A standalone youth justice bill is set to be debated by the state's upper house this week when parliament returns from Tuesday, with amendments expected to be moved.
The contentious bill would raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 12 years, create an ankle monitoring trial for repeat offenders on bail and set up a legislated scheme for warnings, cautions and diversions.
In mid-2016, the Victorian Labor government hired former Department of Justice secretary Penny Armytage and Swinburne University professor James Ogloff to lead a review of the youth justice system.
The review was the first attempt at systematic reform of youth justice services since 2000 and made 126 recommendations, including a standalone youth justice act.
All were accepted by the government in full or in principle in 2017 but a bill to establish a standalone youth justice act did not materialise.
Prof Ogloff acknowledged it had taken years to get to this point but noted the complexities and publicity surrounding youth crime following incidents at the now-closed Malmsbury youth justice centre and so-called "African gangs crisis" in 2018.
"It's hard work ... it just attracts so much attention," the university's school of health sciences dean told AAP.
"In that report ... we demonstrated at the time that there were about 550,000 young people in Victoria aged 10 to 17, 750 had formal contact with the criminal justice system and about 130 ended up with a serious order.
"It's the same problem within Victoria now - we have a small number of really difficult young people and the current legislation didn't really account for that."
The 700-page report did not focus on raising the age of criminal responsibility, a key feature of the current bill.
Prof Ogloff, who started working in youth justice in Canada in 1982, said the latest reforms were difficult because elements like raising the age were "controversial and quite poorly understood".
"The discussion isn't proper at the moment because there's a sense that if they're not charged nothing happens," he said.
Under the bill, police won't be allowed to arrest or charge a child aged 10 or 11 with a crime but can move them "somewhere safe and to someone who can take care of them".
Prof Ogloff said the bill struck a good balance between keeping as many children as possible out of custody and protecting community safety.
"No bill can be a panacea," he said.
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