Qld Sentencing Advisory Council release report on sentencing for offenders aged 10-13

Queensland’s youngest offenders should be spared detention, a respected former judge says as new data reignites the conversation around the age of criminal responsibility.

Queensland’s youngest offenders shouldn’t be put in detention, a respected former judge says as new data reignites the conversation around the age of criminal responsibility.

New statistics released by the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council show that children aged between 10 and 13 accounted for less than 10 per cent of all young people sentenced between 2005 and 2022 financial years.

The report comes as conversations continue between states to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years old nationally, while youth crime continues to wreak havoc in parts of Queensland.

Council chair and former president of the Children’s Court of Queensland John Robertson said he wasn’t surprised by the data which showed that children in that age bracket accounted for less than one per cent of all court cases in the state.

“Research has shown that children who come into the criminal justice system at a young age are more likely to reoffend,’ Mr Robertson said.

Children between 10 and 13 years of age account for less than 10 per cent of all young people sentenced.

“When we consider the life circumstances of many of these younger children, and the type of offending they engage in, it is not surprising that there are questions being asked about the benefits of criminalising children at such a young age.”

According to the report, in 2021–22 there were 482 children sentenced for offences committed when they were under 14. Of these, just 38 offended when they were younger than 12.

This was lower than the yearly average of 651 over the 17-year period.

Children aged 10 to 13 were mostly sentenced for property offences such as unlawful entry (28.1 per cent), wilful damage (26.8 per cent) and stealing (25.9 per cent).

Courts were most likely to give reprimands (27.4 per cent) and probation orders (23.1 per cent) and only 2.1 per cent of sentences involved detention.

But the data also shows that indigenous children are “disproportionately” represented among this cohort, with 9.3 per cent of indigenous children prosecuted rather than cautioned by police, compared to 3.1 per cent in non-indigenous children.

Mr Robertson said this small cohort of young people needed more support rather than a term of detention.

“It will criminalise them and put them in contact with anti-social peers and make them more likely to offend.

“If the minimum age of criminal responsibility is raised, the low numbers in this cohort suggest it should be feasible to develop alternative responses to properly support these young children and give them the best opportunity to stop offending.

“However, we do acknowledge that this must be balanced with the fact that a very small proportion of this cohort are committing very serious offences.”

The data indicates that raising the age to 14 years old would have resulted in 19,031 fewer cases in court, and 7207 fewer kids being sentenced over 17 years.

If the age were raised to 12, 2304 fewer cases would have been through court, and 1087 fewer kids would have been sentenced.