Children as young as 10 could be held criminally responsible for their actions, after rural communities called for a change to a legal principle used for hundreds of years.
The state government announced that doli incapax, an assumption that children under 14 cannot understand the severity of their crimes, would be reviewed to consider whether it was still fit for purpose.
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“We’ve got to recognise that criminalising young children makes things worse,” Jonathon Hunyor, CEO of the Justice and Equity Centre said.
“That’s hard for us to get our head around, but there’s decades of evidence that tells us that locking up more children increases youth crime, and the younger a child is when they come into contact with police and courts and cells, the more likely they are to offend again.”
Mr Hunyor said cycles of criminality only increased the risk of children building connections with fellow offenders.
Watch: Challenging Injustice in Community Housing