PHOTO: Some organisations argue that youth incarceration only creates a larger pattern.
Child advocates are at loggerheads with communities pushing to do more about youth crime, as both push the NSW Government in opposite directions to raise, lower, or maintain the age of criminal responsibility. New research could inform the way ahead.
In NSW, the age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old, however children over 10 and under 14 years have the presumption of ‘doli incapax’, meaning that the child must understand their actions are ‘seriously wrong’ rather than ‘naughty or mischievous’ to be charged.
This week the Australian Institute of Criminology – in partnership with Monash University – released their research about children aged 10-13 and their experience with the legal system, largely using data from Victoria…