A small, but significant number of young people in Ireland every year require targeted, strategic attention because their behaviour has led to their involvement in the youth justice system. These young people have been given specific attention through the implementation of the National Youth Justice Strategy, 2008-2010 and are the focus of this Action Plan. Twelve years is the age of criminal responsibility (or 10/11 years where a child has committed a serious offence1) and a ‘child’ is defined as a person under the age of 18 years under the Children Act 2001. The terms ‘youth’ and ‘young person’ are interchangeably used to describe a person who meets this legal definition. Youth crime constitutes up to 15% of all crime (excluding road traffic offences). The typical offending that young people become involved in (e.g. public order crime, alcohol and drug misuse) is often distressing for members of the public and while we know that youth crime will always be a concern, we also now know from hard data that the vast majority of young people grow out of crime. Since the first National Youth Justice Strategy commenced in 2008, the number of children detained by the Courts annually on criminal conviction has consistently dropped; the operational costs of detention have reduced by over 30%; the capital costs and space required in the new national detention facilities being built at Oberstown are approximately 50% of what was estimated in 2008; and youth crime has decreased.