Age of criminal responsibility could be raised to 16
Teenage delinquents would get a free pass to break the law under a radical plan being considered by the nation’s top law makers.
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TEENAGE delinquents would get a free pass to break the law under a radical plan being considered by the nation’s top law makers.
Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter and his state colleagues signed off on a 12-month investigation with a view to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 years to as high as 16.
It would mean children under that age could not be prosecuted because they were not considered to have a fully developed understanding of right and wrong and therefore considered incapable of committing a crime.
A spokeswoman for Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath confirmed that while the Palaszczuk Government did not put forward the proposal, it would “join the Commonwealth and states and territories on a bipartisan working group”.
“The Commonwealth and states and territories of all political persuasions will consider the findings when they are handed down,” she said.
“No commitment to change legislation has been made and the Palaszczuk Government would never implement legislation without seeking the views of Queenslanders.”
Youths in detention reaches crisis point
The spokeswoman said former Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson had recommended that the issue of the appropriate age of criminal responsibility be considered at a national level.
The Courier-Mail understands the attorneys-general also discussed the possibility of raising the age to 16, depending on the severity of the crime. The move comes as Queensland Police continue to target youth gangs in Brisbane, which came under the spotlight after two teenagers were charged with attempted murder for allegedly running down Goodna Constable Peter McAulay, inflicting critical injuries.
Police alleged the pair had “associations” with a group calling themselves the “Southside Gang”.
More dedicated members of the group have the postcode 4114 tattooed on their knuckles and their crimes included robberies and armed hold-ups.
As of Friday, there were 88 children and teenagers detained Cleveland Youth Detention Centre and 131 people in the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre.
Another 49 young people, at least, were remanded in watch-houses across the state.
Human rights groups have been pushing for the age to be raised arguing that emerging research about adolescent brain development shows kids don’t have a fully developed ability to reason.
They also claim that the earlier someone enters the justice system the more likely they were to become trapped in a life of crime.
In all Australian states, to prosecute kids aged up to 14 it must first be successfully argued the culprit understood their actions were seriously wrong in the criminal sense and not merely naughty.
Last year, the Queensland Family and Child Commission recommended that minimum age of criminal responsibility be lifted from 10 to 12 in the state.
According to Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women statistics, 179 young Queenslanders were in detention each day in 2016/17.
Of those, 55 per cent were under the age of 16.
More than 40 per cent of offenders were in detention violent crimes, while 37 per cent related to property offences, including car theft.
Originally published as Age of criminal responsibility could be raised to 16
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