Should we raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14?
In Australia, children as young as 10 can be imprisoned for criminal activity, a far younger age than is legal under UN (United Nations) conventions. According to the UN Rights of the Child, the age of criminal responsibility should be 14. At the 2020 UN conference, Australia came under scrutiny for having an unusually low age of criminal responsibility and 31 countries called upon Australia to change
their imprisonment laws. Several thousand children between the ages of 10 and 13 come before the courts every year, and in the year 2018-2019 at least 570 children were imprisoned. Most of these incarcerated children are from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander population.
Conservative commentators argue that some of these children are committing violent and destructive crimes and that they should be punished for their actions. They also argue that police resources are already stretched and dealing with criminal children is a huge problem. On the other hand, psychologists and experts in child development point out that these children come from disadvantaged
backgrounds and putting them in prison only increases the disadvantage, as well as making it more likely that they will re-offend in the future.
- Juvenile offenders let off with cautions despite serious crimes
- Australia's anguish: the Indigenous kids trapped behind bars
- Police Union president calls for real action to reduce youth crime in Queensland
- The time is now to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility