Offenders as young as 10 years old in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) can now be incarcerated due to a reversal of the raised age of criminal responsibility.
The territory was the first to move it up to 12, as per UN advice and international standards, but the new Country Liberal Party (CLP) government drove back the adjustment in the hopes of discouraging crime and reducing its recurrence.
The reversal would protect children, the party reasoned, running counter to human rights organizations’, doctor’s, and indigenous groups’ shared view: that the change would not lower crime rates but unfairly place more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children behind bars.
Presently, the NT imprisons 11 times more youth than anywhere else in Australia, most of these Aboriginal.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro assured the reversal would allow these young offenders into programs which would confront the underlying cause of their crimes, most of these being break-in and assault, shows statistics.
“We have this obligation to the child who has been let down in a number of ways, over a long period of time,” she told Parliament. “And we have (an obligation to) the people who just want to be safe, people who don't want to live in fear anymore.”
However, Aboriginal children not as likely to be cautioned, are more frequently charged and put in custody than non-Indigenous children.
The Australian Human Rights Commission released a document in 2021 enumerating its reasons for advocating a raised criminal liability age, some being that children who face the criminal justice system are more often than not underprivileged, and that those under 12 are not equipped to navigate the court and are likely to take plea bargains, make false confessions, and fail to keep up with legal proceedings.
Moreover, brain development research has proven that an individual at 10 years of age will not have reached the “requisite level of maturity” to inform an intent entailing full criminal responsibility. Other studies indicate that the younger a child is put through the justice system, the likelihood of their committing another crime only increases.
“I accept that people are fearful in our communities, and crime has been quite prominent in the media and social media,” NT Children’s Commissioner Shaleena Musk said. “(But) we shouldn't be seeing these kids going into a youth justice system which is harmful, ineffective, and only compounds the very issues we're trying to change.”
A former youth worker and CLP official, Clinton Howe believes that youth offenders are only intimidated by the notion of a prison sentence.
“I believe government is a blunt instrument, and I don’t like it as a tool for social intervention, but for some of these children, it is the only thing left,” he told Parliament.
Selena Uibo, on the Opposition and the only Aboriginal woman to lead a major party in Australia, said these children must be held responsible, “but then supported to get on a better path.”
The Australian Human Rights Commission recommended reallocating funds spent on jailing minors to support services.
