail status and prior contact with the criminal justice system.
But after accounting for those and other observable characteristics, Aboriginal children still remained about eight percentage points more likely to be headed to court.
BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald pointed to racial discrimination and bias as a possible explanation, cautioning analysis could not determine whether that was definitive in colouring police interactions with Aboriginal children who had offended.
The report found the disparity in diversions rates was smaller at an offender's first formal police contact, but increased with age.
First Nations youths remain heavily over-represented in detention across Australia, with 25.7 children aged 10 to 17 per 10,000 in custody on an average day in 2024/25.
In NSW, data from 2025 found Aboriginal children accounted for 60 per cent of youths in detention despite making up just eight per cent of that cohort.
"This is concerning given one objective of the Young Offenders Act is to address the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the criminal justice system," Ms Fitzgerald said.
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