Crime: Juvenile offenders are most likely to commit another crime

Four out of five young people (81 per cent) convicted of a crime will reoffend within the next 10 years, with many (58 per cent) likely to reoffend within two years.

The rate for adults is much much lower, with 54 per cent reoffending within the decade. Of those, 31 per cent will commit another crime within two years.

The data from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) shows that, irrespective of age, reoffending for any offence was highest among people whose first offence was break and enter.

BOCSAR'S report - Long-term re-offending rates of adults and young people in NSW - assessed people convicted of a crime in 2010 and any subsequent reoffending until 2020.

"Those convicted of a break and enter offence in 2010 had the highest reoffending rates - 91 per cent of young people and 83 per cent of adults," the report stated.

For young people convicted of reoffending in the same offence as the original crime, the rates were highest for those convicted of assault, theft and property damage.

Among the adults who reoffended with the same offence as their original crime, the rates were highest for those convicted of theft, breach of violence order, break and enter, and illicit drug offences.

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Reoffending was lowest among those convicted of fraud and sexual offences.

BOCSAR executive director Jackie Fitzgerald said the age crime curve "really rockets up when kids are about 14 and then it peaks at 15, 16, 17".

"By the time people are about 20 they're generally over that peak of their high volume offending time," she said.

Most of the time their reoffending is for intermittent crime, rather than a criminal career.

Assaults, threats and lower level violence made up a big proportion of the court's workload.

Males (83 per cent) and Aboriginal offenders (71 per cent) were among the most common to be re-convicted.

"Crime is really a male's game," Ms Fitzgerald said.

"Men are more likely to engage in these risky behaviours and probably more prone to aggression, and probably greater interest in risk-taking than women."

Aboriginal people are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system. They account for around 26 per cent of the NSW prison population.

Ms Fitzgerald said First Nations people are victims of systemic disadvantages, such as a lower socioeconomic status, lower educational outcomes, and drug and alcohol addiction.

"All of those things are more common among Aboriginal people unfortunately and those are the things that really drive people into crime," she said.